Admittedly, starting in the position in the midst of a pandemic has been . . . interesting? The spring and summer have been a whirlwind of information gathering, Zoom meetings, and decision making. I am deeply grateful for the dedication and expertise of the leadership team, including President Marnel Niles Goins, President-Elect Christina Yoshimura, First Vice President Heather Canary, Immediate Past President Rodney Reynolds and all the members of the Executive Council. Finance Committee Chair Justin Boren’s knowledge of financial matters has been particularly helpful as we explored the implications of cancelling our 2021 convention and reducing membership fees for the year. As he notes in his article in this issue, thanks to the careful work of the Executive Council, WSCA’s financial status remains strong.

As you may also know, the Association’s officers have agreed to serve an additional year, providing much-needed stability during a challenging time.  So, while the first six months of my tenure did not go as expected, this excellent team made the challenges surmountable. While I will miss seeing you all at our annual convention in February, I am excited about the virtual events President-Elect Yoshimura is planning for spring 2021 and I look forward to exploring her convention theme, “Cultivate,” when we gather in Portland February 2022.

Thank you again for trusting me in this position. I look forward to working with you in the months and years to come!

            For approximately a year I have been processing manuscripts for WJC: spearheading the review process, accepting or rejecting manuscripts, and copyediting the accepted ones for early online access (my first paper issue of the journal as editor is the first issue of 2021). As a journal that receives approximately 180 submitted manuscripts a year (approximately one every other day), I have found several factors to be important to help each of my days as editor run smoothly.

            First, preparation—Steps that I took before starting to accept manuscripts help me every day in running the journal. I spent a lot of time learning about Manuscript Central and how I work with it as an editor before I started the job. I thank Dr. Robin Rowland, the current editor of WJC, who was extremely patient in helping me to walk through the program and still is always available to answer my questions when something seems to go wrong.

            Another preparation step I took before I became editor that affects my life every day is my negotiation with my chair concerning the amount of support that would be given to me throughout the editorship. I have a course release and a dedicated editorial assistant who works with me year-round (one of our Ph.D. students, Mizuki Wyant, who I am very thankful for). These steps help make my job as editor doable.

            The second factor that allows my days as editor to go smoothly is persistence. Mizuki and I work hard every day to keep the journal running. Over the last year, she and I each took off one week (alternating) at Christmas and one week during the summer when we took a break from working on the journal. Other than that, we have worked continually to keep the journal running.

            When a manuscript is submitted, Mizuki first checks to make sure that it is anonymous, that all parts of the manuscript are there (such as tables, figures), and that the manuscript is not too long (with a word limit of 9000 words, Mizuki will send it back to the authors if it is over 11,000 words at the beginning of the review process). Then, if it is new manuscript, Mizuki looks for and sends requests out to reviewers. To find reviewers for 180 new manuscripts a year is quite difficult, and I appreciate Mizuki’s hard work in this area. If it is a revised manuscript, I check the manuscript in, read the authors’ response to the original reviews, and ask the original reviewers if they will review the manuscript again if needed.

            Once reviews have been returned, I make a decision on the manuscript. If a manuscript is accepted, then it is added to the list for copyediting. I currently have about 20 manuscripts that have been accepted but are waiting on copyediting. Mizuki checks everything over first including checking all quotes. I also copyedit the manuscript carefully. Once the authors and I have agreed on any changes, it is sent to our publisher, Taylor and Francis, for proofs. Once proofs are approved, it is available online. Right now manuscripts that will fill up the first two issues of 2021 have gone through the copyediting process and are currently available online.

            Therefore, Mizuki and I have to have a lot of persistence to get this job done. She and I both like to work after our kids are asleep, so it is very common for us to be emailing back and forth to each other at midnight.

            The final factor that allows my days as editor to run smoothly is perspective. Having a chance to work with the authors and help the journal to be its best is already one of the most rewarding activities I have done in my career. Editors are working on multi-year timelines, so that the work we do now will bear fruit as a paper journal issue in approximately a year and a half. In addition, as someone who has gone through the promotion and tenure process, I know how important publications are to most of the submitters’ careers. Each day I seek to answer any of their questions, to shepherd their manuscripts as quickly as possible, and hopefully provide our authors with helpful feedback even if their manuscript is rejected.

            Being an editor keeps my days busy (especially responding to lots of email), but I am really enjoying it.

The National Communication Association (NCA) invites you to join a thriving community that serves as the professional home for nearly 8,000 Communication scholars, teachers, and practitioners.

What is NCA?
The National Communication Association (NCA) is the scholarly society dedicated to advancing Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry.  NCA serves its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching.  Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems.

Why join NCA?  
There are many direct benefits of membership.  All regular and student members receive:

• Free online access to NCA’s 11 journals, both current and archived.  For a list of journals, click here.
• Steeply discounted registration rate for NCA’s Annual Convention.  Our convention typically draws more than 5,000 people and features more than 1,000 programmatic sessions.  This November we will convene in Las Vegas.
• Membership in NCA Interest Groups.  For a list of interest groups, click here.
• Exclusive members-only content at www.natcom.org , including an extensive teaching and learning resource center; data about the discipline; research, publication, and funding resources; and much more.
• A print subscription to the award-winning Spectra magazine.
• Eligibility to win NCA awards.
• Eligibility for NCA grants.
• And more…

NCA also serves the collective good by fostering public engagement with Communication education and scholarship.  For example, we pitch Communication research findings to the media, produce public programming (see www.natcom.org/mlkprogram/ as an example), advocate on Capitol Hill for social science and humanities research and education funding, and are in the process of completing work on a major grant to develop learning outcomes in communication.

To review the benefits offered by all of NCA’s membership categories, and for pricing information, visit www.natcom.org/join/.

How can you join NCA?
Visit www.natcom.org/join/, select the membership category that best suits your needs, and sign up to become a part of NCA’s community of Communication scholars, teachers and practitioners today!

If you have any questions about NCA or becoming a member, please contact the association via email at memberservice@natcom.org or via telephone at 202-464-4622.