The National Communication Association’s 2018 Legislative Assembly kicked off the 2018 Annual Conference with 123 delegates willing to discuss the issues of the membership and run the business needs of the association. Ronald Jackson started the meeting on time.
National Office
After a brief instruction of the delegates in attendance, the first report came from Trevor Parry-Giles, the Executive Director of NCA. He began his report on the National Office by noting that our association is the oldest Learned Society in the United States that focuses on communication professionals and educators. This position of the National Office means that they are consistently considering the next step and phase of the association.
Parry-Giles explained five areas of focus to improve the overall quality of the association. Enriching the discipline as a whole is the first point of focus on the National Office. The association believes that it is the “keeper of the discipline” as it has access to much of the discipline’s knowledge and epistemology.
Spotlighting the value of the discipline was the second area of focus. Trevor noted the change in Spectrum’s mission and scope as evidence that the association is creating more opportunities to promote membership’s research. Social media channel act as another means to give our members’ research reach to the general public. Also, NCA works with members to craft their research for public dissemination. The term that came for the presentation was “public academics.” One outlet for public academics to present their knowledge is the upgraded version of “Communication Currents.”
The other three areas of focus included the association must serve the scholars by assisting the members’ ability to conduct research and assisting the members’ ability to teach effectively, promoting diversity to leadership and promoting the people whose lands we use during our conferences, and the association must understand the needs of the membership as a whole.
Diversity Council
Justin Boren spoke of four areas that the Diversity Council was working on as areas of focus. The first being the conference student travel grant program. Boren described how this program helps underrepresented students come to the annual conference and allows them to network, promote their research, and helps them advance to graduate school and beyond.
Convention Anti-Harassment Policy was the second focal point of the report. Salt Lake City represents the first year of the implementation of this policy. It was distributed to the membership as a whole before the conference. The Diversity Council heard positive feedback for this new policy.
Boren addressed the Petition about Diversity in Editorships and Distinguished Scholars during the third point of the report. Specifically, he addressed the “CommunicationSoWhite” protest. The Diversity Council was working with the Publication Council to discuss how to promote more diversity in these two areas as a majority of editorship, and Distinguished Scholars are white males.
Finally, Boren addressed the process of revising the “Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” The Statement was review by the 2017 LA as part of the 7-year review policy for all NCA public statements. The language needed revision and will be addressed during the Resolution Committee report.
Nominating Committee
The Nominating Committee presented the slate of candidates for the 2019 NCA Election, which will open January 8, 2019, and close on February 12, 2019. The two candidates for Second Vice-President were given a few minutes to explain their platforms to the delegates of LA.
Roseann Mandziuk from Texas State University discussed giving back to the association via fulfilling the role of Second Vice President. She has a passion for diversity and inclusivity. Mandziuk served on the Diversity and Inclusivity taskforce for the association in the past. She also feels that she can bring knowledge of how the association can be run effectively. She promotes enhancing advocacy for the discipline. She believes we should encourage more collaboration between members and a more “comprehensive outreach program to serve the public good and reinvigorate communication as the essential component in a conscientious citizenry.”
Narissra Punyanunt-Carter from Texas Tech University positioned her campaign by focusing on the future of the association. Specifically, she wants to “network with all members to make sure that we are meeting their professional needs,” “promote the discipline and importance of our work,” and “continue the work of our past NCA presidents to advance our discipline and organization.”
Finally, the Nominating Committee put forth a slate of candidates for the Leadership Development Committee. They are Nina Lozano, Tiffany Wang, Kimberly Moffitt, Ahmet Atay, and Denise Olesa Acevado.
Finance Board
Ronald Shields, the Finance Board Director, began is report by saying the association was healthy in terms of our finances. He highlighted two major changes to the budget. First, the report showed the fiscal year impact on the audit process. Specifically, the last budget audit happened June 30, 2017. The next budget audit would be November 2019 to reflect the fiscal year rather than the academic year.
Second, the 2019 budget projects total revenue of $3,151,500. This figure represents a 15 percent decrease from the 2018 projected budget of $3,738,070. There are strong rationales for this decrease:
- NCA’s revenue projections for 2019 do not include projected investment income. This figure was not included as this figure was not fully confirmed as the final revenue total.
- 2019 budget assumes declines in several miscellaneous revenue categories (mainly career advertisements, rental income for the Carriage House, and access rental income for a construction project underway).
- Income from student organizations through membership fees, chapter renewals, and merchandise sales for the 2019 budget projects the revenue to be $261,000, down from $325,000 projected for 2018.
Resolutions Committee
There were five resolutions that LA needed to review. The first was changing the “Credo for Free and Responsible Use of Electronic Networks” from 1994 and amended in 2013 to the “Credo for Net Neutrality, Free and Responsible Use of Electronic Networks, and the Digital Divide.” The language remained the same except in added: “We support Net Neutrality” as the first bullet point of the Credo and added language as the last bullet point of the Credo increase online access. The rationale was that the language of the Credo and the “Resolution on the Digital Divide” from 1999 and modified in 2013 were aligned. This resolution was approved by unanimous consent. The second resolution was to archive the “Resolution on the Digital Divide” from 1999 and modified in 2013 as this resolution was incorporated into the Credo. This resolution was approved by unanimous consent.
The third resolution was to vote on the “Resolution Regarding Extended Solitary Confinement and Torture.” The Resolutions Committee had no position on the disposition on this resolution. LA could vote to reaffirm the resolution, which would mean that NCA actively condemns any use of torture or extended solitary confinement. LA could also vote to archive this resolution and add it to the institutional memory of the association. Lastly, LA could remove the resolution from future consideration from the association. LA voted to reaffirm the resolution.
The last two resolutions: the “Role of Communication Courses and Communication Faculty in General Education” and the “Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” needed minor language revision based on the current actions of the association. Both resolutions were revised and approved by unanimous contest.
Bylaws Amendments
There were three significant bylaws amendments made during the Wednesday session. Working on bylaws during the first session is exceptionally unusual. The rationale was that we finish all of the Wednesday business during the first two hours of the meeting. The first bylaws amendment dealt with removing the journal editors from the membership of Legislative Assembly. The rationale given by the Executive Committee was that this membership requirement for the editors would be burdensome to the editors’ ability and would prevent new editors from being interested in the role. There was an editor that discussed that the elimination of editors from LA would be a problem as the LA controls the journals’ budgets. This discussion point was countered by one of the editors that noted the Publications Council still serves on LA. A substantial majority of LA approved the motion.
The other two bylaws amendments were minor. One changed the name of the Committee on Committees to the Leadership Development Committee to remove the “bureaucratic nomenclature” of the committee. The other minor bylaws were to remove the restriction that only members from LA could serve on the Resolutions Committee as that restriction was a “barrier to the recruitment of qualified, willing individuals.” A substantial majority of LA approved both amendments.
