1 October Starts a New Membership Term!

If you have not renewed your membership and plan to for the incoming term, now is the time: 1 October marks the start of the membership year. When you sign on to renew, there are a couple things to keep in mind. 1) Remember to look over the various donation funds available; we appreciate your support of the association as well as our various sections. 2) You also will have the opportunity to update your section membership, including the new Environmental Communication Interest Group, which "...aims to advance research on the interplay of the environment with any level of communication and in any setting. Research on health, risk, and science communication issues related to the environment is especially germane." Read more about it on the section's description page: http://www.icahdq.org/about_ica/secdetinfo.asp?SecCode=DIV25.

Think "Green" When Renewing ICA Membership

Many of you know that the final step of your ICA renewal process involves choosing the journals you want shipped to you. While we are seeing gradual shifts in numbers toward the electronic versions, there are still quite a few opting to receive hard copies of several journals. Out of 4397 members, 3508 receive the Journal of Communication, 2544 opted for Human Communication Research, 3024 for Communication Theory and 2731 for Communication, Culture and Critique. Our flagship journal, the JoC, continues to be the most popular of the publications with 79% of the membership opting to receive a hard copy. Yes, there are times when the convenience of having a hard copy is appealing, but consider just how many resources are used in getting that journal to you.

The initial phase involves producing the book. First, raw materials are gathered. Trees harvested and reduced to pulp; paper produced; ink - having gone through an extensive creation process of its own - also makes its way to the printer. It takes a considerable amount of energy getting the final product to you with petroleum products playing a part in every single production step.

The Task Force on the Greening of ICA recommended steps to the Board that we as an organization can take to minimize our environmental impact. The Board reviewed those steps at their last meeting in Boston and sent the report back with recommendations for refinement. The Task Force will present their revised report at the next meeting in January.

New Website and Its Networking Capabilities

If you have not paid your membership dues, you probably have not seen our flashy new website either. Our members have reported that the new website, replete with new features, is much more navigable and user-friendly.

New to the website, the networking functions on the new "Community" site (the MyICA page) are among the most striking improvements. Members are now able to perform actions very similar to popular social websites with one difference - it is accessible exclusively to ICA members. Members can create smaller groups within the larger society, upload documents for discussion, post announcements to the group, or email a member directly.

Division and Interest Group leaders will find features specifically for them. They can email the entire section with the click of a button. They can also easily make changes to the section's description page on the website. A new Content Management System (CMS) makes it easy to create a section-specific website. Sections are still able to create websites of their own design if they wish. We will gladly provide storage space for web-related files on our server.

So, check out the new website and while you're at it, please renew your membership!