Division By-Laws

ARTICLE I. Objectives The objectives of Division II: Interpersonal Communication are to:  Stimulate theoretical development and research activities in the area of interpersonal communication.  Encourage the dissemination of information about interpersonal communication to professional colleagues in the related fields.  Relate research to current interpersonal communication problems in society.

ARTICLE II. Membership Section 1. Any active member of the Interpersonal Communication Association who expresses interest in, and subscribes to, the purposes of the Division is eligible for Active Membership in the Division. ICA fellows are granted full active membership status, if they designate Division II as professional interest area. Section 2. Any Affiliate Member of the International Communication Association who expresses interest in, and subscribes to, the purposes of the Division is eligible for Affiliate Membership. Affiliate members are not eligible to neither vote nor hold office.

ARTICLE III. Officers, Nominations, Elections Section 1. Officers of the Division include a Chairperson, a Vice Chairperson, and a Secretary. The Vice-Chairperson and the Secretary shall be elected in alternate years, each for a term of two years. The Vice-Chairperson shall be elected in even-numbered years and automatically succeeds the Chairperson for a two-year term. No officers may immediately succeed themselves in office. Nonmembers of Division II may not be nominated for or hold office. Section 2. In addition to a Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, and Secretary, the Division will elect whatever other officers its membership deems necessary and desirable. Section 3. Nominations for offices shall be solicited from the Active members of the Division by a committee of the Division appointed by the Division Chairperson to prepare a slate of nominees. The names of at least two nominees who have given their consent must appear on the ballot for each vacant office. Section 4. The election of any officer shall be by vote of only the Active Members of the Division. Section 5. Elections shall be by mail vote on a ballot that is incorporated with the ballot for election of officers of the International Communication Association. Such ballots shall be processed and counted, and the results reported according to the procedures employed for the election of officers of the International Communication Association. Section 6. Unusual vacancies shall be filled by appointment of an Active Member of the Division by the President of the International communication Association. If the unexpired term is for a period of more than six months the Division may initiate through its regular channels a special ballot for the election of an active Member in the Division to fill the unexpired term. Section 7. Duties of officers.  (a) The Chairperson shall preside at all Division business meetings. In addition, the chairperson shall create and appoint such temporary committees as deemed necessary; prepare and submit the Division budget to the Executive committee; represent the Division and provide necessary Division reports at Association Board of Directors Executive Committee and business meetings; appoint editor(s) for the Division newsletter; during the first year of his/her term, administer the selection of competitive and noncompetitive papers/programs for conventions, and notify contributors and the Association of papers/programs that are selected; administer the Garrison Memorial Award; review and provide recommendations for maintaining the quality of convention programs; and generally perform those duties usually associated with this office.  (b) The Vice-Chairperson shall assist the Chairperson in administering division business meetings; serve as a reader for Division competitive and noncompetitive convention programs during the first year of his/her term; assume responsibility for administering annual conference competitive and noncompetitive programs from the Chairperson during the second year of the term; and participate with the chairperson in evaluating the quality of Division convention programs. The Vice-Chairperson shall also assist the chairperson when requested, and assume the duties of the Chairperson in the event of the latter's absence, disability, or request. (c) The Secretary shall maintain, distribute, and obtain Division approval of minutes for Division business meetings; assist the chairperson in administering business meetings; serve as a paper evaluator for division conference programs; and participate with the Chairperson in evaluating the quality of Division programs. Section 8. Any elected officer may be removed form office by the following procedure: At least one-third of the listed members of the Division must sign a petition to the Executive Secretary of the International Communication Association requesting a special election, and including nominations for the office in question. The Executive Secretary arranges an extraordinary election within 60 days at the expense of division II, with the challenged officer(s) on the ballot. The result of the election becomes effective immediately.

ARTICLE IV. Committees Section 1. The Chairperson is empowered to establish and appoint members of ad hoc committees to assist in the conduct of the affairs of the Division. Section 2. When requested by the President of the International Communication Association, the Division Chairperson is empowered to recommend members of the Division to serve on designated Association committees. Section 3. The term of office of any appointed committee member shall not exceed the term of office of the appointing officer, except in the case of standing committees.

ARTICLE V. Dues Section 1. The Division officers may propose to the members an annual dues charge for the various classes of membership. If approved by the Board of Directors of the Association, this charge shall be adopted upon the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the responding Active Members of the Division, voting on a mail ballot. Nonpayment of such Divisional dues shall be a basis for termination of membership in the Division, but shall not affect the individual's status as a member of the Association. Section 2. In the event the Division is dissolved, the elected officers shall transfer the net assets of the Division of the Board of directors of the Association to be used for the work of the Association.

ARTICLE VI. Meetings and Reports Section 1. An Annual Business Meeting of the Division shall be held at the time and place of the annual conference of the Association. A simple majority of the number of registered active members of the division at the conference shall constitute a quorum for officially conducting business. A simple majority of the Active members at the business meeting determines approval on motions before the Division. Section 2. Activity reports of officers and committees of the Division shall be received at the Annual Business Meeting, and action recommendations shall be presented to the Board of Directors for vote. Section 3. The Secretary shall prepare a written report of the Annual Business Meeting for transmission to the Board of Directors of the Association and shall make copies available to the members of the Division. Section 4. The Division may plan and hold professional meetings at the time of the annual conference, under the general coordination of the President-Elect of the Association. Section 5. The Division may organize and hold local or regional programs and meetings on its own initiative, upon notification of the board of Directors of the Association. Section 6. At Annual Meetings, the passage of resolutions will not require a vote of the membership at large. Motions approved at the Annual business Meeting involving (a) a change in Bylaws; (b) approval for general expenditures; (c) election of officers; (d) creation of standing or permanent committees; and (e) Division dues adjustments, will require an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the responding Active Members of the Division, voting on a mail ballot. Section 7. The Division may support the creation and maintenance of a Division Newsletter to be published and disseminated to members. Editor(s) for the Division Newsletter will be appointed for a two-year term by the Division Chairperson. To the maximum degree possible, the Division Newsletter will be supported by the Division budget, institutional contributions, donations, and/or advertising. If necessary, upon membership approval, a nominal contribution by Division members will be used to support the Newsletter. Contributions will be determined by procedures outlined in Article V of the Division Bylaws.

ARTICLE VII. Amendments and Restrictions Section 1.  Amendments to, or other changes in, these Bylaws may be initiated in the following ways: (a) The Chairperson may appoint a committee to consider revising the Bylaws in general or in particular, and subsequently submit to the membership of the Division the committee report. (b) Twenty-five Active Members of the Division may submit to the Board of Directors a proposed amendment or amendments in writing and signed by the sponsors. (c) The Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, and Secretary may formulate proposals for amendment of these Bylaws and submit them, with any arguments, to the Active Membership for vote. Amendments formulated in this manner must be submitted to the Chairperson prior to the Annual Business Meeting. Amendments or revisions receiving an affirmative vote of at least two-thirds at the annual business meeting shall be considered formally by the Active Members of the Division. Section 2. These Division Bylaws may not conflict with the Bylaws of the Association; the latter take precedence, and power for determining conflict rests with the Board of Directors of the Association.

ARTICLE VIII. Parliamentary Authority In the absence of any provision to the contrary in these bylaws, all business meetings of the division shall be governed by the parliamentary rules and usages contained in the current edition of Roberts' Rules of Order, Revised.

ARTICLE IX. The Garrison Memorial Award and Endowment Section 1. Each year in which there are a sufficient number of papers (generally considered to be 5+) solely authored by students submitted to the division for its annual conference paper competition, the John Garrison Memorial Award will be presented to the highest ranked student- authored paper. A cash prize will be awarded to the recipient. Section 2. The award will be funded by the John Garrison Award Endowment, which has been established as a separate ICA account under the supervision of the Executive Director of the Association. The funds from the endowment are to be deposited into an interest-bearing bank account or certificate of deposit. Each year the entire interest from the account will be made available to the Division II Chairperson for payment of costs associated with the award. Any funds from the interest on the endowment not spent by Division II for the above noted purpose must be deposited into the principal of the endowment fund. Section 3. The principal and interest of the John Garrison Memorial Award Endowment may not be used for any other purposes than those described in this article.   ARTICLE X:  The Award for the Analysis of Interpersonal Communication in Applied Settings Section 1:  PRIVATEThe division has created an award for the significant analysis of interpersonal communication in an applied context. The purpose of the award is to enliven, enrich, and expand the division, as well as to simply honor good scholarship. The award was developed in recognition that important research on interpersonal processes is being conducted by scholars who focus on a variety of applied issues (e.g., communication in the classroom, home, workplace, and health care settings). We hope to celebrate excellent applied research on interpersonal processes and encourage its submission to our division. Section 2:  Individuals who wish to be considered for the award should write the phrase "Interpersonal Communication in Applied Settings Submission" on the cover page when submitting a paper to the Interpersonal Division. Section 3:  The Chair of the Division will determine the awards based on: (1) Ratings/rankings provided by paper readers. That is, readers will make their judgments as usual. The Chair will then compile ratings/rankings within subsets of papers that applied for the awards. These judgments will provide a relative quality judgment; (2) His/her own reading of the papers. This is to ensure an absolute quality criterion; (3) Panel-ability of the papers. Awards will be given only to papers that are paneled (in any panel format); (4) Chair discretion if applied. Section 4:  The award recipient will receive a plaque or some other tangible symbol of the award. Section 5:  In any given year, no award may be given in either category due to: (1) Too few submissions; (2) Submissions of insufficient quality; (3) Discretion of the Chair. Section 6:  If the Chair wishes to be considered for this award, then the Vice-Chair will assume the role of reviewer.   ARTICLE XI:  Outstanding Dissertation and Thesis Awards   Section 1:  A call for nominations goes out in the November newsletter. Applicants have to submit (a) a 25-35 abstract of the thesis or dissertation, and (b) a letter from the dissertation/thesis director explaining why the project should be recognized. Deadline for submission of materials is February 1st. Applicants must have defended the project between Jan. 1 and Dec 31 of the previous year. Section 2:  A committee of three, appointed by the chair, reads the submitted material. The committee may select a winner based on the abstracts and letters. Alternatively, the committee can ask a small group of finalists to submit their entire dissertation/thesis, and then use those materials to select a winner. If an insufficient number of submissions are received, the committee may choose not to make an award in a given year for either category. Section 3:  The winners receive a certificate and a small cash award. Section 4:  In 2003, the division voted that these awards should be named at the time that fundraising efforts are underway for the division.