This month's column features two components: first, a guide to writing successful conference proposals by student affairs commitee member Benjamin De Cleen, and second, Rebecca Hains and Mikaela Marlow's report on the 2007 student affairs committee meeting.

Writing successful conference proposals
by Benjamin De Cleen, Vrije U Brussel

Proposals for the 2008 ICA Conference in Montreal are due on November 1st. That's two more weeks to make your proposal as good as possible. In the end, your proposal's acceptance depends on the quality of your research and writing. But there is more to getting your proposal accepted.

I attended a workshop on how to write proposals at the European Communication Research and Education Association Summer School in Tartu, Estonia in 2006. There, I learned some tips that might increase chances of a proposal being accepted. I tend to look back at my notes from this workshop, which was led by Bart Cammaerts (London School of Economics) and Nico Carpentier (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), when I'm writing proposals. These ideas could be useful to other ICA student members, as well. You might have thought of some of these ideas yourself, but you never know.

Tip #1: First of all, what kind of research are you doing? Think carefully about where you want to submit your work.

Try to get an idea of the traditions of the conference and of its different divisions before submitting a proposal. Read the call for papers (CFP) carefully to find out what kind of research the organizers are looking for. Checking out previous conference programs might help you, as well.

At the ICA, there are many divisions and interest groups, each with its own thematic focus and research tradition. Think carefully about where you will be submitting your proposal(s). Once you have decided where you want to submit, it is probably not a bad idea to consider the tradition of that division or interest group. Situate your proposal in that tradition and make clear what your proposal has to add to it. Remember: at the ICA, you cannot submit a single proposal to more than one division or interest group. You can, however, submit up to four separate proposals to different divisions or interest groups.

Tip #2: Then, consider what kind of proposal you are submitting. There are different kinds of proposals. Read the CFP to find out what is possible at a conference. At the ICA, individual papers, panels, poster presentations, and (extended) abstracts can be submitted. Which kinds of proposals are accepted, depends on the division or interest group you are submitting to. Check the ICA CFP for more info on their specific policy. 

• Is your research fit to visual presentation on a poster? At the ICA posters are presented at the Interactive Paper Session, which has plenary status. The ICA has been encouraging planners to program top papers in the Interactive Paper Session, so the quality in the poster session should be quite high.
• Even as a student, dare to think of a panel proposal. Do you know any colleagues working on a related topic that might be interested in organizing a panel with you? With panel proposals the internal coherence is already there, which makes the life of the conference organizers easier. This is not a bad thing.

Two things to keep in mind when putting a panel together: ICA encourages panels that consist of participants from different institutions, so be sure to look outside your department. Also, at the ICA, papers that are part of panel proposals are not considered for top student awards. So if you think you have gold in your hands, you might want to submit your work as an individual paper.

Tip #3: Reviewers are academics, so many of them are probably short on time. Make sure reviewers get the message you want to get across. Writing has to be good throughout. Still, there are a number of things that are really important.

• The first and last paragraphs of a paper are crucial. Pay extra attention to those parts.
• Make sure you have a strong abstract. Abstracts preferably make clear what your main question(s) is (are), which theories have inspired your questions, what method you have used, what material you have analyzed, and give an idea of what your results and conclusions are.
• Think about a good title.

Tip #4: It would be a sad thing to see your proposal rejected on formal grounds, so:

• Respect the deadline. Easy, and self-evident, but very important.
• Respect the formal requirements for proposals. You should be able to find all formal requirements in the CFP. At the ICA Conference, there are both general requirements that count for all submissions and requirements that are specific to divisions and interest groups. Make sure you adhere to both.

I hope these ideas have been useful to you as a student. However, the best way to really get to know the reviewing process is by being a reviewer yourself. ICA divisions and interest groups are often looking for people to review proposals. Don't be afraid to volunteer as a reviewer.

Student Affairs Committee Report
by Rebecca Hains, Salem State College, and Mikaela Marlow, U of Idaho

As part of the International Communication Association's governance structure, ICA has a student affairs committee. This committee:

• serves the needs and interests of student members and assists in crafting and disseminating student agenda,
• recommends and promotes policy and activities to enhance student involvement in ICA,
• crafts a clear role for Graduate Student members of ICA Board of Directors,
• reports in writing to the Board of Directors on student policy and activity, and
• attends the Board of Directors meeting at the annual ICA conference (chairs only)

In the interest of transparency, we present for our readers a brief report on the Student Affairs Committee meeting held during the 2007 meeting of the International Communication Association. Chairing the meeting were Rebecca Hains and Qi Wang (outgoing student board member). In attendance were incoming co-chair Mikaela Marlow, Benjamin de Cleen, Sabine Fritz, Irina Gendelman, Constanze Rossmann, and Katja Schwer.

At the meeting, we discussed issues such as the timing of the ICA orientation, the need for student activities to be clearly delineated in future conference programs, and whether there could be more international job postings on the ICA web site. These are issues that we, as co-chairs, will bring up at the next Board of Directors meetings.

A question had been raised at the Board of Directors meeting regarding whether ICA student members would be interested in a separate, ICA-student-run journal. In a formal vote, this measure was unanimously opposed by the Student Affairs Committee, due to concerns about the time that editing would take, concerns about potentially lower standards (whether real or perceived), and a general desire among students to publish in recognized journals. As an alternative to the student journal, an affairs committee member suggested perhaps we should instead schedule some invited panels at ICA featuring student scholarship.

We agreed to conduct a survey of student members in the near future; consider planning sessions for scholars and students to interact; develop pamphlets to leave in the student lounge at ICA conferences with tips on abstract writing, job searching, complete lists of student events at the conference, and so on; consider scheduling a student pre-conference at some point in the future; and discuss the development of a student communications system, such as a bulletin board, blog, or listserv.

Student affairs committee co-chairs Rebecca Hains and Mikaela Marlow will report on these issues, ideas, and requests to the Board of Directors at our January 2008 meeting. Do you have questions, concerns, or suggestions that you'd like us to address-either in this column or at the next meeting of ICA's Board of Directors? Any suggestions on how ICA can better serve your needs as a student member? If so, please email us at rhains@salemstate.edu and mmarlow@uidaho.edu, and we will bring your comments to the Student Affairs Committee for further discussion.