Planning for Chicago 2009 has taken major steps toward producing what promises to be a stimulating and multidimensional conference program. We are working with the third largest submission pool in ICA's history (after San Francisco and Montreal), though conference submissions were down slightly compared to Montreal (by 2.4%), totaling 2,564 papers and 263 panels. The program will offer an exciting and provocative set of presentations, which will hopefully move us toward new ways of thinking about the field of communication.

As we speak, reviewers from ICA's divisions and interest groups are evaluating submissions. Thanks to everyone who has colonized time from busy schedules to help review for the various divisions and interest groups. Thanks too to the unit program planners, who have been working tirelessly until now to make sure that things get done on time.

Those of us on the planning side of the program are figuring out how best to accommodate the submission pool and work with an acceptance rate that makes sense for the association. In wrestling with the contrary demands created by active submissions and a clear interest among members to keep the conference at its present size, I've decided to implement the following changes:

1. Scheduling a full line-up of panels and paper sessions on Monday, which has traditionally tended to be a lighter day of programming. Monday's schedule, which will conclude at the usual time, will also end with a closing plenary.
2. Adding back into the mix of submitted panels and papers the equivalent of one plenary session (25 sessions). Some of these slots will be taken up by cross-unit sessions, and some will be given back to the divisions and interest groups. 
3. Scheduling one day at 26 parallel sessions instead of 25. Doing all of this is now giving us an acceptance rate of 48%, a clear rise over previous years.

What is becoming clear from the submissions is that

1. We have an active involvement at the preconference level. With 12 preconferences scheduled and all of them drawing in a healthy enrollment, we see that preconferences have become an important way of addressing member interest in specific topics. Alongside the more general programming available during the conference itself, the preconferences also offer a critical way for members to engage with others with like interests whom they might not know. At the same time, however, the increase in preconferences may be partly responsible for the slight decrease in submissions to the general conference.
2. Our membership remains strong. We are at an association high of 4,597 members. A few core divisions remain as central as ever: Mass communication holds steady at over 30% of the membership, communication and technology claims 20% (up 3% from 2000) and political communication is at 17% (up 4% from 2000). Unlike the past, however, today's members are joining multiple divisions and interest groups, with smaller units like communication history or visual communication commanding 5 to 7% of the membership. In part, this is because we have more units than ever before: today's association is comprised of 24 divisions and interest groups, compared with 17 such units in 2000. But beyond the growth in units and the multiple patterns of membership, we are also seeing that ICA members are showing active involvement in more than one unit.
3. The activity in both preconferences and multiple units suggests a healthy engagement across divisions, interest groups and areas of interest among ICA members. Hopefully, this year's conference theme - Keywords in Communication - and some of the programming options - particularly the cross unit panels - will help facilitate that engagement.

Additionally, the annual conference survey (see my report in the October newsletter) offered much information about how to organize the conference this time around. Concern about the high cost of attending ICA is being offset by the low hotel rate -- $109 USD per day - being offered by the Chicago Marriott, which comes just in time for our economic recession. Complaints over meeting rooms will hopefully be addressed by some of the Marriott's multiple spacious meeting spaces. In response to complaints about low acceptance rates, I've raised the acceptance rate above what we had in Montreal, as I mentioned above.

Additionally, this moment offers us the chance to evaluate how we have grown and what that growth tells us about the association. Though we know that we are growing and that our divisions and interest groups have multiplied, we haven't spent much time figuring out how that growth skews differently across the association. For instance, survey respondents noted that programming by numerous units - notably visual communication - seems to draw more members from other divisions and interest groups relative to their size than do others. Students seem to be less interested in association-wide programming than in divisional and interest group activities and are particularly interested in professional programming. There is some interest in multiple language review of submissions that would be presented in English, if accepted. ICA Chicago will already be taking note of some of these data: For instance, some of the mini-plenaries will be geared toward questions relevant to the core of the field that might draw more students. We will be separating the business meeting this year from the awards ceremony. And we will be offering some professional programming throughout the conference.

So, get ready for ICA Chicago! And in the meantime, here are some dates to look for as we move into the final stages of the reviewing process:

December 7: each unit completes its review process

December 8-15: unit planners assign papers to sessions, assign chairs and discussants and rank sessions

January 15: program chair makes final decision on acceptance of sessions

January 16-20: ICA notifies submitters of acceptance or rejection

January 31: unit chairs notifies chairs and discussants of their duties

February 5-7: program chair allocates sessions to time slots

March 1: program is posted