The ICA Board of Directors meeting was held Thursday May 22, 2008 at the annual conference in Montreal. Highlights of the meeting are below. The full minutes are on the ICA website in the member’s only section.
* The budget for 2008-2009 fiscal year was approved. The ICA budget is available to members on the ICA website. The budget reflect the increase in membership dues beginning in October and the increase in conference fees beginning with the Chicago conference.
* The board approved the election late for the upcoming fall election. The candidates for President-Elect-Select: Peng Hwa Ang and Francois Cooren, for Board Member at Large representing East Asia: Youichi Ito and Eun-Ju Lee, for Board Member at Large representing West Asia: Hassan Abu Bakar and Rohan Samarajiva, and for Student Board Member: Kerk Kee and Malte Hinrichsen. The board unanimously approved the slate. The election will be held in September, 2008.
* The board also approved the election of six new Fellows. The six are Sandra Ball-Rokeach, Brant Burleson, Jesse Delia, Jon Nussbaum, Patti Valkenburg, and Barbara Wilson. They received their Fellows certificate at the ICA annual member meeting on Saturday, May 24.
* The board approved the Publication Committee recommendation of the appointment of Angharad Valdivia as editor of Communication Theory.
* In light of the new National Institutes of Health Policy on funded research, the board publications committee recommended a change to the ICA publication policy and manual. After debated, the board amended the original proposal and passed the following:
* The NIH has recently passed the mandatory NIH Public Access Policy (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-08-033.html) that applies to final peer-reviewed manuscripts accepted for publication on or after April 7, 2008. Making published research funded by NIH accessible to everyone, including health care providers, patients, educators and scientists, helps advance science and improve human health. In light of this policy, the publication committee suggests the following guideline:
Given the recently announced U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) regulations requiring that all journal articles resulting from research supported by the NIH be posted on their publicly accessible PubMED website within 12 months of publication, ICA journals therefore will have a policy permitting NIH grantees to forward electronic copies of such articles for posting on the NIH, after a 12 month embargo, from the date of publication in an ICA publication. Similar policy regarding public access will also be considered for scholarship funded by other international organizations on a case by case basis.
* Approval of Mohan Dutta as Editor of ICA Newsletter: The editor would be responsible for coordinating a series of articles and would recruit series and article authors to add content to the newsletter. The appointment is for a three year term and the publications committee will be charged with finding the new editor at the conclusion of Dutta’s term.
* ICA President Elect Patrice Buzzanell presented her committee appointments for the coming year. The list is available on the ICA website.
* Barbie Zelizer presented the report of the divisions/interest group task force which did not favor any significant change in the structure of ICA divisions and interest groups. It did favor increasing the signature requirement for the formation of an interest group to 1% of the membership of ICA at the end of the membership years just prior to the time of a petition. The Board concurred with the 1% requirement. This recommendation will appear on the fall ballot as a proposed bylaws change.
