With our conference submission site opening on 15 September 2008 for our 2009 ICA Conference in Chicago, I know that many of our members are working on paper and panel submissions. I'd also like to encourage you to consider some other ICA issues as you maneuver on our website for information and the All Academic system.
First, we are finalizing our awards committees and working toward gaining more submissions from the different world regions that ICA serves. In this endeavor, we need your assistance. Start looking now for materials that are noteworthy so that, when the awards notifications come out, you can easily submit a nomination. For our eight different awards, see http://www.icahdq.org/aboutica/awards.asp.
Second, at our Board meeting in Montreal, we discussed setting up an online system for discussion of best practices among our divisions and interest groups. Not only would it help us share information about the different innovative practices that our units are doing but this process also enable us to keep records about unit activities. It seems as though unit history is lost within a short amount of time. As the 2008 conference planner, past division planner, and member of all units, I was intrigued by all the different ways in which units created opportunities for journal subscriptions, awards, discussion panels, tours of local sites and organizations, and so on. Moreover, this online system complements data gathered during the San Francisco conference assessment process in which survey respondents indicated aspects in which their divisions and interests groups engaged that they perceived as beneficial to them (or not!).
Third, if you have an idea that you believe would interest our members-in particular, if you are involved in a communication initiative that would appeal widely and would concern the ways in which communication has meaning and directs practices in different regions and associations around the world, please send these ideas to Mohan Dutta. Mohan is our special content newsletter editor and is working with Mike West, our Publications Manager, in broadening the scope of our information coverage. I am very excited by this new initiative because it provides opportunities for members unable to attend certain conference sessions (or other discussions) to find out what is happening right now and to make connections. If you have suggestions for content or would like to write something, feel free to email mdutta@purdue.edu.
Fourth, work is well under way on different publications, committees, task forces, and other initiatives. Christie Beck is finalizing Communication Yearbook 33, her last CY volume. The range of topics, methodologies, theoretical and interdisciplinary intersections is exciting! I'd like to thank Christie for her work on CY33 as well as the other volumes she has edited. As you know, Charles Salmon has issues a Call for papers and proposals as our new CY editor. In addition, our Montreal theme book, Communicating for Social Impact: Engaging Communication Theory, Research, and Pedagogy, coedited by Lynn Harter and Mohan Dutta, features chapters covering many interests of association members and is ahead of schedule.
Committee and task force work is in progress. The publications committee has been looking into comments our members have provided about our different journals and the ways in which we can make content more current and accessible. Other committees are assessing ICA's position on responsiveness to issues of social consequence. Still others are establishing a tracking and reporting system for funded research by members. And ICA is involved in a consortium of communication associations discussing quality metrics, journal impact factors, and the soon-to-be-released National Research Council report on doctoral education. Over time, these issues will be presented in this Newsletter.
