The 59th Annual ICA conference is getting closer and not surprisingly, membership increases each day that it does. ICA has 3,527 members as of this printing. The two largest member type segments are Regulars, with 1,946 members, and Students, with 1,162. (Other membership type totals are listed here). While membership typically drops substantially at the end of the renewal period each Fall, this year we saw roughly the same number of memberships lapse as last year; however, because we had more members than ever before--4,646--the number of active memberships was still higher than in previous years after suspension. That, coupled with the fact that new members are becoming interested in the International Communication Association, has helped keep our numbers up.
Strengthening our commitment to increase ICA's internationalization, we continue to attract new membership from non-U.S. regions. Our U.S.-to-non-U.S. ratio now stands at 64% US members to 36% non-U.S. The regional breakdown is shown here.
As well, we now have a few institutions that have taken advantage of our 3-year complimentary Institutional membership, a program developed by the ICA Board of Directors designed in 2006 to grant membership to A- and B-tier countries, who might not otherwise have resources to apply. Regional conferences cosponsored by ICA have also reaped a few rewards. We have seen slight increases in each of the regions where those conferences have been held, most notably in Mexico, South America, and China. We look forward to similar results in Melbourne and Budapest.
As for the "Keywords in Communication" conference in May, our numbers there have also been impressive this year. As of today we have 665 registrations, considerably higher than the three largest conferences! All indications are that this conference will be the largest to date. Each of the 12 preconferences' registrations is moving along, as are the various excursions. Be sure to take a look at these excursions; the architectural tours are said to be quite spectacular and impressive, not to mention informative and educational!
The "greening" initiative choice between a printed program and a flash drive is at about 50/50. Don't forget that the flash drive, unlike the print program, also includes the abstracts of all of the papers to be presented.
Of the papers submitted, 48% were accepted to be presented at this year's conference. The closing reception, scheduled for Sunday evening is also attracting quite a few registrants, currently at about 300 participants.
The entire program, and each "Day-at-a-Glance," are also now on the web site! More information can be found on the main conference page on the ICA web site, http://www.icahdq.org/conferences/2009/. Each of the links directs you to a more complete description of each event.
We hope to see you in Chicago! Have a GREAT March.
