Though the American essayist Henry David Thoreau was rumored to have warned his cronies never to look back unless they planned to go there, the act of looking back nonetheless has value. As I consider this past year as ICA President, I am flooded with contradictory but distinct emotions - fulfillment, humility, and anticipation - each of which helps clarify why this time period has been so rewarding and richly instructive for me.

Fulfillment
I am fulfilled and gratified because the Association has proven itself to be wonderfully amenable to the changing agendas of each incoming president. Our members have offered wide-ranging and creative support for the two goals I set for myself in running for the ICA presidency - more familiarity among ourselves and more visibility to others - and since I came to the helm of ICA 2 years ago those goals have been tackled in multiple ways. Thinking of how our familiarity and visibility might be better achieved both externally and internally has already required some tweaks to our collective mindset and will no doubt present some additional adjustments as we move forward.

Our internal familiarity - a reflection of how much we know about our similar and dissimilar attachments to the field of communication and to ICA as its premier association - was a prevalent focal point last year at the Chicago conference, when the rubric of cross-unit sessions and the theme of "Keywords in Communication" helped make explicit to all those who attended how communication means different things to ICA members. Not only did that exercise help create new pathways for us to know each other as members with different interests while similarly invested in this shared field of communication, but the spirit of that conference has permeated multiple activities undertaken this past year.

The project of familiarizing ourselves across Divisions and Interest Groups has generated parallel interest in developing new ways of keeping in touch with ICA activities throughout the year. Furthered by the giant step forward ICA took this past year in social media, ICA members, thanks largely to the efforts of ICA President-Elect Francois Cooren, will be able to connect over mobile phones and computers before, during, and after the Singapore conference, to photo-share and to post blogs to the association's website. ICA in Singapore will also boast the incorporation of podcasts, and the conference next year in Boston, thanks to ICA President-Elect Select Larry Gross, will include virtual overlay for those who cannot attend in person. In between, we are hoping to keep our social media contacts alive and growing.

Becoming more familiar with each other has also dovetailed with our long-held aim of becoming ever more international, and as that goal continues apace, we have made additional efforts to familiarize ourselves with the different priorities that communication research holds in the multiple geographic regions that constitute our membership. This past year ICA held or cosponsored three regional conferences - one in Budapest, Hungary; one in Melbourne, Australia; and one in Shanghai, China. We are presently finalizing new criteria for internationalizing our editorial boards and manuscript reviewer pool, and we raised and are continuing to discuss the possibility of multiple language submissions to conferences. So as to make available new slots for additional members at our conferences, we are also addressing the possibility of limiting the number of submissions for each member.

This year we have also made headway in clarifying how our association positions itself on real-world issues. Three major initiatives are relevant here: First, we have put together a new greening initiative that outlines a detailed policy for the association to go green over the coming years. This policy offers a map of useful and environmentally sensitive actions to be undertaken in both the short and long term. Second, we have put together a draft for a socially responsible investment policy. Investing our monies in socially responsible endeavors has long been a project that coheres with ICA values, and I am pleased that we have completed the steps to clarify what this might look like. Third, we have developed guidelines for copyright and academic freedom, a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Communication Scholarship. Following a survey taken of the ICA membership on fair use practices, the code was developed by an ad-hoc committee, together with the Center for Social Media and the Washington College of Law at American University. All three initiatives will be presented to the board as action items in Singapore.

ICA's external visibility has been equally important. Making ourselves visible has long been a goal of the association, and ICA past presidents Sonia Livingstone and Patrice Buzzanell both addressed the issue in their own agendas. Two initiatives this past year have been central in this regard. First, we have put together a proposal to move forward with an international communications director: Following some very invested work on the part of a task force and a separate ad hoc committee, we have delineated what the establishment of an international, association-wide communication director might look like for the association. Our hope is that such a function will put us on a par with other international and national associations, and will offer a useful way to highlight the important relevance of the field and ICA in public discourse. Second, extensive work took place this year in redesigning the ICA logo and bringing it up to date with contemporary design parameters. Both initiatives will be presented to the board as action items in Singapore.

Humility
I feel no small dose of humility too. The pride I take in what has been accomplished this past year could not have come to fruition without the efforts of so many, and one of the great delights of these past few years has been getting to know so many terrific individuals. First off, I want to thank the Executive Committee - ICA presidents past and future Larry Gross, Francois Cooren, Patrice Buzzanell, Sonia Livingstone, and Ron Rice. Their sage and ever-ready advice has been invaluable, and coming on board a team with such insight, talents, and dedication has been enormously valuable. Personally, I thank a number of individuals - Joseph Cappella, Larry Gross, Sonia Livingstone, and Howard Tumber - who preread a number of my newsletter columns with thoughts as to how I could broaden the appeal of what I wanted to say. I thank Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt, whose graduate student assistance facilitated my tasks multiple times over. And finally, without the ICA staff - Emily Karsnak, Sam Luna, Amanda Pike, and Mike West, and our remarkably diligent executive director Michael Haley -- only a fraction of what needed to get done would have drawn attention. I am so grateful that I came on board as president during a time when the staff made my responsibilities so much easier. It has been a real honor to work amongst such delightful people.

In addition to the individuals mentioned above, I thank the following on behalf of ICA (and myself):

ICA Board of Directors:

Board Members at Large: Eun-Ju Lee, R. G. Lentz, Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Juliet P. Roper, Rohan Samarajiva

Student Board Members: Malte Hinrichsen, Michele Khoo

Division and Interest Group Chairs: S. Shyam Sundar (CAT), Stephen M. McDowell (CLAP), Myria Georgiou (ERIC), Diana I. Rios (Feminist Scholarship), Robert Huesca (Global Communication and Social Change), David B. Bueller (Health), Robert Potter (Information Systems), Kristen Harrison (Instructional/Developmental), Ling Chen (Intercultural), Walid Afifi (Interpersonal), Maria Elizabeth Grabe (Journalism Studies), Richard Buttny (Language and Social Interaction), David R. Ewoldsen (Mass Communication), Dennis Mumby (Organizational Communication), Nick Couldry (Philosophy of Communication), Kevin G. Barnhurst (Political Communication), Cornel Sandvoss (Popular Communication), Craig E. Carroll (Public Relations), Luc Pauwels (Visual Communication), J. Alison Bryant (CAM), David W. Park (Communication History), John L. Sherry (Game Studies), Lynn A. Comella (GLBT Studies), Vincent Doyle (GLBT Studies), Margaret J. Pitts (Intergroup).

Nominating Committee: John Erni (Chair), Jennifer Bartlett, Jose Marques de Melo, Linda Steiner, Claes De Vrees.

Finance Committee: Ron Rice (Chair), Sonia Livingstone, Patrice Buzzanell.

Publications Committee: Ingrid Volkmer (Chair), Karin Becker, Frank Esser, Dale Hample, Amy B. Jordan.

Membership Committee: Jennifer Bartlett (Chair), Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Hiroshi Ota, Diana Rios, Karin Wilkins.

Liasion Committee: Doug Storey (Chair), Noshir Contractor, Boguslawa Dobek-Ostrowska, Peter Golding, Shih-Hung Lo, Arvind Singhal, Ingrid Volkmer.

Internationalization Committee: Gianpietro Mazzoleni (Chair), John Hartley, Michele Khoo, Eun-Ju Lee, Rohan Samarajiva.

Local Organizing Committee (Chicago, 2009): James Ettema and Kevin Barnhurst (cochairs), Pablo Boczkowski, Eszter Hargittai, Steve Jones, John Nerone, David W. Park, Andrew Rojecki.

International Communications Officer Task Force: Silvio Waisbord (Chair), Patricia Aufderheide, Theodore Glasser, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Risto Kunelius, Yoram Peri, Clement So, Howard Tumber.

Greening ICA Task Force: Chad Raphael (Chair), Justin Lewis, Sam Luna, Toby Miller, Juliet P. Roper, Stacey Sowards.

Multiple Language Submission Task Force: Thomas Hanitzsch (Chair), Marwan Kraidy, Yu-li Liu, Philippe Maarek, Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Federico Subervi.

Limiting Conference Submissions Task Force: David W. Park (Chair), Maria Elizabeth Grabe, Robert Huesca, Eun-Ju Lee, Stephen McDowell, Luc Pauwels

Logo Design Task Force: Robert K. Avery (Chair), Rocci Luppicini, Luc Pauwels, Jane Petrillo, Akhilesh Saurikhia, Kok Cheow Yeoh.

ICA Fundraising Task Force: Stewart Hoover (Chair), Jennings Bryant, Noshir Contractor, Ellen Wartella, John M. Weimann

Ad-Hoc Committee on International Communications Officer: Silvio Waisbord (Chair), Patricia Aufderheide, Risto Kunelius, Craig Carroll.

Ad-Hoc Committee on Copyright and Academic Freedom, working with the Task Force on Media and Communication Policy: Patricia Aufderheide (Chair), Chris Boulton, Edward L. Carter, Aymar Jean Christian, Peter Decherney, Michael X. Delli Carpini, Tarleton Gillespie, Larry Gross, Eszter Hargittai, Bill D. Herman, Renee Hobbs, Peter Jaszi, Sut Jhally, Steve Jones, Mark Latonero, Kembrew McLeod, Hector Postigo, Jonathan Sterne, Lokman Tsui, Bruce Williams

Awards Committees: Claes De Vreese (Chair)
Outstanding Book: Ted Zorn (Chair), Tarleton L. Gillespie, Young Yun Kim, Robert McChesney, Karin Wahl-Jorgensen
Outstanding Article: Linda Steiner (Chair), Sandra Ball-Rokeach, Boris H.J.M Brummans, Hiroshi Ota, Thorsten Quandt
Applied/Public Policy Research: Michael Slater (Chair), Anne Marie Bulow, Joanne Cantor, Peter Golding, Amy B. Jordan
Young Scholar: Laura K. Guerrero (Chair), Kari Anden-Papadapoulos, Travis Dixon, Youichi Ito, Jochen Peter
Steve Chaffee Career Productivity: Marshall Scott Poole (Chair), Peng Hwa Ang, Nick Couldry, Annie Lang, Paolo Mancini
Fisher Mentorship: S. Elizabeth Bird (Chair), Jack Bratich, Brant Burleson, Clement So, Patti Valkenburg
James W. Carey Urban Communication: Lana Rakow (Chair), Susan Drucker, Harvey Jassem, Leo Jeffries, Bella Mody, Pascal Preston, Young Jun Shin Fellows Book: Barbara J. Wilson (Chair), Jennings Bryant, Joseph Cappella, Cindy Gallois, Jon Nussbaum
Communication Research as Collaborative Practice: Yoo Jae Song (Chair), Bella Mody, Risto Kunelius, Arvind Singhal, David Weaver
Communication Research as an Open Field: Rivka Ribak (Chair), Sarah Banet-Waiser, Isabel Gil, Jon Nussbaum, Eric Rothenbuhler
Communication Research as an Agenda of Change: Myria Georgiou (Chair), Mark Andrejevic, Ling Chen, Robert Huesca, Rohan Samarajiva

Because ICA projects by definition tend to involve so many people engaged in various tasks, I fear that I have neglected to mention additional individuals whose involvement and assistance may have helped accomplish what we set out to do. At the risk of offending those included in a blanket note of gratitude, I thank them as well.

Anticipation
And finally, I am filled with anticipation. When one leaves the helm of an association, one can only hope that the initiatives set in place will bear fruition. That will of course depend on the association presidents to come, and I know that both Francois Cooren and Larry Gross share many of the goals reflected in this year's activities. I look forward with both curiosity and excitement to seeing where ICA goes on its next moves forward.