Pop Comm Minutes 1:30 p.m. 4/1/04 Tampa, Florida

Attending: J. Emmett Winn,  Rick Olsen, Tony DeMars, Kim Golombisky, Danielle Williams, Debbie Phillips, Wendy Hajjar

Winn called the meeting to order at 1:32p.m.  Minutes of the 2003 business meeting were approved.

In the Chair’s report, Winn thanked Rick Olsen for planning a great program for Tampa and thanked those who participated in the call for papers and panels.  Winn also thanked Tony DeMars for his work as secretary and web editor.  Winn said he thought Popular Communication had about the best looking site of all the divisions.  Winn also reported that Executive Director Hal Fulmer wanted minutes from the business meetings submitted by May 1st.   Winn then announced that there would be a change in the Awards Luncheon on April 3rd.  Division and Interest group awards will be announced at business meetings and they will also be announced at the Awards Luncheon.  Only SSCA Awards will actually be presented at the luncheon.  The chair also reported on an SSCA-SACS proposal and reported that Helms Briscoe would do conference planning for a fee but SSCA was not interested.  Winn also reported that in the Undergraduate Honors Conference business meeting a vote would be held to consider titling it to honor Theodore Cleavenger and a vote will be conducted to consider renaming the Early Scholar Award to honor Janice Hocker Rushing.  The Council will also put before the membership the idea of the John Sisco Excellence in Teaching Award to begin requiring a minimum of 10 rather than 6 years of teaching.  Debbie Phillips reminded the group that Chair Emmett Winn was up for consideration as SSCA Executive Director-elect.

In the Vice-Chair’s report, Olsen noted a lower number of submissions this year but that there was still enough for a good number of panels for Pop Comm.  Olsen also reminded the group of the top faculty paper that was about Karen Carpenter and the top student paper that was about Spike Lee.

In the Secretary/Web Editor’s report,  DeMars suggested trying to make the web site more useful.  Group discussion followed related to the use of the site to link to other Pop Comm organizations.  As the discussion focused on better networking, knowledge of what is going on in other groups and awareness of paper calls, Winn noted here that more panels were available at NCA based on membership size and suggested submitting to Mass Comm.

In old business, Hajjar asked for a clarification that the by-laws had actually been updated.

In new business,  DeMars declined a nomination for secretary or VCE but agreed to accept the nomination to continue as web editor.  Approved by acclamation.  Olsen nominated Hajjar as Vice Chair elect,  Phillips seconded and the group approved.  Phillips nominated Sandra Halvorson of Florida State Panama City as secretary (who was unable to attend due to a schedule conflict but had expressed an interest in service to the group).  Hajjar seconded and the group approved.

In other new business,  chair transfer to Olsen, who discussed planning for Baton Rouge.  The point was made that the group needed to improve the number of panel and paper submissions.  Golombisky mentioned the lack of an SSCA Newsletter may have caused a reduction in the number of submissions.  Phillips will send a call to more Pop Comm list-serves.  Other discussion continued about ways to generate interest and a discussion about having a GIFTS type of panel. Golombisky suggested inviting big-name people and to target their issues to have more general interest beyond Pop Comm members. More discussion followed regarding seeking more ‘Pop Comm practitioners’ and noting that the papers/panel call needs to also go out to English departments, cultural studies areas,  etc.
Forced from the room by set up for the next event in the location, the meeting adjourned at 2:30 p.m.


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Minutes reported by 2003-2004 Pop Comm Secretary:
Tony DeMars
Associate Professor
Department of Mass Communication
123 Dan Rather Communication Building
P.O. Box 2207
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville, TX  77341-2207