Standley suspended the normal order of the meeting to hold an election for secretary. Two nominations were made for this position. Bill Swain nominated Berrin Beasley and Maria Williams-Hawkins seconded the nomination. Rob Bellamy nominated Wendy Hajjar and Gary Copeland seconded. Gary Copeland moved that nominations be closed. Both candidates were then asked to address the members of the business meeting to discuss their platforms. Both Beasley and Hajjar spoke, then voting commenced and Linda Dysart Goff and Maria Williams-Hawkins counted the ballots. Berrin Beasley was elected Secretary to the MC division. Rob Bellamy, having been elected in 2000 for a two-year term, agreed to continue to represent the MCD on the SSCA Nominating Committee.

After the election, Standley called the meeting back to order and introduced Isa Engleberg and Jerry Hauser, candidates for Second Vice-President of NCA. Engleberg and Hauser addressed the group about their candidacies. Afterwards, Engleberg spoke to the MCD about her recent involvement in cable television programming as a faculty member having to produce original programming for a cable access channel. Engleberg asked for programming ideas and recommendations from members of the MCD.

After Engleberg spoke, Standley presented the chair’s report. Standley noted the MCD is the second largest division in SSCA. The MCD reports 179 members.

Standley said SSCA is looking for a web editor and that anyone interested in the position should contact SSCA Executive Director Hall Fulmer at Georgia Southern or the current web editor, Larry Hosman, at The University of Southern Mississippi.

Standley noted that in the executive board meeting three (3) constitutional resolutions passed. The first was that the Publications Committee be a standing committee, the second resolution passed was that the Nominating Committee could meet anyway possible (e.g., internet, conference call, etc), the third resolution passed was to change the selection requirements for the Rose B. Hart award. Standley also noted that NCA is considering major restructuring. Standley stated if anyone wanted specifics on the NCA restructuring to see her after the business meeting.

Wendy Hajjar suggested the Popular Culture and Mass Communication divisions, together, express opinion, through the SSCA survey being conducted at the convention, concerning a proposal that a second journal for SSCA be established. Hajjar noted the second journal should be global and accessible in tone and problem driven versus theory driven. This new tone would address the concerns of the two divisions.

As Standley concluded the Chair’s report, she thanked Bill Swain for his hard work planning the 2001 program and thanked John Allen Hendricks for the summer newsletter and work as the division’s web editor. In closing, Standley noted that the 2004 conference would be held in Tampa, Florida.

Bill Swain made the vice-chair report. Swain reported that he had written a “Report of 2001 Convention Program Planning...” for the incoming vice-chair to use as a tool to assist with next year’s planning.Swain noted that he had also given a copy of the report to SSCA Executive Director Hal Fulmer. Swain stated, “Overall things went well” and he expressed appreciation to those who served as panel respondents and chairs.

Swain reported that there were thirteen (13) research papers and six showcase tapes submitted for jurying. Swain reported one paper seemed more appropriate for the Popular Culture division and was passed along to that division.In total, four panel proposals were submitted, including one for a roundtable discussion and one honoring the work of Rob Bellamy. Swain reported the MCD had a total of 11 sessions despite the reduction in submissions. Each competitive paper session included three papers on related topics, thus honoring a request in the 2000 MCD business meeting for more session discussion time than has been true in past years.

Swain thanked the following individuals for serving as reviewers for the division: Alan Albarran, Rob Bellamy, Gary Copeland, David Goff, Linda Goff, Wendy Hajjar, John Allen Hendricks, Mary Jackson Pitts, Paul Traudt, Jim Walker, Emmett Winn, and John Wittig. Swain noted all information was sent in early to Trudy Hanson and that he followed SSCA’s schedule, owing in major part to the timely work of the reviewers.

Swain noted that he and Chair Tracy Standley had agreed to cancel the MCD Media Research Group business session in favor of a conflicting MCD panel session, both having been scheduled for 8 a.m. Sunday morning. The decision was made before the business meeting at the convention to allow announcement of the change in the meeting.

Swain also explained the procedure used for determining the top papers awards: Papers were first blind reviewed in groups of four or five by pairs of readers working independently to determine acceptance. Graduate student papers were reviewed in one set--along with a faculty paper initially mistaken for a graduate student paper--and that review produced agreement on a top graduate student paper. A separate set of experienced researchers then blind reviewed five papers--the top faculty papers from each initial review along with the faculty paper initially reviewed with the graduate student papers. Those ratings identified a top paper and two other top faculty papers, all close in ratings.

The paper that received the top ranking was co-authored by Swain. Because of conflicting suggestions from leading division members about whether Swain should disqualify his co-authored paper because he was serving as convention planner for the division, the question was submitted for resolution to SSCA President Mary Evelyn Collins, who determined that the paper should not be disqualified.

John Allen Hendricks made the secretary’s report. Hendricks reported that one newsletter was sent out in June 2000 and that one call for papers was sent out in August 2000. Hendricks noted that he would contact active members of the division for ideas concerning panels at the 2002 conference.

Hendricks also serves as the MCD web editor and noted that the MCD web page had been completely refurbished within the past year and that information was placed on the MCD web page that hopefully would help division members when needing quick and accurate information relating to the division. In addition to the August 2000 call for papers that Hendricks mailed out, he also posted a call for papers on the MCD web page. Hendricks reported that a membership application to join SSCA had been placed on the MCD web page for convenience. Hendricks extended an invitation to any division member to serve as division web editor and no one stepped forward. Accordingly, Hendricks agreed to continue serving as the division’s web editor.

Hendricks also noted that a committee had been established at the 2000 conference in New Orleans to focus on how to increase membership in the MCD as well as increase participation and that it had not been very active. The members of that committee included: Paul Traudt, John Allen Hendricks, and Berrin Beasley. The committee agreed to reexamine what might be done to achieve these two goals for the MCD. The recruitment committee did discuss possible locations that might increase interest in the SSCA conferences. Possible locations mentioned included Dallas, Texas and Charleston, South Carolina.

During the secretary’s report, Alan Albarran noted that the 2002 SSCA conference has been scheduled at the same time as the Broadcast Education Association in Las Vegas. Albarran noted this poses a conflict for many of our members. Albarran made a motion that the MCD send a request to the Executive Office that it contact the Broadcast Education Association each year to avoid this major conflict for our division. Maria Williams-Hawkins seconded Albarran’s motion.All members agreed.

Standley asked for old business; there was none. Standley then asked for new business.

Under new business, Wendy Hajjar suggested that a second SSCA communication journal needed to address the concerns of an “unserved constituency.” Hajjar noted that many SSCA members are “unserved constituencies that should be served.” Linda Goff agreed, the current SSCA journal “does not reflect the interests of the SSCA constituents.” One solution posed by Alan Albarran was to have more MCD members on the editorial advisory board of the current SSCA journal.Several members stated the last time a special mass communication issue of the current journal came out was in the 1980s. Hajjar suggested getting a count from the editor, Joy Hart, regarding the percentage of submissions from the MCD members. Chip Walker made the motion that Joy Hart, the incoming editor of the journal, be invited to the 2002 MCD business meeting to hear our concerns. Bill Swain seconded the motion. It passed.

Discussion continued on the topic of the MCD being under represented in the SSCA journal. David Goff made the motion for a request to be sent to the Publications Committee that the new editor address specific topics relating to Mass Communication in the journal. Gary Copeland seconded the motion. One member stated that the current SSCA journal is not “an outlet for diverse voices.” Standley noted that there seemed to be three possibilities to remedy the concerns of MCD members:1) produce a second journal, 2) attempt to make changes with the journal we currently have, or 3) expect no change at all. Goff’s motion passed.

Wendy Hajjar suggested the MCD and SSCA consider an internet journal. Hajjar suggested internet journals allow for flexibility. One member of the MCD noted that internet journals are not as prestigious as established bound paper journals.

Maria Williams-Hawkins thanked Tracy Collins Standley for her year of service as chair of the MCD.

The chair’s gavel was passed to Bill Swain and the meeting was adjourned in haste at 6:50 p.m. 

Submitted by John Allen Hendricks.