Minutes of the New Jersey Communication Association

8th Annual Conference “Communication and All That Jazz”

Business Meeting of March 27, 2004

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ

 

 

  1. Call to Order.  President John Pollock called the meeting to order at 12:50pm and welcomed everyone to the conference.  He thanked Vice President Harty Mokros for the excellent conference program and congratulated him for creating such a successful conference.
  2. Welcome and thanks - Vice President Harty Mokros.
    1. Thanks were extended to everyone for coming and noted that there was a great turnout with participants from all over New Jersey as well as neighboring states and a visitor from Germany.
    2. Also thanks were extended to colleagues and students for intellectual as well as “foot power” help with all the myriad of tasks needed to be done to have a successful conference.
    3. It was noted that there were 10 institutional memberships which were newly initiated, 5 from Rutgers SCILS and 5 from other institutions.
    4. Also generous donations were acknowledged from Johnson & Johnson for support of the MCIS fellowship program and for supporting 10 J&J fellows. The SCILS Alumni Association was also thanked for their generous support for this conference and for continuous support of NJCA over the past years.
    5. Additional thanks were offered to Nancy Tetro, SCILS doctoral student for her organizational help, to the NJCA Board members, and to Christine Lemesianou for innovation in designing conference materials.
    6. VP Mokros again thanked all the participants, and said that he had been very impressed with the quality of the morning sessions.
  3. Approval of Minutes – Marie Radford, NJCA Recording Secretary. Barbara Reed moved and Martin Itzkowitz seconded the approval of the minutes of the 2003 business meeting.  Minutes were unanimously approved as written. They are posted on the NJCA website.
  4. Amendment to the NJCA Constitution – John Pollock.  Pres. Pollock reviewed the contents of a proposed amendment to the NJCA Constitution changing the name of the official journal from the New Jersey Journal of Communication to the Atlantic Journal of Communication with Gary Radford continuing as the journal editor. Motion carried unanimously.
  5. Report of the Nominating Committee and Election – Maureen Taylor, NJCA 2nd VP.  The nominating committee presented the slate of officers. Two additions to the slate were Maureen Taylor as 1st Vice President and Michael Kent as 2nd Vice President.  In addition, Eleanor Novek and Paul D’Angelo were nominated from the floor for At-Large members, Corey Liberman for Graduate Student Representative, Danielle Calcagno for Undergraduate Student Representative, and James Irwin, of Ernst and Young as Corporate Representative. The slate was unanimously approved and all those elected stood for recognition.

NJCA Officers 2004-2005

President                                  Hartmut Mokros, RU

1st Vice President                     Maureen Taylor, RU

2nd Vice President                     Michael Kent, Montclair State University

Treasurer                                  Mark Aakus, RU

Journal Editor                           Gary Radford, FDU

Past President                           John Pollock, CNJ

Recording Secretary                 Marie L. Radford, Pratt Inst.

Membership Director                Dawn Temperino, RU  

New Media Director                Anastacia Kurylo, RU

Historian                                   Thomas Gencarelli, MSU

At-Large 1                               Chad Dell, Monmouth

At-Large 2                               Eleanor Novek, Monmouth

At-Large 3                               Paul D’Angelo, CNJ

At-Large 4                               Barbara Reed, RU

Special Projects                        Christine Lemesianou, MSU

Public Relations Director           Penny Silletti, NJ State Legislature

Graduate Student Rep.             Corey Liberman, RU

Graduate Student Rep. Pamela Poe, Temple

Undergraduate Student. Rep.    Danielle Calcagno, FDU

Corporate Rep.                        James Irwin, Ernst and Young

Community College Rep.          Open

K-12 Rep.                               Open

 

  1. Passing of the Gavel- President Pollock then reiterated thanks to President-Elect Harty Mokros for a spectacular conference and handed over the ceremonial gavel passing the presidency.
  2. H. Mokros presented outgoing President Pollock with a gift in recognition of his leadership and for encouraging many undergraduate students to pursue graduate studies at Rutgers and around the state.
  3. Reports.
    1. Membership Report.  President Mokros gave the attendance report as follows: 116 presenters, 10 institutional members (42 individuals), 68 preregistrants, 25+ on-site walk ins. A total of 146 people registered which is a fine turnout.H. Mokros asked the NJCA past-presidents to stand for recognition.
    2. Treasurer’s Report - Mark Aakus reported a healthy balance of $15, 081.36 held in the NJCA account in Wachovia Bank. NJCA has attained non-profit tax exempt status.
    3. Media Report - H. Mokros thanked Anastaia Kurylo for her incredible work on the NJCA Web page. A. Kurylo thanked Gary Radford for his help and for maintaining the previous site and for providing past minutes, the constitution and for information on past conferences. She also said that she wants to link to all the communication programs in NJ, will post the amended constitution, and pictures of the conference (with thanks to Hester Coan for being the photographer).
  4. Student Paper Awards- Christine Lemesianou, Special Projects Director, announced that this conference had outstanding participation from students with 56 total students participating, including 20 undergrduate and 36 graduate students from CNJ, FDU, Kean, Monmouth, MSC, Rowan, Temple, and RU. She noted that the papers are of high quality and that the morning presentations were excellent. The Undergraduate award went to the Panel “Gender and All that Jazz: The Everyday Experiences of Men and Women” of undergraduate students from Fairleigh Dickinson University, under the direction of Jennifer Lehr.  Graduate Paper award went to Marc Leverette, doctoral student at Rutgers, for his paper “Jazz as Communicative Praxis and Cultural Archive: African American Protest and the Avant-Garde.”
  5. Report from Journal Editor- Gary Radford, Editor, Atlantic Journal of Communication reported that the 1st issue of the AJC would be out in mid-April or early Mary. Since the name change, interest has grown and more article reviewers are needed since more papers are coming in for review.
  6. Adjournment.  The meeting was adjourned at 1:30pm

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Marie L. Radford, Recording Secretary