Minutes of the New Jersey Communication Association

9th Annual Conference

“Communication Research: Serving Our Discipline Serving Our State”

Business Meeting of April 1, 2005

The New Jersey State House, Trenton, NJ

 

 

Note: Prior to the Call to Order, 1st Vice President, Maureen Taylor introduced Jason Butkowski, a Communication Technology Specialist from the New Jersey State House who spoke on the topic of “Communication Theory and Practice.”

 

  1. Call to Order.  President Harty Mokros called the meeting to order at 1:25pm and welcomed everyone to the conference.  He thanked Vice President Maureen Taylor for the excellent program and congratulated her for creating such a successful conference. He also thanked Penny Siletti, NJCA Public Relations Director, for facilitating the opportunity for this year’s conference to be at the NJ State House.  In addition, he thanked Anastasia Kurylo for her stellar work on the NJCA Website and Gary Radford for his leadership as the editor of the Atlantic Journal of Communication.

 

  1. Welcome and thanks - Vice President Maureen Taylor. Thanks were extended to everyone for coming and she noted that there was a great turnout with participants from 18 colleges and universities throughout New Jersey as well as from neighboring states. Thanks were also extended to colleagues and students for their help with the large number of tasks needed to be done to have a successful conference. Flowers were presented to Penny Siletti and Dawn Temperino, NJCA Membership Director, of the NJ State House. Special thanks were given to Erin Christie and everyone else who assisted with the conference planning and logistics.

 

  1. Approval of Minutes – Marie L. Radford, NJCA Recording Secretary. There were corrections made to the minutes of the 2004 NJCA business meeting. Jonathan Millen moved and Martin Itzkowitz seconded the approval of the minutes as corrected. The revised minutes will be posted on the NJCA website.

 

  1. Report of the Nominating Committee and Election.  The nominating committee, chaired by 2nd Vice President Michael Kent, presented the slate of officers. Nominations were taken from the floor for Undergraduate Student Representatives (all four nominations were added to the ballot by acclamation) and Community College Representative. The slate was unanimously approved and all those elected stood for recognition.

NJCA Officers 2004-2005

President                                  Maureen Taylor, RU

1st Vice President                     Open

2nd Vice President                     Open

Treasurer                                  Mark Aakus, RU

Journal Editor                           Gary P. Radford, FDU

Past President                           Hartmut Mokros, RU

Recording Secretary                 Marie L. Radford, RU

Membership Director                Dawn Temperino, NJ State Legistature

New Media Director                Anastacia Kurylo, Marymount

Historian                                   Thomas Gencarelli, MSU

At-Large 1                               Eleanor Novek, Monmouth

At-Large 2                               Chad Dell, Monmouth

At-Large 3                               Jonathan Millen, Rider

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.    Ellen Kamartos, FDU

                        Undergraduate Student. Rep.  Lauren Larco, FDU

                        Undergraduate Student. Rep.  Kendall Anderson, TCNJ

                        Undergraduate Student. Rep.  Kirsten Brown, MSU

Corporate Rep.                        James Irwin, Ernst and Young

Community College Rep.          Matthew Crick, Bronx CC

K-12 Rep.                               Open

 

  1. Passing of the Gavel - President Mokros then reiterated thanks to President-Elect Maureen Taylor for an excellent conference and handed over the ceremonial gavel passing the presidency.

 

  1. Reports.
    1. Membership Report - President Taylor gave the attendance report as follows: 60 preregistrants, 59+ on-site walk ins. A total of over 120 people registered including 8 institutional members.

 

    1. Treasurer’s Report - Mark Aakus reported a balance of $8, 557.39 held in the NJCA account in Wachovia Bank. The NJCA is in excellent financial shape. Outstanding receipts from memberships for the NJCA 2005 Conference is $4,666.53 of this $1,859.00 in memberships received by check, $2,807.53 in memberships received via pay-pal.

 

    1. Media Report – President Taylor thanked Anastasia Kurylo for her outstanding work on the redesigned NJCA Web page (http://njca.rutgers.edu). Anastasia Kurylo thanked outgoing President Mokros for the work that began in preparation for last year’s conference and also thanked Gary Radford for all his hard work on the original site. This year there were two goals for the Website: online membership application with automatic database updates and online payment options for membership dues and conference registration. With Maureen Taylor’s support as Vice President, today 78% of those who registered before today paid for their conference and/or membership through our online system. These two additions to the site reduce the workloads for our Treasurer, Membership Director, Vice President, and assistants because it reduces paperwork and data entry. It also provides online options that are easy to navigate, efficient, and allow credit card payments which we never accepted previously. In addition to meeting these two goals in time for the current conference, we have also provided a new face for the NJCA website. Since the website has been overhauled, visits to the site have increased gradually and, of course, pinnacled with the conference with 350 visits this month. We’ve received positive feedback on the site and especially the usefulness of our listing of NJ Communication Programs and the listing of communication careers. These are especially valuable for students entering the field of      communication. The theme of the website is interconnections.

 

  1. Student Paper Awards- Maureen Taylor thanked Christine Lemesianou, Special Projects Director, for her work in reviewing student papers and organizing the award process. President Taylor announced that this conference had outstanding participation from students and congratulated all student participants, especially the award winners. Awards for Top Student Papers went to: 1)Aline Guzzo, Brianne Moles, and Meghan Roth from TCNJ for their paper: “Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Abortion: A Community Structure;” 2) Shelia McAllister-Greve, Rutgers, for “Communicating Identity and Forming Relationships via New Jersey Community College Web Sites;” 3) Irene Nasser, FDU, for “Women in a Globalized World: A Global Women’s Perspective;”  4) Lisa Uber, Rutgers, for “Intractable Conflict in the Holly City: Framing, Identity and Opportunities;” and 5) Shukatara Sen Das, Rutgers, for “Stem-Cell Research Advocay on the Internet: The Dialogic Capacity of Web Sites.”

 

  1. Report from Journal Editor- Gary P. Radford, Editor, Atlantic Journal of Communication reported that AJC is thriving since its name change last year and since being published as a quarterly journal by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.  He noted the support of Fairleigh Dickinson, Rutgers University, and William Paterson University of NJ from 1993 until last year, allowing the journal to grow to its present status with financial independence from institutional support. He is pleased with the newfound sustainability of the journal and noted that the time may be right for him to turn the journal over to a new editor sometime in the near future.

 

  1. Maureen Taylor presented outgoing President Mokros with a gift in recognition of his visionary leadership and direction of NJCA.

 

  1. Adjournment.  The meeting was adjourned at 2:00pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Marie L. Radford, Recording Secretary