Complete Story
05/24/2007
Business Meeting Minutes April 2007
Eastern Communication Association
Community College Interest Group
Business Meeting Minutes
Friday, April 27, 2007
Providence RI
The meeting was called to order at 5:18 p.m. by 2006-2007 chair, Nancy Willets.
1. Introductions: Everyone introduced themselves by giving their name and affiliation.
2. Minutes: It was moved and seconded to approve the minutes of the previous meeting by acclamation.
3. Reports:
3.1 2007 Conference: Nancy reported that we had 6 slots this year but only submitted five programs (all were accepted). Nancy acknowledged and praised Alberta Arnold for her stewardship of the popular GIFTS program. She described a need to look at ways to encourage colleagues to participate and submit in a timely way. The Interest Group chair should not have to put the programs together. The group discussed methods of outreach (personal e-mails to core group of active members, ECA bulletins and snail mail to larger group, including the 4Cs).
3.2 Representation: The CC Interest Group has two slots on the ECA Executive Council. This is a very important position which allows our voice to be heard within ECA. Currently Shirlee Levin is representing us but we will need to elect someone next year for 2009-11. Cathy Blackburn is currently our representative to NCA. Cathy was willing to serve and was nominated again.
3.3 NCA Second Vice-president candidates: Nancy provided statements from both candidates: Dawn Braithwaite(University of Nebraska, Lincoln) and Diana Carlin (University of Kansas). Dawn attended the Interest Group meeting and spoke of her vision for NCA. She expressed an understanding of the community college mission and goals as she began her college career at a community college. Diana Carlin was not at the meeting since she had a previous commitment and did not arrive at the convention until the following day.
3.4 NCA News: Isa Engleberg distributed a summary of the results of the Community College Survey NCA conducted. An article about it has been submitted to Communication Education. There will be follow-up on a few issues and then the survey will be repeated in a few years so that we can begin to benchmark.
4. Brainstorming for next year's conference: Next year ECA will be meeting May 1 – 4 in Pittsburgh PA. The conference hotel is the Omni ($149/night) and the theme is "Making A Difference." Interest Group co-chairs for the next two years were elected at the 2006 meeting. They are Michelle Simpson (College of Southern Maryland) and Tobi Mackler (Montgomery County Community College). Michelle will be the interest group's primary organizer for the 2008 conference in Pittsburgh, and Tobi will be the primary organizer for the 2009 conference in Philadelphia. They will each support the other and serve as back-up. Michelle reported from the planning meeting:
- It was suggested that we not encourage use of AV equipment in our panels as it is extremely expensive.
- Another suggestion was to do a service learning activity at the conference. Michelle will contact CC people in Pittsburgh to see if any have service learning components in their courses.
Possible panels for next year:
- Service Learning – Best Practices in bringing the community into Community College (Nancy Willets – Cape Cod CC)
- Transfer and articulation agreements (Steve Epstein – Suffolk CC)
- GIFTS (Great Ideas for Teaching Speech) – Alberta Arnold (LaGuardia CC) agreed to organize this once again.
- GIFTS program limited to adjuncts submissions
- GIFTS limited to on-line activities
- Learning Outcomes and Assessment – hand-on, but facilitated, perhaps a double session (Isa Engleberg)
- Writing and Speaking Across the Curriculum (Tom Jewell – Bergen CC)
- NCA Survey – Implications of the results (Isa Engleberg)
Meeting was adjourned at 6:35 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Tobi Mackler,
Interest Group Co-chair
