Officers

 
  Membership

 
  Convention

 
  Newsletter

 
  Archives

 
  Resources

 
  Links

FAMILY COMMUNICATION DIVISION NEWSLETTER
Volume 11	Spring-Summer 2001	Number 1

    I am delighted to address the division in the re-born family communication newsletter. In the past we have communicated with one another in this fashion and I am pleased to see us doing so again after a brief hiatus. We have much to celebrate and many reasons to engage one another in conversation, and our newsletter is one forum for this activity. NCA 2000 was another great convention for our division. We have a strong membership, our panel requests were all granted. and we were able to present 51 papers and 10 panels, despite a request from Jim Applegate to have all the divisions cut back on their programming. Our panels looked well attended (I was not able to go to all of ours, but the ones I saw had healthy audiences) and were intellectually engaging. The discussions I heard were lively and substantive. I anticipate that 2001 will be just as exciting. Michelle Miller-Day, our 2001 conference planner has been working hard toward that end.

    In Seattle, despite our abysmal meeting time of 8:00 AM on Sunday, we had a good turn out and conducted our yearly business, including electing Sally Vogl-Bauer as our new vice-chair. We also heard from our immediate past president, Tom Socha, about the progress of the Journal of Family Communication. The first issue looks wonderful and we can be truly proud of Tom's work and that we have this fine journal to showcase family communication scholarship. Also at the meeting we acknowledged Kathy Galvin as the 2000 recipient of the Bernard Brommel Award. The award could not have been conferred on a more deserving person. I am on the 2001 committee for the Brommel Award, and I hope you are thinking of potential nominees for 2001. An announcement of the award appears in Spectra and it is never too early to begin thinking of nominees. Finally, our meeting included a sincere thank you to our chair, Fran Dickson, for her hard work and many accomplishments. I am appreciative for all her help in teaching me about this job. I hope to serve as ably as Fran and all my predecessors.

    Finally, the meeting allowed me a chance to review my goals for the year with the members. These goals include:

1. Clarify our constitution, by-laws, and job descriptions
2. Increase our internal communications
    - Reactivate the newsletter
    - Maintain the website
3. Evaluate our awards with an eye toward adding a dissertation award.

I would love to hear any ideas you have on these or other goals for our division. Please contact me via e-mail, snail mail, phone, fax, or any form of communication you like. I look forward to hearing from you.

Peace,

Lynn

    January 2001 marked the inaugural publication of the Journal of Family Communication (JFC): a national, refereed journal published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. This special issue, "Family Communication: Progressing into the 21st Century," features articles by Edna Rogers, John Gottman, Ellen Wartella, and William Gudykunst, and point of view commentaries by Fred Rogers (of Mister Roqers' Neighborhood) and Harriet McAdoo (Family Ecology Department, Michigan State University). Family Communication Division members, Thomas Socha (Founding Editor), Gail Whitchurch, Kathleen Galvin, and Lynne Webb (Associate Editors) along with the many members of the JFC founding editorial board (many of whom are also FCD members) are pleased to provide this scholarly outlet that publishes articles on all aspects of communication in families. This includes communication in family units, family relationships, and families managing communication with societal systems such as mass media, education, health care, and law & family policy. In addition to empirical reports, theoretical essays, and review essays, the journal will include articles in applied family communication, family communication education, reviews of family communication books and resources, as well as point of view commentaries. JFC is available in electronic as well as paper format. Instructions for contributors and subscription information are available on the web (http://www.erlbaum.com/Journals/journals/JFC/jfc.htm) or by contacting Tom (jfamcomm@odu.edu or tsocha@odu.edu). As a special issue, JFC Issue 1 is also available for individual purchase for class use (www.erlbaum.com). To help support JFC, Family Communication Division members are asked to submit their manuscripts for review, take out an individual subscription, and request their institutional libraries subscribe. Potential links between JFC and the Family Communication Division are being explored (stay tuned). Thanks to all who helped in this milestone for family communication.

Tom Socha
Department of Communication
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA 23529
757-683-3833 (Office)
757-683-4700 (Fax)

Journal of Family Communication
http://web.odu.edu/webroot/instr/AL/Tsocha.nsf/pages/JFC

The FCD is accepting nominations for the following positions:

Vice-Chair Elect:
    assists the Vice-Chair; becomes Vice-Chair in the subsequent year and serves as program planner

Secretary:
    keeps records, minutes, constructs newsletters; serves as Nominating Committee Chair; two-year term

Student/New Professional Representative:
    encourages student participation, liaison to the division's executive committee about student concerns; two-year term

Research Committee:
    paper readers for the 2002 convention: serves the Vice-Chair as needed in program planning (6-10 members needed)

If you need more information about any of these positions or wish to nominate a member, contact Rebecca Mikesell at mikesellr1@scranton.edu or 570-941-7516.

Self-nominations are always welcome!

Looking for useful websites to aid your research? Try these!                                                      

The Family Scholar:
    http://www.familyscholar.com

National Council on Family Relations Journals:
    http://ncfr.allenpress.com/ncfronline/?request=index-html

National Council on Family Relations On-line Discussion Forum:
    http://www.ncfr.org/discuspro/index.html

Trends in the Well-Being of America's Children and Youth:
    http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/00trends/index.htm

The Baltimore Multigenerational Family Study Data Set:
    http://www.socio.com/srch/summary/nat5/dapm8-n2.htm

Fran Dickson, Chair, called the meeting to order at 8:00 a.m.
The minutes of the November, 1999 meeting were approved.

Reports:

Chair: After attending the meeting of the Legislative Council, Fran Dickson made the following points to the FCD membership: (1) the FCD has 2 seats on the Legislative Council (determined by membership), (2) the FCD had the third highest paper submissions of all divisions, and (3) the FCD is not strongly represented in journals, having the lowest of the journal submissions (but our work may have been combined with the area of interpersonal communication and this may account for numbers lower than warranted). Fran also updated the membership on our recent bid to adjust the criteria (voted upon at last year's meeting) for the Brommel Award. NCA indicated that the award is an NCA award and so the division cannot make unilateral changes in the criteria. However, we do have a representative on the award committee, so our voice will not go unheard. Congratulations to member Kathleen Galvin who won the award this year! At the request of B.J. Brommel, a congratulatory letter to Kathleen has been placed in the FCD archives.

Vice-Chair: Lynn Turner reported that 49 papers and 9 panels (all competitive) as well as 2 papers for posters were submitted for this 2000 convention. Eleven were rejected (9 papers, 2 panels) A total of 17 panels were presented (38 paneled papers and 8 preset panels). Special thanks to paper readers Nancy Eckstein, Stacy Young, Tonya Afifi, Barb Penington, Deb Ballard Reisch, Kelly Fudge, Rhonda Sprague, Diane Prusank, Amy Bippus and Anne Lucchetti. Lynn outlined her goals for the upcoming year as she becomes Chair: (1) update the bylaws, (2) increase communication among the division, including bi-annual newsletters and a maintained website, and (3) evaluate our division awards (esp. the addition of a dissertation award).

Vice-Chair Elect: Michelle Miller-Day encouraged submissions to next year's Atlanta convention with the theme "Radical(izing) Roots." It will be at the Marriott Marquis/Atlanta Hilton. The following recommendations were made for convention submission: (1) encourage no more than 1 submission per division if you are lst author, (2) co-sponsor with another division (i.e., roundtables, poster sessions, spotlight panels) -- audio-visual equipment is available, cash award for best posters, (3) when submitting panel proposals, watch the number of people included on a single panel, estimate attendance, but don't overestimate, and (4) take advantage of Atlanta's venues when choosing sites for panel presentations. A comment from the floor suggested that past poster sessions have been given undesirable lengths and locations. Michelle indicated that she would bring that up with NCA. Michelle also reported problems with scheduling the preconference (it would run into Halloween-not good for members with children). If you submit a paper, write or e-mail Michelle when you intend to be at the conference, so she can schedule accordingly. Lastly, NCA purchased "Rapid Review" so that by 2002, all journal and conference submissions will be on-line (submit on a disk and NCA will put it on a server, receive a code, submissions can be tracked). A motion was passed to engage in on-line convention submission this coming year.

Secretary: Rebecca Mikesell indicated that there would be two newsletters in 2001, with the FCD convention program printed in the fall issue. There were no reports from the Chair of the Curriculum Committee or the Student Representative.

New Business:

--This coming year the division will investigate the possibility of a Dissertation Award.

--Tom Socha announced that the first issue of the Journal of Family Communication is coming out soon and suggested that the membership encourage their institution's library to subscribe (individual subscriptions are needed as well, but it is the institutional subscriptions that are most helpful to the success of this endeavor). There is a possibility that the journal may affiliate with the division, keeping editorial control of the journal with the FCD. Tom is working on this. The philosophy of the editorial staff encourages "pre-reads" of manuscripts and "growing" manuscripts; that is, continued work on the manuscript until it is publishable. There are no methodological constraints.

--Paul LeBlanc has agreed to be the webmaster for the FCD website. A motion was passed to spend $35 a year to maintain a .org website.

Elections:

Vice-Chair Elect: Sally Vogl-Bauer

Liaison: Linda Manning

Curriculum Committee Chair: Kandi Walker

Paper Readers: Tonya Afifi, Mary-Claire Morr, Lynne Webb, Patrick Hughes, Rhunette Diggs, Sandra Petronio, Rich West, Donna Pawlowski, Nancy Eckstein, Glen Stamp, Stacy Young

Announcements: Kathleen Galvin announced that the Education Policies Board and the Research Board will pilot a Faculty Development Workshop for mid-career faculty, July 8th -13th (contact Kathleen). Also, the GIFT program is looking for submissions (activities or programs).

Fran Dickson adjourned the meeting at 8:59 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Rebecca Mikesell, Ph.D., Secretary

Trying to plan ahead for the Atlanta Convention?                                                                                    
Here is some help:

Atlanta City Search (for entertainment, lodging, shopping, etc.)
    http://www.atlanta.citysearch.com/

Atlanta Public Transportation - MARTA:
    http://www.itsmarta.com/

Atlanta Zoo
    http://www.zooatlanta.org/home.html

Atlanta Underground
    http://www.underatl.com/map.html

Look for more convention info in the August issue of Spectra.

Please also visit our Convention link for the FCD Program!

On June 26th, a test message went out via the newly-created FCD distribution list. If you received this message, then you are on this list. However, we do not have e-mail addresses for all of our members (and some of the e-mails bounced back). We would like to include you!

Please send your e-mail address to me at mikesellr1@scranton.edu, and I will update our records and add you to the list. This will be an efficient way for the division members to communicate!