Call to order: 11:30 AM

  1. Installation of 2016 Board members
  1. Approval of WSCA, 2015 meeting minutes.
  1. Old Business
  1. Chair’s Report: Program Planning

1)Papers received: 52

2)Panel proposals: 8

3)16 Panels in WSCA Convention

4)24 student papers of which 9 are debut papers

  1. New Business

A. Nominations:

1)Secretary: not this year – Sohinee’s is a 2-year term.

2)Chair elect: nominees --> Michael Walker, ASU ; Elected by acclimation

B. Top Papers

1)Top Debut Paper: Stephanie Marek Muller, University of Utah, “Palin, Politics, and Paradoxes: Representations of Political Inauthenticity in Sarah Palin’s 2008 Vice Presidential Campaign”

2)Top Student Paper: Olivia Miller, Colorado State University, “The Survivalist “Imprint” of Obama’s Rhetoric: Post-9/11, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, and Foreign Policy Apologia

3)Top Paper: Nicole Allen, University of Nebraska Lincoln, “Delivery as Language Difference: Making Room for the Neo-Babelian Challenge to Networked Rhetorics

C. Next Year’s Conference Theme:

Centralizing the Marginality, Marginalizing the Center

Feb 18-21, 2017 in Salt Lake City, UT

Little America Hotel --> next to the Big American Hotel (that we can’t afford)

Local Host --> University of Utah

Double-move of the theme

ignored things, critique the things that are too central

what is the center, what that means, whiteness

presidential campaign

what this mean in relation to the rhetorical theory

break the mould a little bit

spatial politics of formatting --> different ways to panel

Official CFP will go out in April, Due date is 9/1/16, should get decisions pre-NCA

1) Exec club recognizes top debut papers— we should really encourage visible marking of DEBUT paper-ness

2) AV requests need to be serious/actually needed if requested

Reviewer requests for WSCA 2017

Discussion

-- joint/co-sponsored panels with freedom of expression & political communication (speech on campuses)

-- public address scholarship DOES come through RPA

-- public communication vs public address --> changing the name??

  1. Announcements:

-- LA meeting tomorrow

-- USRC + Basic course conference (will be back in 2017, that format will change a little, keep an eye out for those announcements... Dunn is also planning that)

ROC CFP

RSA Conference is in may

Public Address Conference is in October

RPA “Public Address” label – Public Communication

--> how do we think about ourselves in relation to other interest groups

--> convenience of encapsulating both arenas, flexible understanding of both terms

--> Rhetoric & Public Inquiry / Culture/ Ethics

--> critical/cultural studies, which we don’t have a division

--> current way doesn’t seem very inviting

--> maybe revise the IG description (or add on a descriptor?)--> easier to do administratively

--> lack of real “public address” in speaking (Nancy Off Rose)

--> conversation with Comm Theory Group in order to broaden “definitions”

==> MSIG tends to be more Quantitative, need a conversation with them

--> broadening definitions might make this more of a contemporary name/description

RPA is the largest IG in WSCA

==> there seems to be a broad consensus of revising the call/descriptions

==> in response to and impacts other IGs

==> 2 ways to proceed --> make a committee to generate possible options

==> Dunn to explore --> chairs and other groups, spotcheck

--> will report back in BM next year and/or via email

Adjourn12:15 PM