Rhetoric & Public Address Interest Group Business Meeting

WESTERN STATES COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION

Santa Clara, CA 2018

Sunday, February 17th from12:00-1:00 pm

MINUTES

  1. Call to Order

Michael welcomes all, including those who accidentally ended up in the wrong room.

  1. Approval of Minutes – 2017 RPA Business Meeting
  2. Motion, second from the floor. Verbal vote: yay.
  3. Minutes approved
  4. Old Business
  1. Chair’s Report: Program Planning
  2. Competitive Papers:59Received (-2 from 2016), 41 programmed (69% acceptance rate)
  3. Lower acceptance rating from the past
  4. Panels: 6Received (-2 from 2017), 6 programmed (100% acceptance rate)
  5. Student Papers: 45 (76%)
  6. Debut Papers: 19 (32%)
  7. Strong showing of debut and student papers
  8. 16 slots + Business Meeting (-2 from 2017; consistent with previous years)
  9. Additional Officer Reports:
  10. Chair-Elect (if any)
  11. Nothing to report from Roberta
  12. Secretary (if any)
  13. Nothing to report from Jenna
  1. New Business
  1. Elections
  1. Secretary (Term: 2018-2019)
  2. Position currently filled: Jenna Hanchey, Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno (Until 2019)
  3. Floor Nominations – none.
  4. Chair-Elect (Plans WSCA RPA 2019)
  5. In charge of the conference planning for 2020 (Denver)
  6. Next year they are planning to move to a computer program that NCA uses for submissions, so that you don’t have to do it purely over email in the future. On the other hand, it will be a new process with some bugs to work out.
  7. Floor Nominations
  8. Michael Walker self-nominates
  9. Alexander Maier self-nominates
  10. Michael Walker removes himself from consideration
  11. Alexander Maier, CSU Sacramento is elected by acclimation
  12. (Addendum: After the meeting it was decided that Michael and Alexander would co-chair so that Michael could train Alexander in how to do the job)
  1. Awards
  2. Top 4 Papers:

Identification by Transitive Property: Intermediated Consubstantiality in the NFL’s Salute to Service Campaign

Charles Goehring, San Diego State University

Eli Mangold, San Diego State University

Framing Public Memory: Developing Moral Vernacular Discourse Through Photographs of the New Sandy Hook Elementary School

Katrina N. Hanna, Arizona State University (TOP STUDENT PAPER)

Scapegoating as a Response to Racial Controversy in Video Games: A Rhetorical Analysis of Online Discussion Boards Regarding the Video Game Resident Evil 5

Robert Burgy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (TOP DEBUT)

Perspective by Incongruity and Linguistic Impiety in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Anti-War Letter to President G. W. Bush

J. Reed, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

  1. Top Paper:

Identification by Transitive Property: Intermediated Consubstantiality in the NFL’s Salute to Service Campaign

Charles Goehring, San Diego State University (TOP PAPER)

Eli Mangold, San Diego State University

  1. Top Student Paper

Framing Public Memory: Developing Moral Vernacular Discourse Through Photographs of the New Sandy Hook Elementary School

Katrina N. Hanna, Arizona State University

  1. Top Debut Papers

Scapegoating as a Response to Racial Controversy in Video Games: A Rhetorical Analysis of Online Discussion Boards Regarding the Video Game Resident Evil 5

Robert Burgy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Perspective by Incongruity and Linguistic Impiety in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Anti-War Letter to President G. W. Bush

J. Reed, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

  1. Vote on Proposed Bylaw Change
  2. Proposed Bylaw Change #1: Removing ableist language from the RPA bylaws
  3. At the last meeting, we talked about using the language of blind review, and there is a motion to remove that reference and replace it withneutral “anonymous review”
  4. Motion to a vote from Michael, second from the floor
  5. Verbal vote, motion passes.
  6. Other New BusinessFrom the Floor
  7. Amy Pason -- Think about encouraging diversity in the division
  8. This is coming from the organizational leadership
  9. Next year’s theme is Advocating with Evidence
  10. They’re thinking about scheduling the business meetings not at the same time
  11. Perhaps we could propose sessions with other interest groups, work together to do programming more efficiently.
  12. Michael suggests we discuss how we can do this within the interest group
  13. Previous CCS chair of NCA suggests looking at the Call for Papers language for things that we could borrow from. Public address has traditionally had a very traditional and white male face. A lot of us are studying rhetoric/public address in different, more diverse ways now. Even acknowledging that fact in the Call for Papers could potentially be very helpful. Language that call to telegraph inclusivity. Play on McKerrow’s reframing of CR to “address of publics” rather than “public address.” Explicit acknowledgement that these different discourses are what this group studies, so that people don’t self-select out. The people who do traditional work are not going to opt out. The affirmative outreach toward diversity might go a long way.
  14. Michael suggests we foreground this in the CFP
  15. Roberta – there was a discussion last year of changing the interest group’s name, something toward Rhetoric and Public Culture, but there were people there at that time that had a strong connection to the Public Address portion, but that discussion could be ongoing or revisited if there seems like a desire for it.
  16. Michael – it came up last year too
  17. From the floor – public culture would definitely engage some of the cultural studies folks around us, but there might be a little tension with Intercultural. Perhaps rethinking the name of the interest group to “Rhetoric and Public Discourse.” Still captures the public aspect, but is potentially much broader. But this does not override a need to focus on diversity in the call.
  18. Andrea Terry – should we look at the call we had last year at this point if it’s going to be discussed.(Reads the call).
  19. Michael – do we have that language in there?
  20. Some say yes; Jenna Hanchey–yes, but is it more on theory/method diversity.
  21. Suggestion from the floor: Take out the line on public address
  22. Suggestion from the floor: Supports the move toward Public Discourse rather than Public Address. The language now though does make it sound like an afterthought. Also might foreground interrogating what it means to be public.
  23. Andrea – wary of making the call so long that it becomes onerous for people ot read
  24. Amy –but we could just have a sentence that says “we particularly encourage submissions that attend to a, b, and c.”
  25. Michael –speak directly to the theme, here are some things we could do related to the theme. Maybe bullet some things out, rather than have a block of text.
  26. From the floor –Long calls aren’t great, but NCA’s are considerably longer than ours, and that doesn’t discourse people from submitting. When I look around this room, we’re pretty white.
  27. Michael – and pretty male.
  28. From the floor – for people of marginalized identities, there’s a difference when one hears the range of identities that are specifically included, rather than a generic “we welcome identity and difference.” It’s the difference that allows people to find themselves in the call. Something that actually calls to explicitly diverse groups. The explicit callout of welcoming specific identities matters.
  29. Michael – there are easy ways that we can incorporate that, too.
  30. Kent Ono – CSCA uses “Rhetorical Theory and Criticism.” I don’t know if you want to be thinking about WSCA specifically, but some of the comments that I’m hearing might not be as prominently mentioned in the other regionals – it’s more in WSCA that this gets discussed. It could be an identity thing about our division here specifically that you could be thinking about in the title. RPA seems to fit better East of here. All of the major public address programs are further
  31. Trevor Parry-Giles -ECA has an interest group called “Voices of Diversity” so there is a commitment to diversity at other regionals.
  32. Roberta – that suggests that if we want to consider changing the name, one potentially useful thing could be looking at what universities in our region call their programs, so that the name reflects the scholarly commitments of the people who are here and come
  33. Kent – it would be premature to make a motion without doing some investigation first and reporting back. Maybe put out a survey, investigate programs,report back and come back with a motion. Make it’s a task force?
  34. Motion from the floor to charge the officers to investigate the ways in which WSCA member institutions represent rhetorical study in their departments and bring to the next business meeting specific recommendations for how we might incorporate diversity into our interest group and calls
  35. Michael – can we add a couple members to the officers?
  36. Kent – if it’s an ad hoc committee, and the committee is constituted by the leadership and two other members, then we could do that.
  37. Michael – one of the problems I’ve seen is that we end up endlessly kicking the can down the road. Next year only some of you will be here, and that institutional memory will go away
  38. Sohinee Roy – one of the reasons we kicked the renaming down the road is because it’s more complicated –there’s a lot more steps involved in the renaming. At that meeting, the decision was to tweak the description instead of renaming. And that was San Diego.
  39. From the floor – doesn’t that fit the theme of Advocating with Evidence pretty well?
  40. Michael – can we have a motion to force us to vote on something?
  41. Andrea – what about the motion that’s already been put forth?
  42. Aaron Hess suggests a friendly amendment –as the committee is charged with this, if it’s going to evidence-based, then the committee needs to propose a bylaws change that will be on the agenda for the next meeting.
  43. Committee is charged with doing the investigation, coming up with a bylaws change based on evidence, and bringing it to a vote in the next business meeting.
  44. Sohinee- then it will take another year until it gets put into place
  45. Trevor – this might cause a WSCA bylaws change
  46. Michael – so part of the charge is investigating the change that would cause to the bylaws of WSCA
  47. Amy doesn’t think that it would affect the WSCA bylaws
  48. Aaron seconds that a name change shouldn’t be too difficult
  49. Kent Ono adds an amendment to form an ad hoc committee
  50. All amendments are seconded
  51. Roberta adds – we receive the most submissions of any divisions. We have 16 panels compared to 2 from Freedom of Expression, for example. So the ad hoc committee is important
  52. Michael – do we want to move to a vote?
  53. Aaron –you all wanted more people involved? Is that part of this?
  54. Andrea Terry, CSU San Luis Obispo volunteers as member of the ad hoc committee
  55. Angel Maldonado, University of Nebraska, Lincoln is volunteered by the Kent Ono
  56. Trevor points the new committee to the NCA website for information
  57. Michael calls a vote
  58. The motion and both amendments are passed
  59. Kent and Amy – program planner should be in charge of the call
  60. Michael – are there efforts we should make to reach out to other interest groups? Such as performance studies?
  61. Amy– that should be part of the call
  62. Trevor – might be useful to do a content analysis of the submissions this year. There is a good amount of diversity on panels already. This might be a solution in search of a problem. Might be useful to see, are we already getting those papers?
  63. Michael – but does the identity we’ve created for ourselves reflect that?
  64. Acknowledge chair and incoming chair with a round of applause
  65. Andrea Terry –is this issue of having a photographer/documentation person an interim position for last year, or does that position roll over? Was that filled?
  66. No discussion last year, it fell off the radar
  67. Proposal last year to create a photographer/historian position. It was tabled. Is this something we want to have? Meant to bring more attention to the interest group. A couple of issues: talent, equipment. Should we move forward?
  68. Roberta – not sure there’s an issue of good photos or equipment in aniPhone world. It could easily increase the public presence of the group in social media. People tweet this stuff. I think I proposed that last time.
  69. Michael – any comments? Do we wish to move this discussion forward, any comments, any desire to bring this to a vote?
  70. Amy – so the option would be to create a position of photographer?
  71. Sohinee – is this person responsible for posting and curating and updating accounts as well? As this position shifts, how would we handle that?
  72. Trevor –you agree to a standard release when you submit to NCA
  73. From the floor –who is the audience for this and why? It seems like a lot of bureaucratic work for not a lot of pay-off. It seems self-aggrandizing to want to archive all of this. What are the good arguments for this?
  74. Tom Dunn – do we have a social media presence that this would be for? That might be the basis – do we want to have one, before we do this?
  75. Michael – might bring some more rhetoric and public address people to the “beautiful” WSCA website
  76. From the floor – Isn’t increasing our presence just emailing pictures to the people who run the website? Do we really need to create a whole ‘nother social mediapresence?
  77. Amy – do other divisions do this?
  78. Roberta –I know ORWAC does. Maybe some others. But ORWAC is unique.
  79. Andrea – what about encouraging people to use a certain hashtag for each conference? That’s easy, it’s there, it’s collaborative
  80. Supported from the floor
  81. Tom –what are these photos for? The skill doesn’t need to be much to go on social media
  82. Michael - MSIC and Performance Studies have Facebook pages, but they’re volunteer run by members.
  83. Amy – could be a function of Secretary
  84. Michael – you’d have to transfer admin to the new secretary every year. And it assumes everyone is on Facebook.
  85. Tom – social media accounts require a lot of maintenance and I speculate we don’t want to have someone sign-up for doing that year round
  86. Sohinee – I think we’re back at just tagging your posts
  87. Aaron –Make a hashtag
  88. Andrea – I move that we officially henceforth adopt the #WSCArhetoric to be used for social media posts
  89. Michael seconded
  90. Motion passes! Henceforth, we shall be #WSCArhetoric
  91. Michael – Do we want to add picture taking and send them to the main websiteas an official position? Well, assuming the awardees show. Does that sound feasible as a motion that people want to take up?
  92. Andrea – can we deal with this next year?
  93. Amy – or can we just encourage picture-taking by Secretary?
  94. Roberta –there’s one thing I’d like to add to that. The fact that none of our award members are here suggests that there’s more that we could be doing. The reminders of the business meetings, and reminders that they are coming up are useful.
  95. Sohinee – and then they have all the business meetings at the same time, and you have to choose
  96. From the floor – so it’s more of a publicity position than archival position.
  97. Andrea –thinking about NCA Public Address –program planner sends out reminders about top paper panels and business meetings. That’s something that could be included in the future– sending a reminder email.
  98. Roberta notes that she will try to send more reminder emails.
  1. Installation of 2017 Board Members
  2. New Chair: WSCA 2019–Seattle, Roberta Chevrette
  3. Announcements from the Floor
  4. Sohinee announces that there are slots still open for the special issue on Psychoanalysis in Review of Communication. The deadline is July 15
  5. Michael announces that we need reviewers for the Interest Group! Please sign up and also if you could do some recruiting and get people to volunteer that would be an immense help.
  6. Suggestion from the floor – use a Google forms list, and recycle the list of reviewers from the last year
  7. Michael did do that, but go a low response
  1. Adjourn