1998 Business Meeting Minutes

Western States Communication Association
Health Communication lnterest Group Business Meeting
February 15, 1998

The second annual meeting of the Health Communication lnterest Group of the Western States Communication Association was called to order by Leigh Ford. Minutes of the inaugural business meeting held in February, 1997 were approved.

Chair Ford next thanked Deirdre Donovan and Debra Blackstone for setting up and continuing to manage the interest group web page. They will be graduating, so new volunteers are needed for this task. Please contact Leigh Ford if you are interested.

It turns out that we do not need to create by-laws but the interest group does need to create operational procedures.

After a brief report on last year's Legislative Assembly, Chair Ford moved on to a discussion of the panel slots for this year's convention. The group had 8 panel slots this year, a lot for a new group. Seven of the eight slots were used this year. Leigh suggested that perhaps using six slots would be more manageable, but the group would try the same number for another year and see what happens. Twelve of the fourteen papers received were paneled. Leigh thanked the paper readers, Jennifer Kopfman, Bryan Whaley, Nagesh Rao, Kelly Herold, and Linda Crumley for their hard work.

Leigh then acknowledged the top three paper winners and gave certificates to: Claudia McCalman (University of Texas-Pan Am) and Daniel J. Canary (Pennsylvania State), Jeff K. Springston. (Indiana University - Indianapolis), and Jennifer Kopfman (University of Toledo) and Mary Brown (Arizona State).

Next, Gust Yep presented a report on the planning meeting he attended. The allocation for interest groups is up from $50.00 to $100 for postage, etc. He also reported that the deadline for submission of individual papers is September 14, not September 15.

Ideas for possible papers for next year were discussed: (1) wellness and illness, etc. in the Academy (stress, coping, etc.) (2) communication about wellness (not just illness) (3) get representatives from Canadian health system about how they work, deliver public messages, etc. (4) how might communication research help patients of HMOs to get better care (and help HMOs to deliver it) (5) challenge when two or more different health care providers/givers are involved in a case (6) ethical issues in health research (7) alcohol, etc. campaigns (8) feminist concerns with depression- what it is, how to treat, etc. (9) medical care for women (10) actually have a health activity; at least get publicity by having our name endorsing such activities as already exist or are already in place (11) pedagogy of health communication classes (curriculum, service work, etc. (12) alternative settings and communication providers.

At this point, Dennis Alexander from the WSCA Executive Council came in to talk about the Vancouver convention. He indicated he is planning roughly the same number of panels. The theme is: Connections-Communication and Ecology. We should think of ecology both literally and metaphorically. There will be a program on the greening of the discipline, but workshop proposals are also okay. A synopsis of the full convention will be on the WSCA Web Page by March 30.

Next Linda Lederman and James Applegate came to briefly speak about their candidacies for NCA President.

Then, the following people were elected by acclamation as paper readers: Nikki Townley, Ann Maclntosh, Christina Beck, Jennifer Kopfman, and Scott Moore. Elected as representatives for the Legislative Assembly were Scott Moore and Mindy Golden.

Leigh and Gust will work on moving the group from probationary to permanent status; any people with input, please give it. Mark down Health Communication as one of your affiliations on the membership card. Submit papers and panels, attend papers, etc.-all of these actions are ways to help build the argument for permanent status. Next year there will be elections for officers.

The meeting ended with Scott Moore announcing the CSU, Fresno Communication Conference.

Respectfully submitted,

Gary Collier, Acting Secretary for
Madeline Keaveney, Secretary