JUCA 2006 Business Meeting Minutes: Fifth Annual Business Meeting of Japan-U.S. Communication Association
Date & Time: Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006; 3:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.
Place: La Corona, Hilton in San Antonio, Texas
Chair: Koji Fuse
Secretary: Kuniko Fuse
Attendance: 18 members in attendance
I. Koji Fuse (Drake University) called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m.
II. Approval of the Boston minutes:
a. Minutes of the 2005 Boston business meeting prepared by Makoto Saito (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) — approved as was.
III. Approval and change of the new agenda.
a. The agenda proposed by Koji Fuse — approved as was.
IV. 2006 Activity Report by President, Koji Fuse (Drake University)
a. The third issue of the association’s newsletter, JUCA News, was not published.
b. For 2006, JUCA had two competitive-papers sessions, one discussion panel, and a business meeting.
c. Acting Web-Page Director Tomoaki Unagami (Nagoya University) was working on the new JUCA Web site.
V. Top Student and Top Faculty Paper Awards
a. Top Student Papers: “Remembering a Haven from Shame: History and Memory of Seabrook” by Ji Hoon Park (University of Pennsylvania) and “Dealing with Face-Threatening Situation: Request Response of Americans and Japanese” by Eiko Yasui (University of Texas at Austin).
b. Top Faculty Paper: “Text-Message Communication Addiction among Japanese High School Students: Somatic Symptoms and Self-Perception of Addictive Behavior” by Tasuku Igarashi (Osaka University), Tadahiro Motoyoshi (Nagoya University), Jiro Takai (Nagoya University), and Toshikazu Yoshida (Nagoya University).
VI. Nominations and Election of New Officers
a. Web-Page Director: Tomoaki Unagami (Nagoya University) was nominated and elected unanimously.
b. Treasurer: Rose Campbell (Butler University) was nominated and elected unanimously.
c. Other officers would continue to hold their current positions.
VII. Report from All Academic 2006 and Plans for 2007 NCA conference
a. For 2006, JUCA was given three “permanent” and one “temporary” session slots.
b. Eighteen papers were submitted, and eight of them were accepted. The acceptance rate was 44.4 percent.
c. Six reviewers for the 2007 NCA conference were chosen: Edwin McDaniel (Aichi Shukutoku University), Paul Westbrook (Northeastern State University), Akira Miyahara (Seinan Gakuin University), Rose Campbell (Butler University), Yuko Kawai (Tokai University), and Koji Fuse (Drake University).
d. For the 2007 NCA conference, the initial allocation of session slots increased to four. Those sessions will be used the same way as this year: one faculty paper session, one student paper session, one panel and a business meeting.
e. Sending competitive papers to “Scholar to Scholar” sessions should be considered.
f. Executive officers will continue the discussion of the sessions via e-mail.
g. JUCA has received extended abstracts. The form and length of extended abstracts were discussed.
VIII. Treasurer’s Report
a. The JUCA has two institutional members—Drake University and Northeastern State University. The institutional membership due is currently $250.
b. There is $729.77 remaining from last year.
c. $50 was allocated for the Top Student Paper Award.
d. Rose Campbell will open a new JUCA account to acquire a Federal Tax number for the association’s future attempts to obtain external grants.
e. Both Koji Fuse and Rose Campbell expressed their appreciation to those who made donations to the JUCA and/or helped prepare for the JUCA Social.
X. Plans for Membership Promotion
a. Membership increased to 103 individual members and two institutional members.
b. NCA examines four factors to decide the numbers of sessions at the conference: membership size, acceptance rate, audience size, and quality of papers. JUCA needs to keep increasing membership as it is the most important factor.
c. Japanese schools cannot be institutional members.
XII. Others
a. A proposal to include authors of the top student paper as a reviewer was made from the floor. JUCA will not do that for two reasons: (1) A question remains as to whether student reviewers can thoroughly read and evaluate the quality of papers; and (2) graduate students should contribute to JUCA by submitting their papers.
b. President and Vice President will be elected every two years. Treasurer and Web-Page Director who were newly elected this year were asked to stay long in their positions. Frequently changing the JUCA bank account and/or Web site would destabilize the association.
Koji Fuse adjourned the meeting at around 4:45 p.m.
Minutes prepared and submitted by Secretary Kuniko Fuse (Private consultant).