Division seeks research, PF&R leaders for 2012-13

As we prepare for next week’s convention, I thought I’d update you on the proposed leadership lineup for 2012-13 and to seek volunteers to serve in key positions next year. As I’ll discuss later, we’re looking for help with Research and with our Professional and Freedom committees.

As you may know, the Division’s leadership in the last few years has moved in a four-year track from research co-chair (two years) to vice chair for programming, and then to Division head. That will not be the case this year, because Memphis’ Jin Yang has announced that, with regrets, she cannot move to Division head. She’s working on a U.S.-China project that is requiring more travel time. Jin has served faithfully for three years in research and programming, and we are grateful for her hard work.

Leslie-Jean Thornton of Arizona State has graciously agreed to stand for election to Division head. She previously served on the leadership track, and now tenured (and as last year’s winner of the division’s “Educator of the Year” award) will be my nominee to be Division head.

In 2012-13 we will need:

• Two people to serve as co-chairs of the research committee.
• One to serve as a co-chair of the Professional Freedom and Responsibility committee.

 

* Research: This year’s co-chairs were CUNY-York’s Claire Serant, who is moving to the division’s vice head for programming, and Florida’s Ron Rodgers, who is the new book review editor for Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.

Duties involve running the division’s blind-reviewed paper competitions for the 2013 AEJMC convention in Washington, D.C. You’ll help recruit judges, handle the calls for papers in three categories (student division, open division, and our new American Society of Copy Editors special call), assign papers to judges, and ultimately select papers for presentation. You’ll be busiest in early April in assigning judges to papers, and again in May as you finalize the paper presentation lineups. You’ll have plenty of help from the division’s leaders (and former leaders) who have done this rewarding job.

We generally want a two-year commitment for the research job, but that may not be the case as one of the two may move to programming in 2014.

 

* PF&R: We also need one person to serve as a co-chair. The key duty is to write for our newsletter, and to do other tasks as requested by the division head.

 

If you are interested and/or want more information, please contact me at croberts@ua.edu. I’ll answer promptly and can even meet with you in Chicago to walk through the job descriptions.

A reminder that our member’s meeting begins at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 10. I hope to see you there.

Chris Roberts, Ph.D.
Head, Newspaper and Online News Division
Assistant professor, University of Alabama