Hello ECA Organizational Communication Interest Group Members!
I hope the term is wrapping up smoothly for you all! I just wanted to reach out and briefly introduce myself: my name is Rachael Purtell, and I am the new interest group chair! I am very excited to take on this role and am optimistic about the future of the interest group. At our business meeting this year we discussed strategies to grow and increase participation in the interest group and I wanted to reiterate my commitment to these goals as well as my openness to any and all suggestions for improvement. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any ideas to increase submissions, topics for panel discussions, or anything else you would like to see from our interest group this year.
I also wanted to note that we were unable to elect a secretary for this term due to low attendance at our business meeting at the most recent convention. If anyone is interested in assuming the role of secretary or would like to nominate someone to fulfill this role, please email me at repurtell@gmail.com. This is an important role and a great professional development opportunity, especially for graduate students and early career scholars! Duties include a) attending and taking the minutes at the 2024 and 2025 business meetings at the next two annual conventions, and b) distributing the minutes to the rest of the interest group at the following business meetings, via email, and on the ECA website. Please let me know if anyone is interested!
Additionally, I did want to flag that this year’s submission deadline is earlier than previous years and will be around mid-September. I will provide more information when we send out the call for the interest group for the upcoming 2024 convention, but I did want to give you all a heads up so that you are not caught off guard by the earlier submission deadline. I will be sending out a separate call, but if anyone is interested in reviewing, chairing, or responding for the interest group at the upcoming 2024 convention, please feel free to contact me and let me know and I will make sure I put your information down.
That is all for now! Please feel free to reach out to me at any time with any questions, comments, or concerns pertaining to the interest group or the upcoming 2024 convention. I look forward to working with each of you!
Sincerely,
Dr. R. E. Purtell (she/her)
Department of Communication Studies
West Virginia University