Minutes2010
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Canadian Journal of Communication Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors, 2010 May 13, 2010 1:00 pm, PDT, 2:00 pm MDT, 16:00 EDT
Meeting called to order at 4: 18 pm EDT
Present: Marilyn Bittmant, Dale Bradley, Colette Brin, Susan Bryant, Anne Carscallen, James Compton, Michael Felczak, David Mitchell, Manon Niquette, Kim Sawchuk, Leslie Regan Shade, Richard Smith, Andrea Zeffiro
Minutes from 2009 adopted as circulated
**Publisher’s report** delivered by Richard Smith; the journal is in good shape, financially and editorially, and continues to demonstrate a growing reputation. We’re continually improving our online presence, and our look – both in print and online - has been improved by Matt Soar’s work as art director. We have a few challenges ahead, which include: 1) with drawl of the publication assistance program (PAP); 2) selection of a new editor and ensuring that support is available at new home institution. Finally, the objective of the journal remains: open access (at least Canadians).
Subscription report delivered by Anne Carscallen; In 2009/10 subscription numbers are holding steady. The online only portion has almost doubled since 2007, and is up to 60. There is always a flux in numbers, but we do have a large number of new subscribers, particularly at the international level, proving the widening of CJC’s international net. There was a large growth in single copy sales; contributors purchased 57, compared to 12 in 2008, and we sold an additional 12 copies to non-subscribers. Sales for single issues are very strong, especially for special themes, which are the largest volume of single sales.
Total subscriptions were 411 with the first issue of this year. We gain and lose with individual subscriptions, however, the institutional subscriptions are the long standing subscribers, over numerous years.
We have been expanding our pool of non-university based subscriptions within in Canada.
Kim: Fantastic job in expanding to non-university pool and getting the CJC into non-traditional academic institutions. Anne: Special issues are excellent to market, and it is easy to find organizations that relate to the topics. We’re also selling internationally, and have branched into the Middle Eastern countries (Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia). The Publication Assistance Program (PAP) has ended, marking an end to the mass mailing subsidy, which would normally cover 2/3 in our Canadian mailing costs. Last year we saved $750, however, because of labour involved, in the end it was closer to $480. Other programs are replacing PAP, a few of which may be applicable to CJC. Anne and Marilyn will monitor these programs. In addition, we still receive a discounted rate through Canada Post.
Production report delivered by Marilyn Bittman; production has gone very well. We published four issues in 2009 and have received positive feedback. Our copy editors are doing an excellent job, and our pool of editors has grown and is stable. We have a new look that is based around typography – Pratt Pro – which includes both formal and versatile properties. We didn’t have any advertising this year, however, we did have unpaid ads consisting of university job postings.
Richard: Will the new look translate into the online version?
M: We’ve translated the main banner and .pdf copies, and the process has been unproblematic thus far.
Online report delivered by Michael Felczak; Anne and Michael have continued to merge duplicate and spam accounts that were left over from the old publication system. We are now enabled for purchase of individual articles online, which allows readers without a subscription to access an individual article of interest for $5.50 (Pay pal $0.50/CJC $5.00). We get one or two purchases per month.
Manon: inexpensive compared to other journals at $30
This is enforced only for most recent publications, as manuscripts are free after one year. We’ve added dynamic content to front page in order to draw readers into the front page. This content includes a rotating banner that displays art work and previews tables of contents.
We will be working with the Library Archives of Canada (LAC) in order to coordinate a system in which our editorial team can submit published articles to LAC with minimal effort. This should also be very useful for other Canadian journals interested in doing this. Michael would like to upgrade the current OJS to include new features, such as enabling notifications to editors of changes on submissions, and enabling a display to authors of links to the web of their article published with us. We’re also considering an iPad version and adding the ability to buy an entire issue online; we’re already selling print copies of entire issues, so it would be an ePub version of print version.
Kim: Asked about the possibility of including commentary space on articles for public comments.
Michael: It is a matter of toggling it on and enabling it, thus, on the software end we’re fine. On the social end, we’d want to monitor it because even with spam filtering, it will still get in. Issues of time/labour of monitoring will depend on traffic to the site.
Kim: Perhaps this could be something for Andrea.
Andrea: Agreed.
Manon: Perhaps we begin with book reviews.
Michael: We could definitely begin with pilot program.
Kim: Some articles generate more feedback. This function would allow for a kind of user input, like letters to the editor. Kim does receive such commentary and requests.
K: Form a sub-committee to discuss particulars.
**Treasurer’s report** delivered by Rowland Lorimer; Net $120,000 Spent $69 751 (Earned just under that) Net deficit $990
We managed to work in the support for Scholarly and Research of Communication, and one issue has come out of that. Our costs for online publishing were slightly up do to more work being done in that area. We spent $14,000 in editing from $8000 but were up 2 issues. On the income side, sales and subscriptions are up $1000 and have been climbing slowly. We had a grant in 2009 of 30, 000 as opposed to 21,000. We are in very good financial shape.
Anne’s salary increases from 20 to 25/hr. Marilyn’s salary increase from 40 to 42/hr. Agreed.
**Editor’s report** delivered by Kim Sawchuk; We had 4 issues out, 3 of which were special issues that had been initiated in previous years. These issues do present logistically problems, particularly given that one slow author can hold up an issue, and we do use up a bank of reviewers. While the special issues can present difficulties, they are also successful because of the reasons already mentioned. The number of peer-reviewed articles has increased, and the number of declines down because of the special issues; certain authors are targeted therefore, the manuscripts are good or moderately good. Our declines will increase because of decrease in special issues. We’ve maintained a solid turnover rate and are generally getting manuscripts through the process quickly. Overall, our submissions are steady. We’ve received an increase in submissions from the international community. Last year, we received 5, which is substantial because we put out roughly 25 peer-reviewed articles per year. There are a lot of Canadian scholars from the U.S. submitting. Anne has been very diligent in getting authors to subscribe. Matt Soar has done a great job as art director, consolidating the look with a fresh imagine but fits with our mandate. We haven’t done as much publicity as a few years ago.
Kim: Can we see individual hits to articles?
Michael: Sent out a link yesterday – the count is available in the table of contents of back issues and lists the number of views per article.
Would like more of the site translated, particularly the guidelines.
Colette: Has translated the guidelines and will send document to Marilyn.
Kim is on her last year and would like to spend the year consolidating the things that we’ve started.
Rowly: We have a great foundation to grow on, and the job that Kim did will attract people who will want to carry on in the same energetic manner
K: It is a great policy to bring in new blood – it is democratic. The processes are really good, and thanks to previous editor and team for the foundation.
Book Review Editor's report delivered by Dale Bradley. Book publishers were a little more proactive of things coming out. Given the churn rate of these positions – always a new person in the job – the book editor has to be diligent with the contact. Themed issues are a good idea and Dale has included comments for next editor to work through challenges associated with special issues. Overall, the number of Canadian books has increased. Having a list of priority books is a good idea as is a notification of books up for review. We could also use a translation of book review guidelines. In addition, we need better clarification between the author guidelines and book review guidelines
On the main site, the announcement for call for reviews gets bumped down and is not readily visible. It would be useful to have something that is easy to get to.
President's report delivered by David Mitchell; one spot is available on the board – Gordon Gow’s. Richard contacted but without response. Richard will follow up. In the meantime, we can have a name in reserve. Update: Gordon Gow will let name stand for reelection.
In terms of the Editor succession, we can follow the same process as last time. We had a steering group and then a committee established for the search, composed of the president, current editor, and publisher. It would be helpful to add a few more, perhaps form a committee of five: David Mitchell, Richard Smith, Kim Sawchuk, Leslie Shade & Manon Niquette. This group will work on the call. Perhaps there can be time to chat about it at the journal dinner in Montréal, and put it out shortly afterwards. The search should go in two directions: 1) nominations from people; and 2) put out call that describes the position and also draws attention to individual experience and requirement of home institutional support. Circulate call through CCA & CJC Richard: It is also urgent to find replacement for Dale.
David: ill use the same committee to find the book review editor, and entertain nominations from the board.
Final comment: Every year this journal looks better
New and other Business
CJC Dinner – Date to be confirmed.
Richard will finalize schedule, Rowly and Kim to confirm location.
Richard: To circulate AGM (June 2 at 12:15)
Adjournment 5:20 EDT