AEJMC Divisions Formation Guide
There are currently special interest divisions, each admitted in accordance with qualifications set out in the AEJMC Constitution. Heads of divisions and the Head of the Council of Affiliates are members of the Council of Divisions.
The 18 divisions are: Advertising, Communicating Science, Health, Environment and Risk, Communication Technology, Communication Theory and Methodology, Cultural and Critical Studies, History, International Communications, Law & Policy, Magazine, Mass Communication and Society, Media Ethics, Media Management and Economics, Minorities and Communication, Newspaper, Public Relations, Radio-Television Journalism, Scholastic Journalism and Visual Communication.
Requirements for Forming
The following statement is applicable to any group of Regular AEJMC members wishing to form a division.
Three requirements must be met before submitting a petition for division status to the Executive Committee of AEJMC:
1. Ten percent of the regular members, or 200, whichever is less, must petition the Executive Committee for creation of this new division. At least 50 of the petitioners must state in writing their intent to join the particular division. The person in charge of organizing should keep these statements.
2. A $50 check made out to AEJMC must be submitted at the time of the petitioning, to cover initial office costs in connection with the new division.
3. A proposed program of performance in teaching, research, and public service must be drawn up and agreed to by the petitioners, and submitted with a list of petitioners and the $50 check. The proposed program should not be more than 500 words in length and may be shorter.
For a group seeking divisional status in a given fiscal year, the deadline for submitting the above material is November 1 of that year. A copy of the proposal, the $50 check and the list of petitioners should be sent to the AEJMC central office.
If the petition for divisional status meets the approval of the Executive Committee at its December meeting, it will recommend that the AEJMC Conference vote approval at the next August AEJMC Conference. If the Executive Committee asks for changes in the petition, it will do so far enough in advance of the convention to permit the petitioners to act.
Annual Reports
All divisions are required to make an annual report of their division’s activities to the Elected Standing Committees not later than June 15. One copy of these reports are to be mailed to the executive director. The executive director distributes them to the Board of Directors, the Elected Standing Committees, and the new division heads. A supplemental report is due in early September.
The executive director will send a reminder notice along with a copy of the format for division reports to each division head in early May.
The Elected Standing Committees will send a written report of its findings to the Central Office by October 15. The office will then distribute the report to the division and interest group heads. The reports are published in the January issue of the newsletter.
Constitutional Requirements for Division Performance
Article I, Section 3, of the AEJMC Constitution states:
“The functions of teaching, research, and public service recognized in Section 2 shall be undertaken by each division of this association.
“The elected standing committees shall … evaluate the divisions’ annual reports on a basis of clearly established criteria, and they shall report their evaluations, with recommendations, to the Executive Committee, to the divisions, and to the membership at large. In their evaluations of divisions, they shall consider the issues of diversity in participation and programming.”
Board of Directors and Elected Standing Committees
While the AEJMC Executive Committee has final authority in the review of division performance, it needs help in performing the review. The detailed study of 18 divisions’ performance across the three academic functions of teaching, research and service is more work than it can add to its other duties. AEJMC agencies exist, however, whose assigned work specifically applies to the divisional responsibilities in the three aforementioned functions: AEJMC’s “horizontal” committees, each with authority in one academic function and each cutting across the “vertical” or special interest divisions.
These are the Elected Standing Committees, chosen by AEJMC members to represent them in these functions:
Teaching – Committee on Teaching
Research – Committee on Research
Public Service – Committee on Professional Freedom and Responsibility
Each of these committees has special knowledge and expertise in its own function, and each can and should study the performance of the divisions with respect to that function and of AEJMC as a whole, and make appropriate recommendations to the Board of Directors.
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