June News Brief

June 2012 News Brief

Content:

1. Message from the President

2. Call for Proposals for the 2013 Chicago Conference

3. Conference Bulletin Board Reminder

4. Message from SCMS’ New Web Content Manager

1.  Message from the President

Dear SCMS Members,

In recent years, the scope of SCMS services has expanded greatly. The costs to provide those services and benefits to members have grown substantially. Since 2007, SCMS has grown by one-third to over 3,200 members; the number of funded scholarly interest groups has more than doubled to twenty; and the number of travel grant applications has jumped along with mailing costs. As a result, SCMS has outgrown both its volunteer leadership structure, its current levels of office staff, and conference and IT/web support. In response to these realities, SCMS has added a part-time Web Content Manager position, is increasing staff support in the Home Office, and will increase travel grant awards by over fifty percent for the 2013 conference. The Board of Directors is also in the early stages of exploring the feasibility of establishing a paid Executive Director who would report to the Board, lead the staff, and manage the organization’s operations.

At the 2012 Members’ Business Meeting in Boston, it was announced that SCMS would be examining its current dues structure by conducting a comparison study with twenty-five other learned societies in the humanities. The results showed SCMS dues for individual members based in the U.S. are far below any comparison group average in most salary categories and below the average in every category. In order to serve our growing membership effectively, the SCMS Board of Directors therefore voted unanimously at its May meeting to make the following dues changes for the 2012-2013 membership year:

Income Membership Fee

15K or less $55
16K-35K $65
36-55K $100
56K-75K $120
76K-100K $150
More than100K $180

If you are a U.S. member you will see these new membership dues categories when you renew your membership this year. The Board will review international dues categories in the near future.

Please know that even with these modest changes, SCMS dues remain below the average of our peer organizations in the humanities.

Sincerely, and on behalf of the SCMS Board,

Chris Holmlund
President, Society for Cinema and Media Studies

2. Chicago 2013 Call for Paper, Panel, and Workshop Proposals

The Society for Cinema and Media Studies announces its call for paper, panel, and workshop proposals for the 2013 conference to be held Wednesday, March 6 through Sunday, March10 at the Drake Hotel.

The Chicago area is home to some of our most important and distinguished programs in film, television, and media studies, including Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Chicago, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 1980, more than 750 feature films and television productions have been made in Chicago and, both in size and recognition, Chicago’s own independent film community is the fastest growing segment of the industry.

The 2013 SCMS Conference Program Committee welcomes quality paper, panel, and workshop proposals on any topic related to cinema and media studies for the 2013 SCMS Conference in Chicago, Illinois.

You may access the Conference submission pages of our website here:  Submission Forms.

Please Note:New proposal submission deadline: August 31, 2012 at 5pm Central Time. All paper proposers who are not currently SCMS members must be registered as temporary members no later than August 31, 2012 (4pm CT). (All temporary memberships must be approved before a proposal can be submitted.)

Waiver Requests

A fee waiver for conference registration fees and/or membership fees may be granted in exceptional circumstances for artists or renowned scholars from other disciplines or filmmakers whose contributions would illuminate the panel or workshop topic. If chairs or organizers will be requesting a waiver for any panel or workshop participants, a fee waiver form (ONE waiver request per submission form) must be submitted online by August 31, 2012 (5pm CT).

Note: Open Call Participants/Graduate Students do not qualify for these waivers. Information about travel grants for graduate students is available here.

If the conference program chair approves the waiver, the organizer of the panel or workshop along with the individual receiving the waiver will receive an e-mail notification from the SCMS office before the registration deadline of January 7, 2013 (5pm CT).

The conference section of our website contains detailed guidelines and instructions for how to compose and submit proposals, as well as a lengthy FAQ section which will hopefully answer your questions.

We look forward to receiving your submissions for the 2013 SCMS Conference!


3. Chicago 2013 Bulletin Board Reminder

Members may post calls for papers or workshop presentations for the 2013 Chicago conference on the SCMS Bulletin Board now. The Bulletin Board submissions on the Forums page will close July 15, 2012. August 15, 2012 is the final day for session organizers to notify individuals that they have been accepted for a panel or workshop proposal. Proposal submission forms for the 2013 Chicago Conference will be available online beginning June 1 through August 31, 2012.


4. Message from SCMS’ New Web Content Manager, Aviva Dove-Viebahn

It's my pleasure and honor to take on the role of web content manager for SCMS, and I look forward to working with the Board and all the members in various capacities over the coming year. Please don't hesitate to contact me (through the Contact Us form on the website or at scms_web[at]yahoo[dot]com) if you have technical questions or issues. In the meantime, here are a few of the things I've been working on in my first few weeks:

The questions in the member profiles have been reconfigured and a couple new questions have been added. Please considering taking a few minutes to complete your profile, as the information you provide gives us a better sense of our membership and our members' needs, as well as serving as valuable groundwork for future research into state of the field of cinema and media studies.

In an effort to increase our social media outreach, SCMS has renewed its presence on Facebook and Twitter. Please consider 'liking' our page on Facebook (facebook.com/SCMStudies) and following us on Twitter @SCMStudies.

Best,

Aviva Dove-Viebahn
Website Content Manager