Dear the members of the Korean American Communication Association (KACA),
I am Sei-Hill Kim, the newly-elected president of the association. I am an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina. I hope you and your family have had a wonderful time this year. It is my great pleasure and honor to have an opportunity to serve this important organization.
As the president, I have three long-term and short-term goals in mind. First, I am looking forward to increasing the number of due-paying members of the organization. This effort will include enhancing the profile of the association nationally and internationally, updating and maintaining accurate contact information of the current and potential members, and designing and executing a more effective membership drive. It is my goal to increase the portion of due-paying members from about 20% to 40% in the next two years.
Second, I aim to encourage greater participation from the scholars and researchers outside the United States, particularly from South Korea. Toward this end, I am planning several joint conferences with communication associations in Korea. It is also necessary to increase the number of active KACA members in Korea, which means we need to run a separate membership drive in the country. I intend to maximize the number of Korean scholars presenting their research to KACA sessions during the major communication conferences (AEJMC, ICA, NCA). It will be necessary to set aside enough number of research sessions made available exclusively for researchers coming from Korea.
Finally, I will enhance the international profile of the organization by fostering active interactions and cooperation with other U.S.-based foreign communication associations. This will include, for example, organizing joint conferences and research collaborations with such communication organizations as Chinese Communication Association and Japan-U.S. Communication Association.
Your help is absolutely critical in achieving these goals. There are many ways to help the organization. First, you can serve as a future officer or a student representative of our association. Second, you can support the association by becoming a member or by renewing your membership each year. In particular, I have to emphasize that we have a number of different categories of membership: Student ($10), Regular ($20), Silver ($40), Gold ($70), and Platinum ($100). Any amount beyond $20 goes directly to our graduate account made available to support graduate work of our student members (e.g., scholarships, graduate award, and research support). Finally, I encourage you to attend a variety of KACA events at the conferences. We have a number of research sessions, information/pedagogy sessions, KACA socials at three major communication conferences (AEJMC, ICA, NCA).
I am sincerely asking your continuous support for the association. I will look forward to seeing each of you at different KACA events.
Thank you very much.
Sei-Hill Kim, Ph.D.
President, Korean American Communication Association (KACA)
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Sei-Hill Kim, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Journalism & Mass Communications
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
803.777.7037
http://www.jour.sc.edu/people/adfacstaff/kim.html