Dear WCA,

I want to first of all thank President Seon-Gi Baek for his service to the World Communication Association. President Baek served the WCA with distinction and honour. I look forward to continued work with him in his new role as Past-President to further build the WCA. Second, I wanted to share with you all a list of priorities for the next 4 years. Starting January 1^st, 2020, I will start work with the Board and the membership on enhancing WCA’s COMM: Communication, Outreach, Membership, and Mentoring.

1. Communication – We need to further engage our membership. Internally, I want to improve the quantity and quality of communication with members. Externally, I want to improve the visibility of the association. Therefore, I propose the following low or no-cost objectives. Meeting each of these objectives would improve the presence of the WCA and solidify its future:
   1. Internal
      1. Within 6-months create an internal list-serve for members to share information will be developed.
         1. The list-serve has already been developed and will be launched in January!! WCA members will receive a weekly e-mail with updates from other associations, and will be asked to contribute information.
      2. Produce the WCA newsletter twice per year and send to all members.
   2. External
      1. Within 6-months the WCA website will be re-developed. As a part of the redevelopment:
         1. The President, Secretary General, Vice Presidents, and CFO would be responsible for providing regular information.
         2. Members will be able to submit information and news to the website.
         3. The payment portal for membership dues will be assessed and potentially changed to reflect the processes used with other international associations.
      2. While we have reviewed and tried to improve our social media presence in the past, within a year the WCA Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram presence will be improved.
         1. Aligned with other international organisations, a WCA Facebook group will be created that any member can join and add other WCA members so we have a central place for social media announcements, conference reminders, and where colleagues can share information relevant to the organization.
2. Outreach – The WCA currently has affiliations with numerous organisations: NCA, PACA, KCA, NRC Korea, and CLEPUL. However, there is more we can do with these associations.
   1. Within 2 years, the WCA will hold a joint conference with an international association. It is essential WCA be seen as not only affiliated but working and producing with other (possibly even larger) communication associations. Thus, I propose WCA co-host a regional conference with the ICA, NCA, or another international association. I have already been in talks with both associations on an informal basis about this possibility. Such collaborative efforts will increase our outreach, membership, and profile.
   2. Over the past five years I have worked extensively with colleagues from Europe, Central Asia, and Africa. These collaborations have opened my eyes to the overall lack of inclusivity in many of our associations and to the lack of recognition of scholarship from many regions of the world. I vow to work toward increased inclusivity and recognition of our scholarly diversity. I look forward to conversations, dialogue, and finding ways for the WCA to even more represent the world.
3. Membership – A key priority for the next 4 years is to increase our membership. My goal is to have a consistent membership of 200+ members. To do this, we must:
   1. Make it even easier to pay membership dues online. We have made great strides in recent years, and I applaud our CFO and Board for leading this charge; but we can do more to make it easier. Our current online membership payment portal will be reviewed and improved.
   2. The WCA will co-host more events (conferences, workshops, short courses, etc.) with other associations. The WCA could offer and participate in more short courses at conferences such as the NCA, ICA, IAMCR, etc.
   3. Aside from access to JICR, what other benefits/opportunities do we offer members at this time? We need to provide our members with more information about opportunities for publishing, job sharing information, and other relevant information about the field of communication. The new list-serve will help with this. Once we improve our overall communication we will be able to say we provide more to our members.
4. Mentoring – I am proud to call the WCA home. I was mentored in this association by wonderful individuals. Thus, within 18 months the WCA Board will formalise a mentoring programme, similar to the informal programme the WCA has run in the past. This programme would involve Early Career Researchers (ECR) being paired with a more Senior Academic. The Board would compile a list of willing and eager academics from both categories and match them up for the programme. It could be called the “WCA Mentoring Programme”.

If members have other ideas, suggestions or thoughts, please let me know. I will have further announcements in January. I look forward to working with you all and wish all of you a Happy New Year!