Convention
Site Locating and Planning Resolution
Resolved, that the National Communication Association (NCA)
convention staff and organizers endorse locating and planning
its annual convention based on the following standards:
(a) NCA will continue to rotate sites regionally in the U.S.
to keep the convention more affordable to the widest range of
participants.
(b) NCA will continue to give preference to settings with major
national airports to keep the convention more affordable to
the widest range of participants.
(c) NCA will continue to give preference to meeting sites that
involve contiguous properties such that the community is not
dispersed and the distance does not become too cumbersome to
travel.
(d) NCA will continue to work with hotel partners to assure
accessibility to facilities, including Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA) compliance.
(e) NCA will continue to value affordable costs as a priority
in choosing locations and timing of the conference.
(f) NCA will include the following escape clause in all its
hotel and service provider contracts:
“NCA reserves the right of termination of this agreement,
without penalty or liability, if the site, hotel owner, chain,
service provider, the municipal government, or the state in
which the hotel is located establishes or enforces laws or publicly
endorses or contributes funds to causes that, in the estimation
of NCA, abridge the civil rights or advocate discrimination
of any NCA member on the basis of gender, race, color, national
origin, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, physical handicap,
disability, or religion. NCA also reserves its right to withdraw
from this agreement, without penalty or liability, if a labor
dispute or other organized protest arises such that attendees
will not be compelled to cross picket lines or violate a boycott.”
(g) NCA strongly prefers locations where legal rights are afforded
to same-sex unions and partnerships.
(h) NCA strongly prefers meeting facilities and service providers
whose staff are represented by a union. NCA will not book conventions
at hotels or with service providers that have ongoing labor
disputes.
(i) NCA strongly prefers meeting facilities located in areas
with living wage ordinances.
(j) NCA strongly prefers facilities that either accommodate
or provide secure daycare at a reasonable cost.
(k) NCA strongly prefers hotel venues and service providers
that have taken steps to become more environmentally sustainable,
such as reducing carbon impact or energy conservation programs.
(l) NCA will make available and publicize voluntary options
for members to reduce the carbon footprint of their attendance,
as well as other voluntary acts individual members may take
to make the convention more environmentally sustainable.
Background:
- the 1995 NCA
Policy on Diversity
- the 2006 NCA
Statement on Labor Disputes
- the following professional
acadmic associations already have similiar policies in place:
* American Political Science Association (APSA): http://www.apsanet.org/content_54403.cfm
* Modern Language Association (MLA) (provided by Director of
Convention Programs, available on request)
* American Studies Association (ASA): http://www.theasa.net/about/page/resolutions_and_actions/
* Organization of American Historians (OAH): http://hnn.us/articles/10342.html
* American Sociological Association (ASA): http://www.asanet.org/cs/root/leftnav/governance/council_minutes
* American Anthropological Association (AAA): http://www.aaanet.org/meetings/loc_policies.cfm
Webpage last updated: September
2008.