|
Next Communication Commission meeting:
SEPTEMBER 27-30, 2010 in WASHINGTON, DC
The 2010 annual Communication Commission meeting
will be in the nation's capital during the last week in September.
Planned are visits with key government, broadcast and print
communication centers in the city, such as NPR, RNS, and the Federal
Communications Commission. We will meet at various locations
around the District to take advantage of all the resources available
there. Featured events, in addition to field seminars and task-centered
workgroup sessions, will be the annual Everett Parker Lecture on
Communication Ethics, and a meeting of Odyssey Networks partners.
Watch this space for details as they become available.
A look back at this fall's meeting . . .
SEPTEMBER 28-30, 2009 in NEW YORK CITY
The Communication Commission
met in New
York City for its traditional three-day gathering, Monday morning through Wednesday
afternoon, Sept. 28-30.
Starting point
for each day's sessions was The Interchurch
Center, home of the National Council of Churches, on
Manhattan's upper west side, with afternoon field trips on Monday and
Tuesday to several top communication companies. Wednesday afternoon,
the 27th annual
UCC-sponsored
Everett C. Parker Lecture on Telecommunication Ethics was held at The Riverside
Church, featuring NCC General Secretary Michael Kinnamon.
FEATURED COMMISSION
SPEAKERS:
 --Worship
was led by Garland Pierce (left), senior program director for NCC's
Education and Leadership Ministries Commission
--the Commission's Media Education and Advocacy Focus featured
a case study from Deepa Fernandes, director of the
Peoples Production House, a grassroots media development center in New
York City.
--the Keynote presentation was by Dr. Serene Jones
(left), President of Union Theological Seminary, New York, who spoke of
the seismic shifts the new media are making in church and society
analogous to the impact of the invention of the printing press just before the
Reformation.
 --an
on-site seminar at CBS Broadcast Center was hosted by Jack Blessington
(left), an active Roman Catholic who heads the religion and culture
unit of CBS, a partner with the Communication Commission through the IBC
documentaries. New 60 Minutes correspondent Byron Pitts,
a Baptist, had an extended visit with the group on the eve of the release
of his book, Stepping Out on Nothing.
--an on-site seminar at WNET-PBS studios was
hosted by
Dr. Bill Baker (left), who helped create Religion & Ethics
Newsweekly, PBS News Hour, Bill Moyers Journal and other pioneering
public TV programs. David Brancaccio, host of
NOW on PBS, also spoke to the Commission visitors, and the group
toured the Moyers and BBC America studios.
 --an
on-site seminar at The New York Times newsroom, hosted by Laurie Goodstein
(left), national religion
reporter, also featured Rich Meislin, who directed the
development of the phenomenally popular Times website. The site
visit concluded
with a tour of the Times' newsroom, part of their new headquarters
building just west of Times Square.
-- an on-site seminar at Associated Press headquarters,
hosted by
national religion writer Rachel Zoll (left) and other AP staff,
including an extensive backstairs visit to the AP's global newsroom, which
covers a space larger than two football fields in a massive structure
spanning the main rail yards of New York's Penn Station.
For more stories on the 2009 meeting, see
http://www.ncccusa.org/news/091001commcomm1.html
Other recent Commission meetings . .
.
APRIL 20-22, 2009 in NASHVILLE:
The Communication Commission held its spring meeting at the Embassy
Suites Vanderbilt Hotel and at the offices and studios of United
Methodist Communications, whose staff brought the group
 an
extensive presentation on coordinated communication strategies that
demonstrate convergence across platforms and the use of social
networking media. Among other highlights was a discussion of local
coverage of religion with Nashville Tennessean religion editor
Bob Smietana (left), co-author of
Good Intentions: Nine Hot Button Issues Viewed Through the Eyes of
Faith. The third Ecumenical Film Festival
featured a half-dozen of the latest
documentaries and outreach productions from Commission members.
The commission also received progress reports on
the development of the new interfaith media advocacy site,
So We Might See, a joint venture of the United Church of
Christ, the NCC Communication Commission, the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops, and other faith organizations.
NOVEMBER 10-12, 2008
in DENVER:
The Communication Commission held its fall meeting in conjunction with
the
2008 General Assembly
of National Council of Churches and Church World Service, November 11-13
at the
Denver Renaissance Hotel.
The Commission met from midday on Monday, November 10, through Tuesday,
November 11, followed immediately by the opening session of the colorful
gathering of 35 Christian communions who work together in unity for
justice, education and peace.
A special feature of this Commission session was an opening dinner
dialogue with the new general secretary of the National Council of
Churches, Michael Kinnamon (right). At lunch on Tuesday, the marketing and promotion
committee hosted a program featuring Adam Dempsey, a
prominent African-American advertising and broadcast executive
in Denver, and greeted Mike Maus, former commission
director, now in Denver.
Tuesday evening, commission members were invited to share dinner with
the Assembly delegates from their own communions, and some stayed over
to attend the full General Assembly, which adjourned Thursday night
after a special dinner culminating the 100th anniversary of the modern
ecumenical movement, which saw the drafting of the churches' Social
Creed and the founding of the Federal Council of Churches, predecessor
to NCC, in 1908. A highlight of the dinner was a presentation by Bill
Fore, (left) a former director of the Communication Commission, now
retired and living in California.
JUNE 4-6, 2008
in
MINNEAPOLIS:
The
Communication Commission met for its 2008 spring meeting at Westminster
Presbyterian Church, which was followed by the National Conference
for Media Reform (NCMR) June 6-8, at the Minneapolis Convention Center two
 blocks
away.
The Commission opened with a dinner
presentation by NCC President-Elect
Peg Chemberlin,
(right) CEO of the Minnesota Council of Churches. The next day's lunch
featured a presentation by
Romeo
Ramirez, member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a
movement of mostly hispanic low-wage farmworkers in Florida, and Melody Gonzalez
of Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida and
the Student/
 Farmworker
Alliance, shown at left. They shared communications insights from
the CIW's long struggle for fair treatment by the fast food industry,
and described the operation of CIW's low-power community radio station,
a key organizing asset. The luncheon was underwritten by Intersections, a ministry of New York's Collegiate Churches.
The commission's new
Marketing and Promotion
Committee
held its initial session during the
Minneapolis meeting and the Electronic Programming Committee
sponsored its second
Ecumenical Film Festival,
shoshowcasing faith productions of the
Commission's member communions.
More than 3,500 registered for the rong>media reform conference
that followed. It featured addresses by Bill Moyers
(right), Arianna Huffington, Dan
Rather,
and FCC Commissioners Michael Copps
and Jonathan Adelstein, and dozens
of media-related seminars, including two faith-based sessions
co-sponsored by the Communication Commission
and developed by UCC staffer Cheryl Leanza.
For a brief
summary of the other NCC Communication Commission meetings since 2001,
click here. . .
  |
