CCTE COUNCILORS

DUTIES OF CCTE COUNCILORS & GENERAL COUNCIL

DUTIES OF COUNCILORS

Term of Office: CCTE Councilors’ term of office shall begin at the conclusion of the Spring meeting and extend for three (3) years.

1. Become familiar with CCTE Constitution and By-laws to insure proper conduct of official CCTE business.
2. Attend meetings of the Committee in the fall (usually late October) and at the beginning of the annual Conference (usually early March).
3. At such meetings, advise on policies and plan the annual Conference.
4. Read and review submissions (forwarded by the Area Chair) and then consult with the chair about acceptable and unacceptable papers.
5. Assist as needed by chairing a panel.
6. When chairing a panel, assist presenters with such tasks as making sure all audio/visual equipment is working, and passing out handouts.
7. At the Conference, attend the sessions for your area and listen to the papers presented there. Final decisions about area award winners are based on actual presentation as well as on excellence of content and should not be determined prior to the Conference or the in-session reading of the presentation.
8. Serve as representative for members, bringing their concerns to the Committee and taking news of Committee business to them.
9. Each team of three Councilors will rotate annually in order to serve in each of the following areas during the three-year terms: literature, film, and popular culture; rhetoric, composition, technical writing, and language studies; and creative writing.
10. Serve as Area Chairs during third year of Committee term.

DUTIES OF THE AREA CHAIRS (THIRD-YEAR COUNCILORS)

Annual Convention Duties

1. Receive proposals (or in the case of Creative Writing, complete texts) for conference presentations by October 1 each year. All submissions come by email. If there is some technical glitch that would justify a slightly late submission, it is your decision whether to be flexible.
2. Send email acknowledgment of receipt and keep a copy of the acknowledgment for your records.
3. Facilitate anonymous reviews of submissions, distributing them to the other two Councilors in your area without any information that might identify the writer (see annual CCTE Call for Papers for statement of submission criteria).
4. Facilitate selection of papers.
5. Be sure to email a list of potential presenters to Executive Secretary/Treasurer to check CCTE membership status. Participants who have not already done so must pay current annual membership dues at the time of presentation acceptance. If they fail to do so, they will not be included on the program. Session chairs should inform potential presenters of this necessity.
6. Send email notification letters with information about Conference and membership by no later than November 7. Copy to the Executive Secretary/Treasurer.
7. Organize and group area panels for the Conference, and enlist all session chairs from among CCTE members:
   • Note: Although Councilors may serve as session chairs as needed, ideally an effort should be made to recruit session chairs from membership at large. For some members, having a session to chair can be the difference between receiving travel funds for the convention or being unable to attend at all. Overall, the idea is to secure broad participation within the full membership whether or not reading.
8. Inform individual session chairs in your area about their duties at the Convention (see Session Chairs at the Annual Convention).
9. Email complete program information for your area sessions to the Program Chair (who is part of Local Arrangements) no later than December 1:
   • Proofread carefully before sending this information so that the Program Chair can copy and paste efficiently. Use the following format (hanging indention style, single spaced):
     • Literature (Rhetoric, Creative Writing) I:
       • Chair: Name, Academic Affiliation
       • “Title of the first presentation,” Name of Presenter, Academic Affiliation
       • “Title of the second presentation,” Name of Presenter, Academic Affiliation
       • Do not submit TBA entries in lieu of securing chairs for your individual sessions.
10. When session participants are eligible for prizes, facilitate the selection of award recipients. Actual selection of prize winners should not take place until the Convention itself. At the Convention, committee members should attend the readings of all the papers in their respective sessions. Final decisions about award winners are based on presentation as well as excellence on content.
11. Rank the top five or six submissions for possible inclusion in CCTE Studies.
12. Send a comprehensive list of the people who have submitted papers in the section to the Editor of CCTE Studies no later than February 1. The list should include names, contact addresses (emails preferred), and titles of submissions.
13. Immediately after each session, indicate to the Program Chair the names of any presenters who failed to attend a session and read their papers. These people will be cut from the program that is later printed in CCTE Studies and on our web site.
14. When all sessions in your area have been completed, consult with your committee members to determine winners of the various awards for your sessions.
    • NOTE: The committee is under no obligation to present an award simply because one exists. CCTE holds primary concern for maintaining the integrity of all its awards and traditionally has not made an award if no presentation in a particular area (i.e., American literature, Rhetoric, etc.) truly merits receipt of one. After the committee determines winners of awards, the chair needs to report them to the Executive Secretary as soon as possible so that award checks may be written and presented at the Saturday luncheon. Names should be kept confidential; winners will be announced at the Saturday luncheon.
15. Send copies of all award-winning papers and runners-up (if desired) to CCTE Studies Editor by no later than June 1. Be sure to include authors’ academic affiliation and contact information for these papers.