"Report and Recommendations of the BEA Creative Activities Task Force"
Feedback (Winter 2002).

by Steven Daniel Anderson

   The BEA Creative Activities Task Force was formed in the spring of 2000 to look at the possibility of establishing a BEA Statement on Creative Activity and to explore the possible formation of a BEA Media Festival to provide a BEA-wide form of peer-review and exhibition of creative activity. Further, the Task Force wanted to investigate the possibility of exhibiting creative activity beyond the scope of presenting portions of award winning work at our convention. The group worked primarily through discussion via an Internet listserv. Members of the task force represented diverse perspectives, but agreed that establishing criteria for the evaluation of creative activity and the formation of a festival were important undertakings within BEA. The following individuals were members of the task force.

Steve Anderson - Co-Chair (James Madison University)
Scott Hodgson - Co-Chair (Southern Illinois University, Carbondale)
Karla Berry (University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh)
Pam Doyle (University of Alabama)
Todd Evans (Drake University)
Joe Foote (Arizona State University)
Don Godfrey (Arizona State University)
Rustin Greene (James Madison University)
LuEtt Hanson (Kent State University)
Bob Jacobs (Bradley University)
Greg Luft (Colorado State University)
Tim Scully (University of St. Thomas)
Lynn Spangler (SUNY New Paltz)
J.C. Turner (St. Cloud State University)
Suzanne Williams-Rautiola (Trinity University)

      Three primary areas of investigation developed. First, a survey of tenure policy manuals at BEA member institutions was conducted to determine how creative activity was being evaluated within our schools. Second, the group explored some of the issues involved in creating a BEA Statement on Creative Activity. Finally, the idea of establishing a BEA media festival, possibly to be called the "International BEA Festival of Film, Video and Media Arts," was explored. The work of the task force culminated in recommendations to the BEA Board of Directors at their spring 2001 meeting in Las Vegas.

Background
      Creative activity has long been an important element in the case for promotion and tenure at colleges and universities. While there is a long tradition of juried exhibition for artists, peer-reviewed creative work among electronic media professionals has been difficult to evaluate. Our colleagues in other disciplines understand the process of peer-review in traditional scholarly venues such as journals and convention paper presentations. In journals, a known body of judges evaluates original scholarship with a published statement on evaluation criteria and acceptance rates. Further, journal publication is "exhibited" and access to journals allows future researchers to retrieve and cite previous studies in a process of knowledge building and theory development. Dissemination of knowledge through a journal clearly fits what we would all call scholarship.
      Peer-reviewed creative activity for audio, video, film, interactive multimedia and script writing occurs largely via the festival concept. A festival generates a call for entries with entries by category judged by a known body of award-winning media producers. The festival contributes to scholarship by exhibiting work that leads to advances in the field; the display of new techniques, storytelling methods and structures, and innovative use of technology. In this way, the contribution of original creative output serves the academy as much as traditional empirical scientific inquiry.
Many faculty members in electronic media have primarily professional credentials. Professional experience and accomplishment in the practice aspect of our discipline are highly valued in job candidates. Our programs have a number of classes that should not be taught by people with little or no professional experience. Yet, once on staff, many practice oriented faculty become frustrated by the lack of substantial methods for evaluating and rewarding continuing professional activity.
      A number of organizations have recognized the importance of creative activity in the evaluation of faculty. The University Film and Video Association (UFVA) created a statement on the evaluation of faculty in creative specialties for Promotion and Tenure that outlines a rationale for considering creative activity and outlines some of the distinctions between creative evaluation and evaluation of traditional scholarship.
Several years ago, the Council on Education in Electronic Media (CEEM) created a statement making the case for giving credit for professional and creative activity in hiring, tenure and promotion. It was mailed to JMC deans and college presidents around the country. The CEEM consisted of members from several academic and professional associations and the statement was endorsed by the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC), the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC), Alpha Epsilon Rho, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the International Radio and Television Society, Inc. (IRTS), the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) and the TV Bureau of Advertising. Although they have since disbanded, the statement remains intact and was approved by the AEJMC Executive Committee.

The Statement
We believe that creative work should be given the same type of rigorous peer review to which scholarly work is subjected, but we suggest that this type of review may take different forms, including the acceptance of a work by a particular medium for presentation in the usual forum of the media. (CEEM). The CEEM statement goes on to include "primary involvement in the production of juried or competitively recognized production."In their 1999 "Port of Entry" report, the Commission on Public Relations Education issued a call for all faculty to contribute to the discipline's body of knowledge through scholarship and professional or creative activity and suggests that the form of evaluation ought to consider whether the faculty member has primarily professional or academic credentials.
      There are currently at least three media competitions within BEA, all sponsored by Interest Divisions. These competitions have played an important role in our association and have provided a valuable service to our members. Our own Interest Divisions should be commended for their long-standing support of these endeavors over the years.
      The Production Aesthetics and Criticism (PAC) Division (Formerly the "Production Division") has run a successful "Faculty Production Competition" since the early 1990s. The competition was proposed in 1990 and the first competition held in 1990, with the presentation of winners in 1991. This competition gives awards in several categories for work in both audio and video. Within the past couple of years, the News Division has taken over judging of submissions in the "News" categories and awards sessions have been jointly sponsored by the PAC and News Divisions. The competition is not restricted to BEA member faculty. Currently, there is an entry fee of $25.00 per entry for BEA members and $35.00 for non-members. There have usually been two convention sessions devoted to giving awards (certificates or plaques) and exhibiting winning work.
      A "Faculty Interactive Multimedia Competition" was started in 1997 and the first awards were given out at BEA98. This competition was initially co-sponsored by the Production Aesthetics & Criticism and Communication Technology Divisions, but sponsorship of this competition was later taken over solely by the Communication Technology Division. Last year (BEA2000), a student category was added to the competition. Currently, there is a $20.00 entry fee for each faculty entry and a $10.00 fee for each student entry. A faculty member must be a BEA individual member to enter the competition. At first one, and later two, convention sessions were created to give awards (plaques) and exhibit winning entries.
      The Writing Division has sponsored a "Faculty Script Writing Competition" for several years, and in 2001 a student category was added to that competition as well. The Writing Division has no entry fees for their competition. Each entrant must be a member of the faculty, either full or part-time, of any U.S. university, college or community/ technical college, or of any BEA academic member institution anywhere in the world. The Writing Division does not require an entry fee for their competition. In fact, they even offer $200 as a first prize award and $100 for second prize. There are also industry-sponsored awards of software, books and gift certificates.
      In most cases, our convention format does not allow the exhibition of complete works. It has been traditional to show "snippets" or representative portions of winning creative work at a convention session, followed by the presentation of awards.

Festival Proposal
      One of the possible ventures discussed by the task force was the formation of a BEA media festival. The festival concept was seen as a way to bring together the association's various juried competitive production activities into a single unifying concept that might be promoted under an association-wide umbrella. The proposal included the possibility of adding evening sessions for more complete exhibition of winning works and awards, subcommittees comprising the interest divisions and their existing competitive ventures, establishing a board appointed editor and a review board consisting of nationally known, award-winning creative producers from both academe and industry. The task force also looked at appropriate entry categories and fees. The task force felt that a BEA-wide festival would further the aims of rigor and broader dissemination while still utilizing the expertise and energy within our existing interest divisions. The interest divisions would continue their involvement in the creative competitions much as before, but now within a broader framework.

Exhibition Beyond the Convention
      One area the task force did not adequately address is the issue of exhibition beyond the convention. As stated earlier, our current method of exhibiting winning creative works has been to show short segments of the works within a convention session. While this amounts to some level of exhibition, it does not fulfill the criteria of exhibiting complete works. In an analogy to the world of traditional journals, showing short segments would be no more than an abstract. Further, once the convention is over, there is no ability for anyone to access these works as one would with bound copies of scholarly articles in a journal. There is no archive and no ability to retrieve the works later. To carry the analogy further, the juried creative work would be similar to a convention paper where someone wishing to review the work would have to contact the winning submitter for a copy of the work.
      The Task Force wanted to investigate the possibility of exhibiting creative activity beyond the scope of presenting portions of award winning work at our convention. This could involve audiotape, videotape, CDs or even DVDs that could be mailed out to our membership. Much like the dissemination of JOBEM, JRS and Feedback, this could be a member benefit. Perhaps a better alternative would involve online exhibition. It is possible to make audio, video, interactive multimedia and scripts available online and password protect the site to make it available only to BEA members. This is not technically challenging and the organization already has access to the expertise and technology to make this work. A number of permission and legal issues would need to be worked out. For example, some creative work is done for-hire. The paying company or organization may hold rights to the work and may not allow the work to be exhibited beyond the convention. Further, there may be segments of a creative work that contain copyright protected material.
There is also the issue of workload. The competition organizers have often been difficult to find and the job of advertising, evaluating entries and organizing an awards ceremony has been enormous. Often, the people who would make good competition organizers are people who avoid the job so that they themselves may enter the competitions we sponsor. The development of a BEA-wide Festival will not decrease these problems. Still, the Festival would be of significant benefit to our members and is a worthy pursuit.
      Finally, a BEA Festival would have associated monetary costs. Much depends on what entry fees are collected, but we might safely assume that the development of the Festival would come with some costs.

Summary
      Clearly, a large number of academic and professional associations recognize the importance of creative activity in our professionally oriented discipline. The important task is to provide a forum for evaluation and exhibition that meets the rigorous demands of scholarship known and understood across a wide-range of disciplines. The work must make an important contribution to the field and it should be subjected to a known standard with published criteria, rejection rates and reviewer credentials. The administration of the review must be clearly outlined, with standards for editor/chair and editorial board/committee selections. Further, a statement on creative activity will make implicit the values and judgments our organization supports in the role of creative activity for promotion and tenure.
      A proper format to exhibit winning entries, in their entirety, will be required to advance the discipline by sharing new or creative methods and approaches. Complete showings of award winning work may be accomplished via nighttime screenings at our convention. Later, more widespread exhibition, perhaps online, will provide an even greater level of dissemination.
      As in traditional scholarship, work is considered based on the reputation of the journal (or venue). The Task Force felt it is time to move forward with the development of a Festival as a first step in achieving the stated objectives.

Task Force Recommendations & Board Action
      Recommendations of the task force were presented to the BEA board at their spring 2001 meeting. The task force recommended, and the board approved, the following items:

1) Formation of the International BEA Festival of Film, Video and Media Arts.
2) Appointment of a Festival Committee Chair. Don Godfrey from Arizona State University was nominated and elected to the position.
3) Formation of a BEA Festival Committee to work on the details of the competition under the Festival Committee Chair.
4) Approve interest divisions carrying out existing competitions for BEA2002 under the name International BEA Festival of Film, Video and Media Arts.
5) Spring 2003: Festival launch with the possibility of evening sessions at BEA2003.

      The task force also recommended the development of a statement on Guidelines for Promotion and Tenure for Electronic Media Faculty Involved in Creative Work. The statement was developed via the newly formed BEA Festival Committee during the summer and early fall of 2001. Suzanne Williams-Rautiola undertook this development work. The statement was presented to the board at the Fall 2001 board meeting and was approved as a BEA statement on creative activity. The full text of the statement is contained elsewhere in this publication.

References
(CEEM) Council on Education in Electronic Media Statement on Hiring and Promotion for Faculty in Electronic Media.

Public Relations Education for the 21st century: A Port of Entry. (October, 1999) The Report of the Commission on Public Relations Education.

Statement to the Academic Community: The Evaluation of Faculty in Creative Specialties for Promotion and Tenure, UFVA web site. (URL: http://ufva.org/job-tenure.htm)

BEA Creative Activities Task Force Listserv (URL: beacreative.listbot.com)