Watch for more on this, and please make plans to join us for a hot breakfast buffet, with plenty of good coffee and tea.

We’ll be sharing in updates about JOMC and elsewhere as well as electing our next second vice president.

The Southeast Colloquium is returning to Chapel Hill for the fourth time since the conference’s founding in 1976, and you are invited to participate in its “homecoming.”

In conjunction with the 2010 Colloquium, which will be held March 11-13, we will be hosting a Ph.D. alumni reunion. The details of the event are coming together but for the purposes of scheduling, please know we are planning a casual dinner event–think Carolina pig pickin’–on Friday, March 12. There are no official colloquium events scheduled during this time. It will be a time to connect with graduates and faculty members, and revisit your roots.

Please look for details related to the reunion in the coming months. You can find out more about the SEC online at http://www.jomc.unc.edu/SEC2010. The postmark deadline for submissions is Dec. 4, 2009.

The colloquium’s headquarters hotel will be the Carolina Inn. Think of booking soon.

If you have any questions in the meantime or ideas for the event, please contact Rachel Davis Mersey (’07) at rdmersey@northwestern.edu. Go ‘Heels!

Tim is an associate professor of broadcast journalism in the School of Mass Communication at Virginia Commonwealth University. He joined VCU in Fall 2008 after seven years on faculty in the School of Mass Communications at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He will become president of the organization in 2011-2012.

Tim Bajkiewicz

Tim was a Park Fellow in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was co-recipient of the “Outstanding Ph.D. Student” award in 2001 at UNC-Chapel Hill.

His research on new media and news convergence has been published in the journal Electronic News and in two book chapters. He has also authored text book chapters about online writing and postmodern content analysis media research. He currently serves as webmaster for AEJMC’s Radio-TV Journalism Division.

In addition to catching up with old friends and meeting new UNC doctoral students, we celebrated accomplishments this year, including creating this blog and establishing our mentor program. We also heard about activities for the future including the March reunion event in Chapel Hill and fundraising for the School.

Associate dean for Graduate Studies Dr. Anne Johnston and Dean Jean Folkerts updated us on the many accomplishments of our students and Ph.D. program. Speed Hallman, associate dean for development and alumni affairs, discussed some of the ways Tarheels can financially give back to the School.

Thanks to all who attended and contributed to the event, including the School of Journalism and Mass Communication which funded the breakfast. We look forward to seeing you for next year’s breakfast at AEJMC in Denver!