The date I want to have you mark down is February 7th, 2010. There has been much discussion about having a "New Members Course" in our association and it is going to happen on that date. The final venue will be announced when details are firmed up, but we want to get the very best attendance we can to this event so I would like to announce the date now.
If you are a new member, relatively new, or just want a refresher course, then this is your day! We want to invite our newest members to learn more about what the association can do for you, how the merit system works and how you can climb the ladder so to speak over the years. Our first speaker will talk about all matters relating to the association.
The next speaker will cover the topic of basic posing and lighting. This is not an in-depth photography school but will outline some of the fundamental building blocks of high quality professional photography.
The final segment will deal with business matters. Although photography is a wonderful way to make a living, there are many pitfalls as you can see by the high failure rate of photography businesses. A photographer deserves to make a good living as much as anyone but sadly most photographers spend all of their energy training in the areas of making better images only. You don't have to be creative to learn this but if you don't take care of this area in your life, you will not be able to afford to be a creative photographer.
Plan for a full day presentation. There is much to cover. Finally, as I have indicated before, this is the last few weeks in our crazy year - details will follow after we are over the hump. As always, if you have questions, suggestions or comments, please contact me anytime.
thanks, Ken Frazer
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
The 2009 AGM Wrap Up
Hi everyone,
I am always somewhat overwhelmed in this last dash before Christmas and I apologize for not sending you all this message earlier. Our year ended with a successful Annual General Meeting a few weeks ago. It was a smaller group this year but we accomplished a lot.
A few of the main motions dealt with reducing the size of the board to six members from ten. Very simply, our association has been stretched to cover all the bases with so many executive positions. We now elect our President and Vice President by the voting members at the Annual General Meeting.
It was decided that Tanya Thompson, our present executive director for PPOC, would take over many more administrative duties to help expedite some of the day to day duties in our association in 2010. Her fee for her package of duties will be four dollars per member per month. There was extensive discussion and many smaller motions regarding the final tweaking of a proposed budget that would be a good guideline for the next year. I will see if I can get that budget in a form that can either be viewed on this blog, or emailed to you directly. Keep in mind that the budget is simply a guideline for us to operate this year and we may find that we have to make adjustments as we go along.
We are also in a transition year in another way. The rest of the western provinces have changed from a fall convention to a spring convention over the past several years and we have decided to follow suit. Fall conventions have always been somewhat problematic so this is a move in a positive direction. It is clear from the last few conventions in Manitoba that a one day event makes more sense if we do the convention locally, however if we co-operate with our neighbor provinces, it would be possible to mount a larger event. In relation to the expense of running the convention, image salon is a very large part of that expense. The cost of running a fully qualified affiliate judging is simply too large for our group to handle alone without experiencing a very significant loss. Clearly the future of these salons is in combining smaller shows like Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba which is what will happen next year. The hiccup this year is because we are switching from fall to spring, just as our Saskatchewan neighbors, exhibitors will have to come up with another batch of images very soon as the next judging will be held in February, instead of the fall.
We made a motion to look into getting a credit card that could be used for association expenses. A motion was made also to re-direct the $1,000 Fred Billows scholarship toward the costs of a major educational event. Carmen Matthews also made a motion that tied into this to spend another $1,000 per year, for the next ten years, from the invested profits made from the hosting of our national convention in 2007. These two motions will help us finance some very excellent talent in 2010. There was a notice of motion presented that would allow for a $20 increase in membership fees that would not be voted on until next year and would not apply until 2011.
Finally, Marlene Fast and Jeremy Hiebert were elected to the 2010 board. Your president this year for a one year term is me, Ken Frazer. Mimi Boule is on for a one year term as Vice President and Marlene Fast will do a one year term as Past President. JJ Ali will complete her second and final year as Secretary/Treasurer. Desmond Snyman and Jeremy Hiebert willl fill out the board. Desmond is on his second year of a two year term and Jeremy is beginning his two year term. The final assignment of duties will happen at the first board meeting of the year.
There are still some changes coming up on the PPOC National front that will make a few more changes in the way it is structured, although it will not likely impact us locally.
I do not have a lot more to report at this time but I look forward to getting to work after we all get through this frantic Christmas season. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or email me anytime.
sincerely,
Ken Frazer MPA, F.Ph.
President PPOC-MB
I am always somewhat overwhelmed in this last dash before Christmas and I apologize for not sending you all this message earlier. Our year ended with a successful Annual General Meeting a few weeks ago. It was a smaller group this year but we accomplished a lot.
A few of the main motions dealt with reducing the size of the board to six members from ten. Very simply, our association has been stretched to cover all the bases with so many executive positions. We now elect our President and Vice President by the voting members at the Annual General Meeting.
It was decided that Tanya Thompson, our present executive director for PPOC, would take over many more administrative duties to help expedite some of the day to day duties in our association in 2010. Her fee for her package of duties will be four dollars per member per month. There was extensive discussion and many smaller motions regarding the final tweaking of a proposed budget that would be a good guideline for the next year. I will see if I can get that budget in a form that can either be viewed on this blog, or emailed to you directly. Keep in mind that the budget is simply a guideline for us to operate this year and we may find that we have to make adjustments as we go along.
We are also in a transition year in another way. The rest of the western provinces have changed from a fall convention to a spring convention over the past several years and we have decided to follow suit. Fall conventions have always been somewhat problematic so this is a move in a positive direction. It is clear from the last few conventions in Manitoba that a one day event makes more sense if we do the convention locally, however if we co-operate with our neighbor provinces, it would be possible to mount a larger event. In relation to the expense of running the convention, image salon is a very large part of that expense. The cost of running a fully qualified affiliate judging is simply too large for our group to handle alone without experiencing a very significant loss. Clearly the future of these salons is in combining smaller shows like Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba which is what will happen next year. The hiccup this year is because we are switching from fall to spring, just as our Saskatchewan neighbors, exhibitors will have to come up with another batch of images very soon as the next judging will be held in February, instead of the fall.
We made a motion to look into getting a credit card that could be used for association expenses. A motion was made also to re-direct the $1,000 Fred Billows scholarship toward the costs of a major educational event. Carmen Matthews also made a motion that tied into this to spend another $1,000 per year, for the next ten years, from the invested profits made from the hosting of our national convention in 2007. These two motions will help us finance some very excellent talent in 2010. There was a notice of motion presented that would allow for a $20 increase in membership fees that would not be voted on until next year and would not apply until 2011.
Finally, Marlene Fast and Jeremy Hiebert were elected to the 2010 board. Your president this year for a one year term is me, Ken Frazer. Mimi Boule is on for a one year term as Vice President and Marlene Fast will do a one year term as Past President. JJ Ali will complete her second and final year as Secretary/Treasurer. Desmond Snyman and Jeremy Hiebert willl fill out the board. Desmond is on his second year of a two year term and Jeremy is beginning his two year term. The final assignment of duties will happen at the first board meeting of the year.
There are still some changes coming up on the PPOC National front that will make a few more changes in the way it is structured, although it will not likely impact us locally.
I do not have a lot more to report at this time but I look forward to getting to work after we all get through this frantic Christmas season. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or email me anytime.
sincerely,
Ken Frazer MPA, F.Ph.
President PPOC-MB
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Observer Notice of Motion
One more motion:
You have already received, along with the ballots for voting members to the board, a Notice of Motion regarding reducing the size of the board and electing Vice-President and President from the general assembly of voting members at the Annual General Meeting.
As a board, we would like to present one more Extraordinary Resolution to you this year.
The motion has to do with the requirement at present, that Observers become qualified as RPP's within two years or can not be renewed as members for two years. There was careful consideration to this requirement at the National level while the entire PPOC by-laws were re-written last year, and the position taken there was to remove the two year clause. There could be any number of reasons that a person may not get a successful submission in to the print review committee within two years, not the least of which could be inadequate training opportunities provided by the association to help them get there. Keep in mind that one of the main reasons for the existance of our association is the training and mentoring of photographers who want to become professional in their image making and business activities. It is in our best interests as members to help to bring up the standards of image quality and business practices to a professional level, of our new and Observer members. We need to do all we can to give these people opportunities to improve themselves at their own pace and let them apply for the RPP status when they are ready. An Observer is a beginning status in our association with basically no rights of vote at meetings, may not hold office, shall not receive awards or trophies and the biggie - they cannot display the logo of our association in their business in any way. As an association, we have very little to lose by having an Observer stay in that category if they are not ready to move up. However, if we eject an Observer, so they can try again in two years, I think that the vast majority of them will never apply again. Nobody likes to be kicked out of the club.
I would like you to consider removing the two year restriction as a short term measure that would affect three potential members this year alone, and according to our PPOC Excecutive Secretary has been responsible for removing thirteen members in the past few years. One of the highest priorities of 2010 should be to undertake a complete re-write of the By-laws of our association to correct many errors and harmonize our association with the national body, PPOC. I am not a fan of patching things up as we go along but in this case, I think it would be worth it to prevent the loss of more members.
Extraordinary Resolution - Notice of Motion:
To remove the clause which requires an Observer to complete a successful submission of images to the Print Review committee within two years of membership or not be allowed to re-new membership for a period of two years. This would remove completely Article 5.7 of the bylaws which reads:
5.0 Print Review Committee
5.7 OBSERVERS who have not had their ten (10) print submissions fully accepted have a period of two (2) years, from the date of the first unsuccessful review, to re-submit alternate images. Should an OBSERVER not have an acceptable ten (10) print submission within the allotted time span, then their membership shall not be renewed. There shall be a two (2) year waiting period before a new application will be received by this Association.
sincerely, Ken Frazer MPA, F.Ph.
President PPOC-MB
Extraordinary Resolution - Notice of Motions 09
To my Fellow Members:
Our Annual General Meeting is very rapidly approaching and now that the convention has been put to bed, I would like to get this information in your hands as soon as possible.
In general terms, at our last AGM, there was a consensus from the members in attendance that we needed to get a couple changes made to our existing By-Laws. The first change related to the existing size of the board. Currently we have to have ten (10) members on the board, plus five (5) on the nominating committee, plus five (5) on the Ethics Committee which is an extraordinary load for a total membership of approximately sixty-five (65) people, allowing for the fact that all sixty-five are not active at any given time. The suggestion came from the floor to reduce the board number to six (6) people instead of ten (10). It is important to realize that for example, certain jobs like Image Salon are big jobs, but seasonal and should be delegated to a committee instead of holding a year round position at the board. This is a significant change but is in line with the size of Zone boards that operate in much larger provinces like BC that have Zones within the umbrella of their total association, that are bigger than our whole association membership. The other factor and reason to consider this change is that we will be utilizing the professional services of Tanya Thompson, our PPOC Executive Director, to offload some of the administration that could be done more efficiently by her office, like the issuing of Membership Renewals as will happen this year in the next few weeks. The second change brought to the floor of the meeting was a motion to elect the President and Vice-President from the qualified voting members from the floor of the AGM. This mechanism is very simply more democratic than the current method of voting a member from the board to the President and Vice-President position. I would like you to read the following text to understand what we are proposing so we will be prepared to discuss any concerns you have and put these motions to a vote at the Annual General Meeting. I invite your inquiries if there is anything that is not clear to you about these proposed changes.
In general terms, at our last AGM, there was a consensus from the members in attendance that we needed to get a couple changes made to our existing By-Laws. The first change related to the existing size of the board. Currently we have to have ten (10) members on the board, plus five (5) on the nominating committee, plus five (5) on the Ethics Committee which is an extraordinary load for a total membership of approximately sixty-five (65) people, allowing for the fact that all sixty-five are not active at any given time. The suggestion came from the floor to reduce the board number to six (6) people instead of ten (10). It is important to realize that for example, certain jobs like Image Salon are big jobs, but seasonal and should be delegated to a committee instead of holding a year round position at the board. This is a significant change but is in line with the size of Zone boards that operate in much larger provinces like BC that have Zones within the umbrella of their total association, that are bigger than our whole association membership. The other factor and reason to consider this change is that we will be utilizing the professional services of Tanya Thompson, our PPOC Executive Director, to offload some of the administration that could be done more efficiently by her office, like the issuing of Membership Renewals as will happen this year in the next few weeks. The second change brought to the floor of the meeting was a motion to elect the President and Vice-President from the qualified voting members from the floor of the AGM. This mechanism is very simply more democratic than the current method of voting a member from the board to the President and Vice-President position. I would like you to read the following text to understand what we are proposing so we will be prepared to discuss any concerns you have and put these motions to a vote at the Annual General Meeting. I invite your inquiries if there is anything that is not clear to you about these proposed changes.
Beyond these changes, there should be an upgrading of the current set of By-Laws to the current condition of our association. The present By-Laws were last looked at and revised in the seventies as I recall and are significantly out of date and inadequate. I would like to see a motion brought forward at our AGM to assemble a committee to look at the By-Laws in total, and make suggestions for a re-write that would reflect the needs of our association today to present to the membership at a later Special General Meeting or Annual General Meeting.
Extraordinary Resolution - Notice of Motion:
To reduce the number of Board members by 4, thereby removing Article 4.1.1b and changing Article 4.1.1a to read:
4.0 Board of Directors
4.1 Membership
4.1.1 The Board of Directors of the Association shall be comprised of six (6) members, three (3) of whom have been elected by the membership by letter ballot, in accordance with these By-Laws; together with the immediate past-President and the incoming President. Two of the three members elected for this two year term will be elected by the membership one year at the Annual General Meeting and one shall be elected the following or alternate year, to ensure that all three of these board members do not begin their term the same year.
The existing by-law reads:
4.0 Board of Directors
4.1 Membership
4.1.1a The Board of Directors of the Association shall be comprised of ten (10) members, eight of whom have been elected by the membership by letter ballot, in accordance with these By-laws; together with the immediate past-President, and the incoming President.
4.1.1b Notwithstanding Article 4.3.1 and Sentence 4.1.1a above, at the first Annual General Meeting following the approval of this proposed By-law, the membership will elect nine members to the Board. Those four members receiving the highest number of votes will hold office for a two year term, and those five members receiving the next highest number of votes will hold office for a one year term.
Extraordinary Resolution - Notice of Motion:
That the membership assembly at the Annual General Meeting elect the Vice-President and President effective 2010 and that the term of office of the President, Vice President and Past President will be one year.
Thereby changing 4.2 to read:
4.2 Officers and their Duties
4.2.1 The Officers of the Association shall be the President, the Vice-president, the Past-president and the Secretary/Treasuer. The President and the Vice-president are each to be elected annually from the membership at the Annual General Meeting and have a term of one year. The Past President shall also have a term of one year. The Secretary/Treasurer is to be elected annually from the Board by the Board Members.
4.2.2 The Vice-president shall be a member of the Board with at least two years of Board of Directors service experience, and shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting. The Vice-president’s term of office shall be for a period of one year and shall commence at the first regular monthly meeting of the Board, following his/her election.
4.2.3 The President shall be the Chairperson of all meetings of the Board, and of General Meetings of the members. Where attendance at meetings of National and International Professional Photographic Associations is required by the Board, the immediate Past-president, or the alternate, shall be the representative. The President shall serve as the alternate. The Vice-president shall, in the absence of the President, preside and perform the duties of the President.
4.2.4 The Secretary/Treasurer shall be elected at the first regular meeting of the Board following the Annual General Meeting. The Secretary/Treasurer with the newly elected Board members will take office on the First day of January of the next year.
4.2.5 The Secretary/Treasurer shall receive all monies payable to the Association and make all disbursements duly authorized by the Board. The Secretary/Treasurer shall be responsible for the preparation and maintenance of financial records which clearly show the source of all income and the true nature of all disbursements.
4.2.6 The Secretary/Treasurer of the Association shall notify Directors and members as to time, date and place of all meetings, and shall record and maintain minutes of all meetings of the Board, the Annual General Meeting and all Special General Meetings.
The Existing by-law reads:
4.2 Officers and their Duties
4.2.1 The Officers of the Association shall be the President, the Vice-president/Secretary, together with the Treasurer. The President and the Vice-president are each to be elected biannually from the Board by the Board Members. The Secretary and the Treasurer are each to be elected annually from the Board by the Board Members.
4.2.2 The President shall have served on the Board of Directors as the immediate previous Vice-president. The Vice-president shall be a member of the Board with at least two years of Board of Directors service experience, and shall be appointed at the first meeting of the Directors following the inauguration of the incoming President. The Vice-president’s term of office shall be for a period of two years and shall commence at the first regular monthly meeting of the Board, following his/her appointment.
4.2.3 The President shall be the Chairperson of all meetings of the Board, and of General Meetings of the members. Where attendance at meetings of National and International Professional Photographic Associations is required by the Board, the immediate Past-president, or the alternate, shall be the representative. The President shall serve as the alternate. The Vice-president shall, in the absence of the President, preside and perform the duties of the President.
4.2.4 The Secretary, and the Treasurer, shall be elected at the first regular meeting of the Board following the Annual General Meeting. The Secretary, and the Treasurer, together with the newly elected Board members will take office on the First day of January of the next year.
4.2.5 The Treasurer shall receive all monies payable to the Association and make all disbursements duly authorized by the Board. The Treasurer shall be responsible for the preparation and maintenance of financial records which clearly show the source of all income and the true nature of all disbursements.
4.2.6 The Secretary of the Association shall notify Directors and members as to time, date and place of all meetings, and shall record and maintain minutes of all meetings of the Board, the Annual General Meeting and all Special General Meetings.
sincerely, Ken Frazer MPA, F.Ph.
President PPOC-MB
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The PPOC-MB Blog
Hi everyone,
We have talked about starting a blog for some time, but this seemed like a perfect time to start it. We have all of our reports of the Board of Directors this year posted to this blog (you can select them by clicking on the left side). This was a challenging year and we now need to plan for next year. Our Annual General Meeting for anyone who has not heard is to be November 22nd, 6 p.m. at the Canad Inns on Pembina Highway in Winnipeg. You will be receiving a package in the next day or so if you haven't already, that has enclosed ballots to elect new members to serve on the Board next year. There is also a description of a Notice of Motion for the meeting. At last year's AGM, the general assembly of members thought it was a good idea to reduce the size of the board by four members and to allow the election of the Vice-President and President by a vote from the voting members who attend the AGM. That change cannot be done on the spot and has to be presented to everyone has an opportunity to reflect on whether they like the idea of that change. I hope you will be in support but welcome your views whether you agree or not with the idea. This is the reason for the AGM. We have to get together and decide what course we will chart into the future. I hope I can count on your attendance at the last event of the year.
thanks, Ken Frazer
thanks, Ken Frazer
PS go ahead and click through the various reports. We will have a separate link we will send you with the financial statements via PDF's as they are not compatible with this format.
PPOC-MB Year end report 2009
PPOC-MB President's Report
2009 was a recovery year. Much had happened in the past few years that had put our association in a difficult position. The AGM in November of 2008 was called with many questions about the future of our association due to the past year of conflict and resignations. At that meeting, a new executive was put in place and the highlights of that meeting were that the new executive was to hire a new executive director and get an Ethics committee started. We also discussed and in principle agreed on reducing the size of the board as well as electing our Vice-president and President from the membership at large instead of from within the board. There will be more information on those motions with the ballots that are in the mail to you now. At that meeting there was also a good deal of discussion about PPOC Restructuring and how it could impact our association.
Our new executive started to work before the new year in earnest. We discovered that the currently our association was not in compliance with the Companies Act and was in arrears with their GST. We are a corporation governed by the laws of our government and they don't like that kind of behaviour. The financial records, through no fault of anone in the past, was almost impossible to unravel. We were virtually operating illegally. It was clear to us that we could not address all potential problems of the association in one step. Some projects were dropped without completion.
As a board, we had to basically triage our efforts. The executive director issue seemed to be one of the first issues that needed attention as was discussed at our AGM. Our previous executive director had taken on many jobs that were for many years done by volunteer executive members. Until we could do something about it, we re-assigned jobs within the new board that we, as an board, should have been doing in the first place. Marlene offered her help, advice and suport in any kind of transition but we were in the midst of talks on the restructuring PPOC. Potentially many of the jobs done by the executive director would be taken over by PPOC following the anticipated successful vote that would restructure PPOC a few months ahead. It seemed unwise to replace and begin the long process of re-training a new executive director for a short run during 2009 so our board members stepped up to handle the workload. Many hours of meetings dealing with creation of a new set of by-laws for the new PPOC restructuring happened in the run up to the National convention and when it came time to vote in May on restructuring, there were too many issues raised by some of the member constituents on the table to make it a "done deal". Again, it seemed only a matter of time with some minor changes and the national association would be taking over much of the workload so we kept on going. Another round of negotiations happened during the summer but by the latter part of the year it was beginning to be clear that the original idea of making a new national association without the current provincial associations was not going to happen. We had put a number of issues from the design of name badges, to the amount of outside help it would take to run our association, to the renovation of by-laws on hold until this change was done. Strictly speaking we handled the year without re-hiring an executive director, but instead, some work was contracted out, mostly due to the way the year unfolded. We did receive much valuable support and help from Marlene Fast, but used her services as little as possible because she had been overloaded for so long. We entered into an agreement with Tanya Thompson of the PPOC office to handle all the work involved in preparing and sending out all membership renewals this year as well as the processing of all credit card transactions for the association. Now that we know that we need to keep our association running and not "park it" while PPOC national takes over, we should, in my opinion, expand Tanya's role in the delivery of those services that she could do for us most efficiently. Although this is a small association in terms of numbers of members, the administrative load in keeping track of all details from merits to payments is very high. As good as volunteer help is, I believe it is necessary to have some professional help in this association to make sure some of the critical things are always done correctly and in a timely manner, in case a volunteer drops the ball in their portfolio. This is the way we have to manage a successful business and it should not be different for our association.
Tanya Thompson is presently handling the PPOC Executive Director position, plus all administration for PPO, and a fair chunk of it for Atlantic and Saskatchewan. Presently for Saskatchewan she does the following:
2009 was a recovery year. Much had happened in the past few years that had put our association in a difficult position. The AGM in November of 2008 was called with many questions about the future of our association due to the past year of conflict and resignations. At that meeting, a new executive was put in place and the highlights of that meeting were that the new executive was to hire a new executive director and get an Ethics committee started. We also discussed and in principle agreed on reducing the size of the board as well as electing our Vice-president and President from the membership at large instead of from within the board. There will be more information on those motions with the ballots that are in the mail to you now. At that meeting there was also a good deal of discussion about PPOC Restructuring and how it could impact our association.
Our new executive started to work before the new year in earnest. We discovered that the currently our association was not in compliance with the Companies Act and was in arrears with their GST. We are a corporation governed by the laws of our government and they don't like that kind of behaviour. The financial records, through no fault of anone in the past, was almost impossible to unravel. We were virtually operating illegally. It was clear to us that we could not address all potential problems of the association in one step. Some projects were dropped without completion.
As a board, we had to basically triage our efforts. The executive director issue seemed to be one of the first issues that needed attention as was discussed at our AGM. Our previous executive director had taken on many jobs that were for many years done by volunteer executive members. Until we could do something about it, we re-assigned jobs within the new board that we, as an board, should have been doing in the first place. Marlene offered her help, advice and suport in any kind of transition but we were in the midst of talks on the restructuring PPOC. Potentially many of the jobs done by the executive director would be taken over by PPOC following the anticipated successful vote that would restructure PPOC a few months ahead. It seemed unwise to replace and begin the long process of re-training a new executive director for a short run during 2009 so our board members stepped up to handle the workload. Many hours of meetings dealing with creation of a new set of by-laws for the new PPOC restructuring happened in the run up to the National convention and when it came time to vote in May on restructuring, there were too many issues raised by some of the member constituents on the table to make it a "done deal". Again, it seemed only a matter of time with some minor changes and the national association would be taking over much of the workload so we kept on going. Another round of negotiations happened during the summer but by the latter part of the year it was beginning to be clear that the original idea of making a new national association without the current provincial associations was not going to happen. We had put a number of issues from the design of name badges, to the amount of outside help it would take to run our association, to the renovation of by-laws on hold until this change was done. Strictly speaking we handled the year without re-hiring an executive director, but instead, some work was contracted out, mostly due to the way the year unfolded. We did receive much valuable support and help from Marlene Fast, but used her services as little as possible because she had been overloaded for so long. We entered into an agreement with Tanya Thompson of the PPOC office to handle all the work involved in preparing and sending out all membership renewals this year as well as the processing of all credit card transactions for the association. Now that we know that we need to keep our association running and not "park it" while PPOC national takes over, we should, in my opinion, expand Tanya's role in the delivery of those services that she could do for us most efficiently. Although this is a small association in terms of numbers of members, the administrative load in keeping track of all details from merits to payments is very high. As good as volunteer help is, I believe it is necessary to have some professional help in this association to make sure some of the critical things are always done correctly and in a timely manner, in case a volunteer drops the ball in their portfolio. This is the way we have to manage a successful business and it should not be different for our association.
Tanya Thompson is presently handling the PPOC Executive Director position, plus all administration for PPO, and a fair chunk of it for Atlantic and Saskatchewan. Presently for Saskatchewan she does the following:
- respond to all inquiries from existing members
- maintain membership database
- monitor all membership applications and follow up to sign members
- notify membership chair of all new memberships
- provide new member information and change of address information to the webmaster
- receive images from Observer members seeking to upgrade to Active (RPP) membership, setting up web gallery for viewing of images, distributing images to review committee and notifying the applicant member of the outcome.
- providing membership statistics or mailing lists as requested by board membersdistributing mass emails about PPOC-SK business/news
For providing these services to Saskatchewan and Atlantic associations, Tanya is charging a fee of $4.00 per member per month (based on the total at the beginning of the year and not fluctuating monthly) In addition to this, in the Atlantic association, she is charging $100 a month for bookeeping which is not done in Saskatchewan. Both associations are paying a pro-rated amount to PPOC for the use of the PPOC phone line and they are paying $10 per member for the invoicing of membership renewals directly to PPOC which we are doing this year.
I would suggest that in 2010 we hire Tanya to do the services outlined above for the fee quoted. This would go a long way to relieving some of the pressure on certain jobs on the board and make this association run more like a professional business which would yield positive benefits for the members in terms of delivery of service as well as grow the membership numbers. You may note that in the minutes of the previous AGM, we came up with a figure of $3.50 per member, but we did not specify the exact details of the job. I believe this amount of service is certainly worth the $4.00 per member per month as quoted. I believe with Tanya's help a smaller board that has been proposed by extraordinary resolution, would be able to handle the remaining work of the association without undue hardship.
The next largest issue to handle was the finances. We have much to thank JJ Ali for this year because of the major effort she has made to straighten out the financial record keeping of the association. She has given large amounts of time selflessly this year to get this done properly. First, we hired a new accountant who has considerable experience with non-profit organizations. JJ took a short course early in the year to get her skills in Quickbooks to the point that she could handle the job. Through the course of many meetings, they found that it was not possible to distinguish where many expenses actually went so trying to track down costs was very difficult, if not impossible in some cases. Categories in the previous accounting structure for the association were out of date and many entries were in categories they should not have been. The accountant dealt with and closed off 2008 (the books for 2007 and 2008 were not done when we took over - we had two years of accounting to do) and a new "company" template was built in Quickbooks beginning January 1, 2009. It cost over three thousand dollars to unravel and straighten out this mess but we now have a new clean company that makes it possible for us to do the books both more accurately and with less work in the future. Although we technically had to try to do the books for 2008, it was very difficult to establish exactly how and where income and expense happened in that year. There can be small parts of it that could be open to a different interpretation but generally it is as accurate as could be achieved under those circumstances.I will leave the detail of more of this report to JJ Ali, our secretary/treasurer but this is an overview of what went on this year. The GST is now paid, and we are now in compliance again with the government with regard to the Companies Act which our corporation is governed by.
One of the bright lights this year was our newsletter editor, Pam MacFarlane, who delivered a great newsletter on time, every time to our membership throughout the year. Aside from education, one of the most important functions we have as an association is to keep our membership informed and in the loop. Pam just went off like the energizer bunny and got it done for us. Thanks again Pam!
In terms of Education, again I will leave most of the report to Ron Gilfillan who was in charge of that portfolio this year. As an overview, because of the organizational and financial problems that needed immediate attention in our association, as well as many, many hours of work on the PPOC Restructuring project this year, I feel our efforts were a little diluted when it came to delivery of education this year. We started out very well with some great attendance but later in the year, things did not remain as active as I had hoped. Our "little convention" went very well and I believe we did not lose money this year. We will be able to give a pretty close snapshot of how that went at the AGM but are still collecting the bills. Those who attended enjoyed the speakers and went home with money making ideas that would be much greater than their attendance costs. Education is one of the key cornerstones of our association and I would like to see a much stronger presence of Education next year. I believe we should be announcing educational events at the AGM rather than trying to roll them as we get them booked throughout the year. Therefore the Education chair should be taking care of this years events and planning and scheduling for the following year as well so people can get as much advance notice to book time. I think as an association, we need to evaluate this area very carefully because it is one of the key factors in either growing the association or watching it decline. In my view, I believe we should host fewer, but larger educational events during the year. I do not believe that the "monthly meeting" format has served us well. I understand I could be viewed as biased because coming to an evening meeting costs me five hours of travel time - it just isn't worth it for many events for me. I believe also photographers who live in the city with busy lives are very selective about what meetings are worth a piece of their life. An expensive - big name speaker normally will cost between about $2500 to $4000 for a one-day engagement, but will draw both members and non-members to support it. Hosting a large expense speaker twice a year I think would deliver more useful education to our members than four to six small monthly meetings. I think there is also opportunity for more social only events to keep in touch with our membership but it should be operated on a "use it or lose it" criteria. This association is a democracy and we need feedback about the direction you the members would like to see in the future. I have outlined my vision of the best outcomes in education, but I need your views.
I have a few comments about the convention because there is not a formal convention report this year as there was no convention chair. A small number of people on the board (plus Carmen Matthews) took it on and made it happen. My observations are this. It seems to be exceedingly and increasingly difficult to get people to commit to more than one day - so perhaps it is time to reduce the convention education to a one day event. It would be easier to organize and you might get more participation with the right keynote speaker. Image Salon and Awards banquet do not even have to be handled at the same time as they have in past. I had the speakers booked, the venue committed and the convention was scheduled "at the same time as it has been for the last several years!" There were teaser messages in the newsletter beginning in May as to the main speaker we had chosen. As the unofficial convention chair, the worst part of this job was the feeling I had when less than two weeks before this was about to begin, we had a total registration of five members! You might point out, there was no early bird registration and so on but we are all grown ups - we need to support this association's events if we expect it to survive or become better. I have personally run many, many seminars of my own over the years and maybe its time to implement a "drop dead" date for these committments which would include a period of time like 60 days out. If we have enough registration to cover our base costs 60 days out, we run it - if not, we cancel it. It's time to run this like a business instead of a grade 4 class that you have to pester, badger, beg, plead and phone to see if they have done their homework. The previous year, Ingrid and her committee ran a much bigger convention and it still didn't break even because there has not been enough support. Reading parts of this report may offend some people but I took on this job to work in the best interests of the long term future of PPOC-MB and not to try to win a popularity contest.
I have a few observations about our annual Image Salon that was run by Brenda Westwood and Mimi Boulé. I want to thank them greatly as well as Steve Hiebert, Ron Gilfillan and the many other members it took to run this dual province competition. As I mentioned at the banquet, I believe we have reached the time in our association when it is not possible to justify running the Image Salon for PPOC-MB only, without sharing costs with other associations. Members have made it clear in past that a small amateur local judging was not what we wanted and I agree that it has limited value. The desire for an Affiliate judging that can move images up to qualify for the National salon without re-judging requires us to fly judges in from around the country and run it basically exactly the same way and at the same cost as the National judging. The costs of putting this on in our province are somewhere above five thousand dollars and this year, fourteen members from PPOC-MB entered. At roughly ninety dollars an entry, it is financial suicide to do this. Our income would be roughly $1200 so the loss would be about $4000. This loss could be acceptable if all members benefitted but less than twenty five percent of our members participate. I am not saying we should stop provincial image salons! What I am saying very clearly is that we can not afford to do this on our own! I have outlined the financial cost, but there is also a human resources cost that comes with this gig. It is not in our best interests to burn out potential contributing members with the workload associated with holding this event here every year.
It is important for me to acknowledge the great help of our Vice-President, Mimi Boulé. I could not have handled much of what did get done this year without her assistance and advice. There is so much behind the scenes work to keep an association like this running that I think sometimes the general membership do not appreciate what they have. We both have put in many, many more hours than we likely ever anticipated to make this a better association this year. Our entire board displayed a strong committment to PPOC-MB this year.
This year, I have sent many "Messages from the President" to the point you might be tired of them but I have tried to keep you all up to date in the goings on provincially and nationally. I believe, as I have said many times before, that the association is very important to the overall photographic community, the general public and you individually. If you take a short term tough view, "what's in it for me today?" approach, there are going to be days or months when you can say it wasn't worth it. However if you take the long view, it is impossible not to recognize the value of what our association does for you and the profession at large. Aside from professional educational events, I personally had a camera crash this year that left me a little short and a member stepped up and lent me equipment, a few weeks ago a member from another province requested advice about a large equipment purchase of which I had made and I helped him make a business decision - I could go on, but we are a community, no one is an island, and if you are arrogant enough to think you know it all and don't need the support system the association provides, you are mistaken. We live in a very different reality than what was envisioned when PPOC-MB or PPOC was formed and much needs to change. I think there is a very strong desire provincially and nationally to make our association stronger, better and deliver better services to you, the member. Years ago, there were not online seminars and groups like the Digital Wedding forum with all the good things it offers, but keep in mind that you will never earn your "Craftsmen of Photographic Arts" or "Master of Photographic Arts" degrees or Accreditations that help the buying public evaluate your ability to deliver a professional product on time every time. What I am saying is that those associations do not replace what we can deliver. If you are serious about photography as a career, the association is essential and will greatly enhance your potential success. This report has a lot of detail and quite a bit of tough talk because PPOC-MB needs support now, and feedback to continue and prosper. If you have gone through this long document, I thank you for your time. If you would like me to serve one more year as President, I would be happy to do so, to finish some of the changes I would like to see happen to make this association better for you and me and to attract the many, many photographers that are outside our group that should be in.
I would like to leave you with a snapshot of the outcomes I would like to be achieved next year. First, immediate attention to organizing and running a one day New Members seminar to help welcome our new members and take advantage of what we have to offer. I would like two major speakers nailed down with dates as early as they would do it. We came very close to booking Joe McNally of New York, Kevin Kubota and Ben Wilmore of photoshop fame. It would be great to tell you at the AGM that these are the dates for these events right away. I would like to put some responsibility on the members to support one of these major speakers by committing deposits before a clearly defined "drop dead" date. I would like to see a revamp of the website. I think some form of restructuring will take place by the end of this year so it will be important for us to change some things like membership categories to align with the rest of the country. I think we accomplished a lot last year and I think more can be done this year. 
sincerely, Ken Frazer MPA, F.Ph.
President PPOC-MB
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Education Report
This will be my last PD Report.I feel it is time for me to move over and let some else educate the membership.
Big thanks to Pam for all of her help and great suggestions. And thanks for putting your heart and soul into the news letter. And Ken for being there for me and the membership from the Public library to HDR and to a great BBQ at Riding Mountain.
I feel the best part of being on the board is the time you spend with these great people. You do not know it until you are about to step down. I now know. It is not the board but it the photo family.
This board had a lot of things correct, and they did a great job of it from cleaning up the books great job JJ.
Mimi took on the VP roll and was a great right hand to Ken and left to Brenda.
Brenda is a great do’r she was there to make sure every one did there part.
Des made us proud he located a lot of great new members.
Carey did every thing that was thrown at him.
I think we all know who the Queen Bee is, it rhymes with Marlene. Ok I’m not a rapper
We had a lot of great speakers.Paul Martins ( Light Room )
Ken Frazer MPA, F.Ph. ( Marketing )( HDR ) BBQ )
Barry Cullen( Marketing )Jeremy Dueck ( Posing and Lighting )Marlene Fast MPA, F.Ph., SPA, HLM ( Paper work )
Ingrid Misner MPA, F.Ph. ( Photo Shop )
Fred Elcheshen MPA, F.Ph. ( Impact )
Alexandra Morrison Photographer of the Year ( Panoramic )
We had a lot of great locations
Public library
Kings Head Pub
Prairie View
Tec Voc
Riding Mountain
Ken worked hard on trying to find us great speakers like
Ben Willmore, Joe McNally and Kevin Kubota ( it all comes down to money) If we had greater turn outs to events we would take the gamble to spend the money hint hint.
Comments and Ideas from the membership for the future events.
1-Editorial stock photography
2-Light room
3-Infrared photography
4-Were do blogs, video and multi media play in your business
5- A shoot of but this time we videotape it and then every one gets to see it happen live.
6-Socan
7 Bring equipment rep’
8 Have a “techie night”
9 Sales or Marketing in August or Sept.
One Last statement is to Fred ( congratulations ):
Fred Elcheshen MPA, F.Ph.
This years Photographer of the year.
We all can learn from Fred he enters every year weather he he wins or not. Great job Fred.
respectfully submitted,
Ron Gilfillan Voc Ed, MPA, F.Ph.
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