PORTLAND, OR (May 30, 2007) – The National Press Photographers Association's annual two-day business meeting of the board of directors at the Photojournalism Summit and Multimedia Immersion program in Portland concluded on Wednesday evening with the election of national officers. And late this afternoon the board passed a $1.6 million budget for the fiscal year 2007-2008.
Tony Overman was re-elected president by a unanimous vote (running unopposed), and Jack Zibluk was elected as vice president. Zibluk had served out the remainder of Scott Utterback's vice presidential term this year after Utterback resigned the post in January. Normally an NPPA president serves only one term, but there is nothing in the bylaws that prevents a president from being re-elected. For the sake of continuity, the board voted to show their belief that they think it's important for Overman to stay in office while NPPA's new executive director begins his duties this week.
NPPA treasurer Jim Sulley, who intended to step down from the position this year and was not running again, was nominated from the floor to serve another term. Sulley was re-elected to the position. Region 6 director Bob Carey was elected as the executive committee board representative, and Gregory Morley, Michelle McLoughlin, Justin Ide, and Matt McColl were elected to the Judiciary Committee, which McColl was appointed by Overman to chair. Alicia Wagner Calzada also remains on the executive committee as NPPA's immediate past president.
Meanwhile, upstairs from the board meeting at the Doubletree Hotel & Executive Meeting Center at the Portland-Lloyd Center, 40 registered participants took part in the first full day of NPPA's Multimedia Immersion workshop. The four-day program is a "boot camp" of audio and video recording, editing, and slideshow presentations for still and television photojournalists alike. NPPA's Multimedia Committee, headed by Seth Gitner, planned the faculty and curriculum for this seminar. Wednesday's first day concluded with an multimedia ethics panel discussion that included Rich Beckman, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and NPPA's Ethics & Standards chairperson John Long.
Video from the Multimedia Immersion workshop's first day, and some of the results of the group's initial efforts, will be published online over the next four days at www.nppasummit.org.
During the Photojournalism Summit upcoming on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (the part of the program that is open to all attendees), there will be a great line-up of speakers in three tracks of workshops: Still Photography, Multimedia, and Television Photography. Some of the multimedia faculty from the Immersion Program may also do “double duty” and lead sessions during the Photojournalism Summit as well. One-hour workshops are planned ranging from traditional storytelling to the latest and greatest mulitmedia tools and techniques.
During this year's board of directors meeting the Regional directors and associate directors participated in a strategic planning session with the new executive director, Jim Straight. The board also heard a report from the Advocacy Committee, which was represented by chairperson Alicia Wagner Calzada and NPPA's legal general counsel, Mickey Osterreicher, Esq. They reported on the committee's efforts in the areas of copyright, and incidents during the past year when the group has taken action to protect photojournalists' First Amendment rights.
The board also discussed plans for this year's 50th anniversary Flying Short Course.
Four resolutions were submitted to the board for consideration, and two were withdrawn. The withdrawn resolutions basically duplicated the resolutions that were considered by the board and brought to a vote.
NPPA's board of directors Wednesday approved an amendment to the organization's Standing Rules to update election procedures. NPPA national secretary Sean D. Elliot said the changes included being able to hold mid-term executive committee elections (to fill a vacancy) as well as being able to elect the Chapters Board Representative online, and streamlined the deadlines for regional elections and waived the two-candidate mandate for Regional elections (so that a candidate can run for a Regional office unopposed).
The board also approved an amendment to NPPA's Bylaws to eliminate full-time photographic employment as a requirement to run for NPPA office.
Wednesday the board voted unanimously to join the Imagery Alliance in order to be able to more effectively lobby in favor of photographers' rights on copyright issues. The Imagery Alliance will, in turn, join a larger group called the Copyright Assembly, a federation of photographic and visual arts groups and corporations who address copyright issues.
In other action, the board also voted to accept a Spanish language translation of the NPPA Code of Ethics. That version is available here as a downloadable Adobe Acrobat .PDF document.
