Candidates For NPPA National Offices Named

 

DURHAM, NC (May 25, 2008) - National elections chair Denny Simmons of the Evansville Courier & Press says the following candidates have declared their interest to run for national office for the National Press Photographers Association. National officers on the Executive Committee level are elected by NPPA's board during their annual summer business meeting. These positions will be elected during the two-day board meeting that begins Wednesday May 28 during NPPA's Convergence '08 in Louisville, KY.

Here are the declared candidates:

John B. (Jack) Zibluk
Candidate for President

In an era when anybody with a cell phone can upload a picture to a news agency, get paid for it and call him or herself a professional photojournalist, the NPPA plays a unique and critical role in the profession. We need to continue to define the profession and professional ethics and standards. We need to provide and disseminate best works and best practices through our programs and contests. We need to defend and grow our profession in our advocacy. We need to disseminate that vision to established members and new potential members. It’s a job no other organization can do.

The NPPA is the voice of professional visual journalism in every medium: on-line, in print or broadcast. The old labels are becoming almost irrelevant, and we need to abandon the old still versus TV rivalries within the NPPA. We need to focus on concerns common to all visual journalists. While media change and converge, the definition of the profession is also in flux. The NPPA needs to be there to help established professionals navigate all the changes as well as to help new professionals understand the field.

We need to grow our reach and our membership to include new professionals in new and converged media. We need to engage our audiences, public officials, private businesses and other constituencies with whom we interact in discussions so they understand the profession. We need to fight the “paparazzi” stereotypes and other prejudices and offer a more balanced vision of what a professional photojournalist is. We need to truly address diversity at a time when our profession and interest in it is increasingly female, African American, Asian, Latino and international.

But some things do not change and we need to fight and preserve the values on which this organization was founded. Those are the professional standards of truth, accuracy, fairness and the courage to speak out to defend these values in an increasingly hostile environment. As visual journalists, we are threatened by an erosion of access rights and we face efforts to limit our copyrights among other issues.

The NPPA is in a unique position to make a difference in all these areas. As a longtime NPPA member and current NPPA vice president, I have already made efforts to strengthen the organization to meet these challenges. With Tony Overman, Joe Barrentine and Brian Immel, I helped put our student clip contest on-line as student clip contest chair. I am a longtime advocate of professional ethics and a frequent contributor for the ethics columns in News Photographer magazine.

This year, I helped shepherd our strategic plan to a successful completion and it will be considered by the board of directors in May. The strategic plan is a road map to help us prioritize and make decisions to help us focus our limited resources. The NPPA needs to think strategically and not make decisions in an arbitrary, willy-nilly fashion and the strategic plan helps us do it.

As NPPA president, I seek to help the organization set priorities. Here are mine in a nutshell: education, outreach and advocacy. In education, we need to revisit our programs and ensure participants get the maximum value. We need to look at new methods of delivery to make them accessible to the widest number of participants. We need to make our programs relevant to meet the needs or the rapidly changing field.

In outreach, we need to make our website and our on-line services diverse and invaluable. We need to build an interactive, dynamic online community. I have started blogging and will make efforts to keep in touch with members and potential members through any on-line venue that seems relevant. We need to make our voice heard by potential new members and we need to increase the understanding of our profession to outside constituencies.

In advocacy, we need to continue to support and grow the work of Alicia Calzada and Mickey Osterreicher. We need to choose the issues that most affect our members and to avoid issues that come down to interpersonal squabbles. These include efforts to curb our access and copyrights by state and federal officials, private businesses and sports organizations. Wise advocacy decisions bring attention to the NPPA as well as help our members function as professionals every day. As a member of the advocacy committee, I have participated in many discussions and I have written several briefs and columns that have helped contribute to successful advocacy efforts nationwide.

Here is an example of a column I wrote which contributed to the successful effort to defeat limits on access to high school sporting events:

As NPPA president, I hope to continue to be a spokesperson and advocate for the organization and the profession. My work as a journalism professor and scholar provides me with an overview to address some of the more complicated issues we face. As a still-active freelance writer and photographer who depends on my journalism income to make ends meet, I am personally sensitive to the issues well all face.

I am proud of my association with the NPPA, and I believe my experience and understanding will help me navigate the challenges and opportunities I will face as NPPA president.

The future is upon us. It’s exciting. It’s challenging. We need to move. We need to focus, and I think I am in position to help hold the organization together as we move forward.

Sincerely, John B. (Jack) Zibluk

 

Bob Carey
Candidate for Vice President

My name is Bob Carey and I’m running for NPPA Vice President. I am the Region 6 Director and have served for the past year as Board representative on the Executive Committee. I’ve been a photojournalist in Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. For the past ten years, I have taught photojournalism at Gardner-Webb University.

Photojournalism is facing change at perhaps the greatest rate ever. We need to take some innovative steps to make sure the NPPA is a leader in helping visual journalists. We need to help our membership and be attentive to them. If change is needed in the organization, then we need to begin to think outside the box. We need to broaden our membership, involving other visual journalists in the profession.

We need to help our members prepare for the changes that are coming. We’ve seen some good things happen this past year in the the NPPA. But more need to happen. we need to make the website one that visual journalists look to daily for news, information and education.

I know how much the NPPA has meant to me in my career as a photojournalist, and it is my desire to continue strengthening the organization as we come to new and exciting opportunities in photojournalism. We must embrace the future yet build upon our history.

 

Merry Murray
Candidate for Vice President

My name is Merry Murray and I would like to be your Vice President.

I have been a television photojournalist for 16 years and an NPPA member for 17 years.

Over the years I have worked in Wichita, Kansas; Lexington, Kentucky; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Nashville, Tennessee before moving back to my home state of Kansas.

I spent 3 years working in a bureau in my hometown of Great Bend until I was asked to move to the main station in Wichita. Which was a good move, since I was able to actually live with my husband.

When I first joined NPPA in college, I wasn’t really sure what it was all about. But over the years I’ve taken advantage of the wonderful programs like the TV News Video Workshop, the Flying Short Courses and Airborne Seminars, and I’ve only missed two of the National Convention education days (now the Summit) in the past 10 years. That doesn’t even touch on the numerous friendships that have been developed over the years.

I have been able to give back by being a contest chair for the TV Quarterly Contest for over 11 years, in three different regions and more recently as the National Judging Coordinator and Co-contest chair. For the past 4 years I've had the privilege of chairing the TV Best of Photojournalism contest.

Even though I have spent my career as a television photojournalist, I developed my love for photography when I was 10 years old. Now more than ever, we all need the NPPA. Things are changing everyday. Some of it is exciting, some of it is scary. I want to be there to help lead the way for my fellow photojournalist. The NPPA should be THE source for photojournalism education, the place that will back you up when your rights are in jeopardy and should be something you can be proud of and want to share with all of your peers.

That’s why I am running for NPPA Vice President. I want to continue giving back to the NPPA for all it has done for my career and life.

 

 

Sean D. Elliot
NPPA Secretary (running for re-election)

When I decided to run for a second term as NPPA secretary my primary rationale was to stay involved in leading the organization as we built on the successes of the previous two years. Somehow the world decided to change things on us.

Instead of the NPPA taking these last two years to build on a model of fiscal responsibility we found ourselves challenged by a series of technological and economic circumstances that have rapidly changed our industry in a way few could have predicted.

My personal goals have gone from career advancement to career survival, as is probably the case for so many of us. The NPPA faces, in many ways, the very same problems.

Another term as secretary at this time may be as much about wanting to face the challenges head-on instead of from the sidelines as it is about any concrete ideas about what exactly to do. I wish I knew the answers, but I do know I’m capable of considering all the issues and possibilities and making reasoned and logical decisions.

It is my hope that I can serve another term as NPPA Secretary and continue to provide whatever leadership I can to help this organization remain vital and help our members adapt and survive in this new landscape.

Thank you - Sean

 

 

Denise McGill
Candidate for Secretary

I am Denise McGill, and I would be honored to serve as NPPA’s secretary.
 
I’ve been an NPPA member since 1991. I currently balance a career as an independent photographer and photojournalism professor at University of South Carolina. I started my career in Region 7, as a staff photographer at the Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader, and then the Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune. From there I worked as an overseas correspondent for The Commission magazine, traveling to 25 countries in three years. Now I continue to take editorial assignments and teach. I am a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and Ohio University's School of Visual Communication.
 
I watch what’s happening to the photojournalism industry and cringe. On top of that, I have to figure out how to equip my students for a profession that’s shrinking and changing at an alarming rate.
 
I’ve been very impressed and grateful for NPPA’s efforts in recent years to help its members. I appreciate the revamped web site, cost of doing business calculator, and an increased presence as an advocate for photographers’ rights on a national stage. And NPPA continues to modernize its traditional services such as workshops that help us adapt to new storytelling methods.
 
I know that all these improvements happen because someone makes them happen. My colleagues have taken time and effort from their careers and social lives to improve our industry. It’s time to do my part to contribute, to give back to the organization. I believe in the mission and agenda of NPPA. I can work well with others to help make them happen. I truly want to contribute to goals that are in the best interests of NPPA’s members. I don’t have a big agenda. I just want to pitch in to help save the profession I love.

 

 

Thomas Costello
Candidate for EC Board Representative

During my terms on the both the Executive Committee and as National Secretary and as a Regional Officer, I have felt that keeping the Board of Directors apprised of the decision making process of the NPPA is critical. I would like to serve as that conduit between the Board and EC as your Executive Committee Board Representative.

I am a strong advocate for keeping the Board informed about how the EC operates and what goes into their decisions. And conversely, making sure that the Board is an active participant in the National decision making process.

A little about me, as mentioned above I have already been and EC member. I am currently serving my second term as Region 3 Director, and have served two previous terms as Associate Director. Last year I was the local co-chair of the Flying Short Course's stop in McLean, VA, and have been the production coordinator for the Northern Short Course for the past 14 years.

When I'm not doing NPPA work, I'm the Chief Photographer / Video at the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey.

 

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