Board Approves $1.4m Budget, Plans For NPPA's Future, Web Site

 

By Donald R. Winslow
© 2010 News Photographer magazine

DURHAM, NC (January 17, 2010) – On the second day of their business meeting NPPA's new national board of directors passed a $1.4 million annual budget, discussed and planned the future of NPPA's Web site, talked about how NPPA can attract new members and retain existing members, and voted on how to distribute Authors Coalition of America funds that NPPA received in 2009.

The majority of Sunday's meeting was consumed with studying the proposed $1.4 million budget. The budget was amended once, to address the distribution of regional funds. (The board voted to distribute regional funds evenly, rather than by a weighted plan.) After discussing the budget the board went into executive session in order to talk about personnel and compensation figures, which are confidential. When they came out of executive session the budget was approved. The budget had been prepared by NPPA's Finance Committee, and it was presented to the board and explained by executive director Jim Straight.

Regarding membership, the board Sunday also discussed with Straight and NPPA membership director Mindy Hutchison the organization's efforts to attract new members, retain existing members, and position the organization so that its benefits are best suited for the changes taking place in the visual journalism industry. The needs of student members are different than professional members, the board concluded, and still photographers' needs vary from video journalists, editors, and academic members. The board discussed how the different membership needs fit into NPPA's mission statement (which defines it as an educational organization).

The Membership Committee was directed to look into alternative membership opportunities as well as the recruiting of new members and retention of existing members, and to report their findings back to the board. The board also voted to create a subcommittee to the existing Membership Committee to address NPPA's professional chapters.

The board also amended NPPA's Bylaws to clarify various questions of eligibility and to establish policies for filling vacancies on the board. The board decided that NPPA student members are now eligible to run for a position on the board of directors, a follow-up to new NPPA Bylaws that were approved by the board last summer during its meeting in Las Vegas when the board decided that NPPA student members were eligible to vote in NPPA's national elections. Under the new Bylaws, candidates for the board of directors must be members "in good standing" (current in dues payment and lacking any organizational disciplinary action), which includes students, but students still cannot run for Executive Committee posts. Members who are appointed to the board of directors, as opposed to being elected, are not required to be NPPA members.

On Sunday morning the board also voted on how to distribute the Authors Coalition of America funds that NPPA received in August 2009. They appointed a task force to set parameters for how various grants can be applied for and distributed.

Web Site Discussed

The board meeting concluded with a discussion of NPPA's Web site and its future. As announced yesterday, NPPA president Bob Carey has assumed the role of chairing the committee on NPPA's Web site. Several businesses have submitted proposals, executive director Straight told the board. The Web site committee has reviewed the proposals, and they've been narrowed down. Straight told the board about how NPPA's Web site is not only made up of editorial content but it's also eCommerce, because it handles membership (both joining and renewing) as well as registration for educational events and workshops and various payment schemes. NPPA's Web site also has to contend with interfacing with a database as well as the organization's membership list.

"We need to make sure we have a solid business unit on the back-end," Straight told the board. "The back-end is critical for users, whether it's submitting a vote or entering a clip or renewing their membership, and for the NPPA staff to be able to do their jobs here."

"There's nothing 'in a box' that solves our requirements," Straight said. "NPPA's unique Web site needs – eCommerce and our contests and editorial content – will require customized development ... as well as integrating the old with the new."

"The wrong decision about what to do with their Web site has ruined many companies," new board member Smiley Pool said. "The most difficult task [facing NPPA] is the development challenge," Pool said.

"We [the executive committee] bogged down," Carey said. "We need to move forward, and I appreciate the executive director working to find the funding for this. I want to bring in some people who can help with this and begin to make some moves. Hopefully, some of these companies [who have submitted proposals] will be able to do some of these things."

"It would be one thing for us to build a site that just displayed beautiful pictures," Pool said. "But that won't do, that won't address the core business and database functions that you need."

"To attract new members, I think it's important that we keep some things behind the wall for members, but I think our Blogs are underutilized. I think that by putting some content out there for everyone, not just our members, it's going to attract some new people as members," board member Kevin Martin said.

Carey added new board members Tom Kennedy and Ron Londen to the Web site committee, as well as Stephanie Holland from The Townsend Group. (Townsend is NPPA's national advertising agency in Bethesda, MD).

A task force on the Web site will report back to the board and executive committee within a few weeks, Carey said.

"I'm excited about where we're going," Carey told the board at the conclusion of Sunday's meeting. "This is the beginning of a new decade, and I think we are going to make some changes that will really help visual journalists. We're facing some really unique times, but I'm honored to be on this new board with you and I really hope that we can use this meeting as a launching pad."

Read coverage of the board's first day of meeting

 

 

 

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