Saturday, April 19, 2008
Roll call: All officers were in attendance
President Ed Suba called the meeting to order.
Karl Kuntz swore in the officers for 2008.
A motion to wave the reading of the minutes from the previous meeting was affirmed
Financial Report – Treasurer Kimberly Barth reported that the finances for ONPA are currently good. Total expenses for the year were $20, 999.53. Total income was $21,696.67. Interest deposited from the George Smallsreed Estate totaled $8107.70. We have two accounts, one checking and one money market. Money from memberships is down from last year: $8,575 (2007), as opposed to $6,340 (2008).
Printing and mailing the newsletter and purchasing the award plaques are our two largest expenses. As always we are trying to keep costs down whenever possible.
Craig Holman suggested eliminating the printing and mailing of the newsletter and releasing it to the membership in a PDF format. The newsletter currently costs approximately $4,500 a year to print and mail. It was suggested that the money saved by cutting out the cost of the newsletter to go toward reducing the price of the convention for the members. It was decided that Bob DeMay would send out an e-mail to the membership asking for their input.
The ONPA spent $175 on the Buckeye Lima workshop this year.
Barth also talked about the future of the George Smallsreed trust and how it might be maintained when the funds are transfered to ONPA. Currently we only receive interest from the trsut.
A motion to accept the financial report was made and accepted.
Contest Reports
Monthly Clip Contest – Craig Holman filled in for contest chairman Neal Lauron.
ONPA has picked up the mailing costs of the contest from the Dispatch due to budgets cuts at the paper. Results have been timely and the contest is running smoothly at this time.
Year End Contest – Dave Polcyn was not in attendance to give a report. The only changes discussed would limit the number of entries in the individual categories to make the contest more manageable to run.
Multi-media Contest – Jonathan Quilter reported that there were 40 slideshows entered in the end of the year contest. There was one judge for each category. The judges gave good critiques which were downloadable.
There were three questions about the contest. Why were the numbers of entries limited?
Why were there no separate categories for team entries? Why did points for multi-media category not get added to the staff of the year?
In discussing these questions, it was explained that we used the NPPA rules as a model for limiting the number of entries and the categories. The fact that points from this contest were not added to staff of the year was an oversight.
Television Contest – David Bradford said there were 18 entries in this year’s contest. He suggested that we enable people to view them on the internet in order to increase participation. It is imperative that results be made available in a timely manner. He will investigate taking over the quarterly contest. He suggested running another Buckeye conference, or several across the state, next year. Bob DeMay suggested hosting them at newspapers to reduce the cost.
New Business – Karl Kuntz offered to host Friday Night sessions on the night before the conference next year in order to increase participation. It was discussed and also suggested that the hotel be utilized for sessions also. One suggestion was to offer formalized portfolio reviews from several newspapers.
A question was raised about making the ONPA website more interactive such as a blog section or place where members can add content.
The meeting was adjourned.