National Professional Videographers Association of New England

From Marty Feldman:

Just wanted to pass along the info that Steve Auerbach (Video Archives Unlimited) and past NPVA president suffered a serious heart attack about a week and a half ago. He did have some heart muscle damage and is currently on nine medications.

To All NPVA Members:

As you probably know from recent announcements in the NPVA newsletter and at recent membership meetings, a board-appointed By-Laws Committee has been working on a comprehensive overhaul of the association's By-Laws, which guide the governance and structure of the NPVA.

The By-Laws Committee consisted of Hal Slifer, Bill Ramsay, Craig Newman, Whit Wales, Joyce Bertolami, and myself.

We are pleased to submit to you a document which represents the work of this committee, as adopted and unanimously approved by the NPVA Board of Directors last week. (It may be found at this link: NPVA Proposed Amended By-Laws). It is now being submitted to the membership for approval.

There are literally hundreds of proposed changes to the By-Laws, so rather than submitting page after page of proposed changes, we are submitting a clean document for membership approval. The By-Laws require that changes be submitted to the membership with 30 days notice, and that approval must be made with an affirmative vote by 2/3 vote of those voting. After you receive this email message, you will receive instructions on how to cast your ballot on these changes.

If adopted, the By-Laws will take effect as of May 1st, and the board plans to call a special election to fill any vacancies that exist in the board.

The changes to the NPVA By-Laws fall into several categories:

1. Purpose - the purposes of the Association have been expanded to include outreach and promotion of our profession and the benefits of videography
2. Governance - the Board has been expanded from 7 to 9, new roles of Marketing Director, Membership Director, and Competition Director have been introduced, the National Liaison responsibilities have been absorbed into the president's role, the presidential succession has been changed, and there are 5-year term limits on all Board positions except Technical Advisor.
3. Membership Process - the process of becoming an NPVA member will become more formalized, and will involve a provisional membership period of a year before being accepted to permanent membership; initiation and reinstatement fees have also been introduced for new or lapsed members, and there is a process for termination of membership for cause
4. Membership Classes - provision has been made for four new classes of membership -- Student Members, Sponsoring Members, and Life Members, as well as the Provisional Members in their first year
5. Code of Ethics - the code of ethics is incorporated formally into our By-Laws as a standard of conduct required of all members
6. Duties - The duties and responsibilities of all officers, board members, and committees are spelled out more clearly.

In addition, there are dozens of "clean-up" corrections that ensure consistency throughout the By-Laws, and that modernize the By-Laws to address such concepts as electronic voting, use of email lists, and teleconference meetings.

It might also be noted that the By-Laws Committee recommended to the Board that it begin considering a change to the name of the Association, to more appropriately reflect its New England regional focus. While it did not make a specific recommendation, it suggested that this be an issue addressed in the coming months by the Board.

If you do NOT receive an electronic ballot later today, please let me know.

Respectfully submitted,
Michael Kolowich
Chairman, By-Laws Committee
National Professional Videographers Association
31 March 2007

A very important online member survey is being conducted currently within NPVA -- one that will help guide the direction and programming of the organization over the next several years. The anonymous survey was distributed in an email message Thursday morning.

If you have not received it, please check your spam folder just in case...and if you still don't see it, please contact Michael Kolowich at michael@diginovations.com.

In the 36 hours since the survey was launched, nearly 50% of the NPVA membership has responded...which is great! Surveys rarely get more than 50% response. Still, that's about 40 voices that haven't yet been heard, and we urge everyone to take the 10 minutes required to fill out the online survey.

Michael Kolowich
DigiNovations / MemoryWorks Studios
Concord, Massachusetts

The deadline for early renewal will expire at the October meeting, and so will the discount. Full renewal fees will be due after that date.  Click for complete info (and forms) on membership renewal.

Dinner meetings are now $20.00.

The VISTA award deadline is October 10th. Half the fun is participating. Enter at least one category and be a contender. Click here for the revised VISTA Awards entry form

Just a Few Days Left before Free Membership Drawing

NPVA members have been doing a great job in building links to www.npva.org into their websites.

Over the summer, after a membership meeting talk by NPVA web guru Michael Kolowich about the importance of links to traffic and search rankings, the board decided to challenge the members with a contest.

Just before the October membership meeting, we'll take an audit of all the member sites that are linking in to www.npva.org, and we'll hold a drawing among those linked-in members.  Some lucky member will have his/her dues paid for in 2007 by winning this contest.

There's still time to make it happen.  Here are the member sites that we know of that link to www.npva.org:

• www.alexvideo.com/
• www.alloccasionvideography.com/
• www.beaconvideo.net/
• www.cookproductions.com/
• www.diginovations.com/
• www.eastcoastvideoservices.com/
• www.fairytaleproductions.biz/
• www.familymemories.net/
• www.halslifervideo.com/
• www.joyofvideo.com
• www.kvimedia.com/
• www.mcvideography.com/
• www.memoryworks.net/
• www.richardtalmageimages.com/
• www.silvercityvideo.com/
• www.strathamheightsvideo.com

  www.thevideohistory.com/
• www.video-sensations.com/
• www.video-services.net/
• www.vitalmemories.com/
• www.wingstv.com/

If your member site links to us, but you aren't listed above, please post a comment to this entry, and we'll be sure to include you in the official drawing!

Forms for renewals are at this link on the website and will be in the next newsletter. Any member who renews their membership by the October meeting can receive their 2007 Daily Planner.

The Board of Directors would like to remind everyone that we are accepting entries for this year’s VISTA Awards.  The forms, rules and regulations can be found in the newsletter.  The deadline for the Highlight/Recap category is 10/1/06 and we will begin the judging process for that category at the October meeting.  The deadline for the Corporate category is 11/01/06 and we will begin judging those videos at the November meeting.  Entries for those two categories must be five minutes or less.  The deadline for weddings, other events and DVD chapter creation and packaging is 12/01/06 and all winners will be announced at the January meeting.

In acknowledgement of the NPVA’s 20th Anniversary, WEVA Chairman Roy Chapman will be joining us for our meeting on September 18, 2006. Accompanying Roy, will be WEVA’s Director of Education, John Zale and to inaugurate WEVA’s Ambassador Program, Natalie Neal. Natalie is gaining popularity with her “Nat Chat” Pod casts.

Newly installed WEVA Hall of Fame recipients, Al and Kathy Ritondo will also be taking part in the festivities. 

Don’t miss this great opportunity to participate in this momentous event. We will trace the history of the NPVA from its’ humble beginnings at the Waltham, MA Public library to its present role as one of the most influential local video associations in the Wedding and Event Videography World.

BLACK TIE OPTIONAL

MUSIC PROVIDED BY THE EVENT CONNECTION

DATE:  SEPTEMBER 18, 2006
PLACE: HOLIDAY INN DEDHAM, MA.

TIME:   6:30-11PM

RSVP BY SEPTEMBER 12, 2006

COME ONE, COME ALL……

Come to the 2oth Anniversary of the National Professional Videographers’ Association. Help us honor all those who have helped us reach this very important milestone. In acknowledgment of the NPVA’s position as the first and one of the most active local associations in the country, some nationally known leaders in the industry are coming to help us celebrate this special event. More information will follow.

Date: September 18, 2006

Place: Holiday Inn Dedham , Ma

Time: 6:30-11pm

20^th Anniversary Recognition Dinner-$20.00

A CASH BAR WILL BE AVAILABLE

Music provided by Richard Coury of the Event Connection

BLACK TIE OPTIONAL

RSVP BY SEPTEMBER 12, 2006
781-933-8674

Last night at the WEVA Town Meeting at NAB in Las Vegas, WEVA Chairman Roy Chapman talked about an interesting new program which will bring literally many hundreds of commercial videography assignments to members in our region later this year.  WEVA has struck a deal with ImageSpan, an international digital rights management company, to source thousands of videography assignments for national ad agencies and commercial clients to WEVA members across the country.  At last night's meeting, Chapman talked about the growing appetite companies have for video content for internet and mobile applications, and how they're now turning to a national network of videographers like WEVA to create these clips.

The program is being tested in the southeast US region, but will be rolled out to New England as part of the national program launch at WEVA Expo in August.  Read more about it here.

NPVA member (and past president) Eugene DeFrancesco is featured in the current issue of EventDV Magazine.  Read the article here.

Eugene's EugeneWorks is the lastest of a string of local studios profiled recently by the magazine.  To see others, click here.

David Robin of Boulevard Video Productions, one of the most celebrated creative talents in videography, will be our special guest at the next NPVA meeting, on Tuesday, April 25th at the Holiday Inn in Dedham.  Please note the unusual date --a Tuesday night, rather than our usual Monday night.

Please let Joyce Bertolami know by 4/20 if you're planning to attend the meeting.

We're pleased to announce that the new NPVA website is "live".  Designed by NPVA member Michael Kolowich of DigiNovations, It uses a unique online publishing system that will make it easier to update content and keep the site fresh and useful to every member.

If you're curious about checking out the SquareSpace web publishing system for your own site, click here to try it out.

Please let us know what you think, and how you'd suggest we improve the site.  We've only just begun!

I had a thought as we all gear up for another season on the road. Are things going as well as you expected this year? I am probably like most of you wishing that the phone was ringing more. The question for each of us is what we are going to do about it. For starters it is time to get more proactive towards marketing your services to the world.

Click to read more ...

The NPVA Vista Awards have been announced, and the winning videos may now be viewed online here on the NPVA website.  Check out all the winners in wedding, highlights, corporate, and event/general categories.

by Richard Talmage

Happy New Year to all members of the NPVA!

As your incoming President I would like to thank all of you for coming to our monthly meetings and let you know that we are going to work on some new exciting meetings for our members this year during the next few months. I would like you to know that I will work this year at promoting the group and also providing some guest speakers to talk about some new ideas. I will be glad to share ideas this year and make 2006 a year for learning.

The more that I am in this business it seems like the learning never stops. It is especially important for us as an industry because if we are not learning, then our competition could be. In fact our competition is everyone in the wedding industry who is competing for the bride's money. We want to make sure we have a product that will make them say wow!

That is what I would like to bring to the board this year and with your help we can grow NPVA to new levels.

Wes Moore, formerly of Moore Digital, currently of HomeMovie.com, recently offered the NPVA the opportunity to participate in its StreamingDVD Gallery program. Under the program, every member of the NPVA has the opportunity to stream up to two hours of demo video directly from the NPVA web site. The StreamingDVD Gallery is a great way for the NPVA to promote its members videography services. This is a free service that HomeMovie is providing to the NPVA. In fact, every other videographer association nationwide is being offered the same opportunity.

Click to read more ...