Day: February 18, 2009

Since I’m not a photographer, I am not privy to all the info that ASMP general members get. So, I’m late to learning that there is a crazy idea to stop paying the ASMP President a stipend. This is insane. 

1) The amount is really small.

2) The amount of time a Pres. puts in is huge.

3) The amount of biz the Pres. loses because of the time s/he puts in is significant.

4) #1 doesn’t come close to making up for numbers 2 & 3. Not hardly.

Look, being ASMP President doesn’t bring you clients and doesn’t improve your business in any way. Those who take on this task do so because they love the industry, are deeply committed to it and to the ASMP members, and because they have a screw loose. 

Okay, the last one is totally supposition on my part. But seriously, it is a thankless job and one that no one should take on without getting a little something to offset the losses. 

For you members, please make sure to vote as needed to make sure the stipend stays. I know several of the board members and the current (and several past) President(s)–these people unquestionably really want the absolute best for the members. They are good, honest, kind photographers who would love to be able to make every member successful. Let’s not make it harder to get good people to run for President by cutting a meager stipend!

A little trust, faith, and, yes, financial backing to the Pres. would be great.

Okay, so FB had reverted back to their previous (and also lousy) TOS for now while they rework the wording. Good. 

KEEP PRESSURING THEM.

Seriously, now is the time to let them know that the old terms were also unacceptable.

By the way, I just had a law school colleague come up to me to talk about the FB TOS issue. This was just another student with no particular horse in the race, but he had noticed my (and others) posts on FB itself against the TOS. In talking to this one (young) man, I helped to educate him about the problem for creative pros. He got it.

You can do the same. Don’t just talk to your creative colleagues. Get the message out to your kids, your family, and your friends who are not in the industries. Call TV stations and networks that misreport the issues (this was NEVER about ownership, no matter how hard FB tried to spin it that way!). Be polite, informed, and helpful…but get the word out.