GTC AGM 2010 BR Amended.rtf - The Guild of Television Cameramen

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The last twelve months have proved very tough in terms of advertising revenue. All magazines and web sites have suffered a fairly large drop in income, due to the recession, and the GTC was no exception. Many companies have drastically cut their advertising budgets, whilst many others have reduced the size of their ads or taken fewer of them. This gave me quite a challenge. I held rates at the same level as last year and worked with our advertisers to keep them on board. Many are now opting for the considerable savings to be made by purchasing multiple placings, either in the same magazine, or across both Zerb and GTC In Focus and the web site. This benefits us too as we have a better idea of income across the year. I have also managed to increase my database of potential and actual advertisers, with the result that overall income remained similar to last year. Of course my work has also been made easier by Roger Richard's and Alison Chapman's efforts in producing such superb quality magazines, that are much admired the world over. Despite the web site expanding in terms of content and features, I do think this is an area that many of our sponsors and advertisers overlook. Our rates are extremely competitive and I have figures demonstrating the increasing popularity of the site. The important point, of course, is that everybody visiting the site sees their ad, whether they are a member or not. So my target for 2010 - 2011 is to grow the web site income without impacting on magazine ad sales. Sponsorship Liaison Officer’s Report After many years of sterling service for the GTC, Les Ager stood down as our Sponsorship Officer last year. It cannot be understated the tremendous contribution Les made to the GTC's coffers and its Council Meetings. For as long as I can remember, he has beavered away, quietly and efficiently, mainly in the background, and built up a tremendous list of generous sponsors. Without them, the GTC would not only find it harder to operate due to lack of resources, but also we would be much less relevant. The fact that companies approach our members for advice on new products, participate so actively on the Internet forum and help us with organising many interesting and beneficial workshops for our members, shows the high regard that they hold our organisation in. As I already spoke to the sponsors for advertising, it seemed sensible that I volunteer, at least in the short term, to take over Les' role. I have spent the last few months getting up to speed and explaining the changes to our sponsor contacts. We have lost a few old friends over the past twelve months but also gained a number of new ones. A few have asked to reduce their contributions for a short period, to tide them over the difficult times we find ourselves in. I take the view that it is better to work with these problems, rather than lose the sponsor completely. The overall result is that sponsorship income has remained very similar for this year as last. James French Membership Officer's Report Since this time last year we have had 214 new member applications, most of which now come through the Website. Of those we have been able to approve 109 Full members, 18 Associate members, 3 Affiliate members, 5 Student members and 2 Academic members; that is a total of 137, and we are still waiting for further information from the other 77. I have also been trying to contact those members whose membership has lapsed or who have resigned to find out why and to see if we can persuade them to reconsider. Those who have lapsed have usually done so because they have changed their address or their bank account and have forgotten to tell us. Those who have resigned usually say that they are no longer active as cameramen. I shall continue to pursue them. Rex Palmer Workshop Coordinators Report
A successful year for the workshops division of the GTC! We had …… 'A Grade Day Out - Again!' was held on 30th April courtesy of Molinare and proved a great success again with approx. 30 attending, including one who flew from New York specially and one who joined up and flew from Cork on the strength of this event! 'To P2 or Not to P2' , the first in our series of three Panasonic-sponsored 'roadshows' took place in Bristol on 22nd June. Although poorly attended Marc Irwin from Panasonic was totally blown away by the feedback he got from members and went away to completely reassess their approach to freelances and independent producers using P2. Alison Chapman's 'live' reports on the GTC website from the event were great and really impressed the Panasonic team! We had the second 'To P2 or Not to P2' workshop at Salford University on the 21st July which attracted 20 members, followed by a similar event at Panasonic's new facility at Shepperton on 25th August which had a following of a dozen. Over the three events around 40 members had a chance to put Panasonic on the spot over P2 - something which the company found very valuable. 'How to Survive being Freelance' workshops were held at Arri (GB) on 5th November and at The NTI in Birmingham on 8th Dec. The London day had around 20 attendees and was enthusiastically received by members and enjoyed by the contributors - one of whom (Bradley Foreman) ended up becoming a Guild sponsor! The Birmingham attendance was creaking up until the last few days (I was considering pulling it due to the costs) when a sudden flurry of interest resulted in around 20 signing up. However on the day there was another flurry - this time of no-shows due to sudden work coming in, car breakdowns and illness. This left around 12 members. Apparently the speakers were stoic but understandably disappointed. "A New Look at HD" sponsored by TopTeks, was held on January 28th and was a sell-out with 37 attending and 23 on the stand-by list! "Northern Lights" - Lighting guru Jonathan Harrison did a successful day at Camera KitUk in Leeds on March 8th. A full house of 25 there - exactly the number we had in mind applied for that one. Helicopter Shooting and Safety - March 27th . I always knew this was going to be a 'good-un' and so it turned out. We had 40 signed up and a lengthy standby list for cancellations. Star turns Alan Duxbury and Rex Palmer were to have been joined by Laurie Gilbert over from the Far East but he was unable to come for family reasons. Mike Smith of Flying TV, who sponsored the day, did a splendid job arranging a fascinating and thought-provoking event which even included the 'Hover Challenge' where two members picked by 'lucky' tickets got the chance to fly a helicopter with an instructor for around half an hour. They then had to fly a steady 360degree turn around a fixed point whilst keeping the on-board camera locked on the target! The outputs of the onboard camera and a remote wireless camera were relayed to the lecture room via radio link set up by LinkSys. Codecs and Compression - April 24th with Chris Roberts at CVP in the Midlands comprehensively covered codecs and compression issues in acquisition and post and also streaming and even compression for mobile phones, dvds, YouTube and the rest. By the time of the AGM 'LEDS and Fluorescent Lighting' with John Rossetti and Alan Bermingham will have taken place on 8th May courtesy of Gekko at their HQ at Kenilworth.
Page 1 and 2: Minutes of the 38th Annual General
Page 3 and 4: Treasurer’s Report As all members
Page 5: The GTC attended the recent BSC sho
Page 9 and 10: The website continues to grow with

GTC AGM 2010 BR Amended.rtf - The Guild of Television Cameramen

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?