It's hard to believe that it's been a year since I was elected as President of NVPS. It has been an amazing year for me personally. I have grown because of all of you. I have had a terrific board, wonderful advisors and many volunteers to support me and the club all the way through. I have many, many folks to thank. I especially want to thank you, NVPS members - you are the reason we are all here.

NVPS has had a huge growth year both in terms of membership (284 members) and educational experiences. I have worked the board and many volunteers very hard to make significant changes and hopefully enhancements to our club. Thank you all for helping to achieve all the goals that I had for NVPS this year.

This very long Presidents message will provide you with a recap of: the 2009-2010 camera club year; each of the board members and other volunteers contributions; and introduce you to your new 2010-2011 board.

Committee Members: Fred Chitty*, Gayle Dennis, Judy McGuire, Emi Wallace

The committee developed guidance as to how the club will respond and acknowledge member and or family illnesses, deaths, births and other life changing events. 

Committee Members: Matthew Schmidt*, Sam Schaen, Scott Musson, Paul Simmons

The tech team was set up to support the equipment manager and NVPS weekly and other functions with technical support for all NVPS owned equipment and to support NVPS in maintaining and enhancing our technical equipment and functioning at all club meetings/functions. 

Committee Members: Sam Schaen*, Scott Musson*, Bill Prosser, Gerry Abbott, Sandi Croan

The committee conducted a membership survey and proposed competition rules changes that were accepted by the board and membership. 

Committee Members: Ed Funk*, Tom Brett, Sherwin Kaplan

The committee made recommendations and revisions to the End of Year Named Awards that are presented at the End Of Year banquet. These changes were accepted by the board. 

Committee Members: Mary O'Neill*, John Quigley, Fred Chitty, Bill Prosser

The committee made recommendations and revisions to the NVPS Constitution and By-Laws including changes to the current board structure for enhanced functioning and efficiency. A new position was added to the elected board (VP Operations). All recommendations were accepted by the board and membership. 

Jeff Namadan and Matthew Schmidt as well as other volunteers that helped with beta testing, etc. initiated projecting prints with a camcorder so that the members could see the prints during competition. Thanks Jeff also for loaning us your camcorder this year!!! 

Andy Klein negotiated with the Fire Hall Manager to allow us to store equipment on site at the Fire Fall which has and will make equipment set up much, much easier.

*ChairPerson 

A huge thank you to all committee members listed above for their great work! 

And now, I want to say a few words about the terrific board members of 2009-2010.

Mary O'Neill - VP Program: Thank you for an outstanding line up of speakers. I truly think this was the best year ever with speakers Mollie Isaacs and Mary Lindjem, Robert Creamer, Tony Sweet, Ian Plant, Joseph Rossbach, James Roy, Max Lyons and Jonathan Newton. Mary also chaired the Constitution and By-Laws Committee. Mary has graciously agreed to be Program VP for a third year. 

Gerry Abbot and Brian Payne - VP's of Competition: Thank you for terrific judges and exceptionally well run competitions. The themed competitions of Opposites, Flash and Monuments, Statues & Memorials were unique and challenging for members and judges. Thank you for also being on the committee to select the themes for 2011-2012. Thank you also for setting up a system for judges to preview the digital images from their homes and working with Jeff and Matthew to bring the competition prints to the big screen. Brian will be paving the way as the first VP of Operations next year. 

Fred Chitty - Treasurer: Thank you for keeping us in the black and for all your help on the Member Support, Competition Rules, Constitution and By-Laws, and Nominating committees and your eternal moral support and late night talks. Fred is famous for taking complex ideas and laying them out in an easy to understand format and is a master communicator. In addition, he and Scott set NVPS up with PayPal to collect dues which has facilitated membership tremendously. Fred will continue in his role as Treasurer next year. 

Willa Friedman - Secretary/Historian: Big Thanks for taking careful notes/minutes at our very long and involved (and sometimes LATE NIGHT) board meetings. Also, thank you for keeping me apprised of the weekly attendance and ensuring that membership meetings are legal. Willa will be Co-VP of Competitions with her husband Bob next year. 

Tom Brett - Past President: Tom was there almost every week bringing cookies and lollipops as well as greeting new members and keeping me on task. Tom also served on the End of Year Awards and as Chair of the Nominating committees as well as making himself available for formal and informal critiques. Tom will be Past President again next year. Thanks Tom! 

Melanie Marz and Ed Ruggiero - Workshops, Education and Training: From Novice Night, Swap Meets, Critiques, to great speakers, support for competition themes, and coordinating critiques (both formal and informal), and the portfolio project. Thanks you also for your flexibility in adding additional agenda items to your night. Thank you both! 

Georgette Grossman - Members Gallery: Thank you for lining up 16 NVPS members to share their prints and digital images with us. We were all enriched by the work of our talented members. Thank you also to all the folks that shared your beautiful images with us. Georgette has been very helpful in helping wordsmith complicated concepts for board presentations. She has also volunteered to compile and update the board members handbook for 2010-2011. Georgette will be our Secretary/Historian next year. 

Anna Gomez - Members Forum: Anna, a big thanks for lining up our 8 members to share their expertise with us. Thank you for jumping in with a last minute cancellation and sharing your experience as a staff photographer. Thank you also goes to our Forum Presenters for professional quality presentations. 

Marilyn Gaizband and Tuan Pham - Field Trips: Flying Circus; Huntley Meadows; the National Arboretum; Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, Gettysburg and Rolling Thunder, and overnight trips to Lancaster, PA and New Mexico. A very ambitious and creative itinerary Marilyn and Tuan. Thank you for all the photographic opportunities. A special thanks to Tuan for getting a bit more involved than he had originally signed up for and we all enjoyed the special impromptu snow pics from this winter. Tuan will be working with Matthew Schmidt next year on Workshops, Education and Training and has many new ideas that he is working on. 

Gayle Dennis - Membership Coordinator: Gayle has been that first welcoming, warm contact to so many new and prospective members as well as to all of us. She signs up new members, coordinates with Fred (treasurer) and Bob (database) and keeps us all straight. She has also been keeping all of us informed about member's personal travails and helping us get good wishes or condolences out to them and their families. Gayle has also served on the Member Support Committee and has volunteered to serve in this capacity again next year. Thank you Gayle. I always look forward to seeing your smiling face each week. 

Scott Musson - Website Manager: The central core of NVPS is our website. Keeping us all "in the know", enticing new members to come check us out, sending announcements out to members and the board, getting the word out on cancelled meetings due to snow, are just a few of the tasks that Scott performs on a daily basis. Also, there is seamless integration and back-up between Scott and Sam Schaen (Newsletter) on all things necessary for club communication. The professionalism and design of the website is state of the art. Thank you also Scott for your co-chairmanship of the Competition Rules Committee, tech team work, Portfolio project co-chairmanship, Forum presentation "The Yin and Yang of Photoshop" and Photo Books and Calendars, producing the certificates for End of Year Banquet, and for being a mentor to me and always available with just the right answers. Scott will be training Jeff Namadan to work as the website manager for next year but will remain active on the board and has already volunteered to work with Bill again on the Portfolio Project. 

Sam Schaen - Newsletter Editor: Each month, we all look forward to the latest Fotofax, our monthly newsletter. Coordinating all of us, spreading the news, updating the membership, and making it all look great is an artform. As said above in Scott's paragraph, Sam and Scott work together seamlessly. They share the editor@nospam!#*&^#)type address - don't copy spam protection(*@.@nospamnvps.org email address and I never know which one of them is sending the email news or special announcements They both also have to wade through hundreds of emails from prospective advertisers and decide on what is and what is not appropriate to share with the membership. Both Sam and Scott chaired the Competition Rules Committee which was a very difficult process that lasted all year. Sam will be presenting our last Members Forum of the year on May 25th. Sam also served on the tech team and was always a calming a steady influence for me. Sam has agreed to continue as the Newsletter Editor for next year. Thank you very, very much Sam! 

John Quigley - Exhibits Coordinator: John has been very active as our Exhibits Coordinator. He organized us for the USGS, Glennie Nature Expo and the Huntley Meadows Exhibits which were all very successful. He has also served on the Constitution and By-Laws Committee. His biggest task is yet to come though. He is a board member of the MANPE (Mid-Atlantic Nature Photography Expo)

http://www.midatlanticnaturephotographyexpo.org which will be taking place November 13 - 14 at the new Hylton Performing Arts Center. This will be a huge event for NVPS as well as the other camera clubs in the area. Stay tuned for lots of news on this. Thank you John for all your tireless work and agreeing to continue on next year. 

John Naman - Equipment Manager: For two years, every week without missing a single meeting, John has schlepped and been responsible for setting up and coordinating with each of the weekly heads and presenters the myriad of equipment needs and requirements. From sound systems to print boxes; from microphones to projectors; from lights to unlocking and locking doors; from storing all the equipment in his house for a year and a half to helping get  us set up with a new storage box at the Fire Hall to being the "lost and found" - John has made it possible for each meeting to be seen and heard. This is one of many thankless jobs that is necessary for the survival of our club. John also has educated us on matting techniques, using polarizers and how to get images tack sharp as well as working with Matthew to design the job description for the new VP of Operations position. A heartfelt thanks John for all your contributions to NVPS. 

Andy Klein - Meetings, Facilities and End of Year Coordinator: Andy has been negotiating our contract, and managing our use of Robbie Hall (room we meet in) Manager and our End of Year Banquet facilities at least as long as I have been a member of NVPS. He is our ad hoc safety officer and the guy that tells me that our contract calls for announcing the locations of the fire exits each week. Andy is also our End of Year Banquet Coordinator this year. Most importantly, this year, Andy procured on-site storage space and "the box" for us to store our equipment from week to week. This is huge! No more schlepping of all our equipment back and forth every week. Thank you Andy. You make a difference! Andy will thankfully continue in his roles next year. 

Vivian Luu - Digital Competition Coordinator: This was Vivian's second year in this role. She is the gal that downloads your competition images each Sunday and makes sure they are fine and in compliance. She then coordinates with the Competition VP's and Scott to get them uploaded to our computer and off to the judges for preview. During competitions she has been running the slide projector and the digital projector and managing the digital competitions. This year, we finally got it worked out so that we can project the final multiple choices for the judge to narrow his/her choices. This has really helped our judges. Vivian, thank you for your two years of excellent service and your calm perseverance. 

Matthew Schmidt - PSA Representative: Although this is Matthew's official role on the board, we all know that this role of keeping up with our membership in the Photographic Society of America is just a very small part of what Matthew really does. Matthew has been our lead Tech guy for the past several years as well as the force behind setting up and running the "Tech Team"; working with Jeff Namadan to get our competition prints projected on the screen; designing the job description for the new VP of Operations with John Naman and helping John and everyone else with set up and tech issues. There never seems to be a meeting where Matthew isn't helping out with something. He is an excellent educator as well and presented our November Members Forum on "Automating Photoshop and Bridge", written articles for our F-Stop on the web, and so much more. Next year Matthew will be our Workshop, Education and Training Coordinator and has all kinds of inspiring ideas. A huge thank you Matthew, you are a rare gem. 

Joseph Miller - NVACC Representative: We all know Joe Miller. Not so much in his role of NVACC (Northern Virginia Alliance of Camera Clubs) www.nvacc.org rep but as an amazing educator and our photography conscience. Joe has been an inspiration to many of us through the years. His writings and teachings will outlive us all. Check out his mini books on the NVACC website and the many articles he has written on our website in the F-Stop section. Many workshops, critiques and training have taken place over the years at the Joseph Miller Center for the Photographic Arts in Catharpin, Virginia. Joe started out our year with his forum "Judging a Photographic Competition - The elements a judge looks for in a winning photograph" and always adds both wisdom and humor to all his presentation. Many, many thanks Joe. 

Bob Friedman - Database Manager: Thanks to Bob our database has been kept up to date with our growing membership data and status for the past two years. He also is the first to volunteer for just about anything. He is a constant presence during competitions as one of the "gloved" print passers and volunteered to put the End of Year Banquet Program together. Bob with his wife Willa will be our VP's of Competition next year. Thank you Bob. 

Yulan Guo, Angelique Raptakis and Trinka Reddie - Meadowlark (MANPE) Representatives: Although we didn't have our big Meadowlark event this year - Yulan, Angelique and Trinka have been on the busy helping to launch the new MANPE Expo which will take place in November. They have been the NVPS reps and have been attending meetings with the other club organizers. Our club will be responsible for the publicity for the Expo. Thank you ladies! 

More Thanks

There are so many more people that volunteer and make our club what it is. Many thanks to:

Bill Prosser - Portfolio Project Co-Coordinator: Bill's biggest accomplishment this year has been his co-coordination of the very successful Portfolio Project. It was wonderful to see the inspiring portfolios of all the participants this month. Much time and effort was put in by Bill and Scott to shepherd this complex project. Bill also served on the Competition Rules and Constitution/By-Laws committees as well as being presenting "A Digital Trip to the West" for our October Members Forum. 

Ed Funk for chairing the complex End Of Year Awards committee, getting our plaques produced for the End Of Year Banquet, providing sage advice and history to me and many others.

Sherwin Kaplan for also serving on the End Of Year Awards committee, critiquing the Portfolio Project and always being willing to help out.

Curtis Gibbens and Beth Morris for providing coffee and tea for us at 2-3 times per month.

Paul Simmons for being on the tech team and making sure that all went smoothly.

Jean Feighery for being on the receiving end of all those prints during our monthly competitions.

Pam Brown for filling in at the membership desk when Gayle could not attend 

Workshop, Education and Training; Members Gallery and Forum Presenters; and critiquers not listed above that helped to educate us and share their expertise and inspire us with their images:

Corey Hilz, Josh Taylor, Angelique Raptakis, Nikhil Bahl, John Naman, Paul Simmons, Steve Gawarecki, Judy McGurie, John Dexter, Tuan Pham, Kent Mason, Yulan Guo, Ursy Potter, Wayne Wolfersberger, Will Haubert, Bob and Jorja Feldman, Vivian Luu, Anna Gomez, Timber Gooding, Tom Brett, Fred Chitty, Andy Klein and Steve Passman. 

2010-2011 Board

A big round of applause to the nominating committee of Tom Brett, Fred Chitty and Judy McGuire. They believed enough in me to ask me to serve another year as your President. I am honored to do so. The nominating committee put together a fantastic slate for your elected board. Mary O'Neill will be serving again as VP of Programs; Brian Payne will be serving in the newly created position of VP Operations; Willa and Bob Friedman will be our VP's of Competition; Fred Chitty will continue as our Treasurer as well as becoming our PSA representative and keeping the database; and Georgette Grossman will be our new Secretary/Historian. Thank you Tom, Fred and Judy.

Appointed board members for 2010-2011 will be:

Past President: Tom Brett

Workshops Education and Training: Matthew Schmidt assisted by Tuan Pham

Field Trips Coordinator: Curtis Gibbens assisted by Beth Morris

Members Gallery Coordinator: Charlotte DeFuria

Members Forum Coordinator: Tom Burden

Exhibits Coordinator: John Quigley

Membership Coordinator: Gayle Dennis

Website Manager: Scott Musson and Jeff Namadan

Newsletter Editor and NVACC coordinator: Sam Schaen 

If I neglected to thank anyone that volunteered this year, please forgive me. I have never, ever been involved in an organization with so many folks that say "YES" and take ownership  of a task or position. It has been my sincere privilege to serve as your President this year. 

Feel free to send me feedback on how you feel the club met your needs or could be improved. 

Have a terrific summer and keep shooting! 

Sandi Croan 

pashli@nospam!#*&^#)type address - don't copy spam protection(*@.@nospamaol.com