AGM Zoom meeting

IAC General Discussions
Post Reply
ned c
Posts: 907
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:39 pm
Location: Dammeron Valley USA

AGM Zoom meeting

Post by ned c »

Thanks to Simon for organizing the meeting; due to the 7 hour time difference and the previous evening filming an outdoor music fest I arrived late and enjoyed the final part of the discussion.

Where do I find the minutes of the past Council meetings? I have been through the IAC website but cannot find a link. Where will the AGM minutes be published?

This forum has been a center of much very positive discussion with suggestions and recommendations; were these discussed at the AGM?

Apologies for missing out on the vital part of the meeting.

ned c
User avatar
TimStannard
Posts: 1220
Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2011 5:20 pm
Location: Surrey

Re: AGM Zoom meeting

Post by TimStannard »

Hi Ned,

I thought it worked well. I'm not sure how much you missed. 12-12.40pm was the formal part of the meeting, adopting the accounts. accepting reports and electing Coumcil. Discussion ("Members' Voices") began at 1pm.

I don't think you joined long after that. I know you said your bit about the forum before I made my request for Council to comminicate their decisions/discussions more frequently (which I was surprised didn't seem to get much support) and that Council members partake in the forums - making the point Jameela has already made that we are quite capable of distinguishing between a personal view and a view representing Council.

There was the usual discussion about FVM - plenty of people pointing out the advantages (practical and financial) of an electronic version and plenty of people says they liked having a paper copy. There was some debate about making it more widely available to the general public vs it being one of the few benefits of membership. A couple of people made comments about it needing to move away from obituaries and how we made film 50 years ago with more emphasis on articles relevant to film making today if it is going to stand any chance of appealing to anyone under 60. (As an aside - this surely depends on people submittimg articles relevant to film making today - so don't blame the editor.)

I raised the suggestion that have discussed with others about introducing an IAC judges/critics accreditation scheme - not so much for ranking films in competition, more for making helpful, constructive criticism and presenting it in a positive manner that encourages rather than discourages the maker.
Tim
Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it
User avatar
Dave Watterson
Posts: 1867
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:11 pm
Location: Bath, England
Contact:

Re: AGM Zoom meeting

Post by Dave Watterson »

Council Minutes are regarded as confidential. (I tried many years ago to get them published.)
My second attempt was to get someone on Council to write reports on the meetings, which could avoid any truly confidential matters. That happened for a time, but the articles rather missed the point and were along the vague lines of "your Council is working hard for you."

The AGM Minutes should be circulated to all members, but they tend to be sent with the papers for the next AGM a year later. They focus on the formal company business and only touch on the "Members' Voices" section.

The topics which arose were hardy annuals, as Tim explained.

People always forget that in law the IAC is an educational charity: it should not be seeking to give extensive benefits to its members. Its purpose is:
"... the promotion, advancement and improvement of general education in relation to all aspects of cinematography and associated audio and visual arts and the development of public appreciation of such arts."

They also keep overlooking the 190 thousand pounds "spare" that IAC has. (Yes, that is after allowing for the magazine costs and everything else.) So why even think about raising the entry fees for BIAFF, for example. Those funds could also be used to hire professional help in areas where we cannot find volunteers to run courses, for example?

Someone raised the question of getting advertising for the magazine ... which has been tried often. But realistically from the trade's point of view, it is a magazine going to (I'm guessing) fewer than 2000 people, six times a year. What's more many of the readers are pensioners without lots of money to spend and who are more often happy to stick with equipment they know and love, than to seek out the latest trends. (Except Tom Hardwick!)

As I reported, there are training courses for judges in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Austria that I know of. They mostly focus on how you report on the films, rather than on the actual assessment task. There have been various attempts to set that up here - but the catch is the cost for the potential jurors. It is bad enough that we expect people to give up their time and energy to be judges, without expecting them to pay to travel somewhere and pay for a course on how to do it!

I kept waiting for Jameela to raise some of her ideas ... but the session got lost in relative trivialities, rather than essential elements.

As for Zooming - we got people who would never, normally come to an AGM. But we lacked the audience effect. Someone retired - and it was not possible to give them their well-deserved applause. Someone made a good argument - and there could not be a general murmur of support.

Hey ho.

But you can look forward to BIAFF next weekend - there is a great array of fine films to watch.
ned c
Posts: 907
Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:39 pm
Location: Dammeron Valley USA

Re: AGM Zoom meeting

Post by ned c »

Thanks Tim and Dave for the information.

As the Council Meeting Minutes are secret how do we know if any of the suggestions put forward by members are considered and the possible outcome? The only source of information on the Council activities is in the Annual Report; try finding those on the website! There is a Membership and Retention responsibility but this seems to be inactive.

As Council members are not permitted to post on the Forum then it is fair to say the only communication between Council and members is at the AGM. I assume the results of the AGM are integrated into the Annual Report or is there a separate minute of the meeting? Are there accessible copies?

Given the Financial Reserve then my suggestion for realistic rewards to Student entries is definitely doable, GBP 3,000 distributed to awarded films would be worthwhile and hardly dent the funds and this would certainly serve the educational responsibility.

As Dave points out we are contributing to a Charity and therefore should not expect anything in return which raises the question of the need for a representative body for amateur film makers.

ned c
Post Reply