President’s Message

John Herrel - M.Photog.Cr., CPP

2024 President

American Society of Photographers

ASP is in a great place, thanks to the four previous Presidents I have worked with, their Boards of Governors, and wonderful committee chairs and members! Right now, we are on a roll! Our members and other observers tell us that. We are strong financially, have good member benefits and member engagement. Challenges always occur, but we have worked through them. So, your question might be, where are we going now?

As many of you know, I drive a Porsche race car in Porsche Club Racing. In racing, if you are leading handily in a race, you have two choices. One, slow down and try to bring it home comfortably. Two, keep up the pace and hold on or grow your lead to the finish. To the casual observer, choice #1 sounds like the obvious choice. It is NOT! If you slow down, you and your team lose focus, get sloppy and bad things can happen. Choice #2, when you continue your normal race pace you maintain your focus and finish strong.

Now is the time for ASP to continue developing great things for our members!

We want to continue the programs that have been so successful and popular. But we also need to visualize our future and continue developing new ideas that will lead us to an even brighter future.

What is changing in 2024?

  • We are growing Images of Distinction (IOD) to two Rounds, one in early spring and one in late summer. That is more opportunities for our members to have their work evaluated and win awards.
  • Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medallion awards, and District awards will be selected from IOD Round 2 images in separate judgings. It is all internal to ASP now. You don’t have to enter PPA’s Monthly Image Review (MIR) to win an ASP award. But by all means keep working on PPA merits to get another PPA degree, Image Excellence Award, win IPC or whatever motivates you.
  • Museum Project – Hopefully we are near the end of the Covid delay with Museums and Galleries. 2024 and 2025 may be the years for our inaugural exhibition.
  • ASP travel continues in 2024 with trips to Georgia and an October trip to Bar Harbor, Maine, and Nova Scotia. Registration is open now, go to the Upcoming Events and Travel pages on the ASP website for lots more information.
  • The Website committee is embarking on major improvements to the website. This involves both what you see, how you navigate the website and the support required to maintain the website. Part one will be completed this year. Part two, the membership management will take longer and hopefully will be finished in 2025.
  • I am creating a Vision Committee. We need to examine who are we, envision who we want to be, and how to get there.
  • About a year ago we created an Investment Committee whose goal is to invest funds that are not needed for our projected annual expenses. We are investing to fund future projects that have not yet been identified.

One final point, read the article in this issue about John Hartman and his Fellowship degree. I attended John Hartman’s Light Painting workshop in 2023 to learn from the master. Then, I launched my third retirement business, “Your Passion-My Art-Your Legacy”, providing clients with high-end automotive art. It funds my expensive Porsche racing activities.

Let’s have a great year!

 

 

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