The Society for Animation Studies Newsletter
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Volume 22, Issue 1 Spring 2009 The Society for Animation Studies Newsletter ISSN: 1930-191X In this Issue: Letters from the Editors SAS Announcements: 1 _ President Report and Minutes Maureen Furniss Dear SAS members, 2 _ Membership Reminder 3 _Animation Studies We are pleased to present you with the first issue of Nichola Dobson the SAS Newsletter in 2009. We hope the 4 _ 2009 Conference Update newsletter finds you in cheerful spirits and that you enjoy reading the contributions from members all Conference News and Events over the world. 5 _ Sydney Animation News 2009 Katharine Buljan On behalf of the Society for Animation Studies, we 6 _ Goat Story: The Changing Face thank those who share their essays, news and of Czech Animation Lucie Joschko photos with us. We would also like to thank Amy Ratelle for her assistance with the newsletter and The Light and Shade of congratulate her on the birth of her daughter Laila! Postgraduate Research 7 _ Tea, biscuits and a trip down memory lane! Kerry Drumm Sincerely, 8 _ A Work Between Two Worlds: Caroline Ruddell and Lucie Joschko Starewicz’s Style and The Co-Editors Cameraman’s Revenge LeAnn McCaslin World perspectives 9 _ African Animation By Mohamed Ghazala Publications list 10 _ Recent publications Membership Information SAS Board and Contacts The articles in the SAS Newsletter are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Contributions are copyrighted by authors and remaining information is ©2006 Society for Animation Studies. Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.1 President’s Report Maureen Furniss The past few months have seen significant changes to the Society for Animation Studies, though they will be transparent to most of you. The biggest change is the result of work off and on over a number of years: our incorporation as a non-profit organization in California. Now you will see ‘501(c)(3)” by our name, indicating that we are considered a charitable organization that is not required to pay taxes on the dues we collect. In addition, we can also attract potential donors, as any donations we receive will be tax deductible. Although we are not actively soliciting donations, if something should become available, we’ll be ready. The term ‘charitable organization’ means that we support the work of animation scholars, as well as people in the general community who can utilize what we produce—for example, students in need of research materials. We do this by organizing conferences, and providing travel and research grants, a free online journal, honors and recognition, and other types of support. We are required to document these activities to justify the SAS’s status, especially in the way we spend our money. Our efforts in this area were led by three incorporating officers, which included Robert Musburger, Richard Leskosky, and me, as treasurer, secretary, and president. This is a typical simple model for incorporating directors, which take the organization through the process. Harvey Deneroff, founder of the SAS, was consulted and supported our efforts. I also received advice from various colleagues in the SAS and other organizations, such as Jan Nagel of Women in Animation and Antran Manoogian from ASIFA-Hollywood. After some work on our own, we decided to use the services of a lawyer, which took about a year, off and on, and cost about three thousand dollars. However, it turned out that the application process went very smoothly, and we received approvals from the (United States) federal and (California) state tax offices very quickly, as our paperwork presented no problems. Filing our tax returns to the government was very easy, accomplished through a simple form submitted online. We had many options in designing our by-laws and articles of incorporation. One of our significant choices was to make no provision for supporting the board of directors financially, in terms of salary or support for travel. However, we kept in provisions to support a webmaster (with an honorarium) and some key positions, including editors of publications, through very small compensation in the form of free membership. Directors do benefit from another aspect of incorporation though, as they are no longer personally liable for any financial claims made against the organization (let’s hope that’s a benefit we never have to use!). Protection from personal liability is one of the main reasons we had to incorporate. Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.2 One of the most important decisions we made in designing our bylaws concerns the status of those people who join the SAS. While we typically refer to them as ‘members’, this name is no longer accurate according to the legal definition of the term. A member organization is one in which each person has an equal share—or ‘ownership’—in a way—particularly in terms of voting. Cindy Keefer gave me a useful example: a film organization distributes the films of its ‘members’, who get a say in the way in which it is run by voting on its course of action. These are long-term stakeholders in the organization. In the case of the SAS, we now have ‘associates’ who receive benefits of the SAS, such as use of its member-only website, the ability to attend and present at conferences, the potential of getting grants or other support, and hopefully other features in the future. However, our associates will not be voting for its leadership. Rather, our small group of active leaders (currently Robert, Richard and I) will continue to run the organization for the short term, determining a slate of officers to run it on a yearly basis. We carried out our first meeting in mid-April, via a Skype conference call. Historically, the SAS has been a small, relatively close-knit group, run by various individuals for twenty years through sheer devotion. In practice, the leaders (mainly the president) have been making autonomous decisions in an effort to run the SAS in the best way possible. The annual voting process of a ‘member organization’ would add a great deal of complexity, time, and cost to leading the SAS. Our ‘non-member’ status will help us run seamlessly and will allow us to return more resources to the organization. However, all feedback from the associates will be warmly welcomed, and there are still plenty of ways to become involved with leading the SAS. Aside from our incorporation, another significant change is in our banking. For a number of years we have had an account at a bank located in Illinois, near Richard Leskosky, who is now secretary but at one time was president. Although this bank served our basic needs, it required that we do our business by mail and it was not well equipped for international transactions. A couple of years ago we began using PayPal to facilitate our memberships; while it is not ideal, it did make joining and renewing easier, and we have seen a rise in member numbers as a result. However, the balance there started to build up, and we needed to find a bank where we could deposit our PayPal funds. While we awaited approval of our non-profit status, Robert researched a number of institutions and determined that Wells Fargo offered an account that would work well. Wells Fargo has branches across the United States, and it easily accommodates international money exchanges. It also provides free accounts to non-profits such as the SAS. We opened an account at Wells Fargo in March, and transferred $10,000 of the money stored in PayPal into it (transfers to/from our official bank and PayPal are free). Robert closed the Busey account, and transferred its balance (about $1800) there, plus deposited a few recent checks for membership. As a result, our current balance at Wells Fargo is about $12,000. We plan to set up a money market (interest earning) account to store the $10,000 from PayPal and subsequent income, while keeping about $2000 in our checking account. The next step is to close the German account and wire the money into Wells Fargo. André has been anxious to do so as he assumes personal liability for the money there. Since it is free to electronically transfer money to and from Wells Fargo and PayPal, we can easily work with money in various currencies. There is Society for Animation Studies © 2009 SAS Newsletter, v22n1, p.3 a fee for the conversion (as well as the transfer), but we can also keep PayPal money in those currencies, thus avoiding the fee (though not avoiding fluctuations in exchange rates). Currently we have small amounts in Euro, Canadian, UK, and Australian funds. Please write to me at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns. In closing, I would like to thank Harvey Deneroff and Charles daCosta for all the hard work they are putting into planning the 2009 conference. I’ve made my reservations—and I hope you have too! See you in Atlanta! Budget for 2009 expenses Conference General support 1000 Member travel funds 600 Website Website hosting 120 Timo 300 Communications – dues reimbursement Journal Editor 35 Newsletter Editor 35 Asst. Webmaster 35 Legal fees - incorporation Lawyer 800 Paperwork Advertising/Promotion Conference ads Member Development Grants Support of projects 400 Accounting Fees PayPal expenses 200 Contingency Fund Probably tax related fines - accountant Misc.