Volume 19, Issue 2 Winter 2006 The Society for Animation Studies Newsletter ISSN: 1930-191X In this Issue: The President’s Report SAS Announcements: Maureen Furniss 1 The President’s Report Maureen Furniss I was pleased to take over leadership of 5 Annual Business Meeting Minutes the SAS from Ton Crone at the 2006 Richard J. Leskosky conference, where Suzanne Williams- 7 SAS Conference 2007: Animation Rautiola and others recognized his many Universe; Portland, OR; June 30-July 3 contributions to our organization. Thank Special 2006 Conference Issue you to the members who voted for me and 11 Photographs by Charles da Costa, all who have voiced their support, and Marian Quigley, Timo Linsenmaier. thanks also to Paul Wells, the other DVD by David Williams nominee for President, who received almost half the votes and has agreed to 12 The President’s Farewell Address serve as vice-president. Ton Crone 14 Reflections on “Animation at the Some New Steps: Crossroads” Website, Journal, and Newsletter Suzanne Williams-Rautiola I appreciate that I had about six months to 17 First Impressions prepare prior to taking office. During this Ann Leung time I set in place some of the structures I had proposed in my candidate’s Perspectives on Animation Studies statement. To me, the most important of 19 XVIVO and Scientific Animation them were a discussion group and a David Bolinsky website. I set up the discussion group on 22 Screenings of Newly Restored Adam Yahoo. I also registered a domain name, Beckett Films www.animationstudies.org, and found a Pamela Turner hosting service, with guidance from News and Publications Jeremy Butler of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa (not an SAS member) and 26 John Grace Memorial Conference: Timo Linsenmaier, who volunteered to The Art of British CGI lead the website development. 26 Halas and Batchelor Cartoons: an Animated History Anyone who has visited the website knows Vivien Halas and Paul Wells what a lot was accomplished within a few 27 The Fundamentals of Animation months, with Timo leading the way and Paul Wells Ingo Linde contributing a great deal to the programming of the site. Before this year’s Membership Information conference in San Antonio, the site 29 SAS Board and Contact 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 © 2006 SAS Newsletter, v19n2, p.1 including a member’s only area—was essentially complete. Features of the website include a link to PayPal, to help international members pay their dues, and an experts directory, to let the public know about our members’ areas of expertise. Our “members area” also contains an archive of past newsletters and a discussion board where members can post questions or information. Other components of the SAS also have been developed through the volunteer efforts of other members. Victoria Meng has taken over the Newsletter, publishing the first ‘new’ edition before the conference took place. The online format has provided opportunities for longer articles and more images, which enhances what we are able to offer. Nichola Dobson initiated the online journal, serving as the first editor of Animation Studies. This publication was established in part due to member requests for a peer- reviewed publication that would help them secure travel funds for attending conferences. Animation Studies also was established to publish work presented at the Dresden conference, which had been slated to appear in a German-language print publication. Karin Wehn is editing the German essays for the journal. Online publication saves money and increases accessibility to content, and is in line with the future of scholarly publishing. Both the Newsletter and the AS journal are multi-lingual publications, though the primary language remains English (information in other languages will be abstracted in English). Looking Ahead: Incorporation My primary objectives now involve registration of the SAS as a non-profit organization. After much consideration, I have determined that it is necessary for the SAS to have this status within the United States. Unfortunately, banking and donations would be extremely difficult to handle if the SAS were based only in another country. I think it is also a good idea for the SAS to be registered outside the US. Both Paul Wells and Ton Crone have volunteered to pursue the requirements in the UK and other possible regions, and we have set a deadline of December 15 for recommendations. For my part, I have discussed the process of incorporation and non-profit status with a number of individuals experienced in this area. One of the experts I have consulted is Antran Manoogian, president of ASIFA- Hollywood. Antran suggested a few alternatives, the main one being the purchase of a published guide (a print and CD combination) for setting up a non-profit organization in California. This set takes the user through most of the paperwork, cutting down on expenses considerably. I have also made contacts with Snowden Decker, who was in charge of public access at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Library (she is now in the PhD program at University of Texas, Austin). She is active in amateur film circles and recently incorporated 'Home Movie Day', a project she undertook with one other person. Snowden gave me advice and encouragement, telling me how she went through this process herself. A few months ago (even before the conference), I had a meeting with Jan Nagel, the President of the international Women in Animation, who incorporated that group several years ago. Jan gave me copies of all her paperwork. I feel ready to move ahead with this project from a US standpoint. Richard Leskosky and Suzanne Williams-Rautiola offered their help with this effort, and I will work with our new US treasurer, Robert Musburger, as well. Society for Animation Studies © 2006 SAS Newsletter, v19n2, p.2 Incidentally, Antran said we could possibly pair up with ASIFA-Hollywood until we achieve official status ourselves, though he and I were not sure how that might be done. The main problem is that the SAS is international and this ASIFA chapter is local. When Women in Animation paired up with ASIFA-Hollywood during its earliest days, the membership was LA-based, so that worked well in terms of memberships (the WIA members joined ASIFA-Hollywood, which then processed its fees). Though we did not immediately see how it would work, Antran was open to the idea and encouraged me to stay in touch with him about it. He also asked that we consider special projects that could link the SAS with ASIFA, especially his Hollywood chapter. He said he would be happy to help us as we progress and he gave me the name and telephone number of ASIFA-Hollywood lawyer. By doing the paperwork ourselves as much as possible, our fees would be a few hundred dollars (to get the lawyer to read the paperwork and make sure it’s in order), rather than two or three thousand. I have finished reading the book on California nonprofits that Antran Manoogian recommended. In short, incorporation as a nonprofit seems really do-able, and for a reasonable cost. This is a two-step process: incorporating and filing for nonprofit status. There are different qualified purposes that allow the SAS to be nonprofit, including charitable, literary, and educational purposes—and I think we qualify under each of them. There are also requirements for the type of support that may be given to the organization, partly to achieve charitable status ourselves. With careful structuring of dues levels and benefits, I think we will easily qualify in that respect. Perhaps the most significant issue is whether we want to be a truly 'membership' type organization, which means that members vote and have legal rights. The other plan is to have the directors guide the development of the organization, and have our 'members' join more informally, getting all the benefits for 'members only', but not having to make organizational decisions. A second, unresolved issue is the international status of our group—it might be advisable to incorporate here and create a 'sister organization' in the UK that is essentially the same group, but with different legal status. I will follow up with the IRS on the viability of having directors and members internationally, and also the suitability, in the US government's view, of the SAS providing charitable support internationally. I'm not sure if the benefits to members must be mainly in terms of the US. In any case, it seems like having a UK or European base could be important for attracting support in those areas. It would be useful for someone to read into MEDIA's policies, for example. I am quite optimistic that incorporation is something we can achieve without too much trouble, which will also help the SAS to better serve its mission and members. Conference and Membership We continue plan the 2007 SAS Conference. Daniel Pirofsky, who is on the faculty at Portland State University, has been working with the Platform Festival organizers and the university to arrange conference facilities, schedules, and fees. For more information about the conference, please see the Conference Announcement and Call for Papers on page 5. Paul Wells is planning a local level event in February and Dan and Lienors Torres are planning an event in June, so members in England and Australia can contact them for Society for Animation Studies © 2006 SAS Newsletter, v19n2, p.3 details.