Online Balloting begins December 8, 2009
and ends January 8, 2010

Candidates for the Position of President of the Board
Click here to read theCode of Ethics Referendum

 

Andrea Kalas

In 2010, AMIA will celebrate its twentieth year as an individual-based professional association. The achievements of this organization in those twenty years will be honored by an association that celebrates those who dedicate their lives to the enduring value of the moving image.

I have worked in both public and private archives for just a little bit longer than AMIA has been around: UCLA Film and Television Archive, DreamWorks SKG, Discovery Communications, British Film Institute and now Paramount Pictures. AMIA has been the place, however, where I have become a better archivist.

I have learned that the phrase "everyone loves an archive until you have to pay for it" applies in every kind of institution. An archivist must be an articulate advocate for the collection s/he works with. I've been constantly inspired by the ability of my colleagues in this organization to do just that.

I have learned that most of what we imagined would be possible with digital technology and access has come (quite rapidly and with unimagined implications) true. AMIA members have been a central part of this revolution.

I have learned that there is an increasing public appetite for archival moving images: festivals, online offerings, DVDs. With this appetite comes more widespread understanding of the issues we all face. AMIA puts the people responsible for this: the archivists in the center of this understanding.

I have learned that those who have joined our organization because of AMIA scholarships are just what the organization hoped they would be: members who ask hard questions and challenge standard assumptions. Through AMIA, we work together to ensure our practices embrace change.

It is a great responsibility to be an "individual-based professional organization."  It means each of us has a responsibility to keep AMIA alive and healthy, especially at moments when there are plenty of issues which might divide us.  My goals are simple – to help ensure the organization can be as financially healthy as it can be; to make sure all moving image archivists think that AMIA Is invaluable; and to help ensure that the world knows that archivists are the reason that moving images endure.

[preservation copy]

Wendy Shay

Twenty years ago I was actively involved in the creation of AMIA. At the time, my primary concern was that the formal organization we were establishing would foster collegial communication, information sharing, support, and partnerships. I was afraid that as a formal professional association AMIA would become like other organizations with relationships and opportunities dependent on the length and perceived status of members' resumes. As it turns out, I didn't have to worry.

In the time since it was established, AMIA has proved that a professional organization can be welcoming, inclusive, and responsive to its members regardless of age, income, experience, or background. I believe that our past should inform our future and I am deeply committed to ensuring that AMIA carries this unique quality into its next twenty years.
 
Working together, the members of AMIA can deal with the complexities of moving image preservation in a digital world, promote the work of moving image archivists, and empower all of us in seeking financial and material support for the field. These efforts will require all AMIA members to contribute time and expertise to move both the field and the association forward.

Over the years I have served AMIA in many capacities including chair of the Publications Committee and editor of the Newsletter, member of the board (in the years when chairs of certain committees were automatically non-elected members of the board), member of Conference Committee and program session coordinator, and member of the Elections Committee. Mostly, though, I have been a devoted conference attendee, list serve lurker, and stealth cheerleader. I am a candidate for president so I can support AMIA in a tangible way.

Janice Simpson will be a tough act to follow. She has provided AMIA with gentle, but sure leadership following her amazing career as AMIA's first Managing Director. Should I be elected I will look to Janice, the Board, and the membership to build on the work in progress to set the course for the future. I am specifically interested in taking up Karan Sheldon's challenge expressed at the 2009 business meeting to increase member volunteerism, work with Dennis Doros to further develop AMIA's public image, and explore options for making attending the annual conference possible for all members. But, at the core of everything I do, will be the commitment to keep AMIA an organization of the membership for the membership.

         
Background

Audiovisual Archivist/Deputy Chair
Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Indiana University, B.A. Folklore, 1976
Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University College at Oneonta, M.A. American Folk Culture and History Museum Studies, 1977

 

 

Candidates for the Position of Director of the Board

Peter Brothers

I am honored to be asked to run for the Board of Directors this year. I've been involved since before we were called AMIA and the organization has always been a very important part of my personal and professional life. I welcome the opportunity to do more for an organization that has played such a critical role in the archival community.

One of the things that constantly amazes me about AMIA is how much we have been able to accomplish. When I first joined, little was known about certain aspects of preservation. Now, new standards have been published, many institutions have climate-controlled storage vaults, graduate programs are teaching moving image preservation and digital initiatives are shared and discussed daily. AMIA and its members played a key roll in these advances. AMIA serves as the crucible where theory, research and practice are welded into comprehensive preservation strategy. It is the forum where archives share their knowledge, joys, triumphs and heartaches. It is the repository where hard-earned knowledge and expertise is preserved for future generations. Finally, it is a clear and effective voice that disseminates archival needs and accomplishments, both to colleagues within the field, and to the public at large.

This, to me, represents the core of AMIA: not only the preservation of moving images themselves, but also the development, preservation and dissemination of archival knowledge and accomplishments. I look forward to the opportunity to serve on the board and plan to do all I can to insure that AMIA continues to be a relevant, vibrant, valuable asset to its existing members and I will work to encourage others, not yet associated with AMIA, to recognize its tremendous value and join with our efforts.

Background

In my early days I worked at a local TV station, a CBS radio affiliate, a magazine and a cable network. In 1983 I founded SPECS BROS, and for the last twenty-five plus years have been running the lab, doing research, restoring and re-mastering magnetic tapes, consulting on preservation and training archivists and conservators. I have been an active member of the AMIA Preservation Committee since there has been such a committee. I have also been active in the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, the American National Standards Institute, the Audio Engineering Society and the International Standards Organization technical commissions that author and review National and International Standards. I have long been a strong advocate of sharing and freely disseminating information and have done presentations, workshops and training seminars at a wide range of venues including NARA, SAA, the Selznick School, JTS, ITS, ITVA, NYU MIAP, the IPI and, of course, AMIA. I am a contributing author on numerous National and International Standards, the AMIA Fact Sheets and am currently working with other AMIA members on producing a Workbook on AV Disaster Recovery. In my "spare time" I am a member, and a sometime Board member, of a number of theatre organizations.

Karen Gracy

I consider a distinct honor to be asked to run for a Director position for AMIA and hope that I will have the opportunity to serve the Association in this capacity. If elected, I will support the continued work of the Association to develop and sustain opportunities for AMIA members in the areas of professional development and communication, with an eye toward sustainability over the long-term.

In this current economic climate, it is critical to make choices that will have the most long-term value for our membership. While our members' ideas often have the potential for tremendous impact, the leadership of the Association must make difficult choices about which options to pursue and how we can sustain these endeavors over the long-term. Thus, my first responsibility, if elected, will be to ensure the continued health of AMIA by balancing projected costs of new projects against their potential return on investment. I'm also committed to making sure that we continue to nurture and encourage those programs and projects that have made us the Association we are today. For example, I feel strongly that support for education at all levels-from scholarships for archivists entering the field to the development of continuing education opportunities to working archivists-must continue. If necessary, AMIA must explore external funding sources that will help us maintain our current programs and achieve some of our more ambitious goals.

One of the most important roles that I think that the Association's leadership can play is as a facilitator of open communication among all its members. I applaud AMIA's recent decision to embrace social networking technologies to improve communication among our members. While our listserv and our website have played a significant role in the growth of our membership and support of our activities, the limitations of these media have become apparent in the last few years. Services such as Facebook and Twitter offer our members new, possibly better, options to keep ourselves informed about professional accomplishments and the events and ideas that shape our profession. If elected, I hope to contribute to the revision of AMIA's overall communications strategy, including the role of our website.

Background

Education
- Ph.D., Library and Information Science, UCLA, 2001
- MLIS, Library and Information Science, UCLA, 1995
- MA in Critical Studies of Film and Television, UCLA, 1995

Professional Experience
- Positions held:
o Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Science, Kent State University, 2007-2009;
o Assistant Professor, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, 2001-2007.
- Accomplishments include:
o Development and support for curriculum in the areas of preservation and archiving, including teaching courses in moving image preservation and digital archiving;
o Establishment of a certificate program and MLIS specialization in digital preservation at Kent State in 2008;
o Author of Film Preservation: Competing Definitions of Value, Use, and Practice (published by the Society of American Archivists in 2007).

Professional Activities
-Member of the Association of Moving Image Archivists since 1994.
-Member, Fellowship and Scholarships Subcommittee of the Education Committee, 2000-2004
-Co-chair of Education Committee, 2001-2004
-Chair of the Publications Committee, 2004-2006
-Editor of The Moving Image, 2006-2008.

 

 

Kate Murray

It would be a personal and professional honor to serve as a Director of the Board for AMIA. I strongly believe in AMIA's mission to "foster cooperation among individuals and organizations concerned with the acquisition, description, preservation, exhibition and use of moving image materials." It is this interdisciplinary collaboration and focus on relationship-building which will have the most significant long-term impact on our profession. I demonstrated experience with these objectives in my own professional career and I believe I can bring this experience to the AMIA Board.

An organization like the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), as well as previous employers such as the University of Maryland, Emory University, University of Cape Town and NYU, are extremely complex. In such environments, outreach, teamwork, and strong relationships are the keys to getting things done. In my current position as an AV Preservation Specialist at NARA, I work to preserve moving image and audio holdings in a wide variety of formats. I am particularly interested in process improvement for large homogeneous collections including standardization of workflows and end products, investigating the appropriate use of automation as well as developing multi-purpose, cross-platform tools. Some of my recent projects include investigating technical metadata requirements for moving image and audio collections, investigating scalable and sustainable file-naming conventions for complex repositories, developing and evaluating job tracking and metrics tools for interdisciplinary preservation and access projects, and developing and evaluating specifications for digital moving image and audio objects in an institutional repository. These responsibilities demonstrate my interest and experience with the cooperative nature of moving image archiving and preservation.

I have an established history of active participation in both formal and informal professional organizations. Aside from AMIA, I'm a current member of ARSC, SAA, and SMPTE. I served as Secretary/Treasurer and for the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) Electronic Materials Group (EMG) from 2004 - 2006 as well as chairing the Nominating Committee, 2007-2008. I am a co-organizer (along with Steve Puglia [NARA] and James Snyder [LOC]) of the new Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative (http://www.digitizationguidelines.gov/) Technical Metadata Subgroup which will investigate the identification, collection and use of technical metadata for moving images, audio recordings, and still images. I have a strong foundation in other professional involvement such as serving as a Primary Investigatory on three NFPF grants as well as a grant reviewer for NHPRC, the New York State Program for the Conservation and Preservation of Library Research Materials Discretionary Grants and SAA workshops.

Transparency is essential in governance. If elected to the AMIA Board of Directors, I hope to work with Committees, Interest Groups and Task Forces to keep their information current on the AMIA website or other centralized location. Now that AMIA has so many tools to interact with its membership, it's vital that this information be consolidated. Prospective as well as existing members should be able to find all the information they need, or be directed to it, from one location.

 

 

Carol Radovich

Supporting, implementing, and interpreting the Association's Mission is the primary work of AMIA's Board of Directors.  In a climate of ever-shrinking budgets and limited funding opportunities, economic considerations are more important than ever in developing strategic priorities for AMIA. Like other organizations, AMIA must weigh all programs and activities in light of the financial implications while evaluating the anticipated benefits to the Association, to the profession, to history, and to archival materials.  Opportunities for cooperation and convergence both within AMIA and with outside organizations should be identified and explored to maximize our resources and our reach.  AMIA has great potential to continue to advance its mission by enlisting the energy, expertise and passion of the membership to continue the Association's forward move in deliberate, sustainable and successful ways.

Background

In 1997 I earned a certificate in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation from George Eastman House.   I worked next at Eastman Kodak on a research and development project to modify post production software for digital restoration of moving images.   From 1998-2000, I worked on a grant as the archivist for stills and moving image related materials in the Film Department of GEH.  For the past nine years, I have worked at the Rockefeller Archive Center in a variety of positions, including special formats archivist.  I am currently an Assistant Director and Head of Archival Services. 

 

Tom Regal

I was honored when the Election Committee called and asked me to stand for election as a Director of the Board. After being actively involved with AMIA for the past 8 years, I look at this opportunity as a way to continue the mission and vision of AMIA. We have a great organization that represents a diverse and passionate membership. The board is there to serve that membership by ensuring solid leadership, providing direction and maintaining AMIA's relevance in our chosen profession.

Since becoming an AMIA member, I supported and helped create the Universal Studios Scholarship for Archival Studies and we've now awarded our sixth scholarship. Over the past four years, I have served as the co-creator and co-chair of AMIA's Digital Asset Symposiums in New York and Los Angeles (look for another DAS in 2010!). In addition, I am an active member of the Development Committee which involves helping to generate financial support for AMIA activities, collaborating on partnerships (such as The Reel Thing Technical Symposium), as well as creating new events and opportunities for AMIA.

Over the years I have also participated in and led numerous panels and sessions on Audio Restoration and Digital Archiving. I honed my leadership skills in the creation of the Audio Restoration and Preservation group for Universal Studios as well as the creation of the BluWave Audio facility. In all, it's been more than 18 years in the field.

There are many opportunities that lay ahead for our organization with changing digital technologies, new distribution channels and the need for global archival leadership. As a group of individuals representing every facet of the field, AMIA is the organization to take a leading role. To be successful we need to consider all our options, continue to develop global relationships and, through education and professional development, to continue to build strong leadership.

We have all the answers and solutions we need within our membership. With the knowledge of our industry's past, along with the contemporary knowledge of new advancements and technologies, we can shape our future direction.

Background

Tom Regal holds a Degree in Music with a concentration in Studio Recording from the College of St. Rose in Albany, NY. After a number of years in the music industry, Tom has devoted the last 18 years specializing in the audio restoration and preservation of films. He has engaged in a wide range of projects from salvaging damaged elements to complete soundtrack restorations, including films such as Springtime for Henry (1928), The Love Trap (1929), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), The Shining (1980), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Currently, Tom is the Director of the Audio Restoration and Preservation Services group for Universal Studios BluWave Audio and is responsible for the preservation of the audio assets for NBC Universal as well as the continued development of their digital archival specification. He received the President's Award from the Cinema Audio Society in 2004 for the restoration of "The Stanley Kubrick Collection".

 

Colleen Simpson

When I was asked to run for the Board, I said an enthusiastic yes!   I was honored, of course, and thought about what a great way to contribute to an organization I've been part of for more than eight years.

And yet I struggled trying to put together this statement.  Why was I involved with AMIA to begin with?  Sounds like a simple enough question but it sure stymied me when I tried to put it on paper.  That is until I was sitting around over the weekend, with a bunch of friends that have nothing to do with archiving, or film preservation, or cataloguing.  One of them, a teacher, had absconded with the digital projector from school, hooked it up to her laptop, and made a makeshift movie theater out of the vacation home's family room.  A bed sheet duct taped to the wall served as the screen.  The popcorn was made, a selection of candy was set out for general consumption (including Milk Duds, a personal favorite), and speakers were turned up.  I sat at the back of the room, pad of paper and pen in hand hoping to be able to scribble some kind of statement out.  Anything, please God, anything.  I needed to get poor Dick Fauss something to post.  After a number of circular doodles, stick figures, and portraits only I would recognize, I sat back and looked around the room.  Eight people, a mixture of adults and kids, were sitting in semi-darkness, enjoying the universal experience of watching images together.  It didn't matter what it was, only that we were doing it together and that there were images available for us to watch.  It was about access, and future generations, and shared experiences.  Which is a pretty good definition of why I'm involved with AMIA.    

So who the heck am I to ask you for your vote?  I could pander for different constituencies support and tell you that I'm a cataloging-archiving-home -movie- preservationist- experimental- film-lover, friend of everyone (but who you don't like), candidate of choice.  At the end of the day though, I'm the Managing Director of Technicolor's Film Preservation Department and have been for just over five years.  Before that I did my fair share of negative assembly, printing, evaluation and repair work; I even did some asset management and customer service.  Recently I was involved in setting up some basic telecine services to support students and independent filmmakers.

I've been a member of AMIA since before the Boston conference and I'm pleased as punch that this year's shin-dig is being held in my hometown of St. Louis.  I've helped out here and there, and created Trivia Night to help with fundraising at the conference for the past two years (with the help of many friends) and am looking forward to your participation in year number three.  Perhaps the thing I'm most proud of is my group's involvement with the scholarship winners and the interns that spend time with my department each year.  We teach them what we do at the lab, and in turn, we often learn new techniques from them.

In terms of what I'd do on the board, well, I'd do what I felt was the best thing for the association.  That doesn't necessarily mean I'll always support the majority, it means I'll look at the health of the association and its membership and use my best judgment to assure its robust future.  Economically, I imagine we're all under pressure at home and on the job.  AMIA is no different.  We have to take a hard look at where we're at and where we want to get to over the next few years.  Ultimately we have to determine what sacrifices we're willing to make.  If we want more, we all have to be prepared to give more.  I'm prepared to give my time and whatever other resources I can muster to support AMIA, regardless of whether I'm lucky enough to be made a member of the board.  If you vote me in, it means I'll be pushing all of you harder to do the same.