The holiday season has arrived, a joyous time to be festive, but also a time to rest, reflect, and spend time with family and friends, all of which can be thrown off by hectic schedules, unrealistic expectations, travel, and an excess of tempting treats, to name a few of my downfalls.  On behalf of the VRA Executive Board, I would like to extend best wishes for a safe and peaceful season.Congratulations and welcome to the newly elected and re-elected VRA Officers:  Elaine Paul, President-Elect; Stephanie Beene, Secretary; and Steven Kowalik, continuing on for a second term as Vice President for Conference Program.  Thank you for your willingness to contribute your time and talent in service to the Association in a leadership role.   Speaking personally, the time commitment required of officers, committee, chapter and task force chairs, and all VRA volunteers, is balanced by the formation of close and supportive friendships and the realization of the rewards of working collaboratively in a wide range of areas to advance the mission of our organization.  Through our combined efforts and pursuits, VRA continues to inform our professional values and the services and expertise for which we are known.

Among our core values is that of mutual assistance to one another, “members helping members.”  An important manifestation of this is our annual Travel Awards Program funded through the Luraine Tansey Educational Fund.  The Fund makes it possible for any member, whether new to the profession or a sustaining member, to attend a conference when circumstances such as a lack of institutional travel funding would otherwise prevent attendance.  Over the years, VRA members have generously donated to the fund and participated in fundraising events, the “Tansey,” and VRAffle, both scheduled during the conference and consistently lively and memorable.

As a result of “members helping members” and the generosity of sponsors and vendors, the Travel Awards Program has grown and flourished, benefiting anywhere from 12-14 members annually with full or partial travel support.  Few other organizations the size of VRA, or even larger, including those with higher dues structures and alternate sources of income, extend their hard earned fundraising dollars in the direct and collegial way that VRA aspires through the travel awards.  

This year during VRA 31 in Providence (31 in 13 for you numerologists), a new twist is added to the Tansey.  Anyone who donates ANY AMOUNT to the Luraine Tansey Educational Fund from September 1, 2012 up to Friday evening, April 5th (donations also taken at the door) will be invited to an Open House at the RISD Museum Shop.  This wonderful shop full of creative items designed mostly by RISD students and alum will be open exclusively to VRA, with a 10% discount, door prizes, refreshments and conviviality.  No tickets required, only a donation in any amount to the fund.  Drop in on your way out to dinner and enjoy the SHOP-Tansey at the RISD Museum, just a few blocks from the conference hotel.  More details will be available in the conference program and website in the weeks ahead. 

Donate through conference registration, membership renewal or online at vraweb.org.  Donations already made since September 1, 2012 are considered eligible.

Thank you in advance for your great generosity to the Tansey tradition!

There’s a lot of talk these days about the looming “Fiscal Cliff,” an impending round of tax increases and spending cuts towards which our nation is being impelled by budget deficits.  As I read about the various measures being proposed to avoid the abyss, I can’t help but draw a parallel to our Association’s finances.  In a way, we’re facing our own “Fiscal Slope,” in that, for the past several years, the VRA’s operating expenses have exceeded its income.  In fact, we’ve run budget deficits in three of the past four years. 

Since 2007, when I first began serving on the Executive Board (and began to pay more attention to every aspect of our budget), our Association has undergone a lot of changes.  Some of these changes reflect, and amplify, what’s been happening in the wider world around us.  As a nation, we’ve experienced the trauma of recession.  The universities, museums, and other institutions for which we work have undergone major internal changes, some in the face of (or in reaction to) budget crises.  Our profession continues to morph in ways many of us may not have foreseen.  Our individual members have had to redefine their positions and acquire new skills and responsibilities – and sometimes even this hasn’t been enough to prevent job losses.

So as part of trying to understand how we’ve found ourselves on our own “Fiscal Slope,” I started making a list of some assumptions we held five years ago, in 2007, and how the realities we face in 2012 differ from what we anticipated back then.

Some of the assumptions made by the Association five years ago were that:

1. Our membership numbers would remain constant or perhaps even increase;
2. Membership dues would continue to be sufficient to support our ongoing operations;
3. The Association would continue to realize a modest but reliable income from our conferences, which could help to make up for any potential shortfall in membership dues income;
4. Shifting operations from paper-based to electronic transactions would save money and simplify the administration of essential tasks.

Here’s what has actually happened over the past five years:

1. Our membership numbers have slowly but steadily declined since 2007. 
   The Great Recession, along with quantum changes in the user communities upon which many of our positions depend, resulted in significant job loss or curtailment for many of our members (and, sad to say, some who are no longer members).
2. Membership dues no longer cover the full cost of running our Association.
   Each year, the Executive Board has had to weigh how to structure membership dues to provide sufficient operating revenue without pricing ourselves beyond the willingness, or ability, of our remaining members to afford.  Despite several modest dues increases, we have run budget deficits in three of the past four years (the exception being 2011, during which we benefited from income from the joint conference with ARLIS/NA); during recent “solo conference” years, dues have covered only 93-97% of annual operating expenses.  But significant increases in membership dues might be counterproductive, resulting in further attrition.  We have, commendably, provided steeply discounted membership categories for Students, Retirees, and our Unemployed colleagues; it is to everyone’s advantage to attract and retain these individuals as part of our organization.  But discounted memberships don’t come close to paying the actual per capita operating cost of the Association, so each discounted membership must in effect be subsidized by those who pay dues at the regular rate.  Even if everyone were able to pay full fare, we’d still barely break even.
3. Our solo conferences are now as likely to experience modest losses as they are to show a profit. 
   In conference budgets, it’s all about numbers.  Upwards of 240 attendees, and we’ll likely make money (for 2013, we are hoping that our first conference held in the Northeast in over a decade, proximate to two large urban areas -- in which two of our largest Chapters are located -- will experience a good turnout).  On the other end of the scale, it’s increasingly difficult to cover expenses when we attract 200 attendees or fewer.  In between these numbers, it’s a crap shoot.  On top of rising hotel technology and catering costs, many of our members have had their professional development and travel funds cut, and can no longer afford to participate every year.  So the Association, like our individual members, is caught between a rock and a hard place as we try to choose attractive venues and affordable host hotels, and set registration fees with perfectly pitched price points.  Like Baby Bear, we want to get it “just right.”  But this means that we can no longer count on conference income to make up our annual budget deficits.
4. Ours is a tech-savvy membership that expects its professional organization to use up-to-date technology in its operations, and to provide appropriate tools for facilitating its essential tasks.
   The sheer number of tools and services we use – from MemberClicks to Basecamp, from SCHED to ElectionsOnLine – increases each year, and all of these come at a price.  They make our work more efficient, but they also require time and oversight to manage.  (In a future “Notes from the Treasurer” column, I hope to provide some answers to the questions some members have asked about “Just what is included in the General & Administrative category in the annual budget?”)

Change is a constant in human experience and in the “lives” of our organizations as well.  As comforting it might be to dwell in the past of our profession, and our Association, this won’t solve problems like our “Fiscal Slope.”  Change is something we must navigate and manage if we want to retain some measure of control.  Despite our running budget deficits during three of the past four years, I want to assure you all that the VRA is not in any immediate danger.  Our reserves are healthy, and our cash flow is in good shape.  Still, we all know how tempting it has been for some corporations and organizations (and even governments) to focus on short-term solutions while kicking those long-term problems down the road, hoping that they will become someone else’s burden to assume.  So I’m pleased that the current Executive Board is taking seriously our “Fiscal Slope,” and, with the assistance of the Financial Advisory Committee is taking steps to ensure the financial health of our Association for many years to come.  More about these measures in the months ahead.

Updike’s first SECAC meeting was in 1976, in Charleston, SC. She established the Visual Resources Curators group soon thereafter and has been a pillar of both groups. The VRC is the affiliate organization with the longest relationship with SECAC. She has attended the SECAC Board of Directors meetings either as the representative of the VRC, or as the elected representative from Virginia for SECAC. One of her professional colleagues has said of her, “Tina is a legend in her own time. She reaches out to colleagues from across the country, supports their work, nurtures their projects (from MDID to the VRA Foundation to the SECAC VR Curators Group) and encourages connections and collaboration across disparate institutions.  Tina has a gift—how can anyone be so friendly, so optimistic, and so full of positive energy and enthusiasm, all the time?” Tina not only well represents the sense of service that is a hallmark of SECAC, she also keeps reminding us of the fun of gathering in interesting places once a year. Read her recollections in the 2007 Southeastern College Art Conference Review and www.secollegeart.org/history.html.

SECAC, founded in 1942, is a non-profit organization that promotes the study and practice of the visual arts in higher education on a national basis. SECAC facilitates cooperation and fosters on-going dialog about pertinent creative, scholarly and educational issues among teachers and administrators in universities, colleges, community colleges, professional art schools, and museums, and among independent artists and scholars.

Membership includes individuals and institutions from the original group of southeastern states that founded the conference: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Over the decades, however, SECAC has grown to include individual and institutional members from across the United States, becoming the second largest national organization of its kind. SECAC is an affiliated organization of the national College Art Association and participates in its annual conferences.

While education and job experience play the most crucial role in securing a position in the visual resources field, there are many other simple and inexpensive ways to advance one’s career.  The continuing education and mentoring opportunities described below can enhance one’s existing experience and education by increasing understanding of the field and broadening professional networks.  Utilizing these resources may help VREPS stand out in a group of job candidates and become more involved in the visual resources community.

Webinars

All visual resources professionals, new and experienced, need to stay abreast of changes in the field.  Conferences are a great way to stay informed, but many professionals do not have the time or funds to attend them.  Luckily, many professional organizations offer webinars, podcasts, and archived conference videos at little or no cost.  Please visit the links below for podcasts, webinars, or archived conference proceedings that may be of interest to visual resources professionals.

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) offers a few webcasts a year, each for a relatively small fee.  Prices vary depending on one’s professional status, and discounts are given for students and groups.  More information can be found at http://www.ala.org/acrl/webcasts.

The ACRL Image Resources Interest Group will allow professionals to attend its Mid-Winter meeting online (using Adobe Connect) on Thurs. Feb. 14, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. CST.  Please visit https://sites.google.com/site/acrlirig/ for additional information.

The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services, a Division of the American Library Association (ALA), regularly offers webinars and allows them to remain online for up to 2 weeks after they air.  Please visit http://www.ala.org/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar for more information.

The Joint Information Services Committee (JISC) regularly offers webcasts at no charge, but pre-registration is required.  Please see http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/webinars.aspx for more information.

Like the Visual Resources Association (VRA) (http://www.slideshare.net/tag/vra2012), the Personal Digital Archiving conference made all presentations from its 2011 conference available here: http://archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Apersonalarchiveconf.

For those interested in digital humanities, the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education has an archived webinar series available here: https://sites.google.com/a/wellesley.edu/lts-digital-scholarship-and-learning/digital-humanites-organizations/nitle-presentations.

Mentoring

Participating in a mentoring program is another fantastic (and free!) way for both VREPs and experienced professionals to advance their careers through networking and knowledge sharing.  In an organized mentoring program, mentors and mentees are matched according to location, specialization, and areas of interest as reported on brief applications.  Then, for a period of about 6 months to a year, the mentor is expected to provide the mentee with advice and assist him or her with introductions and networking opportunities within the field of the professional organization.  However, while the mentee is typically the focus of these programs, mentors may find that they benefit a great deal from the mentee’s fresh perspective and recent education.  

The VRA offers both year-round and conference specific mentoring programs.  To get involved as a mentor or a mentee for the coming year, please visit http://www.vraweb.org/members/mentorship.html.

The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) also offers both a year-long Career Mentoring Program and a Conference Networking Program, organized by its Professional Development Committee.  Those who wish to participate in the year-long program as mentors or mentees must attend a mandatory 4-hour workshop at the organization’s annual conference.  For more information, visit http://www.arlisna.org/organization/com/profdev/mentor/index.html.

While organized mentoring programs like those mentioned above are an important resource for students and emerging professionals, VREPS should also capitalize on relationships formed with professors, internship supervisors, and other professionals they may come into contact with.  Maintaining these connections may result in a more informal, but no less fruitful, mentor/mentee relationship.

We hope that these resources will give VREPS some ideas for gaining further knowledge and broadening their professional networks outside of traditional avenues at little to no cost.  As always, we welcome your comments, suggestions, feedback, and column submissions, so please feel free to contact us and get involved!

College Art Association (CAA)
Annual Conference
New York, New York
Wednesday 13 – Saturday 16, February 2013

Visual Resources Association (VRA)
Annual Conference
Providence, Rhode Island
Tuesday 2 – Sunday 7, April 2013
http://www.vraweb.org/conferences/vra31/

Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL)
Imagine, Innovate, Inspire
Indianapolis, Indiana
Wednesday 10 – Saturday 13, April 2013
http://conference.acrl.org/

Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA)
Annual Conference - Crafting our Future
Pasadena, California
Thursday 25 – Monday 29, April 2013
http://www.arlisna.org/pasadena2013/

American Association of Museums (AAM)
Annual Meeting & Museum Expo
Baltimore, Maryland
Sunday 19 – Wednesday 22, May 2013
http://www.aam-us.org/events/annual-meeting

Special Libraries Association (SLA)
Annual Conference
San Diego, California
Sunday 9 – Tuesday 11, June 2013
http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/ac13/index.cfm

Great Lakes Chapter
Marlene Gordon (University of Michigan-Dearborn)

The fall meeting of the chapter was held at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA).  The morning began with an informal discussion over coffee and pastries in Kresge Court that was inspired by the Bargello Museum, the Italian National Sculpture Museum in Florence.  Each façade represents a different period style-Romanesque, Gothic, Italian Renaissance, Northern Renaissance and many 14th to 17th century Italian coats of arms acquired in the 1920s that are embedded into the walls.  During our business meeting, we discussed and approved adding the Summer Educational Institute (SEI) to our travel grant and offering a workshop grant for the 2013 conference.  We also addressed the use of Go to Meeting for the fall 2013 meeting.  Astrid Mast presented a summary of the workshop, “Budgets Schmudgets-Writing Grants to Support Special Projects,” from the conference in Albuquerque.  In the afternoon, Alan P. Darr, Senior Curator of the European Paintings, Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department and Walter B. Ford II Family Curator of European Sculpture & Decorative Arts conducted a tour of several areas of the department’s collection.  There was time for us to explore the DIA prior to a discussion on copyright.  Several museum members joined us and provided insight to the museum perspective on copyright.  The chapter is grateful to the DIA for use of its facilities for our meeting.

Midwest Chapter
By Rebecca Moss (University of Minnesota)          

The Chapter held a joint meeting with ARLIS Midstates in beautiful Madison, WI on Sept. 28-29, 2012. Many thanks to Jacob Esselstrom and Lyn Korenic from the University of Wisconsin Madison for planning the many tours and events we all enjoyed. We visited the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection and the Ruth Davis Design Gallery (both part of the School of Human Ecology), and the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery where we toured the virtual reality CAVE, to a tour of the Chazen Museum of Art, and then a private tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright Jacobs House. We even had time for a session on “Locally Created Online Image Databases and Digital Resources: a Panel Discussion”. 

Both chapters held separate business meetings. We had hoped to use GoToMeeting for any attendees not able to attend in person, but no one sign up for this option (having it scheduled at 5 pm on a Friday probably didn't help). Planning for the 2014 conference in Milwaukee got underway and plans were made to hold the fall 2013 meeting on site to finalize the details. 

New England Chapter
Jen Green (Plymouth State University)

The VRA New England chapter held their fall meeting on October 12th at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence. Mark Pompelia planned and coordinated the programming and accommodations in collaboration with Karen Bouchard (Brown University).  The day was rich with opportunities for professional development and networking.   During the morning, members gathered for the business meeting and then engaged in a discussion with Steven McDonald (RISD legal counsel) regarding the ARL Code of Best Practices. The afternoon featured tours of and presentations from the John Carter Brown Library Digital Collections, the RISD Materials Library, the RISD Nature Lab, and the RISD Museum exhibitions.  Members also had the opportunity to participate in a digital collections round table discussion. Feedback on the day was positive, and New England members are looking forward to holding the annual spring meeting at the National Conference in Providence this year. Chapter officers are currently soliciting applications for the VRA New England travel award, which will support attendance at the VRA 2013 National Conference.

Northern and Southern California Chapters
Abby Dansiger (Academy of Art University)
Emily Vigor (University of California, Berkeley)
Greg Reser (University of California, San Diego)

The Northern and Southern California Chapters coordinated their fall meetings on November 14, 2012 and held a one-hour joint meeting via GoToMeeting between the two groups. The hour was devoted to a round robin style news and brainstorming session covering topics such as increasing membership, professional development, the upcoming VRA annual conference in Providence, Rhode Island, April 2-7, 2013 and the next California Visual Resources Association Conference, a.k.a. CaVraCon, which will be held at Sonoma State University, June 27-28, 2013.

While the joint meeting was productive in covering content, it was clear that unless the proper hardware is used in both locations, web meetings between two large groups have limitations. The GoToMeeting software worked well but we learned that webinars (unlike meetings for a limited number of participants) do not support video cameras, they only allow desktop sharing. This was disappointing only because we were hoping each chapter could see each other to get a more "connected" feeling.

The real issue we had was with audio. The Northern California meeting was in a classroom that utilized a computer cart and projector, and attendees seated toward the back of the room had trouble hearing and being heard. Those folks ended up walking to the front and talking next to the computer when they wanted to address the group. A suggestion for improvement afterward was to try meeting around a big table next time instead with the computer placed in the center.  The Southern California meeting had a tabletop microphone but it turned out to function no better than a laptop microphone since there were several moments of, "We didn't catch that, can you repeat it?"  It was clear that several microphones spread around the table would be necessary, or perhaps just one of better quality. Another suggestion was made that next time people could be logged into the meeting with their own laptop, tablet, or phone. However, we agreed that it would be a bit odd to have everyone in one room staring at their own screens.

Both chapters also used GoToMeeting to facilitate hybrid business meetings. In both cases one member attended virtually. The Southern California remote attendee experienced trouble with hearing people in the room, although she was very easy to hear.  In better news, the Northern California remote attendee could be heard quite well by everyone in the classroom, and with the exception of certain announcements from the very back of the room, the virtual attendee could hear the group clearly on her end.

For our next virtual joint chapter meeting we are thinking of doing short presentations with only one speaker at a time to test GoToMeeting's capabilities further. Our goal is to have each chapter spend thirty minutes presenting on topics such as chapter news and projects, imaging and metadata how-to's, and ideas to keep the field of visual resources going strong!

Pacific Rim Chapter
Josh Polansky (University of Washington)

The Pacific Rim Chapter gathered October 12th on the University of Washington campus in Seattle. In-person attendees from Washington and Oregon were joined for the business meeting via GoToMeeting by two members in Oregon. This was the chapter's first attempt at adding a virtual component to its meetings and it was a success.  Equipment used for GoToMeeting: MacBook air, external speakers, a Blue
Snowball USB microphone on a stand and a USB extension cord. This microphone adequately picked up speakers' voices and the extension allowed the microphone to be occasionally moved around the board table with little disruption. Feel free to contact Josh Polansky if you have questions about using this setup.

Before the meeting, Dr. David Levy, Professor at the UW Information School, gave an engaging lecture on the tension between the "fast world" of digital technology and the "slow world" of contemplation. The chapter hopes to include similar lectures in future meetings since Prof. Levy's remarks inspired a good and thoughtful discussion.  The chapter also visited the Seattle Art Museum where head librarian Traci Timmons provided a tour of her library and archives, explaining the relationship between the museum's exhibits and the visual and printed materials that the library accessions.

This year's meeting was attended by several students. Our chapter continues to draw interest from the UW Information School community as well as MLIS students from other institutions residing locally. Their participation adds a fresh perspective to our association's areas of interest.

Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Chapter
Barbara Brenny (North Carolina State University Libraries)

The Southeast and Mid-Atlantic held a joint meeting on Thursday, October 18th as part of the Southeastern College Art Conference. The two groups discussed the future of the visual resources profession and identified potential topics for future conference sessions. The Southeast Chapter talked about having a virtual mid-year meeting/mini-conference in 2013.

Texas Chapter
Katherine Moloney (Amon Carter Museum of American Art)

Greetings from Katherine Moloney, current chair of VRA-TX.  I will be stepping down in December. Adrianna Stephenson of the Southern Methodist University Visual Resource Center has graciously accepted the post and will begin her tenure on January 1st. Neil Sreenan, Imaging Technology Specialist at the Dallas Museum of Art, will act as secretary/treasurer for the next year. The chapter is very grateful for their commitment to take VRA-TX to a whole new level.

 On a personal note, I want to thank everyone in the chapter and the VRA board for the support over the past four years. I particularly want to thank the board for implementing the tools to make virtual meetings and correspondence so easy.

• VRA folks never cease to amaze and inform me. Here’s what I learned at the Oct. 19th VRA-TX meeting:
• Having interns and/or student workers is much more time consuming than labor saving, although we couldn’t do what we do without them
• There are tools to make your work day much more efficient
• There are lots of great digital projects out there that I don’t know anything about
• SMU has a beautiful campus – but I’m still glad I don’t live in Dallas.
• People with a passion make the world a much better place

Many, many thanks to our speakers:
Cindy Boeke, Digital Collections Developer, introduced us to the wonderful digital projects that are being produced by the SMU University Libraries. Check them out at http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/all/ I have already shared this resource with a couple of teachers who successfully used images in their classrooms.

Elizabeth Schaub, Director, Visual Resources Collection, School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin, showed us how keeping your student workers on task and helping them document their work reaps incredible benefits for your office. I took personal inspiration from her daily work log and it is now a part of my daily routine. How many of you have a department strategic plan and use it to inform your practice and the day-to-day activities of everyone in your department? (I really want that to happen in my department!)

Stacy Fuller, head of the education department at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, talked about how interns need to get back more than they give a sea change for many cultural institutions. Her new program for interns is now a model for interns throughout the museum. Stacy was a virtual speaker. Many thanks to Teddie Bozhilova for the technical support.

Adrianna Stephenson, Head, Visual Resources Library, Southern Methodist University, presented on “The Shirley Achor Papers: Accessioning, Archiving, and Digitization” and told the story of new discoveries and how to share them in a way that may change the way her department shares information in the future.

Happy trails! And Happy Holidays!