Why should SND members vote for you? + For more details on my specific roles and experiences serving the Society, and to see my colleagues' comments on my past performance, please see votedorsey.org/endorsement
As someone who’s worked tirelessly in and around the Society since I was in college, I feel I bring a deep range of understanding and perspective to the role of vice president. I would be the only returning elected, experienced officer to a panel otherwise guaranteed to consist entirely of new representatives. We will contend with a new executive director and potentially even a new headquarters search during extremely financially strapped times. Given that, I am the single best hope to carry institutional knowledge forward in critical areas like membership development, financial matters, program planning and general practices.
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What are the most important steps for strengthening the Society in 2010?
We need to help members evolve along with the industry. Simultaneously we need to push the Society itself to grow and evolve to anticipate members' needs better, and faster. What makes this trickier than it sounds is that SND still serves a global audience and not all members' markets are at the same stage of digital evolution -- what's needed in the US, for example, is not necessarily what members in India seek. Some areas in our service still need more classic programs while we must always be developing more modern, digital offerings.
We need former members to see renewed value in their memberships -- enough so that they want to return, even if their employers no longer reimburse their memberships. And we need to make the value of membership attractive enough to potential new members, and new *kinds* of members, all at the same time.
To further strengthen the Society we need to be more inclusive and open than ever before, turning to new sources, models and thinking for inspiration, volunteerism and leadership. We need to return to our craft and focus on what brought us to design and visual journalism in the first place. We need to be bold as we look toward the future, and courageous to take big steps, be willing to fail in controlled doses, learn and then continue onward.
Finally, we need to grow up and move past the squabbles of the summer of '09 and deal with the changes flooding our industry. SND needs to evolve to meet the new needs of old members, and appeal to new kinds of members if it hopes to survive.
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What would you say to someone considering joining SND?
Do it. Right away. You need SND, and SND needs you.
- If you're even considering it -- give it a try. You won't be sorry. (Plus you need to be a member to vote, so there's that. The deadline to renew is Sept. 11)
- If you've let your membership lapse for whatever reason, we want you back. And you're going to want to be back -- there's exciting times ahead.
- SND meant a lot to me as a student and later as a young journalist and rising manager. It helped me learn the things school and the job didn't prepare me for. It connected me to people with answers to my problems -- often before I even knew I had a problem to solve. And it helped forge lifelong friendships along the way. I've been involved at many different levels, but since my early days, I've always trying to pay it forward. SND has always meant collaboration, inspiration, education and perspiration. And it still can.
- It would have been easy for me to walk away in June when there was a group departure from the board. And, frankly, it was difficult (more than once) not to walk away in disgust or exhaustion sometimes. In the end I stayed because there was a lot of important work still to be done, people were counting on me (and the rest of the board) and I wanted to pay back in the bad times what SND had given me during the sunny days. I need your vote so I can continue to pay it forward, there are many sunny days ahead, and I want YOU to be there too!
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What are your ideas for stabilizing SND financially?
The financial equation SND's faced with at this point is comprised of five key factors: membership, revenue, spending, conferences/training, and programming/competitions. There is no one solution that will make us whole in a single stroke -- no silver bullet will save us. Rather we must attack on multiple fronts.
In general, we need to be more business-minded in everything we do. We can no longer ignore money matters or hope they resolve themselves down the road. We're near the end of the road and we need to approach expenditures in a more severe way than ever before -- programs need to be cost-effective. Period. And new revenue needs to be sought. In a hurry.
Membership: We need to stem the bleeding in membership losses. SND has lost a staggering number of members (and their annual dues) in the past 18 months. Membership is only one of three main revenue sources that fund the Society's programs and efforts, but if we continue at this rate, there will be no one left to serve in less than three years. Change is imperative and needed urgently. We need to consider ideas like pledge drives, somehow instilling more value into memberships, and applying tiered pricing and multi-year discounts. Few realize that even at $100 apiece (at least in accounting terms) members cost more money to the Society than they generate. We need to adjust that math to a point where a membership adds value to the organization and helps fund our efforts.
Increase revenue: In addition to membership dues, competition entry fees and annual conference registrations the Society needs additional sources of funding. If participation is flagging in the annual print competition, we need to bolster it. But we also need to pay attention now to build the online news design competition into a stronger future revenue contributor. We need to find new avenues of training programs that will bring revenue. We need to find ways to write grant proposals and win them.
Reduce spending: We must reconsider everything from headquarters to staffing, scheduled expenses to emergencies, from major investments to petty cash. Until we have funding to excuse "the things we've always done" or "the way we've always done them," we need every program to be cost-justified. SND needs a money makeover.
Conferences and training sessions: One of the primary reasons we exist as a Society is to come together, to share our craft, to improve it and help others along the path. We've made great strides in 2009 in finding new ways to come together through a series of regional meetups. The energy, learning and support from those sessions rippled across the internet. It was a great start. But we need to find even more ways to evolve our message and our method to recognize and strengthen our craft.
Programming and competitions: Membership is highlighted for many through the annual establishment the Best of News Design. It helps us all answer those nagging questions: "What's this year's very best?" or "How am I doing? Do I measure up?" The annual conference is a chance to share ideas, reconnect with old friends and colleagues and be inspired by the very best and most talented visualists. The by-products of these training and competitive efforts push many people to strive and elevate their work and their skills all year long. We blog about it, talk about it and write about it. We all seek to improve. So in a sense these elements define SND. They're really what brought a bunch of like-minded editors-turned-designers together more than 30 years ago. It's what keeps us coming back together now. It's what fuels members (current and lapsed) to debate bylaws long into the wee hours ad nauseum. We all still care about what happens next -- that's the optimistic outlook I've tried to adopt when it comes to the conflicts of the summer of 2009. So, whatever happens next, these programs will be a key part of the solution. But once again, they'll have to be cost-effective from now on, there's simply no room left for free riders. We need to evolve.
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Any final thoughts you'd like to share with members?
We face many unique issues this year – an ugly and quite public upheaval in our leadership, plummeting membership, increased costs coupled with the long-term effect of the stock market on our investments. And then there’s the ripple effects of the newspaper industry’s own tailspin.
Clearly, we have our work cut out for us.
But SND began life during a time of extreme change: tools and technology were changing, the needs of the newsroom were in flux and the methods of storytelling were poised to grow by leaps and bounds. We've been here and we helped bridge the gap once before. We can do it again. I need your vote so I can continue to serve the Society through this troublesome time, as I have for nearly 20 years.
Vote Dorsey.
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+ I'm very eager to keep an open dialogue with members all over the world. Please take a few minutes to stop by votedorsey.org to share your own ideas, thoughts and concerns in my public forums.