Happy Holidays and Update for Members

First of all may I wish all of our members a very happy Christmas/Hanukah/holiday season – whatever your beliefs enjoy your time with those closest to you! I thought it timely to say a few things about where the IOV is and what we have been doing during 2017. “We” has mostly been Cheema and myself although we now have a small team of helpers who have expressed a willingness to take on particular tasks to help run there IOV’s activities. Attempts to get the group together for an online discussion have not worked out so far so we will try again in January. Chris North has been particularly helpful with his efforts on our website and with his detailed commentary on our Action Plan. Before and particularly since Martin’s departure Cheema has been busy streamlining often cumbersome membership processes, thereby saving time and expense. On the subject of expense the main thing to say is that we are still here and financially more stable than we were and therefore in a better position to plan to restore activities and benefits. We have engaged the assistance of a web developer to help to sort out many glitches, make the navigation more sensible and in general make the user experience more satisfactory. We have mapped out our priorities and the work will proceed in phases, mostly around functionality but also picking up on design elements and moving on to our other sites, videoskills.org and findavideographer.com asap. These latter sites are linked of course in terms of their main purposes, the former providing technical knowledge and access to the online exam which forms the route to Part One of our accreditation process; while the latter allows those who have successfully submitted work to be assessed to promote their business as qualified members. We look forward to the day when most of our members are fully accredited. A major element for 2018 will be to get some short courses delivered in different regions. The aim is to have one- and possibly 2-day courses that are very much practice oriented offered on a highly subsidised basis for members with others who are not current IOV members welcomed where space permits. As an organisation which is fundamentally about professional standards in video production it makes sense that training workshops should be a regular feature of what we do. Finally I would wish to encourage all members to play as active a part as they can in the life of the IOV whether by posting news or articles, reviewing the latest kit, or by personal contact and support of other members. Very best wishes for a successful 2018. Kind regards Tony Manning Chair, Institute of Videography Mob: 07960 719520