2003 SVA Annual Report

SVA Annual Report 2003

To: AAA
From: Carol Hermer, SVA President [2001-2003] (chermer@pipeline.com)

I: Board Members
The 2003 elections saw one member, SVA Treasurer Marilyn Thomas Houston, reelected and new members Liam Buckley and Kelly Askew elected, replacing Faye Ginsburg and Steven Caton. Previous President, Joanna Scherer, was also elected replacing Dana Culhane. At the 2003 meetings Peter Biella took over as President replacing Carol Hermer, who becomes Past President. Mary Strong remains as Secretary.

II. Membership
For the first time in 10 years membership has dropped slightly, remaining around 570. This is cause for concern but seems to be related to the general economic conditions in the US. Replies to a letter sent out to past members who had not renewed indicated that cashflow was an issue. Fluctuations in membership over the year suggest that most members renew as late as possible and depending on whether they intend to submit papers or attend the annual AAA meetings. Subscriptions to VAR have remained steady, though lower than in the past reflecting irritation with the irregularity of the journal.

III. Financial Status.
As with all sections, the advent of Anthrosource is a challenge to our budget. Figures indicate that continued print publication of VAR is not tenable. At the annual Members meeting in November, most attendees seemed to accept the inevitability of an online publication and were more concerned about regular publication than method of delivery. However reducing the clear benefits of membership in SVA will affect the number of members and the extent of this remains to be seen. Fortunately we have an adequate fund balance that will see us through this year and we will have to reassess the situation once the effects of Anthrosource are felt. We also expect, because of the importance of visual material in VAR, that our costs for online publication may be higher than other sections. Again this is only speculation at this stage. Because the budget was prepared before the profound effects of Anthrosource were recognized, we expect to be more frugal in other areas than the figures indicate. Nevertheless this coming year will result in another negative balance. Once the change to online publication is implemented and the changes in membership assessed we can consider increasing our dues which have remained steady for over 10 years.

IV. SVA Scientific Program 2003
We are satisfied that the SVA has once again managed to present an interesting program. This year we sponsored two invited sessions, including one double session, four volunteered sessions and two poster sessions, one of which was invited. Of particular interest were two panels by visual anthropologists from outside the US. We also had a jam-packed session discussing the long film career of John Marshall who was awarded a lifetime achievement award. There was one SVA sponsored workshop, on Digital Anthropology. This is always popular with the general membership of AAA. We are very grateful that care was taken this year not to have the scheduling conflicts that beset last year's program. Many thanks to Lucille Horn. We are also delighted to learn that this was the last year that LCD projectors would be an extra expense. Almost every SVA session requires the use of these projectors.

V. Visual Anthropology Review Journal
As discussed earlier the journal will have to undergo substantial change. Our major concern in going online is the quality and number of the images. The ability to print out high resolution images is important to this journal. If readers have to provide their own print copies they must at least be of the same high quality as before and we would like assurance that this will be possible without extra cost to our budget.

The journal continues to run one year behind schedule but we hope to make up the backlog shortly as the next few issues are already planned and in the pipeline. Our new editor is Peter Biella and he will be assisted by Kelly Askew.

VI: SVA Film, Video and Interactive Media Festival
This year there were were two awards of lifetime achievement, three films were given Awards of Excellence, four received Awards of Commendation and there was one Student Award. The 2002 Festival received far fewer entries than in previous years. This is attributed to the new web-based process of submission that would only allow entries after the entrant had registered for the conference. As many filmmakers are not anthropologists and have no intention of attending the meetings many were put off from submitting their films. As this is a major income generator for SVA we have asked AAA to change the registration procedure for 2004 and have received assurances that this will be done.

On the other hand we are disappointed that, despite the resolution passed by AAA two years ago acknowledging the importance of film as an academic product, the films shown at the festival are still not mentioned in the regular program, nor are their abstracts included. We recognize that expecting films to be treated as academic contributions contradicts the submission problem mentioned above. Perhaps a compromise could be reached in that members of AAA submitting films would be asked for registration fees but not non-members.

VII: Section News Column in AN
In spite of restrictions on space, editor Marcelo Fiorini publishes information for members as well as reports of new and ongoing visual anthropology research.

VIII: Visual Research Conference
The 19th Annual Visual Research Conference, organized by Tom Blakely, with assistance from Rolf Husmann and Marcelo Fiorini included 11 presentations. This is an important event for SVA as the longer format of the program allows much time for discussion and networking. We are working to streamline the process of submissions in order to broaden the pool of prospective presenters. Those wishing to submit presentations for the Visual Research Conference will now do this through the SVA webpage. Najwa Adra will assist Blakely in 2004.

IX: SVA on the Web
The SVA website continues to grow, at www.societyforvisualanthropology.org. It is taking some time to get active participation from members, who have started submitting items for inclusion only in the past couple of months. We are also soliciting non-juried articles for publication on the web, as well as using it to display photographs taken at SVA events. Carol Hermer has been appointed Web Editor for a three-year term.

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