1) Why did ASMP's national board intentionally (and admittedly) conceal the $1.3 million windfall from the Author's Coalition for eight months, while pleading poverty to ASMP's members in order to get a dues increase passed? Our board admitted publicly that they would have kept this windfall quiet even longer except for the fact that PDN got wind of it, and was about to run a story.
2) How much money has actually been distributed to current and past national directors during the last year by ASMP and its affiliates (such as the ASMP Foundation)? How much have each of these individuals been paid (or received payment approvals), and for what?
3) Why does the board's page on the ASMP web site, supposedly providing "full disclosure on director payments," remain incomplete? See: http://www.asmp.org/membersarea/PaymentsToDirectors.php
In particular, why are the following still not included in the director payment descriptions?
A) Payment to former ASMP president Susan Carr for her editing of the most recent (7th) Edition of ASMP's Business Practices book (a job that in past years has been done exclusively by member volunteers and staff). Neither was this payment ever reported as being authorized by the national board in ASMP board meeting minutes. The payment has been confirmed verbally by several national directors. No dollar amount for this payment approval has been specified to ASMP's membership, either.
B) Authorization and payments to former director Susan Carr again for her hiring as ASMP's education director earlier this year (as announced in the Bulletin). Any time a member of ASMP is hired to provide goods or services to the Society, ASMP's By-laws require that prior approval be made by the respective board of directors. The national board is required to publish all such actions in a timely manner to the membership of the Society via their meeting minutes.
C) Payments to former ASMP President Judy Herrmann and former national director John Giammetteo for what was described only as "photography" to be used in a new member packet earlier this year (this was reported in board meeting minutes, but again, with no dollar amounts specified). Many of ASMP's most illustrious members have donated their photography (both stock and assignment work) repeatedly in the past, and most members would be willing to do the same today. Instead, our board chose two of their own to pay for "photography," without even giving other members an opportunity to donate the service or to provide competitive quotes.
4) ASMP Seminar Speaking Fees -- Why is it that 100 percent of the speakers currently presenting ASMP's It's Your Business seminars to chapters are all current or past ASMP directors? These include: Peter Krogh, Blake Discher, Thomas Werner, Judy Herrmann, and Susan Carr. Each are reportedly receiving $1,000 plus expenses from ASMP per program (2-3 hours each).
Most other members of ASMP do not get paid for lectures and presentations to ASMP chapters, and there are hundreds of these done throughout the country each year. Most members don't even get their expenses reimbursed. Yet these non-director presenters and their programs also provide revenues for ASMP or its chapters, just as those done by ASMP's paid directors do.
These other members donate their considerable time and efforts, and often their expenses incurred to get to the meeting venue, because they are honored to be asked, and carry on a long ASMP tradition of photographers helping photographers via the sharing of knowledge and experience. Unfortunately, too many of our national directors have apparently decided that the ASMP goal of "photographers helping photographers" applies to them only if they get paid for it.
5) Which current and former directors were paid by ASMP (and how much each) for their participation in the Strictly Business 2 program, presented at four cities in the U.S. this past year? Which current and former directors is the board considering for future payments in their planning of this program's continuation?
6) What is the intended use of the $100,000 of the $1.3 million Artists Coalition windfall recently provided by ASMP to the ASMP Foundation (as approved at the November, 2008 board meeting)? Is any of this money intended for payments to ASMP directors? (Note that four of the five current Foundation directors are also ASMP national directors.) Since the Foundation board does not publish its meeting minutes to ASMP's membership, paying directors through the Foundation for educational programs would mean that ASMP members would likely never know about such payments or authorizations.
7) The $1.3 million Artists Coalition windfall was reported to have been placed in a secure investment account(s) over a year ago. Only in the past two months have the first disbursements from these monies been made by ASMP for industry education and advocacy efforts ($84,000 to PLUS, and $100,000 to the ASMP Foundation). Given the dramatic changes in the economy and financial markets, what is the value of this secure investment account today? Has ASMP lost or gained value in our "investment" of these funds over the year that we've been holding them, and to what extent?
8) This past November, according to published board minutes, ASMP's executive board voted unanimously to approve significant payments to several ASMP members, including directors Peter Krogh and Richard Anderson, from the $482,00 Library of Congress grant for expanding UPDIG standards. ASMP's grant request specified that 12,000 hours of research at $40/hour (or $480,000.00) would be part of ASMP's in-kind contribution for receipt of the grant. How much of this has been authorized, or is being paid to Peter and Richard (or their businesses) by ASMP? (The executive board's meeting minutes, once again, did not specify any dollar figures for these director payment authorizations.)
9) Why was it that national ASMP executive board directors Richard Anderson and Bruce Katz swapped officer positions at the recent November board meeting? This was also recorded in the meeting minutes. Richard had been ASMP's national treasurer, but resigned to be replaced by Bruce. The board then appointed Richard to fill Bruce's now-vacated position as 2nd vice president. Was this done to get around ASMP's By-Law No. 1, Sec. 8 (which is the same By-Law we are proposing to expand) that prohibits members authorized to sign financial instruments from signing checks or making payments to themselves? Since Richard was ASMP's treasurer, did the board make this change because they were planning to approve his payment, but would have been blocked because of the existing prohibition against a treasurer signing his own check(s)?
10) Finally, members might want to ask why our national board refuses to specify dollar amounts in the payments they authorize to each other any more? Formal board motions made and approved for such payments mostly specify only that the amounts will be "negotiated by the executive director" or that they will involve "reasonable compensation." This keeps members from knowing how much our board is really paying one another, especially since queries after the fact have been met with a standard response of..."we are unable to respond with the detail requested as a matter of policy."
Remember that our national board recently wasted many tens of thousands of dollars on three failed constitution referendums attempting to wrest dues control away from the General Membership of ASMP. Our board sought the power to increase GM dues at any time, in any amount, and for any purpose they desired (including funding of programs that would put ASMP money in directors' pockets). Our board kept telling us how important it was for us to trust them and to just let them do their jobs. Imagine what abuses could have resulted had we agreed to give up this constitutional right, as they had hoped.
Remember also the terms "transparency" and "openness."
These are the words that our board has repeatedly used to describe their governance of our Society in recent years, even though directors have concealed so much financial information from members. It's time to bring openness and transparency back to ASMP's governance again. Passage of this member referendum will go a long way, as it will eliminate the need for directors to conceal information about payments to each other simply by eliminating their ability to make them in the first place.
Please support this referendum with your Yes vote.