19/12/2024
(WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD.)
Please feel free to share it. Or not. It’s good either way. I just had to write this. People, the thoughts have to go somewhere.)
I have been in the photography industry a very long time. It’s not that I’m terribly old, it’s just I started when I was terribly young. 19 years old, to be exact. Yes, kids, I’ve been around.
I am tape-the-negative-to-the-aperture-card old.
The professional photography industry has been my entire life.
Yes, I adore other things, like writing, and maybe one day I will segue to just writing, and people will buy my book or pay $5 a month to support my writing on Substack but it’s hard to imagine. Because photography is my core, it is my base.
It is the thing that has literally given me my Life.
Like so many of you, I’m not playing at this photography thing. It’s not “Plan B.” Photography has always been my business and although I don’t take myself seriously, I do take the professional photography industry VERY seriously. I have to.
If you make your living with your camera, you have to, too.
And since I was 19, PPA has been a part of my photography journey. I have been a member off and on but even during times when I allowed my membership to lapse, I have had the utmost respect for the organization. Many a time found me in an elevator at an event with some old dude or gal with a ribbon around their neck adorned with little gold print merit bars. Some of these people had so many, I wondered how they stood upright.
But I never scoffed at those bars. They represented quality work. Now, to be fair, there have always been people with way more gold bars than actual business—business success and gold bars are not the same thing—but that doesn’t mean I didn’t respect the crap out of their accomplishments.
PPA always loomed large in my mind. They were trusted; they were legit; they were the pinnacle of professional photography organizations.
As the cool kids would say, they were “the shiz.”
And I took comfort in the knowledge that PPA was a non-profit organization. I don’t know why that feels better to me, but it always has.
Actually, I do know why—it has to do with accountability.
I felt good that PPA was not comprised of a handful of people holding onto power and calling the shots or manipulating others…it was governed by a Council and a Board.
There was a system of checks and balances, and kids, checks and balances are stupid important. It keeps organizations in line and on the right track. When you only answer to yourself and the people who feel the same as you do, well, it’s easy to get a little drunk with power and turn into the non-profit version of “Mean Girls.”
Yes, all my life, I have supported and defended PPA. Even when I've been critical of their antics, I have still stood firm in my belief that they were best hope to preserve the integrity of the professional photography industry.
I can't do that any more.
Because with the recent events, it’s no longer .
Not even close.
I wish it was. I want it to be. I hope it will be again. But just like trying unsuccessfully to make myself like Kale, I can no longer pretend all is well. I can’t laugh this one off. And there’s not much I can’t laugh off.
Now, I’ve received a plethora of messages since PPA’s Chairman of the Board sent her letter out to some of the Council members and the President made his FB statement following the Board coup and multiple "special elections."
The Board had two choices before them: make it right with a “Mea Culpa,” or double down. They picked the double down.
Now, I know your time is precious. So is mine. I mean, it's a week to Christmas. None of us have time for this silliness.
So let me summarize the sequence of events for you. I have literally picked through the word salad for this. It was not easy. This is the form my love for you takes.
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
The vote for officers took place early October. The results of this election saw the current VP and Treasurer moving into the offices of President and Vice President. They both ran unopposed. REMEMBER, they were already on the board in chair positions. All was well.
But then a strange thing happened.
The Board “forgot” the motion to formalize the October election results. (Note: NO SUCH MOTION went forth in last years' election, either. But now? Well, now they need a vehicle to try to stop the election results.)
So, another Board meeting was called a month later.
But it wasn’t to formalize the election results. If that was the case, I wouldn’t even be writing this. No, the Board wanted to meet again to “address concerns about the future of the Executive Committee (the officers, notably, the incoming President) and its "leadership style." (Important point there.)
At this second meeting, just a month later, the motion did NOT pass for the incoming president to move forward into her position. The incoming president contested the election results on the basis of procedural negligence (I would have, too. This is nonsense.)
The board ended up voiding the previous October vote. It’s like it never happened. A third election was scheduled.
(My take: This second meeting was to find a way to invalidate the October vote and stop the incoming President from taking office. And they did just that. It’s so nice when a coup goes to plan.)
The final election took place November 25.
This time, the CURRENT PRESIDENT ran against the incoming President.
Wait…WHAT?
At this last meeting, the Board voted out the incoming President and elected the current President to stay in office for a SECOND term.
This is unheard of, kids.
This also meant the Chairman of the Board (who had been the president prior) also gets to stay in office and in charge ANOTHER year.
But wait! There's more!
In, in their final act, the Board kicked the current VP and Treasurer off the nominating committee altogether and put in their place the new incoming officers.
No reason was given for these shenanigans other than the “the Board carefully evaluated each candidate’s actions, leadership style, and the trust required to serve in executive roles.”
Oh, and there was this line: “these decisions were not made lightly. They reflect the Board’s careful assessment of the leadership qualities and trust required to advance PPA’s mission effectively."
Now, remember kids: Allison and Pete, the rightful incoming President and VP, were already serving on the Board.
They were both directors for years.
Allison then moved into the role of Treasurer.
The next year, Allison moved into the role of VP and Pete was voted in as Treasurer.
That’s how it works.
Once elected to the Executive Committee, the goal is to work through the seats. Each seat is training for the one ahead of it.
Pete and Allison were simply moving up the chairs, as one does.
And no one had a problem with any of it until Allison was ready for the office of President. Clearly, no one questioned their “actions and leadership style” as they moved up the chairs.
No one questioned the necessary “trust required to serve in executive roles.”
These are kind, helpful, encouraging, positive individuals.
But now?
It appears these lovely people, Allison and Pete, are such a threat to the power dynamic of the board and personal agendas, that they must be removed.
Now, I could beat around the bush and word salad it up with a side of Ranch, much like the PPA's "non-explanation" explanation letters and statements, but I don’t work that way. I don’t play games. (Well, except Settlers of Catan. I love Settlers of Catan.)
I do my darnedest to approach situations with humor and logic (and yes, a healthy amount of snark) so, let me take a moment to say what I THINK is going on here. After all, thinking things and saying them out loud is my specialty. And cocktails. I’m really good at those, too.
You can agree with me, disagree with me…it doesn’t matter. I’m good either way.
And what I think is that this isn’t about trust, nor leadership qualities. Those terms are often used for their lovely vagueness. It’s like Washington politics-talk, namely, speaking in circles and saying nothing.
What I do think it is about, however, is leadership style. Namely, a style that doesn’t jive with the power players on the board. (And those off the board who still act as though they are on the board. Hey oh! Yeah, I said what I said.)
As my friend, Donald so astutely pointed out, what if the ousted members were guilty of “wrong-think?”
What if their crime was having an opposing view?
Of daring to think differently.
Of operating from a place of full transparency and accountability.
Of desiring to remove from the carpet all the things swept under it.
Of insisting on by-the-book procedures.
And what if you, as someone on the board, didn’t want that? What if you had an agenda and you had someone threatening to get in the way of that agenda? Or what if you looked to Regina George as a role model and wanted to get rid of the people in your “PPA Burn Book?”
What would be the best way to remove them and ensure YOUR opinions, views and “projects” go forward?
Boom! This is how it's done.
And, having said all of this, I fully realize that some people simply don’t care, even PPA members. They know something is going on, and there are rumblings, and they think “OMG, is Missy really writing about this? Nobody is really talking about it, so whatever. It must not be THAT big of a deal. Who cares?”
I think people who deal in shadiness kind of hope for that “who cares” attitude. A “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” sort of thing. That's why explanations other than the truth have to be mucked up in the hopes people lose interest.
Listen, I can’t make something important to you if it’s not important. I get that. I say this all the time with photography itself:
“The photographer you use depends entirely on how important photographs are to you.”
If it’s not important, anyone with a cheap price and a smart phone will do the trick. But if it IS important, you’ll care about it. The same applies here.
See, when you love something, you defend it. You protect it. You throw yourself in front of it to prevent it from being harmed. And, after a lifetime in photography, that’s how I feel about this wonderful industry and the hard working men and women in it. They deserve to have people fighting for them, not mocking them, not belittling them. They deserve to know the professional photography organization they give their money to is transparent and fair and not engaged in “boardroom politics” and “high school cafeteria room antics.”
So friends, if you are one who cares, know that it’s okay to demand answers. To talk about it. This a non-profit photography organization and not some underground secret society. This isn’t Fight Club. Your dues pay some really big salaries-the CFO and CEO each make well over half a million a year- it’s your right to speak up for accountability and transparency.
Now, a petition has gone out to PPA Council to recall the board. If you care about this, contact your PPA Council members. (Link in comments) Ask them to sign the petition so we can right this ship.
Remember, the Board of PPA exists to serve YOU…not the other way around.
Go forward and make it better. Speak up. Don’t be rude or condescending, but also, don’t be a door mat. Cloak yourself in common sense. Refuse to accept the nonsense.
And together, let's make PPA something we can be proud of once again!
