NANPA 2010 Board of Directors Candidate

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Jerry Monkman EcoPhotography 983 South Street Portsmouth, NH 03801 (603) 457-6798 nature@ecophotography.com

NANPA Experience: Charter member Attended nine Summits Member, Environment Committee, 13 years Co-chair, Environment Committee, 3 years Judge, Philip Hyde Grant Review Sub-Committee

Give us an overview of your job, photographic, educational, volunteer, organizational board/committee skills, etc.
For the past 7½ years, I have worked full-time as a conservation and adventure photographer, primarily shooting commissioned photo projects in the New England region. During this time, I have also co-authored (with my wife Marcy) three adventure guidebooks and three coffee table style photo books. In addition I lead three to six destination-based photo workshops per year, and I now also teach Photoshop and Lightroom seminars on a local basis. I also write the occasional article for Outdoor Photographer magazine. For three years, I co-chaired NANPA's environment committee with Gary Braasch and then Kevin Fitz Patrick, helping to define the committee in NANPA's formative years, and occasionally writing environment articles for Currents. I continue to be active in the committee, and I have served as a judge for the Phillip Hyde Grant for several years.

How long have you been an active member of NANPA?
I was a Charter member of NANPA and have been an active member since attending the 1997 Corpus Christi Summit and joining the environment committee.

What Summits/Forums have you attended?
1997 Corpus Christi, TX; 1998 Haines City, FL; 1999 San Diego, CA; 2000 Austin, TX; 2002 Jacksonville, FL; 2003 Albuquerque, NM; 2006 Denver, CO; 2007 Palm Springs, CA; 2008 Destin, FL

Have you served as a NANPA volunteer or worked on a committee?
As previously mentioned, I have served on the Environment Committee since 1997, three years as co-chair. I have also presented breakout sessions at the 2003 and 2008 summits, and served as a "pro for the day" with the scholarship students at the 2003 summit.

What particular expertise and/or qualities would you bring to the NANPA Board?
I have 10 years of experience completing conservation photography projects on a local and regional basis (see below questions for how this can positively impact NANPA.) At the University of Illinois, I received a degree in Business Administration, and I also ran a student organization called "Starcourse" which booked and promoted concerts on campus. In this job, I had to manage a volunteer staff of 100 students and 12 committees, with a budget of over $100,000/year and a mandate to earn as much money as I spent. Granted this was 20 years ago, but I see this experience as applying to working on the board of a non-profit such as NANPA. I think those NANPA members that know me would agree that I am easy to get along with, and good at listening and disseminating information in order to solve problems. I have a working understanding of technical issues facing photographers - editing software, digital asset management, metadata management, website opportunities, portal opportunities, social networking sites, etc. I also have technical writing skills that can prove useful in discussing and distributing information related to these issues. I also have good relationships with other photography organizations such as ASPP and PACA.

How would you use your abilities to further the NANPA mission?
I feel my abilities would best be served to help NANPA educate members on digital asset management, website building, on-line marketing ops, multi-media possibilities, etc. and to connect members with local conservation non-profits in order to produce relevant and successful conservation-oriented photo projects. I go into more detail on both of these subjects below. I am also willing and happy to be assigned other projects that the board feels is important.

How do you envision NANPA's role in the future of nature photography? How would you further that role?
I envision NANPA's role in the future of nature photography as continuing to educate pros, hobbyists, and aspiring pros on the tools of the trade and opportunities available to them in the field. NANPA should do this using the latest on-line media as well as through the annual Summit and Road Shows. NANPA's biggest strength is its ability to bring nature photographers together several times a year to exchange ideas and communicate new opportunities and challenges facing photographers and the environment, and I feel NANPA should continue to do this and grow this part of the organization. I also envision NANPA as providing an even stronger forum for photographers to successfully embark on nature conservation photo projects by continuing to develop its ties with the ILCP, providing templates for conservation photo projects on a local level, and by developing additional funding sources for conservation through NANPA Foundation grants like the Phillip Hyde Grant.

As a board member, I would strive to access my connections in the non-profit community in order to facilitate the development of conservation photo project "templates" through the Environment Committee. I envision these templates as describing strategies and techniques for successfully developing and completing one of these projects - defining the project, funding it, executing it, and the final output (image archive, multi-media presentations, PR kits, etc.) I also plan to utilize my connections in other organizations such as ASPP and PACA to help keep NANPA up to date on industry trends, guidelines, and standards (such as UPDIG), and more importantly communicate that information to members on a regular basis.

Why do you want to serve on the NANPA Board of Directors? If elected, what would you personally like to accomplish during your term on the NANPA Board?
I want to serve on the NANPA board for two reasons. First, I feel that my career as a conservation photographer would never have reached the successful level it as at without NANPA and all of its great members who have become my friends, listened to my ideas, taught me 10 lifetimes' worth of knowledge, and selflessly mentored me in my career. Serving on the board would be an honor and a truly wonderful way to give back. Second, I feel that this is a time of great challenge and opportunity for all photographers, but especially nature and conservation photographers, who are dealing with both declining revenues but also accelerating environmental degradation worldwide. Serving on the board now would allow me the opportunity to assist NANPA in helping members succeed as photographers, which in turn means NANPA succeeds in continuing to enhance the appreciation of nature while conserving it.

During my term on the board, I would like to personally be involved in seeing that NANPA accomplishes the following:

• I feel that NANPA Road Shows need to have a conservation photography presence, much as the Summit has during the last several years. NANPA is blessed to have among its members some of the best conservation photographers in the world and they serve as an inspiration to other photographers, and NANPA should put them out front during the road shows when possible.
• I think NANPA is ready and capable of providing a platform for photographers to do real conservation work at Summit and Road Show locations. Using my contacts (and those of fellow NANPA members), I would like to find a local conservation issue at each Summit and Road Show that NANPA attendees can photograph as part of a pre- or post-summit workshop/field trip (possibly modeled after the ILCP "Raves.") This would be an excellent way for interested members to both learn from established pros and contribute photography to a meaningful conservation project. This will also help to raise NANPA's visibility in the non-profit community. The same concept can also be extended to the scholarship students by possibly having them spend one of their field trip days working on the same project.
• I would work with the environment committee to create the conservation photo project templates that I described above under question 8.

Working with the NANPA web developers, I would work to determine a procedure for keeping NANPA members up to date on industry standards regarding digital asset management, metadata storage, and other technical issues. These standards are constantly being developed and updated by groups like UPDIG and PLUS and it should be relatively easy for NANPA to connect with these organizations and then use a well-defined procedure for disseminating this information to its members.

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