On Wednesday, the Stock Artists Alliance announced to its members that it intends to pursue a merger with the Association of Visual Artists: “It has been a tough, but essential, reality for us all to acknowledge that as a small association in an industry that’s been hard hit by internal and external challenges, SAA needs to adapt in order to continue to serve you, our members, as effectively as possible,” reads the letter signed by a six-member SAA board, lead by president Shannon Fagan, and past SAA presidents Leland Bobbé, David Sanger, Zave Smith and Roy Hsu.
AVA is an umbrella organization that currently represents five other photo industry bodies, including Professional Photographers of America, the Society of Sport Event Photographers, Evidence Photographers International Council, Commercial Photographers International and the Student Photographic Society. While each organization is run separately under distinct identities, they work together to provide member benefits on a larger scale.
For a small body such as the SAA, joining would allow augmenting its own programs with expanded business benefits, and increased staff, structural, marketing and advocacy support. The SAA would retain its identity, dues structure and programs. Claire White, the chief AVA staff officer, would serve as SAA executive director. White would be supported by a professional staff of over 40 in managing the day-to-day SAA operations—a major increase in the capacity of an organization that has thus far run on volunteer power. Newly available resources would include a public relations department, a marketing communications department, an education department led by formed SAA executive director Betsy Reid, and external consultants such as attorneys. Such services and staff are all financed from the AVA budget, which would free up the dues paid by SAA members for additional program initiatives.
SAA management said this decision was unanimous, resulting from several months of consideration and an apparently fruitless search for an executive director to replace Betsy Reid. The next steps are to revise the SAA ByLaws to reflect the planned merger and put these to a two-stage vote by the board and general membership. The SAA board expects the final ByLaws amendments to take effect in August and proceed to completing the merger. The board encourages members to engage in the process via the online forum.