President's Message - January 2019

It’s 2019 and things are really picking up! I just returned from Atlanta where we had a very productive and FUN few days at Imaging USA! I went a day early to attend the Affiliate Leaders meeting with a few other members of the board of directors where our very own Bryan Welsh led us through discussion and exercises with other affiliate leaders around the country. We also continued to establish in the eyes of the other organizations around the country that OPPA is a model organization, and is looked-up to in the industry. 

Our board this year is comprised of many new members, and each one brings enthusiasm and a specific skill-set to the position they are in. We had the opportunity to speak with David Trust, the CEO of PPA, and he shared in the excitement of what we have in store for the coming year as we told him about our new board and what we have planned. 

Several of our OPPA members received degrees in Atlanta this year as well! Raj Sarda, Nancy Smithman and our current treasurer Aaron Hockley, all received their Master of Photography degrees. Congratulations to you all!

We’ve got some great things planned this year. We are starting the year off with some great speakers in our monthly meeting programming which is ALWAYS free to the public, and we have our three members-only image competitions scheduled for March, June and September! 

We are gearing up for another round of mentorships starting April 1st, so be watching your email for a call to be a mentor followed soon after by a call to be a student. Did you know you can do both? If you have a special skill or knowledge base to share, you can be a mentor. But if you need help in another area, you can also be a student!

I’m excited for all that 2019 has in store for OPPA and I am so appreciative for YOU - our members - along with our talented and dedicated board of directors. These volunteers put in countless hours of work  to bring valuable programs and benefits to our members and I appreciate their hard work. Our committees are also working tirelessly to help improve your member experience and to bring value to our membership in OPPA.

However, we always can use more helping hands. An organization like OPPA is run by members - FOR members - and it can’t continue without everyone’s help! So if you’re interested in being on a committee or simply helping out in some small way, please email me or pop onto our Facebook group and let us know what your skillset is! OPPA is what you make it—it’s not the board’s OPPA. We are ALL OPPA.

  

Sam Tarrel

M. Photog. Cr., CPP, FP-OR

president@oregonppa.org