Through the president's viewfinder - Photographic Society of America's organizational strength from its volunteers - Column

My subject is "the bottom line." And isn't that just what you would expect from the Treasurer? Because "the bottom line" is a commonly used reference to the real or potential net gain of a business. But the phrase has many other applications, and it is really those other applications I want to emphasize here.

As a measure of the net return on an investment, the phrase "the bottom line" can be applied to both photographers and photographic organizations. For the individual, photography is, indeed, an investment. However, the money an individual invests--although it is often a very substantial amount in dollars--is really only a small part of the total investment. If one's photography is to have any lasting significance, it must be in human terms. Thus one's major investment has to be one of time and one's best skills. The potential return on an individual's investment in photography lies in his or her increased technical skills, in the new understanding, gained about oneself and the world around us. And, yes, in the joy one takes from sharing with others glimpses of the beauty we find along the way.

Likewise, the investment of a photographic organization is much more than the sums of money spent on, for example, program speakers and competitions, on chapter bulletins and division workshops. The organization's major investment is represented by the unpaid and untold hours given by its volunteer workers--its officers and committee members, its chapters and division service directors--in the performance of their assigned jobs.

Thus, for this Society, the real "bottom line" is not the funds expended during the fiscal year, or even the funds left over at the end of that fiscal year, but the individual motivation and spirit of cooperation it has been able to foster in each of its members. Speaking for myself, I know of no other not-for-profit photographic organization in this country that has, over the years, made available to its members more of the skills of outstanding photographers and the dedicated services of so many volunteers.

Yes, we have problems yet to be addressed. Yes, we have changes that need to be made. And yes, we often focus overly much on the things about photography that divide us, rather than on those things about photography that have universal meaning. A close reading of the current "bottom line" tells us this. But if we care enough, together we can find the way, or ways, to meet the organizational challenges that confront us.

If we care enough-yes, that's the key. Whoever said the process of investing, in both ourselves and in our Society, would be just a onetime thing? That isn't what investing is all about. That isn't what will produce the kind of "bottom line" I think each of us wants for PSA.

It will take an act of will, the acts of many wills, to walk the high ground this organization chose long ago. It will take all of the human resources we have available--and new ones we have yet to discover--if we are to fashion a meaningful and enduring future for PSA.

The process of revitalization, of reinvesting in our Society, can't start any sooner than today. But, keeping in mind both the tangible and the intangible "bottom lines," neither can we afford to postpone the start.

COPYRIGHT 1994 Photographic Society of America, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group