It’s that time of year again, already. BIMA’s AGM is almost upon us and as usual, we’re looking for fresh blood to join the Executive team. Do you want to contribute and make a real difference to the interactive industry? Do you want to raise your personal profile and that of your company? Do you have what it takes? If the answer is yes to all these questions please read on.
Before I tell you about the positions, I’d first like to tell you about our mission, as it’s the foundation upon which we work.
BIMA’s Mission
BIMA is working to support the creative excellence and craftsmanship within digital media, to represent the many different strands of the interactive industry and, by education and encouragement, maintain and raise the standards of excellence.
BIMA’s aims are to:
- Act as a portal between government, suppliers, brands and academia
- Promote dialog within the interactive media industry
- Recognise and reward creative excellence within all fields of the industry
- Encourage new creative talent to enter the industry
- Link groups of creatives throughout the UK
- Act on behalf of the industry for its customers
- Seek opportunities for funding to promote the interests of UK new media abroad
- Set up opportunities for training, networking and recruitment
BIMA is dedicated to serving its membership in the UK and abroad. Locally, it is active in discussions with Government, leading industry players and other partner associations. Globally, it represents and champions the UK interactive industry.
About the Executive
The full list of the BIMA Executive can be found on the Web site here.
Meeting attendance
The Board meets at least seven times each year: there are six bi-monthly meetings plus an Annual General Meeting, for which we are holding a spring party on May 20th. Executives and advisors are expected to attend all of these meetings. Working group meetings are likely to take place over the phone and in person in between each board meeting.
Each Executive is expected to get involved in at least two working groups. Executives should also expect to dedicate at least 10 hours per month. Some of this time could come in the form of dedicated resource working directly for them.
There are resignations from three elected Executives; Richard Coping, Margaret Manning and Matthew Bagwell. I’d like to thank each of them for their contribution to BIMA. Mirage Islam, Julie Lane and Hal Robinson automatically retire by rotation - all are offering themselves for re-election. And Robin Howard filled a casual vacancy during the last year and offers himself for election.
So, we have 7 places up for grabs with 4 people putting themselves forward, so far.
Election process
Nominations for election to the Executive must be personnel from fully paid up member-companies (not individuals or students). Nominations must be deposited by May 17th.
The nomination must be made in writing and signed by the member making the nomination, who must be duly qualified to attend and vote at the meeting. It must also carry the signature of the nominee confirming his/her willingness to serve on the Executive Committee.
The election of members to the Executive will be made at the AGM by ballot or by show of hands. Please download the application forms now and get your nomination in before it’s too late.
About 10 hours per month of your time will be sufficient. Applications must be in by May 16th so you haven’t got much time. Get moving now.
Download the application form now. Please note that clicking on this link will automatically download a word document. Please email janice.cable@bima.co.uk if you’re unable to access this document.
Apologies for cross-posting from my personal blog, fortunately there’s only a small overlap of readers on both. I wrote a post a few weeks ago, complaining about Yahoo!’s stupid integrated registration system. I was so pissed off with the login process I decided to can my use of MyBlogLog and Upcoming. Fortunately I’ve never had a problem with Flickr.
However, since removing the mugshots of my readers from my blogs, I’ve felt like something has been missing. So, I’ve managed to sort out my login details and Kamrul has reinstalled the MyBlogLog widget (Recent Readers).
What is MyBlogLog?
MyBlogLog provides a widget that you can place on your blog. MyBlogLog users who then visit your blog are automatically added to the “community” of visitors and you will usually see an image and/or text with the visitor’s user name. Only the most recent visitors MyBlogLog members, will show within the MyBlogLog widget (found on the sidebar to the right).
If you have a MyBlogLog account and remain logged in, your face will automatically appear in the widget on every blog you visit (assuming they have the widget installed - TechCrunch also has one). I didn’t really care for it that much until I had it removed from my blogs. For some strange reason I missed seeing (some) of the faces of my community. I say ’some’ because only a small fraction of people have an account - not because I don’t want to see some people 
I’ve gone a step further than most blogs. MyBlogLog users who leave comments also get their mugshot displayed beside their comment. It would be fun to encourage more to join.
Setup an account now and join the community.
Would you like to work with the UK’s longest established association to represent the interests of the interactive industry? If yes, we’d love to hear from you, via, twitter.
You’ve gotta embrace social media tools, techniques and importantly, communities, before you can even think about taking on BIMA’s public relations. So, please make sure you’re on Twitter and are a member of the BIMA Facebook group before getting in touch. Why? Well, if you need me to answer that question you’re not right for the job
I have quite a few PR people following me on twitter so this approach shouldn’t limit us to the extent that we don’t find anyone. Well, I hope not anyway.
Who we’re looking for
We’re looking for a freelancer or small agency to work on a contra basis. So, in return for your amazing craftsmanship with words and untouchable contacts within traditional media, we’ll help raise your own profile. You’ll also have the opportunity to educate industry via BIMA, with respect to the new PR world we live in today. You could even use your work with BIMA as a case study. That’s it. More defined requirements should actually come from you.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank immediate future for its amazing contribution to BIMA over the years. Katy Howell in particular has been personally very helpful to me over the past couple of years. Thanks Katy. Katy is of course, on twitter. You’re probably wondering why we’re looking for someone else if immediate future did such a great job. The answer is simple, Katy did such a good job that her company has grown quickly, winning so many clients that they felt it was time to pass on the baton.
Please DM me to get the conversation going. I look forward to hearing from you soon. You’ll first need to follow me on twitter before being able to DM me.
I get asked quite often, to promote openings available at agencies and brands. Whilst I’m more than delighted to do this for companies such as Adobe, I’m not prepared to do it for companies that don’t pay at least minimum wage.
I refused to promote a work experience position for a major record label this morning on the grounds that I don’t believe in promoting free labour. Paying for travel and expenses isn’t enough in my personal opinion. I don’t care if it’s the norm in the record or fashion industries. If the roles are so coveted they shouldn’t need to promote the positions in the first place, they should have students lined up already.
I solicited opinion from my trusted community on Twitter and received a few immediate responses which I’ve included below. Some of them have their updates protected so I asked for their permission before quoting them here.
chrismehigan
sometimes experience is worth more than a few £’s. But some basic pay should really be part of it imo. Original message on twitter.
jackiedanicki
if the role is so coveted that they needn’t pay, they shouldn’t need promotion for it. Original message on twitter.
sarahblow
that’s a difficult one. Most work experience positions up north when I was a kid weren’t paid either… maybe london’s different. Original message on twitter.
Daljit_Bhurji
you were right. In the UK it is illegal not to pay min wage to work experience peeps unless its part of a uni course. Original message on twitter.
JofArnold
surely lack of pay is illegal, and that includes work experience people. It’s fairly clear cut, with many legal precendents. Original message on twitter.
redwinegums
Spot on. Never bought this “we’re ‘training’ you so we don’t have to pay you crap” Original message on twitter.
I don’t believe in clients forcing suppliers to pitch for free either, especially when the pitches run into thousands, let alone hundreds of thousands. This approach is unfair to those paying for the pitches and the industry as a whole. I’d go as far as to say it’s bordering unethical, as it alienates potential suppliers who could in fact, be the most appropriate supplier, but due to their size, can’t afford to invest in expensive pitches.
By the way clients, nothing in this world is for free. You can rest assured that you end up paying for those free pitches in other ways. Perhaps this is something I should focus my attention on.
Some suppliers will actually refuse to pitch for free. Good on ‘em I say. If only every supplier took this position.
irishstu
we refused to do design concepts for a pitch recently - client asked why, refered them to http://snurl.com/27iu3. Original message on twitter.
I’m keen to hear what you think regarding free work experience and free pitches for major clients. I can’t help but feel too many creatives are willing to sacrifce profit in return for working with ‘cool’ brands either.
Ok, end of rant. What do you think?
Let’s get straight to the point…
Tickets are free for BIMA Members and just £15 for non-members.
We only have room at the Soho Private Members club for 200 people and tickets are expected to go even faster than the Great Facebook Debate that we hosted last year.
So register now to avoid disappointment.
People are flying in from around the world just for this party so it’s set to be a night to remember!
If you need a hotel, why not check out http://www.londonhousehotels.com/ it does the job and it’s quite cheap.
Register now.
Hope to see you there! 
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