Member News
Last Chance to Vote!
The deadline is March 15th for casting your vote to elect members of ASMP's Board of Directors. All General Members of the Society are eligible. This year, electronic ballots are being used, and you should have received an email on February 14th from Votenet.com with your logon password. If you don't have your password, email dyson@asmp.org. Remember, your vote counts only if you cast it! Find out more about the election.
Member Photo Slide Show Is Back!
We invite you to show off your recent work by participating in our member slide show at the beginning of each program. In order to participate we need you to arrive between 6-6:10pm so that the images can get locked and loaded for optimal display.
Specs: Please bring 5 images on a thumb drive. Each image may be no bigger than 1024 in width and 768 in height. Please make sure the filenames follow the convention "name_#.jpg" so that they will all display together. If you want people to know whose images they are it would be a good idea to put your copyright right on the file so it will display when the images are shown.
Submissions to the Homepage Gallery
To have your work exhibited on our homepage's rotating banner gallery, you must be a general member of this chapter. Please arrange up to 6 images on a 620x119 pixel canvas, with a white background, and no extra white space around the edges of the images.
Then, submit the final flattened banner as a 72ppi jpeg file in sRGB color space. Do not include a watermark -- we will automatically display your copyright info below the banner. Please send your submission to mail@asmpne.org. The banner image will link to your ASMP member profile page. Limit one submission per member per year. We cannot guarantee all submissions will be posted.
Sample:
UPDATE: Health Insurance for MA Photographers
Message from Stan Rowin on 12/3/09:
Dear ASMP member,
Thanks for your reply to my request to ASMP members trying to get group health insurance. To make a very long story short, I couldn't get us a deal. I received fewer than 40 member replies, which isn't enough to do much with.
If you want to be insured through Fallon Community, Harvard Pilgrim, Health New England, Neighborhood Health, or Tufts, you probably have to join a group like HSA Insurance, which might offer us a waiver of the first-time sign up fee, if ASMP pursued it.
Blue Cross says they will take small companies and will offer a "group discount," but you will have to call individually. My contact is Barbara Kelly (617) 246-3417.
If you find the cost of health care a challenge, especially In view that the cost to small businesses is expected to rise 15-20% next year, I found some resources for you to consider.
First off, Massachusetts has The Insurance Partnership to help pay for Massachusetts' mandated health care. If you are single, and your gross family income does not exceed $32,508, you may qualify for discount health care. Visit their site for more details.
If you decide to take health coverage with a low monthly fee, but a high deductible, and you need medical care, there are ways to try to get your doctor or hospital bills lower. I don't make any warranty about any of these, nor do I have any relationship to them. I just list them here for your reference:
- Healthcare Blue Book -- "a free consumer guide to help you determine fair prices in your area for healthcare services. If you pay for your own healthcare, have a high deductible or need a service your insurance does not fully cover, we can help. The Blue Book will help you find fair prices for surgery, hospital stays, doctor visits, medical tests and much more."
- PriceDoc -- "a FREE online service that empowers consumers to take control of their healthcare costs. PriceDoc allows you to search for quality healthcare providers in your local area and compare their pricing for specific procedures."
- OutOfPocket.com -- "allows consumers to search for prices for health care services, and invites consumers to collaborate by posting prices they paid for health care services."
Best of luck and stay healthy...
Stan Rowin
slr@stanstudio.com
Flashes of Hope
Flashes of Hope is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating uplifting portraits of children fighting cancer and other life threatening illnesses. The portraits, taken by award-winning photographers, help children feel better about their changing appearance by celebrating it. For families of terminally ill children, it's especially important to have a portrait that preserves forever the beauty, grace and dignity of their child. We now have Chapters in over 30 cities, including Boston, Providence, and New Haven, CT. If you are interested in volunteering your time, please contact Paola Abello at (617) 515-0605 or paola@flashesofhope.org. Click here to learn more.