GUILD ACTIVITIES IN THE LAST YEAR

It's been a busy year for the Guild.

Following is a brief listing of the activities YOUR Guild has undertaken since the last AGM.

Oct 98 The inaugural Screen Sound Awards

Oct 98 The safety code in films was acted on by Ben Osmo and David Lee, who became involved in the setting up of the Screen Technicians Association of Australia, a technicians sector of MEAA.

Nov 98 The Guild accepted a proposal from Connections to put on three seminars at Entech 2000, in March.

Nov 98 An address by Steve Lyman from Dolby Laboratories, held at Norths Rugby Club.

Nov 98 Philip Purcell is accepted for membership, and has taken over the preparation of the Guild's web site, together with Cate Cahill and David Glasser.

Dec 98 A membership drive was started by Phil Keros, resulting in 46 new members.

Feb 99 The first of two meetings was held of the SPAA-ENTECH sub committee, to prepare for the Entech seminars and a presentation for SPAA 2000 Conference.
Sub committee members are: John Patterson, Julius Chan, Phil Heywood, Gethin Creagh, Ben Osmo and Ross Linton.

Feb 99 Tony Murtagh approached the Australian Standards Committee about the standardisation of digital television transmission systems in Australia.
Through until May he put in a prodigious effort to establish the viability of a joint demonstration/listening test of MPFG and AC-3 compression systems.
His hard work, together with some judicious advice from Steve Murphy, saved the Guild getting it's fingers burnt in this political can of worms.

March 99 The OSCAR AND LUCINDA Sound Off was presented at AFTRS by Ben Osmo, Andrew Plain, Jane Patterson and Gethin Creagh.

March 99 Steve Murphy instigated a Guild recommendation for a change in the voting system of the AFI Awards: whereby a vote for a craft by a practitioner of that craft stood for two votes, as against the single vote by the general AFI members. (Ask Steve if the recommendation was accepted).

April 99 Sponsors for the 1999 Awards were approached, resulting in $36,000 sponsorship.

May 99 A visit to www.soundsite.net was organised by Guntas Sics.

May 99 The Award design competition was held, and won with the three monkeys theme by Phil Keros.

May 99 A night was organised to chat with Kim Lord, a member from Perth, at the Bridgeview Hotel.

June 99 A winter solstice gathering with drinks and finger food was organised at Havana Joe's.

July 99 The first meeting of the affiliated associations, later to become AFFTA, was held in Surry Hills. It was attended by Steve Murphy, John Haeny and Ross Linton.

July 99 The first "think tank" meeting to discuss John Haeny's mentorship programme was held at Audio Loc. Present were Ross Boyer, John Dennison, John Haeny, Stephen R. Smith, Ross Linton and one other I can't remember - sorry!

August 99 The feature film categories were judged at the AFI screenings at the Cremorne Orpheum. Five of our members acted as judges for our awards.

August 99 The preliminary judging of the television and video categories took place in various members homes. This was organised by Alex Garipoli.

Sept 99 Television and video categories finalist judging was held at AFTRS. Eight members volunteered to act as judges.

Oct 99 1999 Screen Sound Awards were held at the Sebel Townhouse.

Throughout the year eight newsletters were prepared and edited by Ross Boyer.