Access Copyright 2015 Annual General Meeting recap
Friday, September 16, 2016
Access Copyright held its 2015 AGM on Friday, April 15, 2016. Here’s a brief recap of what transpired during the meeting.
Board Election
AGM creator and publisher delegates elected the slate of six Board directors recruited by the member-driven Nominating Committee.
Four of the six elected directors were re-nominated from the current Board to ensure continuity for the year ahead. Re-elected were writers Michael Elcock and Katherine Lawrence, Cameron Macdonald, recently retired from Canadian Science Publishing, and David Swail, executive director (ED) of the Canadian Publishers’ Council. Two new directors were elected: Debbie Hogan, VP of sales and marketing at Emond Montgomery Publications, and Grant McConnell, a visual artist and past president of Canadian Artists’ Representation National.
Nominating Committee Election
Creator delegates re-elected John Degen, ED of the Writers’ Union of Canada, while publisher delegates re-elected Jonathan Abrams, managing director of higher education at Nelson Education to Access Copyright’s Nominating Committee.
Membership Advisory Committee (MAC) Nomination Process Approved & Election
Meeting delegates approved a process for the nomination and election of new members to serve on the MAC.
The process, recommended by the MAC and endorsed by the Board, will see the MAC, along with the Board and Access Copyright’s member organizations, annually review its composition to ensure that it is reasonably balanced between representatives of national and regional creator and publisher organizations. The current MAC will then nominate new members to serve on next year’s MAC upon approval by AGM delegates.
Using the newly approved process, five members were elected to the MAC at the AGM. Re-elected were Kieran Leblanc, ED of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, Gerry McIntyre, ED of the Canadian Educational Resources Council, and Jonathan Meakin, ED of the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. Newly elected were Gary Bennett, representative for the Canadian Publishers’ Council and VP, media & publishing services for Pearson Canada, and Marcia Lea, acting ED for Canadian Artists’ Representation.
These individuals join MAC chair Robin Sokoloski, ED of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, Kate Edwards, ED of the Association of Canadian Publishers and John Degen on this year’s MAC.
Update on Transformation Efforts
Executive director Roanie Levy discussed work Access Copyright has undertaken to develop and implement services that will provide seamless copyright clearance and content access in digital platforms.
Efforts have included completion of a digital-coursepack pilot with a noted post-secondary institution and e-reader provider, RedShelf, and the signing of a reseller agreement with Reprints Desk, which will allow Access Copyright to offer document-delivery services to customers.
As well, there are plans to integrate information and permissions from Access Copyright’s repertoire with platforms such as SIPX and ARES.
Financial Highlights
- Access Copyright completed the 2015 fiscal year with a $2.4 million surplus and projects a $3.2 million deficit in 2016.
- Access Copyright announced it distributed $13.2 million in royalties to rightsholders in 2015, and plans to distribute $11.4 million in 2016.
- Using survey data collected from publishers, the organization estimated that 54% of royalties distributed domestically were received by publishers and 46% of royalties were received by creators in 2015.