The Graphic Artists Guild of New York can't function without the hard work and dedication of our volunteers. There are so many tasks we need help with: putting together our mailings, getting us in contact with a great event speaker or teacher, helping out with a phone bank, designing or illustrating a gala event invitation, etc. If you want to be more in touch with your peers, and help us reach out to our members, email us at ny@gag.org.

Below is a list of our Volunteers of the Month -- those individuals who went above and beyond the call of duty, without whom we wouldn't be able to function!

2005

Volunteers for the Year 2005

It's no surprise that the Picture Show Committee are our Volunteers of the Year for 2006! They worked hard for the greater part of two years to pull the event together. We can't thank them enough: Chair Andrew Swist, and Linda Modica, Clovia Ng, Jeff Cline, Stefano Imbert, Jeanine Henderson, and Cheryl Ertel.

December 2005: Denise Ozker

At our National Board Meeting, our rep to National Denise Ozker made a splash. Her proposal, to consider using whether or not an artist has been published as qualifying them for full Guild membership (rather than a percentage of their annual income, as currently exists), was met with applause from the National Executive Committee. Denise and her task force will look into this issue and report back at the next National Board Meeting.

November 2005

Our volunteers this month are the folks who submitted artwork and valuable information to our annual Pricing Game. We couldn't put together this valuable event without you! Thanks to Jill Balkus, Denise Biondo, Robert Condon, Janice Hansen, Chris Johnson, Renee Levitt, Rose Lowry, Liz Reitman, Karen Rolnick, and organizer Rebecca Blake.

October 2005

No surprises here: we're honoring the hard-working volunteers who made Picture Show the wonderful event it was! They handed out goody bags, hung coats, served wine and food, asked the band to play just a little softer, manned tables, asked the band again to play just a bit softer... and did it all with cheerfulness and style! Thank you, volunteers: Virginia Asman, Doll Barnes, Joan Chiverton, Danielle D'Amico, Athena Foroglou, Diana Ho, David Hollenbach, Victoria Jamieson, James Ching Kao, Bill and Faye Latta, Laura LoTurco, Daniel Murphy, Violet Nguyen, Marilyn Papas, Cynthia Saniewski, John Solis, Clare Talbot, and Jamie Van Pham.

September 2005: Clovia Ng

Clovia Ng gets a special mention separate from the rest of the Picture Show Committee. While working on sponsorship for Picture Show, Clovia brokered a deal with Portfolios.com which will prove to be a tremendous benefit to the attendees: a free online portfolio (for those without a web presence) through to the end of 2005!

August 2005: Andrew Swist, Linda Modica, Clovia Ng, Jeff Cline, Jeanine Henderson, Cheryl Ertel, and Stefano Imbert

At the end of a long, hot summer of planning and nail-biting, our volunteers of the month are the Picture Show Committee: Andrew Swist, Linda Modica, Clovia Ng, Jeff Cline, Jeanine Henderson, Cheryl Ertel, and Stefano Imbert. Their invitation is beautiful, their plannning is obsessive; let's see if their hard work pays off!

July 2005: Bud Kraus
Bud was no only our presenter at our July event -- one of our better-attended events -- but he also found us the venue for the event: Pratt Manhattan campus! He extended himself to our members and attendees, offering to email or speak with anyone who had additional questions about his topic, Rethinking Web Design for Visual Artists.

June 2005: Joe Cahill
Joe Cahill handled our June event almost solo. He not only introduced our speakers, Promostyl America (speaking on Trends Forecasting), but he also stayed late to thank everyone for attending, pack up the projector, and move the chairs and tables back to their proper positions. All that in 90 degree heat!

May 2005: Phillipe St. Gerard
Phillipe, our Chapter Treasurer, has been a voice of reason and discretion in handling our Chapter finances.

April 2005: Andrew Swist
As Chair of the Picture Show committee, Andrew is in the middle of calculating his budget, writing inspirational email blasts, designing ads, and motivating his dedicated crew to plugging ahead through the mountain of tasks still remaining. Having seen the first Picture Show mailing, we think he's doing a great job!

March 2005: Leslie Younger
Leslie Younger worked the door at our March event, managing to keep her cool while facing down a swarm of charging SVA students and attendees. Afterwards she gave some pithy and valuable advice on how we can better streamline our event admission procedure.

February 2005: The Picture Show Committee
The members of the Picture Show Committee -- Andrew Swist, Linda Modica, Clovia Ng, Jeanine Hendersen, Cheryl Ertel, Stefano Imbert, and Jeff Kline -- have taken on the monumental task of putting on our biannual gala event. They'll be designing invitations, creating a website, contacting illustrators and art directors, renting a venue, and arranging for food and drink; eventually they'll be able to get some sleep too!

January 2005: Nobuko Kobayashi
Nobuko, as our new Membership Co-Chair, has taken a creative approach to her role. She designed our first-ever chapter e-card, a charming holiay greeting written in snow, and complete with a snow angel

2004

Volunteer of the Year for 2004: Siochain Hughes
Although one of our newest members of the board, our Chapter Secretary, Siocháin Hughes has already made an impact. PDA in hand, she quietly taps away during the meetings, occasionally interjecting a reminder on an item we've forgotten, or adding some commonsensical advice we've naturally overlooked, or simply reminding us by her presence to be respectful and professional with each other. This award is a blatant attempt to bribe her into years more of service. We hope it works.

December 2004: Doug Bratton
Doug pulled together a fantastic Cartoonist Alliance event: Mutts Stuff, and Evening with Patrick McDonnell. Doug not only coordinated the evening with Patric and MoCCA, but also schlepped chairs and wonderful food in all the way from New Jersey.

November 2004: Siochain Hughes
Siochain and her partner, Suzette, donated most of a beautiful Sunday afternoon to help organize and hang the Paint the City Art Auction submissions.

October 2004: Linda Modica
Linda convinced Modern Postcards to donate the printing of our beautiful Paint the City invitations: large, full color over-sized fold-over postcards.

September 2004: Maria Notarilie
Maria designed the color logo for our October gala and fundraiser, Paint the City. The logo, consisting of playful lettering offset by a bright brushstroke, added a needed splash of color to the event's identity.

August 2004: Paloma and crew
Paloma, our high-school intern, showed up with a posse of friends to pull together and send out our gala invitation mailing. The only thing they asked for in return was pizza and soda.

July 2004: Snail Mail volunteers
Are we seeing a trend here? Once again, we thank our members who heard our plea and stopped by to help Tricia stuff a few envelopes.

June 2004: Chris Delgado
Chris showed up in our office and helped out with our snail mailing. Hey, we couldn't do it without our volunteers!

May 2004: Anne Murphy
After numerous requests at a number of venues around the city, Anne developed a relationship with Parsons School of Design, which has resulted in them offering to host our events at their school. This affords us a savings of hundreds of dollars every month.

April 2004: Linda Modica
Linda put together an amazing event, our panel discussion on jump-starting your career in design or illustration. The speakers included such name as Mike Quon and Vicki Morgan, and drew a standing-room only crowd, most of whom were our target audience of design and illustration students.

February 2004: Henry Wong and Eddy Lott
Henry and Eddy pulled long hours and risked paper cuts to get out our February mailing. Eddy even licked every stamp and envelope himself -- a feat all the more hard to comprehend, considering our postage meter both stamps and seals envelopes automatically...

January 2004: Henry Wong
Henry outdid himself at our holiday party. Few there will remember the boring speeches, the innumerable karaoke acts, the sleeping waiter. But few will forget Henry warbling "Ebony and Ivory", in a well-meaning attempt to express the Guild's commitment to solidarity and good times. Go, Henry.

2003

Volunteer of the Year 2003: Anne Murphy
Anne has single-handedly redesigned our flyer, worked the booth at Flash Forward and Surtex, roped all sorts of unsuspecting folks into joining our board, and most important of all, logged hours attempting to build a relationship between the Chapter and our local area art schools.