Highly experienced industry veteran Peter Clark is now President of the Print & Visual Communications Association of Australia, succeeding Walter Kuhn, who is now Vice President. Returning to the board is Peter Lane OAM of Lane Print Adelaide, another experienced and capable industry veteran.
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| Incoming President of the PVCA Peter Clark brings a wealth of industry experience and achievemnts |
Clark was founder of Australian Independent Web and has served two stints on the PIAA board, also the industry's trade shows PacPrint and PrintEx. Clark is a Trustee of Media Super. He was also instrumental in adding digital variable data inkjet printing to existing web lines with Graphic Innovators Australasia, for over ten years.
Peter Clark's appointment and other board changes - plus the anticipated announcement of a new CEO to replace Andrew Macaulay who left in August last year and is now Chairman of the Australian Grassfed Cattle Association - comes after a turbulent few years for the association, during which time the membership has dropped from the 1990s high of around 2,400 to below 500 today. Staff numbers have dropped from the mid- forties spead across every state, to effectively zero today until the new CEO is appointed.
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| Sold off - PIAA's former WA branch building |
Assets, such as the prestigious Auburn, NSW head office valued at around $3.5 million (and a move into rented offices in Chatswood), were sold of under CEO Jason Allen - a move that caused outrage among members over the treatment of industry archives, memorabillia and long-serving staff. It also resulted in the formation of a Members' Action Group and an SGM to prevent further dissipation of the assoctiation. The latest asset disposal is the Perth, WA building, recently sold by MLV Commercial Real Estate, advertised at $2.8 million but reportedly sold at AUD$1.5 million according to realestate.com.au. One Perth printer commented "there is virtually no representation for us over here and many WA printers are no longer members."
The PIAA association changed its name to the 'Print & Visual Communications Association' under Macaulay, which caused confusion with the Visual Connections association, co-owners of PacPrint and PrintEx. Despite the lofty
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| Back on board - Peter Lane OAM |
name change, no perceivable progress into the broader 'Visual Communications' sector such as signage, display, LED screens and other non-print areas of visual communications has been made to date. Maybe it's time to get back to the roots of the membership it serves.
The return of Peter Lane OAM to the board of PVCA is a welcome redux. He has served two terms as President and is a commited printing industry co-owner operator with extensive connections here and internationally. He stepped down from the board in January 2018 after 30 years of service.
Perhaps a good place to start the re-invigorating of the PVCA would be to get its website up to date and working properly.
