Fitchburg Hosts the Longsjo , Summary of Advance Preparation to Date

The shooting week of the photography project runs from June 30 through July 5 for a 20-image exhibit to be hung by the morning of July 5.

Recruitment of a core group of photographers
Currently, project shooters (who mostly shoot digital) and staff include

Dan Cutrona - FSC '02 and Photography Student of the Year, award-winning former S&E freelancer now freelancing at Cape Cod Times
Chris Harrington - MWCC '03, S&E freelancer and accomplished sports shooter
Patrick Oehler - former S&E freelancer, now freelancing for New York Newsday
Casey O'Toole - Bay Path College '07, St. Bernard's Central Catholic High School '03, photo intern at S&E
Allegra Boverman - Nashua, NH based freelance photographer
Michael Duncan - FSC '06, information sciences major and photo minor
Scott LaPrade - Leominster firefighter, S&E photo contributor
Alan J. Brackett - Sturbridge firefighter, freelance photographer, Firehouse Magazine contributor
Robert Burns - S&E staff photographer
Latrice Cooper - Gardner photographer and Fitchburg Cultural Alliance member
Bill Mixon - Sterling photographer and Fitchburg Cultural Alliance member
Marcia Grillo - FSC photo student
Gail Bloom - assistant project director and Leominster artist
Helen Obermeyer-Simmons - assistant project director and Fitchburg State College Communications Media professor
Coelynn McIninch - FSC Photography Lab Manager
Julia Cheng - Longsjo project director and former S&E chief photographer

Most team members have attended at least one of the planning meetings held to date (May 13 and June 2).

Team members are scheduled to attend a mandatory training meeting at 6:00pm on June 24, at Project Headquarters. Team members will reherse digital photography workflow (downloading, editing, printing, etc.) and familiarize themselves with the available facilities.

1) Name
2) Mailing address
3) E-mail address
4) Landline telephone numbers for home and work
5) Cellular telephone numbers
6) Camera equipment owned or available for use
7) Photography experience
8) Project goals, suggestions and preferred assignments.

As I expect personal cell phones to be in heavy use to keep everyone in communication during the project's shooting days, I plan to have each team member's cell phone number (if available) in my cell phone directory. All shooters should have at least my cell number stored in their own phone and as many of the other shooters' numbers as they feel are necessary to carry.

Team Identification
Gail Bloom has designed an ID card for the photographers to wear in the field. We have taken headshots of most of the photographers to put on their ID cards. After Gail prints the cards out, Chris will laminate them and Fitchburg State College will provide lanyards for wearing them.

Gail has also selected a design for team members to use in ordering a set of free business cards from VistaPrint, if desired. Team members will hand them out to identify themselves and publicize the final exhibit.

To order,
1) Go to http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/bc_free_offer.aspx
2) Click on the link that says New Arrivals in the left-hand-side column, in the Shop by Style window
3) Click on the business card in the left column, second row. It's light blue with a faint blue design of lines radiating from a hub, a little like a bicycle wheel.

Fill in the business card fields like this:

[Company Name]            Fitchburg Hosts the Longsjo
[Company Message]       Longsjo Community Arts Project
[Full Name]                       your name
[Job Title]                          your role, e.g. Photographer
[Address Line 1]              www.fsc.edu/longsjophotoproject
[Address Line 2]              phone: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
[Address Line 3] 	            e-mail: address@xxx.yyy
[Phone/Other]
[Fax/Other]                       EXHIBIT: JULY 5, 2004, RIVERFRONT PARK, FITCHBURG, MASS.
[E-mail/Other]                  "Fitchburg Hosts the Longsjo" is sponsored by Fitchburg Cultural
[Web/Other]                     Alliance, Fitchburg Cycling Club & Fitchburg State College

Click on Preview to check the layout. (See the Example.) Please use all capital letters in the Fax/Other field providing date and place of the final exhibit. Your phone number and e-mail address are optional. It's up to you how much personal information you wish to publicize.

You can choose the free 250 business cards option, which prints some VistaPrint advertising on the back. They will charge you $5.25 for shipping in about 21 days, or $8.95 for shipping in 14 days. Ordering as soon as possible with slow shipping means you might get your cards in time for shooting week.

Establishment of project staff and headquarters
Helen Obermeyer-Simmons (Professor of Communications Media, FSC) has established Room 338, Industrial Arts Building, Fitchburg State College as FHL project headquarters. FSC Photography Lab Manager Coelynn McIninch will assist in supervising team use of computers, film negative scanners, digital card readers and printers during Longsjo week. The building is on Highland Avenue.

Project staff members will be available to assist team members in downloading digital images, scanning negatives, editing images and outputing prints.

Project headquarters will also hold the work space and supplies to mount the photos for exhibit.

Fitchburg State College security will provide building access to persons listed as team members as long as Coelynn or Helen are also present.

Development of project website, www.fsc.edu/longsjophotoproject
Gail has designed a front page for the website and Michael and Julia are working on the rest.

The project website will provide information on the project and its exhibit, make the master schedule available to photographers, and publish images in addition to those exhibited at Riverfront Park.

The schedule page will look like a grid of time slots and assignments shown as taken or up for grabs. Underscored assignment names are hyperlinks to other pages containing assignment details such as description of event, time, place, contact information and deadline. Cells shaded green are hours the Graphics Lab is open to team members.

Development of project assignments
As stated in the project proposal, "Fitchburg Hosts the Longsjo seeks to create a visual record of community involvement in staging the annual Fitchburg Longsjo Classic....to reveal the unpublicized roles of citizens, businesses, and non-profit organizations who donate innumerable hours and invaluable resources to producing a world-class event on the professional cycling circuit."

To make best use of our photographers' resources and to build up the website scheduling page, assignments will be pre-planned as far as possible.

George Gantz, president of the Fitchburg Cycling Club has provided these contacts with suggestions of where they can help us develop assignments:

• Greg Moran (chair of race ops) of Aubuchon - (978) 874-0521 x1178. In addition to leads on all the logistical pesonnel (hay, portapotties, DPW, etc.), Greg's family will be hosting riders from Australia.
• Vernon Briggs (General manager of Royal Plaza Hotel) - (978) 342-7100. Behind-the-scenes for the opening dinner and ceremony, race headquarters that week, site of Friday time trials, and also the housing for Race Officials, neutral support, media, etc.
• Ed Bajakian (Race Director - Time Trial) - (978) 582-7354. Involved in the race for years and knows the most about the volunteers - he might be able to provide a contact with a couple of volunteers who would be willing to share their perspective.
• Jack Dolmat-Connell (Princeton and First Congregational Church contact) - (508) 871-5749. Church events on July 4th - pancake breakfast, BBQ, pasta dinner, and help with Princeton connections.
• Carol Fluet (housing coordinator) - (978) 353-3234 - Contacts at FSC and RP on housing and might have some good leads. Following one of the low-budget teams around from the dorms at FSC to the races might be a great theme.
• Diane Fortini (USCF Race Commissar) - (781) 293-2383. Diane is the chief official and will be in charge of the race officials, motorcycle lead vehicle, etc - once the races begin we will want to stay out of her way, but she might be able to put us in touch with some official personnel that would show the sport and the races from the inside.
• Butch Bolzano - (401) 751-5712 heads up neutral support Campagnolo Race Services and he offered race vehicles ridealongs.
• Deannie Harris (Red Cross) - (978) 537-3339. Deannie has been involved for years - in addition to helping with volunteers, t-shirt management, etc., the Red Cross provides (volunteer) First Aid Services at all the races for the inevitable crashes
• Bill White - FCC media person - (978) 597-1766

At Allegra's suggestion, we are dividing up the task of calling each of these contacts. See Point Persons.

Fitchburg Cultural Alliance president Mary Chapin Durling suggests that team members might want to attend the opening banquet as a group, purchasing a table at $10 per person.

Printing of Images
Chris is negotiating with J&R Photo about making 16x20 or 11x14 inch prints of digital image files. J&R has the advantage of doing the work in-house and providing true photographic processing to make the prints, and at a reasonable price. We need to finalize the file preparation, delivery and pickup schedules, as well as digital image file specifications in terms of resolution and other factors. J&R can print images Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Coelynn will print 11x14 inch images on Sunday using the FSC photolab's Epson inkjet printer.

Image Rights
The project will provide a statement to participating photographers clarifying ownership, usage and copyright issues regarding images created, submitted, exhibited or published in any form.

Presently, we anticipate that each photographer will retain the copyright on images that they shoot and submit to the project. Fitchburg Cultural Alliance acquires the right to use submitted images for exhibition, publicity and publication purposes, with proper credit to each photographer but no royalties. No photographer may submit images shot while on assignment for another media outlet that would own copyright of those images. Requests to purchase reprints of exhibit images will be referred to individual photographers.

Coelynn will prepare statements regarding image rights and usage.

Mounting of exhibit
Fitchburg Hosts the Longsjo will exhibit 20 framed images at the Riverfront Park Family Festival on July 5, 2004. The exhibit will be completed with photographs from the Women's Pro1/2 Downtown Criterium in time for the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic's closing ceremony at 5:00pm. It will be hung on the park's southside fence separating it from the MBTA railway tracks. (See Exhibit System for Bill's investigation of hanging options and his conclusion.)

For impact, we are displaying pieces mounted in 16x20 inch mats. Because of time constraints, mounting will be pre-assembled and stored at project headquarters to await insertion of the final prints. Also because of time constraints, we plan to choose images for the final exhibit on a rolling basis, rather than waiting until all images all submitted. We plan to meet a quota of FIVE pieces finished for display per project day (Friday, Saturday, Sunday).

An order for sixteen16x20 mats with 11x14 inch windows and four 16x20 mats with 8x10 inch windows will be placed on June 18 with Ginny Guertin of Culley Street Frame Shop and invoiced to the Fitchburg Cultural Alliance.

Submission of Budget
Julia will submit a budget and grant request to Fitchburg Cultural Alliance on June 19.

Julia Cheng
Project Director, Fitchburg Hosts the Longsjo
(617) 281-0801
thewombats@lycos.com
www.fsc.edu/longsjophotoproject

Fitchburg Hosts the Longsjo is sponsored by Fitchburg Cultural Alliance, Fitchburg Cycling Club and Fitchburg State College