LAS VEGAS — V. Miller Newton was elected president of the Self-Service & Kiosk Association at the group's semi-annual Advisory Board meeting yesterday in Las Vegas, held at the cusp of KioskCom Self Service Expo.
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| It was a smooth transfer of power at the semi-annual meeting of the Self-Service & Kiosk Association's Advisory Board. Pictured above (from left to right) are Dick Good, chairman of SSKA; newly-elected president Miller Newton; outgoing president Alex Richardson (now serving as the president of the Digital Technology Alliance) and SSKA Executive Director David Drain. |
Miller, CEO of software vendor Netkey, begins his one-year term immediately, and went straight from the Advisory Board meeting to the annual meeting of the Association, where he made his first address to members. At that meeting, Association Chairman Dick Good presented outgoing president Alex Richardson with an honorary gavel. Earlier, Miller said of his predecessor that he leaves "some pretty big shoes to fill" and contributed greatly to moving the Association forward. Richardson, who heads the consulting practice Selling Machine Partners, will serve as president of the Digital Technology Alliance.
The Advisory Board is comprised of almost 30 vendors and deployers who have an interest in self-service. When they meet, they are apprised by Good and Executive Director David Drain about the success of various Association initiatives, and are asked for input regarding new ones. Also, when terms expire or new board positions are created, the board considers nominations and elects.
Other highlights from the advisory board meeting:
- Dave Watkins, an executive with Build-A-Bear, was elected to the executive committee as a vice president representing deployers. Greg Kaplan (redbox) and Janet Webster (United States Postal Service) were re-elected to new terms.
- Cortlandt Johnson (IBM) and Ed McGunn (Corporate Safe Specialists) were re-elected to new terms as vice presidents representing vendors. Bill Lynch (Source Technologies) was elected as a third such vice president.
- Andy Egan (MaxBox Digital Retail, based in the
U.K. - Two membership promotions were announced. Deployers who join will receive a complimentary copy of "Digital Signage at Retail," published by NetWorld Alliance (operator of the Association) and normally sold for $49. New vendors may deduct all first year fees and dues from the cost of advertising services from NetWorld Alliance, which publishes Self-Service World, Kiosk Marketplace, Digital Signage Today and Retail Customer Experience.
- Annual dues for vendor member categories will increase by about 10 percent, the first increase since 2001.
- The Association is considering a members-only content section on the Association Web site that would include best practices, a vibrant discussion forum, archives of the Association's Deployer Quarterly Newsletter, and survey results.
- Alex Richardson, outgoing president, updated attendees on Security Committee activities. Now in beta is an interactive checklist of security standards which, once fully deployed, will be available free for 90 days to members of the Association, the Digital Signage Association and the Digital Technology Alliance. He also revealed a new logo for the project, known as S3 for Storefront Security Standards.
- David Oles (Photo Imaging America) updated the work of the Best Practices Committee. By June, a 10-document set of best practices will be available to members.
