It has now been 4 years since becoming Administrator of the Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund. While this time has literally gone by in a flash, I feel most fortunate to be able to look back over many accomplishments and improvements that we have collectively made to the Fund.
Included among these was the complete overhaul of staff and administrative functions; bringing our computer system in-house; streamlining the auditing process and increasing collections; initiating our document imaging program; developing numerous new policies; improving the statements; initiating a “direct deposit” option for the annual distribution; moving the office to the more efficient and cost-effective Studio City location, publishing musician and producer brochures as well as a quarterly online newsletter; and a host of other changes both big and small.
Of all these accomplishments, certainly one of the most important was the development of our website. Until my arrival, the Fund had no web presence at all which was clearly needed to not only provide basic information about the Fund, but to provide the Participants with much needed online services.
Our goal at that time was to quickly provide a low-cost functional website. Over the past few years our homespun website grew as we offered more and more online services and continued to add additional information not only for the Participants but for Producers as well.
Over time, the site became…well, frankly a little “long in the tooth,” both in terms of look and functionality. I know, it still worked, and provided a tremendous amount of useful information in addition to online access to your individual statements, numerous online forms, and allowed various searches for covered motion pictures among other features. However, we had to admit that the site had grown to the point where basic navigation was becoming difficult to say the least. Therefore, this seemed like the ideal time to take a good look at the site to see how it could be improved.
To this end, the Fund engaged ad2 (one of the pre-eminent web design firms in the industry) to look at our site and make recommendations. The result was a complete overhaul of the site. As a result, I am proud to announce that we have not only been able to accomplish a complete redo of our website (www.fmsmf.org) , but by combining the efforts of ad2 we were able to cost-effectively revamp the AFM & AFTRA Fund website (www.raroyalties.org) as well.
Please take some time to visit both sites where you will find the same useful information, and hopefully some new information and services as well. Both new sites have a very different look and feel with vastly improved navigation.
As always, we want you to know that, ultimately, this is your website. We welcome your comments and suggestions.
Wishing you all continued success….
Dennis Dreith