Editor Jeanne Bon-ansinga, owner of Edit Sweet, Chicago, has been elected to a two-year term as national president of the Association of Independent Commercial Editors (AICE). She succeeds John Palestrini, who continues to serve on the national AICE board. Palestrini is CEO of The Blue Rock Editing Company, New York.
Filling out the slate of national AICE officers for 2000/2001 are: VP Greg Laube, a principal/editor at Brass Knuckles, West Hollywood and Venice, Calif.; and treasurer Lola Lott, principal/executive producer at charlieuniformtango, Dallas.
Bonansinga assumed the national AICE reins during the organization’s board meeting last month in Chicago, and said that session demonstrated how the AICE has arrived nationally. "We had a more open exchange than ever," she observed. "There was more of a sense of kinship versus people being closemouthed and holding their cards to their chests."
Bonansinga said that continuing that healthy dialogue is an AICE priority. "That’s pretty much what the organization was formed for—to bring the editorial community together nationally as well as locally," she said. "We need to continue to bring the different regions together, to embrace the value of communication and what we can learn from one another, and let that trickle down to the local level."
Locally, Bonansinga cited Edit Sweet’s close-knit relationship with another Chicago editorial house, Cutters, under the aegis of editor Tim McGuire, president of the AICE’s Chicago chapter. "For ten years, we’ve had a sense of community between us," said Bonansinga. "If I had a problem, I could go to Tim’s office and we’d talk. Likewise, he could come to my shop and we could exchange ideas. Sharing information and comparing notes has proven valuable for both of our businesses. Yes, we are all competitors. But we shouldn’t be afraid of competition to the point where we don’t communicate. We can learn from each other so we can all thrive. And that’s what the AICE is about, nationally and locally."
Palestrini concurred, reflecting on his own tenure as national AICE president, which began two years ago. "The difference between then and now is light years apart," he assessed. "Originally, there was reluctance and far-from-overwhelming support for a national organization. But thankfully, support has been building, and along with it, a sense of the value of having a strong national organization. All the local chapters have pitched in and have a commitment to the AICE nationally. That sense of unity was clear at last month’s board meeting."
Palestrini described Bonansinga as being "a unifying force" and "an ideal choice" for national president. He added that having a Chicago-based president could also prove to be advantageous. "For one, it [Chicago] is centrally located, so we can perhaps have more face-to-face national meetings," he said. "Also, it’s healthy to have a president from a different chapter. Part of the thinking is to spread it around, to get everyone involved. First, you had me from New York, now Jeanne from Chicago, and hopefully our next president will come from California."
AICE maintains chapters in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Dallas. AICE’s national board of directors for 2000/2001 consists of Bonansinga; Palestrini; Laube; Lott; McGuire; Jan Frei of Pomegranit, San Francisco; Mitch Garelick of Horn/Eisenberg Editorial & Graphics, New York; Cindy Carey of Crazy Horse Editorial, Santa Monica; Jon Ettinger of FilmCore San Francisco; and Tom Aberg of Tom’s Easy Way, Dallas. John Held continues as AICE national executive director and also serves on the national board.
