Association of Alternative Newsweeklies President Clif Garboden appointed The Memphis Flyer’s Kenneth Neill to the position of vice president earlier this month. The vice president position had been vacant since September, when Andy Newman resigned from the board after announcing that he plans to step down as editor of Pittsburgh City Paper.

Neill, who currently sits on the association’s board as Membership Committee chair, will serve in a dual role until AAN’s annual convention in June 2005, when Garboden’s term expires. At that point, Neill will be invited to step down as Membership chair with one year remaining in his term in order to run for president. (By longstanding AAN tradition, the vice president is heir apparent to the presidency.)

Neill is CEO of Contemporary Media, Inc., publisher of Memphis magazine and Memphis Parent, as well as the Flyer. He was elected to the AAN Board three years ago as head of the Admissions Committee (renamed Membership Committee as a result of recent bylaw amendments), and has also served for many years on the Board of Directors of the City and Regional Magazine Association. He was President of CRMA from 1992 to 1994.

Garboden announced Neill’s appointment when AAN’s Board of Directors met on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004, at the Westin Horton Plaza in San Diego, Calif. Several other important decisions were made at that meeting, including the following:

• The annual convention will start a half-day earlier than last year, with programming beginning on Thursday afternoon (June 16) rather than Friday morning; and the annual meeting will be held a day earlier, on Saturday morning (June 18).
• The programming budgets for the annual convention and the AAN East and West regional conferences were doubled, from $50,000 to $100,000.
• AAN-member classified managers will receive a free registration to the convention, and every AAN-member paper will receive the third convention registration for free.
• The AAN-Medill Writers’ Workshop will be held in August in conjunction with the final weekend of next summer’s Academy for Alternative Journalism, and the workshop registration fee for AAN members will be reduced to $25.
• The AAN print directory, which previously served as a marketing piece for AAN members, will be redesigned to serve as an internal membership tool.
• The reimbursement rate for volunteer leaders who are required to travel to attend board and committee meetings was raised from $250 to $350.

Many of these decisions were made possible by the $250,000+ surplus that AAN generated in its Fiscal Year 2004, which ended Sept. 30. Over the next two weeks, AAN News will provide more details regarding the surplus as well as the new member benefits described above.