Daryl Cagle Speaks Out on Proposed Cartoonists' Merger

By: E&P Staff MSNBC Editorial Cartoonist and Political Cartoonist Index founder Daryl Cagle offered a word of caution to his fellow cartoonists on Sunday regarding a proposed merger between the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) and the National Cartoonists Society (NCS).

"My guess is that a marriage [between the AAEC and the NCS] wouldn't work out," Cagle says in a post on his Cartoon Web Log. Cagle is a member of both the AAEC and the NCS.

Cagle's post came in response to an open letter from the AAEC's president Ted Rall, which was published on the AAEC's Web site on June 19. In the letter, Rall said, "Should we merge with NCS? Proponents say we could take advantage of NCS' ability to negotiate discounted rates at convention hotels, not to mention save on the doubling of membership dues for editorial cartoonists who belong to both organizations.

"Others, like me, worry that AAEC and NCS have different goals and cultures and would therefore make an uneasy fit," Rall added. "Either way, we have to consider it." The AAEC will be hosted by the Herblock Foundation and David Horsey of the online-only Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and most of its members have to pay their own way to the convention.

Cagle responded in his post: "At the NCS?s recent board meeting in Los
Angeles, I mentioned Ted?s public letter, and that the AAEC ?has to
consider? merging with the NCS, and I asked if anyone was aware of that -- no one was, and some of the NCS board members, like most NCS members, had never heard of the AAEC."

Cagle then offered several other suggestions for the AAEC, which, like most newspaper-related associations, has suffered heavy job losses during the economic downturn. That advice included: "Don?t allow amateur or student members"; "Have a shorter convention"; "Don't be so serious, this is not a wake"; "Have a president and board that serves for more than one year"; and "Plan around other events or coordinate with other conventions; maybe the NCS, but I?d suggest considering the Social Studies teachers convention -- editorial cartoonists are rock stars to Social Studies teachers, and the AAEC could ride along as an interesting feature of their big, national convention."

The National Council for the Social Studies will hold its annual conference on November 13-15 in Atlanta. The AAEC holds its convention from July 1-July 4 in Seattle.

Check out Cagle's full post, here.