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Yahoo!Following the departure of key staff members earlier this year, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival announced Monday that it would be entering its 2009 season, which will run from Thursday, January 22 through Sunday, February 1, 2009, with a new director of operations, Rodney Gould, and a new director of development, Monique Littlejohn. But it wasn’t without some controversy that the festival made this transition. Josh Murray and Mary Lynn Harms — the former general manager and director of development, respectively, whose tenures with the non-profit ended in winter of this year, along with that of operations manager Chris Johnston — were two of the festival’s more prominent longtime employees. Many regular festival-goers were surprised to hear of their departures. Murray, for example, had been working with the festival longer than its executive director and de facto figurehead, Roger Durling.
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While Harms left the festival in order to take a position as marketing director at the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization, Murray and Johnston were laid off as a result of budget concerns and festival management’s desire to restructure the staff hierarchy. The former reason surprised many, as the celebrity-studded 2008 festival gave the appearance of event having grown exponentially from what it was just a few years ago. Durling, who also writes a column for the Independent, said, however, that he appreciated the work the former staffers had done for the festival and acknowledges that they had helped make the festival grow as big as it has. Murray, Harms and Johnston, meanwhile, will continue their work with Premiere Events, their event production and public relations firm, which promotes Santa Barbara events like the courthouse jazz series.
Durling also said that the average Santa Barbara resident who attends the film festival won’t notice a significant difference between this year’s festival and next year’s, aside from continued growth. Any further expansion the festival undergoes, however, will be done with the help of Gould and Littlejohn, each of whom bring longtime connections with Santa Barbara as well as professional experience. Gould comes to festival from Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, where he held the title of nutrition manager, and, previously, from the Four Seasons Biltmore, where he held various promotion, organization and event-related positions and had previously worked with the festival in helping arrange rooms for talent who made appearances here in Santa Barbara. Gould, who started Monday, said that part of the staff restructuring included the Murray’s previous position, general manager, being combined with that of the festival coordinator to create his position, director of operations.
Littlejohn, who is entering her second week with the festival as director of development, previously oversaw Muscular Dystrophy Association district offices in Honolulu and Santa Barbara and has helped organize local Labor Day telethons for the cause as well as the Black and Blue Ball. Currently in the busiest time of her year, according to the film festival’s annual calendar, Littlejohn said she was seeking out types of sponsors that the event has not had before, such as automotive sponsors, television sponsors, and others.
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Is Roger a DB? I don’t know him that well. I do know from my source that this was a collaboration of Roger and (his partner?) retired dentist Steve Blaine, to oust the majority of employees that helped get them two where that are today. Is it legal to lay off people, claim financial reasons, and then hire new people to fill the spots at a higher salary one month later? Last I looked, no it is not legal. I have volunteered for about 8 year now. After John left, Roger seemed very sincere in his work, like a breath of fresh air. Now, after all the detritus that has been left in Roger’s wake, I question his motives and I am sad for these employees who were pushed out. But maybe they should be thankful. Soooo, what do we have to look forward to next year? Roger the DB, a dentist, and a nutritionist as the top three people running the festival this year? Well, at least everyone will be healthy and have white teeth when they announce that they have jacked up the ticket prices yet again this year to pay the higher salaries. SBIFF has turned into a “lets pat ourselves on the back” and “Instead of giving to a real non-profit that helps people, let’s buy platinum passes and say we did our contribution for the year Honey” kind of festival. Screw the locals! We are just the lowly volunteers who can’t afford tickets anymore. I guess this is me agreeing that SBIFF should loose Roger Durling please.
8yearVolunteerOfSBIFF (anonymous profile)
May 14, 2008 at 10:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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Matt (Matt Kettmann)
May 21, 2008 at 2:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
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