Former APRS chairman Phil Dudderidge explains the aims and benefits of APRS Membership and details the history and post successes of the Association.

WHAT IS THE APRS?
I am often asked that question by people in the industry who remember APRS only as an annual exhibition (no longer held). APRS, the Association of Professional Recording Services (originally Studios) is the recognised trade association for all aspects of the sound recording, editing and mixing industry, serving the record industry and also the sound for picture industry (film and television post production) through the APPS (Audio Post Production Studios). Membership also includes companies that manufacture or supply products to recording and post production studios.

APRS is divided into a number of sections and membership categories in order to accommodate businesses and individual professionals working in the industry. A new constitution has recently been adopted to widen representation at board level with the objective of encouraging anyone with a little time and concern for the health of the industry to participate in the direction of the association.

The sound recording industry is quite a small community of professionals and businesses, all united by a common goal to advance the art and the health of the industry. The Association therefore provides a vehicle to unite this community and serves to represent the views of the industry to government and other industry bodies at home and abroad.

As with most trade associations, the Board consists of individuals who volunteer their time and effort to the common good of the industry. There are never enough such individuals and I would like to take this opportunity to invite any member reading this to join the board. Directors are both elected (to represent membership categories) and co-opted. Please contact me, or our executive director, Peter Filleul, for further details. 

ACHIEVEMENTS
What does the APRS achieve? Never enough! But over the years there have been both general and notable achievements. APRS has set standards of performance in recording studio construction, operation and practice, and has provided members with Standard Terms and Conditions of Trading which, when consistently applied, protect member businesses from financial loss caused by unreliable clients.

APRS has regular contact with government departments and notably caused a change in taxation policy when a withholding tax on foreign artists recording in Britain was threatened some years ago. APRS funded a technical expert to advise the body responsible for establishing EC regulations relating to Electro Magnetic Conformity (EMC) so that the regulations initially drafted, which were unworkable in practice as they applied to professional audio and recording products, were rewritten to a workable state.

Currently there is a lot of activity in the field of education and training. APRS is endeavouring to channel government initiatives in a direction that will have a beneficial impact on the future opportunities for students wishing to be appropriately educated and trained for a career in the sound recording and broadcast fields - and in entertainment technology generally. APRS has successfully pioneered a scheme to accredit further education courses that offer such training, and this scheme, now three years old, is currently being revised and updated in the light of experience. It will be extended to many more than the five establishments currently offering Accredited Courses.

A common problem for such a disparate community as ours is the opportunities to meet and communicate. APRS and APPS regularly organise meetings and events for members. Email newsgroups are already a popular member benefit. APPS manages an AMS user-group, and Pro Tools user groups have recently been established for post and recording members. 'Tie-Line' enables practitioners in the post industry to gossip, share technical issues and communicate generally.

For supplier members there is a special opportunity to meet their customers and present new products at special events in a co-membership environment, quite different from a normal proactive sales approach. There has always been a special relationship between UK studios and manufacturing members, with some close relationships leading to innovative product development and worldwide success for the companies concerned. APRS provides the forum for such contacts to be developed, but it is up to the members themselves to take advantage of the opportunities.

GOING GLOBAL
APRS has traditionally been an almost exclusively UK organisation. We are now bound by European Union law to open our membership to all qualifying applicants from within the EU. We have taken this one step further and now invite applications for membership from anywhere in the world. APRS is not in the business of defending the UK industry from overseas competition. It is in the business of promoting its members' interests everywhere in the world and forging links with our peers everywhere. Thus we have enjoyed cordial relationships with many other bodies, including AES, SPARS (USA) and JAPRS (Japan), and will continue to work for a healthy and innovative recording industry not only in the UK but also around the world.