Chairman's News - Summer 2007
As the winter part of our year draws to a close it is most satisfying to look back at some of the highlights and to review the progress made for the future strength and development of our Club.
Since it is a "given" that we cannot satisfy "The likes of all of the members all of the time" it is nice to note that the average attendance at our weekly meetings is 28 (28.3 actually, but I don’t know who is 0.3 of a member!!). This represents 70% of the membership, which typically stands at about 40. Competitions attract slightly above average, as do external lecturers, whilst for some reason club speakers attract below average. The "Crowd of the season", as they say at Huish Park, was 47 for the annual Battle of Sedgemoor.
Although we each have our memories of the season, the meetings that stand out for me were, Ian Big's "Master Class" delivered in the guise of judging our competition No3, David’s print presentation and entries in the Still Life contest, Brian’s revealing display of his monochrome printing talent and the Audio Visual show put on by John, Mike, Keith and David. The last of these proved to be a momentous event for the future development of the club.
The Annual Exhibition at the Octagon Theatre was an excellent shows and attracted buyers for some of the pictures. This is a sure sign of public approval.
The Results of the Competitions held in this period are appended to these notes and, together with selected winning images, will be posted on the Web Site shortly.
The WCPF DPI Competition held in February was another "First" for the club since we entered the requisite 25 images. Admittedly these were culled from member’s collections of digital images, slides and prints. The latter groups were scanned and formatted before writing to disc. The effort was a very commendable one and the club was placed 17th out of 42 entrants in our first DPI contest. Our best entries scored 10's and 12's out of a maximum of 15 available points. They are displayed in the competitions Gallery.
The Novices Competition Section in our competitions has had an interesting year. Many of the entries were judged as equal to the experienced entries and indeed shows the Strength in Depth of our abilities. In no case, did we feel that a novice had knowingly down rated their own skills! Old Hands beware!
Club Developments
Audio visual Work
Following the successful members evening we have arranged to include a members AV competition in the programme for 2007-08. This will be held on April 21st, a specific trophy will be awarded and early in December there will be a presentation of a series of AV's ranging from First attempts and failures to International Standard work. This should provide us with some thing to eclipse and aspire to!
Digital Projection Capability
During the year a small group has evaluated our needs, assessed the equipment best suited to us and arranged the procurement. It has now been delivered.
The whole exercise was complicated by the reluctance of potential suppliers to provide strictly comparable demonstrations of different manufacturer’s equipment but with the help of Mitsubishi UK we were able do a proper comparison of their equipment with that of other manufacturers.
Brian, Richard and John deployed much time and effort on this project. This team is in the process of developing a familiarisation and training programme for those who wish to know how the equipment is operated. We are also considering the provision of one or two whole day Seminars provided by outside speakers.
The kit comprises of:
- Mitsubishi 460U DLP technology projector.
- Acer Aspire Laptop
- Audio Speaker, Radio Microphone and mixer, to allow seamless voice-over commentary with AV music background
- Screen and projector stand.
- Nikon Coolscan V ED 35mm Slide and Negative Scanner.
Helping Hands
To help our newer or less experienced members, eight of us have volunteered to be available to pass on our experience on request. To use a golden oldie they can be found pinned on the club notice board complete with Mug Shots.
The 70th Anniversary of YCC
The 1st of June is the 70th anniversary of the clubs foundation and we mounted a display of our History and Current Status at the Yeovil Town Fair on May 28th The stand was extremely busy with 175 people entering the free competition we ran to see who could get closest to the marks awarded by the judge in our final club competition of the year. There was one all correct entry and we reckon he should be in the club!! About 50 children dragged a relative before the camera and Directed Richard as to the facial Modifications required. Photoshop Elements obliged! The Laptop was powered from a large 12v car battery using a voltage regulator to provide the 19v required.
We are also hoping for some coverage in the Western Gazette illustrating both the history and future of the club.
Rumours that some of our senior members were at the inaugural meeting have yet to be confirmed!
Annual General Meeting
Was held on Monday 21st May at The Old Barn Club as usual.
The new committee was elected and the rules for our first AV contest were discussed. A fine trophy was presented to the club by a generous member. The contest will be on April 21st 2008.
Summer Programme 2007
Comprises four guided walks locally, a visit to Laycock Abbey and Photography Museum and a barbeque
Montacute Church Crafts Exhibition
at which we shall be exhibiting in August. Richard is co-ordinating
Have a good summer, keep exposure for the pictures and not too much for the skin and we will see you all for next years programme.
Tony
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