Abbey Camera Club

 

Minutes of meeting held on Friday 11th February 2022

 

Present:  William Niven; Euan McLean; Keith Walker; Jim Harkness; Eunice Laidlaw; Brian Gillespie; Angela McNay; Willie Hiddleston.

Apologies:  Alan McNeish.

 

Keith opened the meeting and thanked everyone for coming and he managed to get us a table inside where it was warmer.

 

Matters Arising from the last meeting:

Euan has done the flyer and to get it printed on good paper with Print Copy will cost £55.00 so it was decided to go ahead and Angela and Euan will liaise with that.

 

Mistake on previous minutes of cost of Domain name and Website.  The Domain name will cost £20.72 and the Website £122.40 per annum.

 

Willie confirmed that at present we have 31 paid up members and a probable new member still to pay.

 

Eunice had spoken to Maureen re: putting images up in the Penpont café and she said it is the café that organises that, but the Rooks Gallery is organised by someone else.  Jim is going to make a point of going along and have a chat with them.

 

Big Burns Supper – Keith did some shots of members making things for the event but then the whole thing was cancelled due to Covid.

 

Margaret Salisbury – she said that the cheque we sent her had bounced but Willie said it had been cleared through the account in December, but then Willie got a letter in February re: the cheque so he is going to look into this.

 

Laptop – this had been previously talked about, so it was decided to now go ahead and purchase one as it is needed to run a projector.  The budget is around £700.00 and Euan is tasked to purchase one.

 

Eunice is to contact Libby at SPF re: the insurance and are we now covered as Willie had paid the premium.

 

Jim had received an invoice for the last Zoom which he will hold onto until we have the next Zoom and will pay both together.  The cost is £14.00 per month.

 

Keith has had no response from the Scouts so we will put this on hold meantime.

 

Implications of Covid in indoor meetings – It is to be up to members to whether to wear masks when meeting and we will not do a track and trace, but it is up to members to inform the club if anyone tests positive.

It is advisory to do a Lateral Flow test before meetings and wear a mask indoors.

William asked what we should do if we have a visiting speaker coming in and it was advised that we should have a higher expectation and we are advised then to take a LFT beforehand.

 

SPF – there is to be a print competition and Eunice will forward the details to all members.

 

Stove Exhibition – Keith thanked Brian and William for liaising with the Stove.

Katie Anderson wants to have a meeting with them between twelve and four on Friday 4th March, so it was decided to go for twelve noon.

There is to be a launch night, Tuesday 19th or Friday 22nd April and it was suggested that the Friday would be the better day.

We will set up the exhibition and it will run for two to three weeks and the Stove will not take any commission if any of the members sell an image.  Jim also commented that it would be acceptable to sell multiple copies of the same image.

After the meeting we need to find out who wants to display prints and William and Brian will measure the space to allocate to members.

Keith suggests hanging the images in themes rather than per member.

We will also try to have the laptop running a slide show with members images.

The Stove will also do the publicity for us.

Willie asked what we should charge for prints, but it was decided that should be left up to the individual member.

 

Keith has been trying to get a hold of a speaker from the college, but he has had no luck as yet, but he will keep trying.

 

Next Steps – Keith had prepared and circulated a document with suggestions for the Next Steps for the club. 

 

Exhibitions – We have Caerlaverock coming up in May into June and the Stove, but there may be other possible venues to exhibit.  It would be ideal to have someone within the committee to make contacts in the first instance.

A dedicated fund raiser would also be useful, and they could then report to the committee.

A syllabus secretary to organise and produce the syllabus would be advantageous.  These posts would be brought up at the next AGM.

 

It was agreed that having the external judges from clubs further afield was a good idea and worked well.

 

Rod Wheelans and Libby Smith are coming to give us a talk on SPF and the advantages of it.  There is the possibility of members, who wish to do so, to go forward to Distinctions.  We could maybe have four or five members, led by a committee member, that would like to do this.

 

Club Competitions – it would be useful to know how many members would enter the club competitions.  It was thought that having leagues was maybe not the best idea. 

The selection of images for exhibitions should be down to the individual and not a club decision.

After much discussion, willie suggests putting out an email to ask members what they want from the competitions, leagues etc.

 

Angela asked if, “Next Steps”, had been circulated to all members but Keith wanted to bring it to the committee first.

 

Angela also suggested that we look at the constitution before the next AGM and discuss how the club is changing and evolving.  Going forward, she thinks we should take small steps at first.

 

Keith says that everyone should be confidant enough to put images into exhibitions.

 

Jim said that when going out and about on shoots that more experienced members should be willing to help less experienced, where possible.

 

William thought that for people not confidant in exhibiting, we could have an evening now and again where an image, or two, is brought along for the members to look at and critique.

 

Keith has done a wee book making course, making a concertina book with small prints in and he said it was good fun and very effective.

 

Bonus Ball – Willie asked if members had not paid up with the bonus ball, do they get the winnings if their number comes up.  We indicated that if, “Not in it to win it”.  Angela suggested paying in advance, i.e.: six monthly.

 

There being no further business the meeting closed, and the date of the next meeting will be Friday 11th March.