Abbey Camera Club

Minutes of meeting held on Friday 11th March 2022

 

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

Apologies:  Alan McNiesh.

 

Keith opened the meeting and thanked everyone for coming, and thanks to Maurice for letting us use the venue.

 

Congratulations to Jim Harkness on having an image accepted to an Exhibition in Kirkcudbright.

 

Matters arising from minutes of previous meeting.

Images hung in Penpont café is still on going.

 

Keith has been tried to contact Margaret Salisbury, but not had a reply yet.

 

Insurance. Eunice had emails re: the insurance which she forwarded to Willie. It would be £194.81 for cover for Public Liability and Equipment, £51.81 of that being the Public Liability. It was decided to go ahead with the Public Liability Insurance and check with other brokers for the Equipment cover. Ewan insures his equipment with Photo Guard.

 

Laptop.

Keith has brought in a Chrome Book which he is donating to the club, and it will run his projector, which he is happy to bring in when we require it. However, the money we had earmarked for a new laptop could maybe go to a new projector. It was suggested that we sell the old projector, maybe on eBay.

 

Keith has emailed Libby Smith re: coming down to give us a talk.

 

The April judge, Hunter Kennedy, will judge the March competition as well.

 

It was advised that we wear masks in the hall until we sit down.

 

There have been one or two payments through the bank for the Bonus Ball. If members miss a number of weeks, then they cannot win the Bonus Ball.

 

Three Way-Competition.

Ewan thinks we need to be a bit more critical. The Stewartry Committee choose the images for the competition and Jim suggests that we have a selection group to choose our entries. It was asked if we are looking at the competition for critique or to win.

Willie suggests an evening with members bringing in images for critique within the club.

It might be an idea to take all images from competitions up to the three-way and narrow them down. William thinks we should do the selection earlier.

 

Angela thinks we should encourage club members who take good images but don’t enter the competitions.

 

It is suggested that within the club we should have a group moving towards distinctions and awards. Angela said, why not just do it. We may have been third in the three-way but were not that far behind.

 

Dumfries Camera Club have done Saturday afternoon workshops and it may be an idea for us to do the same. Keith will speak to Rod Wheelans to ask it he would do a workshop and how much he would charge.

 

Field trips were suggested to try to get different images and go to various locations and maybe do weekend trips.

 

Brian Murphy has useful links to people, but he works long hours, however he is willing to assist a syllabus secretary or the Chair.

 

Keith asked round the table whether we should have leagues for competitions, there were some yes and some no. Ewan commented that if you miss a month then that’s you out of the points.

 

Jim Harkness likes the 1,2,3, commended and highly commended scoring for competitions instead of points. The consensus is no leagues. It was suggested that the committee choose a month to compete for a trophy.

 

Willie brought up the idea of monitoring again which we have talked about in the past. It would maybe be possible to have an evening for monitoring. We could pick a number and pair up with the corresponding number. The first night of a new session we could buddy up with someone, if they want that.

 

Willie asked if we leave competitions open or go back to themed. Ewan prefers open and Keith thinks we should have three choices per month.

 

Zoom has been good for keeping the club going and getting judges from further afield.

 

The Chairman’s Challenge will be put out next week.

 

William and Brian have been liaising with The Stove regarding the exhibition and I attach William’s notes.

 

Jim Harkness has been in touch with the Courier, and they will give us a double page spread.

 

There being no further business the meeting closed.

 

Notes from the Stove Meeting

 

• Dates of the exhibition are 19th – 31st of April 2022

• Installation of the exhibition is on the 18th April sometime after 3pm

• Frames can be hung by wires attached to a track on the top of one of the walls.

• Any frames can be used as long as it has some sort of attachment on the back.

• Frames can be any size, the decision of which can be left up to the artist or the club.

• Arrangement of work can be decided at the Installation.

• Lighting in the Stove can be adjusted and dimmed to suit glass frames preventing glare.

• Launch Night is the 22nd of April 2022 with a 6pm start and a presentation at 7pm.

• The Stove can fit up to 30 people at a time for this event however we can stagger times for different group to fit in people.

• Alcohol can be served at the event but the Stove doesn’t have an alcohol license so that organizing that will be the club’s responsibility if that is an option that we choose to go down. (Launch Night only).

• The Stove will be able to serve tea, coffee and other drinks at the Launch Night for us.

• At the end of the exhibition our prints will be taken down by the Stove and subsequently collected by the Club.

• We can use the Launch Night of the exhibition as a Networking event which the Stove will assist us with.

• I have suggested contacting Turning Point and Support in Mind Scotland about networking at the Launch Night as our theme falls into Mental Health.

• A laptop can be set up in the Stove with a USB attachment from the club to run slideshows, videos or images.

• Advertisement of the exhibition will be provided by the Stove e.g. Facebook, poster etc...

• Zero percent of commission will be taken if prints are sold.

• Music, sound, lighting is options available to us to set up for the exhibition.

• Size of prints will depend on the amount of photographs that’ll be submitted by members to appear in the exhibition, however extra images can be presented on a slideshow if there is no more room.

• Sizes of the space at the Stove are with Brian Gillespe.

• The theme of the exhibition is Dumfries and Water, which has already been communicated to the club members.

• Deadline of submission of this exhibition have yet to be decided by myself, Brain or Keith.

• Images and printing have yet to be finalized but suggestions have been made and documented by Eunice who takes the committee meetings minutes.