VIEWFINDERS OF ROMSEY CAMERA CLUB

Minutes of Annual General Meeting held 1 July 2008 at Jubilee Hall, Timsbury

The Acting Chairman (Stan Stubbs) opened the meeting at 7.45pm (36 members present)

1.                APOLOGIES :     Jack & Liz Whitemore, Norman Pease,  Malcolm Richardson, Clive Feltham & Dave Reeve

2.                MINUTES OF 2007 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (3 July 2007)
                These were approved (proposed by Pat Ball, seconded by Phil Gooding) and signed as a true record.

3.                MATTERS ARISING FROM MINUTES  :  No Matters Arising

4.          CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

Stan Stubbs gave the following report sent from Jack Whitemore who was unable to be present at the AGM.

Membership has stayed roughly the same but sadly 2 members had died during the year, Doreen Bethell and Bill Smewing. Although some had left the club there has been a welcome influx of new members keen to advance their photographic skills.

7 names to mention – at the PAGB Assessment weekend hosted by SPF at the end of April, George Marsh was awarded a DPAGB, and both Stan Stubbs and Terry Jamieson a CPAGB. Pat Ball had his name put on the SPF Roll of Honour for work he has done for Viewfinders and Doreen Bethell for the work she has done for both Southampton CC and Viewfinders (she had been a member of this club for 25 years). In May this year Lynn and Roy Lambeth also had their names on the SPF Roll of Honour for work they have done for both Viewfinders and the Federation. Congratulations go to Lynn on being elected President of the SPF at the AGM in May.

The club owes a big thank you to Pat Ball for another interesting programme with next years looking equally promising. During the year our own members had given some fascinating evenings/lectures, and shows we have lots of hidden talent amongst members. We can look forward to more members evenings in next programme. Like many other clubs with the demise of slides and take up of Digital Photography, we have had some problems. As a trial, we have had more than one person involved in running Internal competitions this year but problems have occurred and will be discontinued next year but thanks go to Terry Jamieson for being in charge with Martin Brown and Malcolm Richardson and Peter Read handling Digital entries. Thanks also to Steve Williams as Secretary, Andrew Kirby who keeps our finances in the black, while Margaret Kirby beavers away on computer keeping clubs “Image” in Romsey Advertiser and local freebies. All the other committee members have done their but in the background. Stan Stubbs who has stood in for him during his 6 week visit to Australia and John Walter for his efforts to improve the sound system – also Alan Hancock and Clive Feltham.  Other club members who should be thanked are Jean Russell for Raffle, Basil Hopkins for tea rota, Bob Eaton for producing wonderful posters, Peter Read, the clubs Webmaster and Chris Hammond for organising Senior Citizen Shows.

Jack would like to say a big thank you to everyone who make Viewfinders a successful and friendly club. Next year we will see some different faces on the committee as Pat and Stan are standing down.

Again we held an exhibition at Stockbridge Town Hall of members work with another booked this year and am looking forward to Club participating in Romsey Water Festival again on Sat August 8th.

There are still changes happening – league formats will need to be altered with possibility of slides disappearing there, but introduction of digital Images into league format will not be easy as there are so many variables to be dealt with. This will be the last year that the PAGB will be holding inter club slide championship at Warwick University & planning and promoting a national inter club digital comp. next year instead…so we will all need to be patient, continuing to take pictures and enjoy our photography.

5.     AUDIO-VISUAL GROUP

Steve Williams reported on the groups activities during the past year. The group has 6 members and meet at member’s houses on a regular basis, usually once a month.  At these meetings we show any new sequences and discuss and demonstrate different techniques as a result of new software updates. During the past winter season the group gave 3 presentations which were at the Hythe Evening Townswoman’s Guild, Viewfinders Camera Club and Shirley Methodist Wednesday Club. All sequences are now digital and thanks must be given to Arthur Budden and Norman Pease for the use of their projection equipment.

6.                    DIGITAL IMAGING GROUPS

Pat Ball reported that the first digital group still meets every last Thurs of the month. There are now 8 members with only 4 in the club. During the meetings members swap experiences and have discussions on new equipment and show sequences.

George Marsh said that the Second Digital Group meets less often and has up to 6 members. Meetings are usually arranged when there is a demand to learn something new.

7.           TREASURERS REPORT

Andrew  Kirby reported on the Income and Expenditure Account for the Financial Year ending 30th April 2008 which has  been audited, signed by the auditor and copies circulated to members.
He thanked all those who helped with raffles & refreshments which raised almost £237 & also those who facilitated rental receipts for display boards and the digital projector.

Profits for the Fundraising Evenings were £290, £15 more than last year’s £275.
Hall Rental rates were 10% more than last year, although the total cost also reflects slight additional use of the hall. Hall rental will probably rise in July 2009, but amount & timing are uncertain and may be affected by recent fuel increases.

Insurance premiums were covered in the budget and will be slightly raised for next year to allow for proposed new sound system.

The SPF sub and fees for various competitions will increase next year.
The Digital Projector has an ongoing commitment for insurance (£105 this year). The reserve established to enable bulb replacements to be funded now stands at  £220.
After hall rental the second highest expenditure was on lecturers and judges which is forecast to rise by up to £260 in forthcoming year.
He forecast the expenditure for 2008-09 as being £2556, £327 more than this year.

Checking members who actually attended in 2007-08 reveals 52 subscribing members actually attending out of 55 subscribed members and a total membership of 60 including honorary members. Average subscriptions (including part year and concessions) are £32. On this basis total subscriptions are based on 50 (allowing for losing a few members) at the current average £32, would total £1600. This would result in shortfall of £361. An increase of £4 in subs would reduce the forecast shortfall to £161 which he anticipated could be covered by new memberships or reserves. Andrew therefore suggested and increase of £4 in all full memberships be approved.

Profits on raffles are so low at £49 that he suggested holding them only on fund raising evenings when they make a worthwhile contribution.

A further suggestion is to provide a cash float to someone to manage refreshments with cash surplus going to Treasurer, say every 3 months.

Both these last 2 suggestions would simplify the records needing to be kept by the Treasurer on behalf of the club.

Discussion followed on these last 2 suggestions. Phil Gooding queried how many take tea or coffee and whether it is worth considering making them free and increasing subs to cover. However, Andrew said it would mean a large increase in subs.

It was unanimously agreed to discontinue raffles except on fundraising evenings.

Regarding second suggestion, Basil Hopkins was unable to continue with organising tea rota etc but Sharon Lochray and Linda Rudd had kindly volunteered to run this and organise a rota. Jean Russell was willing to continue to get milk etc.

8.             SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR 2008-09

Before voting on Subscriptions there was some discussion on proposed increase and why the sound system was going to cost so much. It was explained that the committee had discussed this for most of last season’s committee meetings and been agreed with hall committee as regards installation. Mark Koernich said he was unhappy with the amount being spent and would like to see a breakdown of expenses.

It was then proposed by Terry Jamieson and seconded by Colin Carey that the Subscriptions for 2008-09 be increased by £4 to £40.

After being put to the vote the proposal was carried with 33 for, 2 against and 1 abstention.

Therefore the subscriptions for 2008-09 will increase to :

9.                ELECTION OF OFFICERS FOR 2008-2009
               
The officers and committee for 2008-2009 were elected as follows :

Liz Whitemore had emphasised that she will only be programme secretary for one year and would like someone to shadow her to take over next year.

Peter Read mentioned that in Salisbury Camera Club they haven’t had a programme secretary for 2 years. The committee as a whole share the duty each doing a section of the programme which has worked very successfully and wondered whether this could be tried in Viewfinders.

It was agreed that this could be discussed at future committee meetings.

10.                ELECTION OF AUDITOR

Helen Brown was elected as Auditor

11.          SPF DELEGATES FOR 2007-2008

Terry Jamieson was happy to continue as SPF Delegate for 2008-09 and Jack Whitemore said he would act as the other SPF Delegate.

12.      SUBJECTS FOR  LES FREDERICKS TROPHY 2008-2009

Before voting on subjects for the Les Fredericks Trophy Terry Jamieson explained the position regarding continuing with slides. He had noticed that the slide entries in Assessments have been very limited with only about 4 members entering and there have been problems squeezing them in to keep the total entry of work down to a reasonable level for the judge. There is a growing trend in clubs to drop slides from Competitions and the Viewfinders will not be entering slides in the league next year. He suggested that we drop the slides in Assessments and concentrate on Digital images and prints or maybe have only one assessment with slides. It was up to the membership to decide.

There were various comments from members present and a few of the members who still enter slides felt it was still worth entering even with only 4 members entering as they are assessments and not competitions and would be grieved if they were discontinued. About 5 members present still take slides although George Marsh said although he still takes slides he would not be entering them any more.

Mark Koernich said he would still like the opportunity to show slides and maybe we could have a slide competition on a members evening with Internal judges. It was generally felt that even if we discontinue with slides in Assessments we should continue entering slides for Trophies.

George Marsh proposed that Slides will continue to be entered in Trophy Competitions but discontinued in Assessments. This was seconded by Lynn Lambeth.  After being put to the vote the proposal was carried with 28 for, 6 against & 2   abstentions.

Subjects for Les Fredericks Trophy

43 suggestions for subjects had been sent by members  These were split into 5 sections for voting to give a short list of 5 subjects.

After being put to the vote :

• the subject for prints will be “BLACK AND WHITE”
• the subject for slides will be “TYPICAL NEW FOREST”
• the subject for Projected Dig Images will be ” IN THE RAIN”

The Les Fredericks Trophy will be held on 28th April 2009 and all work must be new as rule 10

13           ANY OTHER BUSINESS

• 1. Romsey Water Festival  Margaret Kirby explained that we are taking part again in the Water Festival at Romsey on August 8th. She was still waiting to hear from the organisers as to whether we will be in a marquee or a hall and sharing with the Wildlife Trust. We will be looking for prints on a water theme and digital images which can be viewed on a laptop providing we have electrical connections if in a marquee.

       The exhibition will run from 11.00am to 4.00pm and will need volunteers to set up the exhibition early on the Saturday morning, stewards, and to take down afterwards. The more prints we have the better as they can be rotated during the day.

• 2. Stockbridge Exhibition. Giles said that 17 members were exhibiting but there are still some spare boards. He had set up a spreadsheet which he had sent out by e mail asking for volunteers for stewarding etc.

• 3. Pat Ball said he had some spare copies of the programme up to Christmas for those not on internet.

        4.  Peter Read mentioned that the programme plus accounts and minutes had been put on the web site. He also mentioned the on-line Digital course which he had been running which has 7 members taking part which brings in a small income for the club.

There being no further business, the meeting closed at 8.35pm.

Steve Williams (Secretary)

This page last updated, 9 July, 2008.