AGM 2009

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of Haddington Camera Club held in The Granary, Poldrate, Haddington on Tuesday 7 April 2009 at 7.30 p.m.

Prior to the commencement of the Meeting Brian Robertson explained the reason for the absence of Liz Wheelans, the Secretary and that David Elder would be deputising for her. David read an email from Liz thanking Brian for the support he had given her over the past year and for the patience shown to her by the members during her first year as Secretary. She also thanked David Elder for standing in for her at the AGM.

1. Attendance
The President, Brian Robertson, welcomed 27 members to the meeting.

2. Apologies for absence
Apologies had been received from Liz Wheelans, Sheena McDougall, Jimmy Milne, Lesley Clarke, Catherine Crichton and Ann Jeffray.

3. Minutes of the previous AGM
Minutes had been duly displayed on the notice board and had also been posted on the Club web site. Approval of the Minutes was proposed by Gary Moffat seconded by John Gallagher and approved by the members present.

4. President’s Report
The Annual Exhibition 2008 took place in St Mary’s Parish Church and compared with the previous year was judged to be a success. This was based on several grounds such as the quality of the images displayed and the number of people who had viewed them with many favourable comments being left in the “comments book”. The Club was indebted to Michael Thomson for being able to obtain display boards through one of his many contacts. The problems over display boards had caused a review of the matter and resulted in the Club buying its own at a cost of approximately £850 and Haddington Rotary Club had given the Club a donation of £500 thanks to Club members Andy Bennetts and Robert Turnbull for which the Club was very grateful.
The year got off to an excellent start with a very well attended opening night which turned out to be so popular that the local Fire Brigade had paid the Club a visit that night! The new display boards had been in use that night showing a tribute to the late Bill Mornin and a representation of members’ prints.
It had become clear that night that the Club was likely to increase its membership, with numbers eventually reaching 64, an all time record for the Club.
The Club had provided a varied Syllabus with a blend of speakers, some of whom were experienced professionals whilst many evenings had been led by club members.
Internal competitions had all been well supported especially the First Exposure Competition and all had been well fought. The Annual Competition had ended up as draw and the Carlyle Cup had been won by only a few points. The Club was indebted to all the judges who had given up their time to assist with these competitions. The Club had also done well in inter-club competitions with wins over Musselburgh, Midlothian and Beeslack in one on one events. The Club came second in an 8-way competition at Newtongrange where a club member had also won the best image trophy. For the first time in many years the Club had also taken part in SPF and PAGB competitions. This had proved to be very successful with the Club being placed 9thin the PAGB event, winning the Plate in the SPF Digital Knock-out competition and coming 5th in the SPF Print Championship. This last was the one in which the club secretary Liz Wheelans had won the Best Image award resulting in front page news in the local paper and good publicity for the Club. By any standard it had been a good year for the Club and thanks were due to all who had been involved in submitting entries or organising the submissions.
The Club had had several outings including the Farne Islands, Aberfeldy, Cramond Island and Cove.
The President thanked all committee members and Club members for making the past year so successful.

5. Treasurer’s Report and Accounts for 2008/9
To follow.

6. Subscriptions for 2009-2010
The President said that these had gone up last year and the Committee took the view that they should remain unchanged for next year. The recommendation that the subscriptions remain unaltered for next year was proposed by Brian Robertson seconded by Michael Thomson and approved by the members present.

7. Election of Committee and Office-bearers
Of the present Committee and Office-bearers the following were continuing next year: President, Brian Robertson; Vice-President/Competition Secretary, Michael Thomson; Secretary, Liz Wheelans; Syllabus Secretary, Gary Moffat; and Web Site Organiser, Lesley Clarke.
To fill the resulting vacancies the following were proposed: Treasurer, Avril Lyons (proposed Brian Robertson seconded Harry Paton); Darkroom Organiser, Dave Lyons (proposed Brian Robertson seconded Bill Peach); and Committee, Jean Inglis (proposed Brian Robertson seconded Bill Peach).

8. Competition Rules
After explanations by Brian Robertson and Michael Thomson and after a full discussion by the members present including suggestions from members, the following changes to the Competition Rules were agreed for next season:

8.1 Rule 1 - Number of images in competitions
It was agreed that members could submit up to 3 images (digital or print or a mixture of both). In the case of entries to the First Exposure Competition and the Annual Competition members would require to grade them A, B or C in order of preference in the event of there being an over-large number of images submitted so that a member could indicate which image was not to be entered in the competition. This was proposed by John Gallagher seconded by Mike Hollingsworth and approved by the members present.

8.2 Rule 2 – Number of times an image may be used in a year
It was unanimously agreed that images for the Annual Competition must be images not previously entered in a competition.

8.3 Internal Competitions
It was unanimously agreed that there would no longer be a Theme Competition with a set theme and that this would be replaced by a Monochrome Competition in which the images did not require to be a theme.

8.4 External Competitions
It was unanimously agreed that the Competition Secretary would be responsible for the selection of entries for external competitions and that he could call on experienced members for assistance if necessary.

8.5 Prints
It was unanimously agreed that mounts for prints, both colour and black and white, would have a standard size of mount of up to 20x16 inches (or 50x40 cm) to be consistent with SPF print sizes. It was agreed that an entry of 3 separate images was permitted on a single mount of the agreed maximum size.

8.6 Sizing of images
It was unanimously agreed that digital images for competitions should not be more than 1400x1050 pixels (landscape format) or 1050x1400 pixels (portrait format).

8.7 Certificates for Beginners in Competitions
It was unanimously agreed that Certificates should be awarded to Beginners who scored well in competitions.
The Competition Secretary will amend the current Rules to take account of these changes in time for the new season.

9. Annual Exhibition
The President said that this year’s Annual Exhibition would again be staged in St Mary’s Parish Church, Haddington, during this year’s Haddington Festival, hopefully for a week. Volunteers would be required to steward it and Brian will email members asking for volunteers. Gordon Andrews’ offer of displaying digital images submitted during the year was gratefully accepted.

10. AOCB

10.1 Members’ Critique
Michael Thomson thanked those members who had helped during the past season.

10.2 Carlyle Cup/Tully-Jackson Cup
Gordon Andrews asked if the results of the Tully-Jackson Cup could be taken into account for the Carlyle Cup. It was agreed that this might be done in the future but for next year it would not in case it deterred members from entering. It was also agreed that further tuition on the use of Pro Show Gold would be worthwhile.

10.3 Calibration of projector
Andy Bennetts suggested the purchase of software for calibrating the digital projector but Brian Robertson said this was already under consideration by the Committee.

10.4 Viewing prints in competitions
Dave Lyons raised the problem of members sitting at the back of the hall not being able to view prints very well during the judging of competitions. Brian Robertson said this was a matter of concern to the Committee and they were looking into it.

10.5 Presentation of Trophies and Certificates
The President and Competition Secretary presented annual prizes as follows, after Brian thanked Lesley Clarke for designing and printing the Certificates of Merit.

Certificates of Merit:

First Exposure Competition:
Prints, Anita Nutter
Projected Images, Brian Robertson
Best Beginner, Catherine Crichton

Theme Competition (Open Theme):
Prints, Gary Moffat
Projected Images, Bill Peach
Best Beginner, Jean Inglis

Theme Competition (Set Theme-Environmental Impact):
Prints, Andy Bennetts
Projected Images, Gary Moffat
Best Beginner, Graham Stirling

Annual Competition:
Prints, Gary Moffat & Andy Bennetts
Projected Images, Liz Wheelans
Best Beginner, Jean Inglis & Graham Stirling

Trophies:
Tyne Cup, Brian Robertson
League Cup, Gary Moffat
Tully-Jackson Audio Visual Cup, Delvin Stonehill
Colour Trophy, Brian Robertson
John Apps Trophy, Gary Moffat
Annual Competition, Andy Bennetts & Gary Moffat
Lothian Cup, Jean Inglis
Carlyle Cup, Andy Bennetts

11. Closing Remarks
The President thanked the Committee and Office-bearers, judges, members and all who had helped to make the past year a success for the Club. He said that the 2009/10 season would start earlier than previously in order to help new members to enter the First Exposure Competition.

12. Vote of Thanks to President
On behalf of the members Gordon Andrews thanked Brian Robertson for all his hard work during the year.

Haddington Camera Club :: East Lothian, Scotland
All text and the Haddington Camera Club logo are ©2007-2009 Haddington Camera Club
All photographs are copyright ©2007-2009 the respective photographers