NCPS

President Tony Redford reported that we now had a new Shuttle computer, reloaded with our software, and recalibrated for digital projection work. It was a later model and had cost us £15 more. He thanked Roger Dye for the use of his Shuttle computer during the period of the Annual Exhibition. Jill Hargreaves was maintaining the equipment book, and it was important for members to notify Jill when this equipment was passed on to another member.

The Annual Exhibition had gone well, despite initial upsets (such as the Shuttle malfunction) Jill observed that it became increasingly difficult to see our posters amongst the plethora of other posters and thought we would have to resort to even more eye-catching colours and systems. We had promoted the idea of Prints for sale on the Friday with very limited success. Tony felt that we need not push this further but simply state in the catalogue that most prints were for sale by negotiation with the author. Brian Turnbull observed that the newly painted stands had enhanced the feel of the exhibition. The Friday concert had been much enjoyed by those attending, but hadn’t drawn in the local people to the extent we had hoped. The whole Club had worked together to mount and run the Exhibition, which was good for the club and boded well for the future. Tony again thanked all who had helped in whatever way.

Barry noted that we had had seven competitions (2 internal, 5 external since our last committee meeting. Digital images were to the fore and seemed increasingly likely to continue to be so. For these recent competitions he had spent much time ensuring that the images sent to him had conformed to the required specifications to show them off to their best advantage. He thought this would not be necessary in the future and he would produce a check-list for people to use in advance of presenting them to the competition secretary. Barry noted that he would not be standing for re-election as Competition secretary.

Jill Hargreaves announced that she had booked Poynton Library for a print display August 18th to September 6th 2008. Inside Poynton was happy to print articles with photographs relating to the area. She urged the committee to consider this.

Roger Dye, our next President, had almost completed the syllabus and circulated an outline of his proposals. It included two digitally projected images club competitions. Club competitions had recently been predominantly prints, with only 16 slides in the Slide section in the last competition. However projected images could be either slide or digital images and we might consider putting the print competitions and projected images competitions on separate evenings, We could then have the big screen set up and both types of projector ready for use. [We could also test the validity of Alfred Brown’s remarks that at South Manchester they had found it necessary to project the slides first, least they suffered by comparison with a brighter digital projector.]

The ambitious program of club outings last year had met limited support and Tony questioned whether a formal system was the best approach. We might instead broadcast informal get-togethers from time to time, in the summer, for those who were interested and available.

Jonathan Bawden raised the question of establishing an image database from which the selection committee could work when seeking images for future external competitions. The database would contain details of which image had previously been used where and would enable a secret ballot approach in the selection committee (even by those not able to attend a particular meeting). It was agreed that we should pursue this approach.

Barry Pearson raised topics he had put forward in the last Focus.

Do we abolish the Beginner section? What were the advantages and dis-advantages of so doing? Do we modify the approach to Club-Worker of the Year by for example choosing a member’s best N images for scoring purposes. Should we follow eg the Grand Prix scoring system for 1st , 2nd etc places in a competition? It was agreed that these were suitable topics for general discussion at the AGM. The next committee meeting was set for Wednesday 30th April 2008.


	The Committee Meeting 13th March 2008
	President Tony Redford reported that we now had a new Shuttle computer, reloaded with our software, and recalibrated for digital projection work. It was a later model and had cost us £15 more. He thanked Roger Dye for the use of his Shuttle computer during the period of the Annual Exhibition. Jill Hargreaves was maintaining the equipment book, and it was important for members to notify Jill when this equipment was passed on to another member. The Annual Exhibition had gone well, despite initial upsets (such as the Shuttle malfunction) Jill observed that it became increasingly difficult to see our posters amongst the plethora of other posters and thought we would have to resort to even more eye-catching colours and systems. We had promoted the idea of Prints for sale on the Friday with very limited success. Tony felt that we need not push this further but simply state in the catalogue that most prints were for sale by negotiation with the author. Brian Turnbull observed that the newly painted stands had enhanced the feel of the exhibition. The Friday concert had been much enjoyed by those attending, but hadn’t drawn in the local people to the extent we had hoped. The whole Club had worked together to mount and run the Exhibition, which was good for the club and boded well for the future. Tony again thanked all who had helped in whatever way. Barry noted that we had had seven competitions (2 internal, 5 external since our last committee meeting. Digital images were to the fore and seemed increasingly likely to continue to be so. For these recent competitions he had spent much time ensuring that the images sent to him had conformed to the required specifications to show them off to their best advantage. He thought this would not be necessary in the future and he would produce a check-list for people to use in advance of presenting them to the competition secretary. Barry noted that he would not be standing for re-election as Competition secretary. Jill Hargreaves announced that she had booked Poynton Library for a print display August 18th to September 6th 2008. Inside Poynton was happy to print articles with photographs relating to the area. She urged the committee to consider this. Roger Dye, our next President, had almost completed the syllabus and circulated an outline of his proposals. It included two digitally projected images club competitions. Club competitions had recently been predominantly prints, with only 16 slides in the Slide section in the last competition. However projected images could be either slide or digital images and we might consider putting the print competitions and projected images competitions on separate evenings, We could then have the big screen set up and both types of projector ready for use. [We could also test the validity of Alfred Brown’s remarks that at South Manchester they had found it necessary to project the slides first, least they suffered by comparison with a brighter digital projector.] The ambitious program of club outings last year had met limited support and Tony questioned whether a formal system was the best approach. We might instead broadcast informal get-togethers from time to time, in the summer, for those who were interested and available. Jonathan Bawden raised the question of establishing an image database from which the selection committee could work when seeking images for future external competitions. The database would contain details of which image had previously been used where and would enable a secret ballot approach in the selection committee (even by those not able to attend a particular meeting). It was agreed that we should pursue this approach. Barry Pearson raised topics he had put forward in the last Focus. Do we abolish the Beginner section? What were the advantages and dis-advantages of so doing? Do we modify the approach to Club-Worker of the Year by for example choosing a member’s best N images for scoring purposes. Should we follow eg the Grand Prix scoring system for 1st , 2nd etc places in a competition? It was agreed that these were suitable topics for general discussion at the AGM. The next committee meeting was set for Wednesday 30th April 2008. Bill Chadband
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