Committee meeting Wed 19th November

Bill arrived 10 minutes late to the Bowling and Tennis Club, to join 10 more members listening to a report by Phil Riley, the Competition secretary. Bill then reported on progress with the Annual Exhibition. The judges and L&CPU President had all been booked. The Friday Music at an Exhibition night would feature members of the Romiley Operatic Society and a welcome return of Hawk Green Brass Band. Ticket prices would remain as last year. Handing-in was on 6th January 2009. Once John Smith had judged and returned the entries Hawk Green Reading Room would be booked for the day to sort out the arrangement of Prints on the panels.

Jill Hargreaves produced specimen A4 Adverts for the Annual Exhibition Friday. She argued that, having looked around at the multitude of Ads she had seen Black Print on a Yellow Background appeared to stand out best. We would be producing a variety of Ads and we hoped Members would help in distributing them to maximum effect.

The membership Secretary reported (in his absence) that we had 12 new members, though not all our previous members had yet rejoined.

The selection committee had been busy with several inter-club battles looming. There was a conflict between getting a fair representation from club members and choosing our best prints in order to try and win a competition. This latter inevitably put the emphasis on just a few of our more successful members. It was agreed that we should try to negotiate say one print per member with our competing clubs. Social Secretary, Colin Pickles, reported on his efforts to arrange next year’s continental visit. Lisbon had proved to be a popular suggestion, and he was trying to keep the costs down, particularly for single rooms. He had 18 members agreeing to go. He was anxious that any other would-be travelers let him know quickly since Air Fares had a habit of increasing, as the plane filled up. To book seats in two stages would probably mean that the second stage bookings would be more expensive.

As syllabus Secretary Roger Dye was keen that members should contact him with any good ideas they might have for speakers next session.

Barry Pearson explained why he had changed one of the WEB buttons from Members Area to Resources. He was aware that some people, seeing Members Area, would assume they had to Log In. and so give it a miss, when in fact it contained News (Reports and Results) and other useful information. After a lively discussion involving all members of the committee it was agreed that the Resources tag could be changed to News & Info which would make it more explicit.

Barry also drew attention to the new Awards and Acceptances section (Under "News & info") which highlighted members successes on the National and International Scene.

It was agreed that the club should update some of its software (Lightroom and Pictures to Exe).

The next Committee meeting was set for Wednesday 14 January, when the Annual Exhibition would likely predominate.

Bill Chadband