AGM Tuesday 17 May 2011

President Graham Johnston welcomed 45 members to the Meeting. There were no matters arising from the previous AGM minutes. Committee officers were invited to make their reports.

Reports

Treasurer Geoff Robinson spoke to the Accounts. There was a £41 loss on the year occasioned mainly by spending on new equipment and a slight increase in speaker’s expenses. He thanked Dave Clack for again auditing the accounts.

John Garner explained the various ways in which the Society was publicized both locally and nationally. He had provided articles to Cheshire life and Digital magazines.

Jill Hargreaves noted that we had 81 members. After 2 years as membership secretary she was stepping down. Graham thanked her for her work as both membership sec and for keeping track of the club’s Equipment.

He then read out the report from Social secretary Colin Pickles. The recent trip to Paris and the Derwentwater weekend were social highlights of the year.

Bill Chadband recapped on the 2011 Annual Exhibition. Instead of the Friday Musical evening David Johnston had given a wide-ranging slide presentation. Much of our Musical support fell away, whilst we were aware that, having supported NCPS on the Wednesday and Thursday evenings photographers were less inclined to make a third journey to Poynton for more images. Bill commented that we need to have a clear idea of what the Annual Exhibition is for and to decide how best we could use the Friday to further this aim. He noted that the committee were addressing this problem but would welcome input from the membership at large.

For the 2012 Exhibition, Bill reported that Adrian Lines of Wigan Photographic Society had agreed to judge the Exhibition entries. David Johnston and Tony Dudley had agreed to judge the interclub Print and PDI competitions respectively. Graham reported that he had booked David Peters to speak on the Friday of the Exhibition.

Competition Secretary Paula Martin reported that competitions had progressed as planned. It was important that members followed the guidelines when providing images to be projected.

Selection committee chairman, Phil Riley, reported a very successful year of competitions, with NCPS being selected to represent L&CPU in PAGB national competitions. The PDI competition was at the University of Warwick on 16 July. Tickets for the event were £10. Phil asked members to tell him if they would like tickets (else see the PAGB web site)

Bill Chadband noted that five editions of Focus had been produced during the session amounting to 62 A5 sides. 21 people had requested paper copies, whilst the rest of the membership were happy to read the articles on the web site. Bill remarked that although Focus mostly records events it could also be used as a discussion forum.

Graham had almost finalized the syllabus for next session and copies were passed around.

Barry Pearson explained progress with the WEB site, which was now our most important interface with the outside world. We had relied on Peter Redford initially to be webmaster and more recently to provide the WEB site. To continue improving and expanding the site we needed to purchase more space. The committee has authorized Barry to do so. Barry expanded on the ways in which the WEB site could continue to expand. He noted, in particular that the BLOG could form the basis for members to discuss items of general interest.

Awards

The President announced the clubworker awards. Lisa Mullins was the Intermediate worker of the year; Alan Saunders the PDI worker; Geoff Robinson the Print worker, and Alan Saunders the overall Club worker of the Year.

Presidential address

The President donned the Red Bowler to prove he was still President. However it was too small so he quickly took it off again. He had been delighted with the performance of the Club over the year and thanked the committee and members for their contributions in making it a great year.

All members had played their part but he felt that one member in particular had been prominent over many years. When, many years ago he had been a member of Wilmslow Guild club Graham had been aware of NCPS and the comment had often been “Oh that’s Tony Redford’s Club”. It seemed appropriate, in view of the increasing success of the club that Tony’s efforts over the years should be recognized. The committee had unanimously agreed that Tony should be made a LIFE MEMBER.

Resolutions

1. That the competiton secretary post be split into two – that we appoint a Print competition secretary and a PDI competition secretary. That the Webmaster and the Membership secretary be officers of the committee.

This was agreed unanimously

2. That we increase the meeting entrance charges; from 50p to £1 for members, and from £2 to £3 for non-members; whilst keeping the membership subscriptions unchanged.

This was agreed unanimously.

Committee for 2011/12

President Graham Johnston
President Elect Alan Saunders
Immediate Past President Roger Dye
Secretary Joyce Robson
Treasurer Geoff Robinson
Syllabus Secretary Graham Johnston
Exhibition Secretary Bill Chadband
Print Competition Secretary Jonathan Bawden
PDI Competition Secretary Paula Martin
Publicity Secretary John Garner
Social Secretary Colin Pickles
Selection Committee Chair Phil Riley
Newsletter Editor Bill Chadband
WebMaster Barry Pearson
Membership Secretary Danny Hurley

Without Portfolio: Richard Scaife, Tony Redford, Ian Bramham

Raffle

Paula Martin had been selling raffle tickets for the Steve le Prevost print. The lucky member (Noel Patterson) was awarded the print.

The meeting closed at 9:25 pm.