About
Link to Club Constitution and Rules
Although a fully functioning Gloucester Camera Club or Photographic Society existed in 1907 and probably in Victorian times, it ceased to function during the Second World War and the present Club was formed sometime in the latter part of the war, so that the Annual General Meeting held in April 2008 was the 64th such meeting.
Programme
The Club programme includes lectures and presentations by visiting speakers and club members and monthly competitions. The Club has a varied library of photographic books available for loan. Outings are sometimes organised during the summer months.
Advice
Advice and assistance is always available from club members who have specialised knowledge in particular aspects of photography. The club has members experienced in darkroom work, digital photography, portraits, landscapes, travel, macro and nature photography.
Annual Exhibition
An Annual Exhibition of members work is held in the City Centre. For the past few years it has been held at St. John’s Church in Northgate Street.
Affiliations
Together with over a hundred other clubs, Gloucester Camera Club is affiliated to the Midland Counties Photographic Federation and through the MCPF to the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain which embraces all the regional groups. In its turn the PAGB is a member of the Federation Internationale de l’Art Photographique.
Link to Competition Rules
Constitution of the Gloucester Camera Club
1 THE CLUB shall be called the Gloucester Camera Club.
2 THE CLUB shall be affiliated to the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain through the Midland Counties Photographic Federation.
3 THE OBJECT of the Club shall be to promote and encourage all branches of photography and their application for social activities and recreation.
4 MEMBERSHIP of the Club shall be open to any person interested in photography. The committee shall have authority to deny membership to an applicant where, in its opinion, such membership could be contrary to the welfare and interests of the Club.
5 MANAGEMENT of the affairs of the Club, except in those matters reserved under these rules for the Club in General Meeting, shall be conducted by the committee of the Club.
6 THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Club shall be held within twenty-eight days after 1st April each year. All members shall be given at least fourteen days’ written notice of this meeting.
7a THE COMMITTEE, which shall be elected by the members at the Annual General Meeting, shall consist of President, Chairman, Vice-Chairman, General Secretary, Programme Secretary, Hon Treasurer and committee members. An auditor for the Club finances shall be appointed also, but shall not be a committee member.
7b ALL OFFICERS AND COMMITTEE MEMBERS shall retire annually. Retiring officers and committee members shall be eligible for re-election. The number of committee members shall be decided at the Annual General Meeting.
7c THE COMMITTEE, of which five persons shall form a quorum, shall have authority to (1) co-opt further members as necessary; (2) appoint sub-committees, of a minimum of three members, to consider and recommend on such issues as the committee deem appropriate. All recommendations so made shall be subject to acceptance by the Club committee; (3) issue bye-laws to manage Club affairs to any extent and degree which is not inconsistent with the aims and objectives of the Club.
7d THE COMMITTEE shall convene at reasonable and frequent intervals in order to conduct the business of the Club in an orderly and efficient manner. Minutes shall be recorded of all committee meetings, and complete records shall be kept of all the Club’s legal and financial business. Money for minor expenses shall be withdrawn from the Club’s petty cash by the Treasurer and recorded in the petty cash accounts. Any other money shall be withdrawn only by cheque, signed by any two of the four authorised signatories ie President, Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer. A list of all members’ names and addresses shall be maintained. The minutes of committee meetings and the Club accounts shall be open to inspection by any member after reasonable notice has been given.
8a SUBSCRIPTIONS shall be due on joining and subsequently on 1st September each year. In the event of failure to renew subscription by 15th October, a member shall be deemed to have resigned from the Club. This resignation shall not, however, preclude the member rejoining.
8b The amount of annual subscription for the following year shall be decided at the Annual General Meeting or an Extraordinary General Meeting.
8c Reduced annual subscriptions shall apply to senior citizens above 60 years of age and junior members (below the age of seventeen years). These rates shall be agreed at the Annual General Meeting and in doing so the members shall have regard to the interests of both of these categories of members.
8d A new member shall make a single payment to cover his or her subscription, which may be less than the full annual subscription according to the time of joining and at the discretion of the Treasurer. Prospective new members applying for membership on or after 1st January will be entitled to a reduced rate for the residue of that year. New members joining after 1st April will have the option of paying a reduced rate for the residue of that year, or payment of the full annual rate which will cover the residue of that year as well as the full year following. Any increase in subscription under clause 8c shall be payable also by the said new member taking advantage of this clause.
8e ADMISSION CHARGES. To help to defray regularly incurred expenses, each member will in addition to the annual subscription be required to pay an entrance fee when attending any ordinary Tuesday meeting published in the yearly programme. This entrance fee may occasionally be waived at the discretion of the committee, as, for example, at the Annual or an Extraordinary General Meeting.
8f The committee shall have power to nominate as HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS, without payment of any further subscription, any member who, in the opinion of the committee, shall have rendered outstanding services to the Club, but such election shall not take effect unless and until confirmed at the Annual General Meeting next ensuing the date of such nomination.
9 A member may be asked to make a contribution to the cost of repair or replacement of any item of equipment damaged or lost by that member.
10 Members may introduce VISITORS to the ordinary meetings and excursions of the Club, upon payment of an entrance fee equal to double that of a paid-up member.
11a GROUPS open to all members may be formed within the structure of the Club to cater for those interested in particular branches of photography.
The Club committee shall be notified in writing of the proposed formation of the group and its aims.
The affairs of a group shall be managed by the group committee.
The rules governing the group’s activities and group subscriptions shall be determined at the first general meeting of the group, and subsequently at the Annual General Meeting of the group.
11b Membership of the Club shall not automatically include membership of a group. Application for membership of a group shall be made to the group secretary.
11c A Club member may attend the meetings of a group as a visitor, but shall not be entitled to participate in the group activities until he or she has applied for membership.
11d A group shall determine its own subscription; this shall be in addition to the subscription of the Club. A duly formed group shall conduct its affairs in accordance with the rules of the Club and shall convene its Annual General Meeting prior to the Club’s Annual General Meeting.
12 The Committee shall have power to expel any member who shall offend against the rules of the Club or whose conduct shall in the opinion of the committee render the member unfit for membership of the Club.
Before being expelled, a member shall be given fourteen days’ written notice to attend a meeting of the committee and shall be informed of the complaints. No member shall be expelled without first having an opportunity of appearing before the committee and answering complaints or unless at least two-thirds of the committee then present vote in favour of the expulsion. A member so expelled has the right to appeal at an Extraordinary General Meeting, vide Rule 13.
No member whose membership has been terminated under this rule or who owes money to the Club shall be introduced by any other member as a visitor to Club activities.
13 AN EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING may be called by the committee when any question of urgent importance shall arise, and the committee shall be bound to do so on receiving a request signed by ten members of the Club, or by a member who has been expelled by the committee and desires to appeal to an Extraordinary General Meeting.
At least fourteen days’ notice of any such General Meeting, specifying the business to be transacted, and the place, day, and hour of the meeting, shall be notified in writing to every member on the Club Register.
14 THE CLUB shall be dissolved upon a resolution to that effect passed by a four-fifths majority of those members present and voting at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Club called for the purpose under Rule 13. Following upon such resolution, the committee shall take immediate steps to convert into money all the property of the Club whatsoever; with power, however, to postpone or delay the conversion of any particular property as so directed by the General Meeting.
Out of the proceeds of such conversion, the committee shall discharge all debts and liabilities of the Club, including all expenses incidental to the said conversion.
All money remaining from the said conversion shall be given by donation to a registered charity or charities as decided by the committee.
15 THESE RULES may be amended by a resolution of a two-thirds majority of those members present and voting at an Annual General Meeting, or at a General Meeting of the Club called for the purpose under Rule 13.
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Club Competition Rules
Annual Competition
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Panel Competition
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Annual Exhibition
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External Competitions
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Banner Trophy
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Inter-Club Battles
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The Club conducts a number of competitions each year, which are open to paid up members only. These comprise, currently, the Annual Competition, the Print, Slide and Digital Image of the Year, the Panel of Five Prints and/or Slides/ Digital Images, and the Annual Exhibition. The following general rules shall apply to all these competitions.
1 All work submitted by any member shall be based on original photographic images which are the work and copyright of that member.
2 All work in all categories shall be the sole work of the competitor or may be trade processed, without distinction.
3 Prints, slides and digital images may be produced by conventional photochemical or digital techniques without distinction.
4 A monochrome photograph shall be as defined from time to time by FIAP.
5 For digital work all pictorial elements shall be based on original photographic images, which are the work and copyright of that member. “Pictorial elements” shall exclude borders, burning or any purely manipulative effects. “Original photographic image” may have been produced photo-chemically or digitally from a real subject. Computer-generated images are not acceptable.
6 All prints shall be mounted. The maximum size of mounts and prints is to be 20″ x 16″.
7 Transparencies must be submitted in 2″ x 2″ slide mounts. All slides must be accurately spotted: that is, in the bottom left hand corner when correctly viewed whilst held in the hand.
8 Digital images shall be submitted on any acceptable medium as advised from time to time.
9 Competitors shall ensure that all prints are titled.
10 All prints and slides shall bear the member’s name, clearly printed, on the reverse of a print mount, or on the front of the slide mount. Digital images shall bear the author’s name as part of a title, which shall be the file name.
11 The Committee reserves the right to withhold from judging or from public exhibition any image which at their absolute discretion is undesirable in content. Where such a decision is arguable (as for instance in life studies) such work may be admitted for judging but withheld from public viewing.
12 When specific subjects are set for any competition, it will be the responsibility of the judge to decide whether an entry is properly related to the subject set, and to disqualify an entry which is not properly related. Competition secretaries will advise judges of their responsibility under this rule.
13 The competition rules will remain under constant review by the Club committee, who will incorporate any necessary amendments to the rules following advance notification of that intention to Club members by announcements at weekly meetings.
THE ANNUAL COMPETITION
This is staged through six separate monthly competitions from September to March, and is intended and designed to fulfil the following two purposes:
a) To give each and every member the opportunity to assess and monitor their own improving photographic proficiency by presenting work to a succession of independent judges, for examination and criticism as photographs in their own right and not necessarily in competition with others.
b) To provide a regularly available challenge whereby members may compete with one another in a hierarchical system, which is designed to allow upward movement through two classes showing each member’s achieved proficiency.
RULES FOR THE ANNUAL COMPETITION
1 There will be three categories, PRINTS, SLIDES and DIGITAL IMAGES. In the Print category, there will be two classes of competitor, Advanced and General. Slides and Digital Images will be one class only.
2 There will be six monthly competitions during the year.
3 The number of entries submitted by each competitor to any monthly competition is limited to TWO per class.
4 A print, slide or digital image which is not judged to be ‘Commended’ or better, may be entered again into ONE ONLY further monthly competition.
5 All prints, slides and digital images must be handed to the appropriate competition secretary on the evening of the previous competition.
6a Each print, slide or digital image will be examined by a qualified judge who has been selected beforehand and who is whenever possible named in the Club programme. On appointment he will be asked to find in each category and class one first, one second and one third placed competitor, together where applicable with a reasonable number of Highly Commended and/or Commended entries at his discretion. He will announce his findings and will offer constructive comment on each entry during competition evenings. He will also be advised that although the competition he is judging is complete in itself, it will also form one round of a seven-round annual competition, and that for that purpose his findings will later be awarded marks under a system applicable to all seven rounds.
6b Prior to judging, prints, slides and digital imaging secretaries will list each competitor’s entries, and after the judging will allot marks to the judge’s findings using the following system. In each category and class: First - 7 marks, Second - 6 marks, Third - 5 marks, HC - 4 marks, and C - 3 marks. All other entries will receive 1 mark. Prints, slides and digital imaging secretaries will also ensure that accurate records of these findings and markings are made and maintained. They will prepare wall poster charts showing competition entries and marks for perusal by members. After the fifth competition they will also prepare a summary chart showing competitors’ scores and positions.
7 At the end of the season the winner in each category and class will be the competitor with the greatest total score reached by aggregating all his or her scoring entries in the six different competitions. Should this produce a tie, the winner will be the competitor whose total score includes the most ‘firsts’, and if still a tie, the most ‘firsts’ and ’seconds’, etc until a winner can be found.
8 The following trophies will be awarded annually to be held for one year at the discretion of the committee.
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Class Placing Prints trophies Slides
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Advanced Winner HOLDEN Cup HOLDEN Cup
Runner-up BRUTEN Cup BARKEY Cup
General Winner HOLMES Cup
Runner-up KECK Cup
Digital Imaging
General Winner JACK FARLEY Cup
Runner-up MARY WAGHORNE Cup
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9a The winners in the General class will automatically be promoted to the Advanced class for that category.
9b Any member achieving runner-up in the General class for two consecutive years in the same category will automatically be promoted to the Advanced class.
9c New competitors in the PRINTS category should normally expect to enter in the General class, but experienced workers joining the competitions may submit a selection of work to the committee who will place them in an appropriate class. SLIDES and DIGITAL IMAGES will be one class only.
9d Because the competition classes in Rule 1 are the accepted indications of photographic proficiency within the Club, provision is made under Rule 9e and as an adjunct to competition rules, for members to progress from the General class to the Advanced class other than via the annual competition and at the discretion of the Club Committee.
9e A panel of five Advanced class members comprising two print workers under the chairmanship of the Club President or his nominee, will meet annually not less than two weeks prior to the AGM to consider applications for entry to the Advanced class from any General class member whose efforts during the previous year have been directed more towards photographic competitions in other fields especially e.g. events sponsored by PAGB or MCPF or other major national or international competitions/salons etc. The application must be supported by a predetermined amount of work as advised by the Panel Chairman and by evidence of acceptances at exhibitions or other successes achieved. RPS distinctions at LRPS or higher will normally render the applicant suitable in the Panel’s consideration. All progression from the General to the Advanced class approved by the Panel under this rule will be announced at the AGM together with the names of competition winners, and will be effective from the beginning of the next season.
10 In the above rules all references to judges, members or competitors as male are intended to refer to either sex as appropriate.
PRINT, SLIDE AND DIGITAL IMAGE OF THE YEAR
1 As an adjunct to the Annual Competition, and in place of an seventh monthly competition, all those prints and slides which achieved placing of commended and above, will be eligible for submission to the Print, Slide and Digital Image of the Year Competition. The Committee will have the discretion to limit the above qualification if this should produce an unmanageable number of entries.
2 Entries will be judged as for the Annual Competition, except that it is only necessary to select the winner in each category. Other placing may be awarded at the judge’s discretion.
3 Trophies shall be awarded as follows, to be retained by the respective winners for one year.:
The PHOTO-TOPIC Cup for Prints
The PHOTO-TOPIC Cup for Slides
A Cup for Digital Imaging
PANEL COMPETITIONS
Competitions will be held annually for a panel of prints or slides/digital images, for which the following rules will apply.
1 There will be categories for prints and slides/digital images, with only one class of competitor in each.
2 Each member may submit not more than one panel of prints and one panel of slides/digital images. A second panel of the one may not be substituted for a panel of the other.
3 Prints and slides/digital images will be submitted in panels of five, or such other number as shall be decided by the committee.
4 Each of the entries shall be related so as to form a coherent panel, and this coherence shall be taken into account in the judging.
5 Each panel shall have a single title, each entry bearing that title and a number or subtitle. The relevance of each entry to that title shall be taken into account in the judging.
6 All work must be new work, that is not having previously been submitted in any of the monthly sessions of the Annual Competition, although such work may subsequently be entered in the Annual Competition.
7 Panels will be adjudicated first, second and third, with highly commended and commended at the judge’s discretion. Trophies will be awarded annually to be held for one year. These will be:
The BLOORE Cup for prints
The BLOORE Cup for slides/digital images.
THE ANNUAL EXHIBITION
Prints
1 A member may enter any number of monochrome and/or colour prints. As room may be limited, the number of prints per member actually hung at the exhibition may be restricted at the discretion of the committee. However, ALL prints entered into the Exhibition will be submitted for judging.
2 No print which has been exhibited at a previous annual exhibition is eligible.
Slides and Digital Images
3 A member may enter any number of slides/digital images. As room may be limited, the number of slides/digital images actually displayed at the exhibition may be restricted at the discretion of the committee. However, ALL slides/digital images entered into the Exhibition will be submitted for judging as separate categories. Digital Images will not be projected to the public.
4 No slide or digital image which has been exhibited at a previous annual exhibition is eligible.
5 The following trophies are awarded annually at the discretion of the committee for work submitted to the Exhibition by members of the Gloucester Camera Club, and are retained by the respective winners for one year.
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Category Trophy Awarded for
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Prints (mono) KING Cup Best monochrome print
HELIOS Cup Best monochrome print by non-
advanced member
Prints (colour) SPECTRUM Cup Best colour print
HELIOS Cup Best colour print by non-advanced
member
Slides KING Cup Best slide
HELIOS Cup Best digital image
Any PORTRAIT Shield Best portrait, any category
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Apart from the Club’s internal competition, we are frequently invited to participate in competitions organised by other clubs in the MCPF or even further afield. The Club’s policy is to encourage members at all levels of proficiency to enter such competitions as and when appropriate.
The Club believes that members should be encouraged to submit work of suitable quality to competitions organised outside the Club and recognised as being of photographic prestige, and especially to the three MCPF events described below.
Of those three events, Photofolio is an inter-club competition, and so the Club will pay all charges for the Club entry. For additional entries, and for entries to Midphot, and all other outside exhibitions, each competitor will have to pay the appropriate entry fee, and will also be charged their share of postage or delivery charges.
The Competition Secretary will be given full details of entry conditions in good time and will be pleased to help and advise.
The following are regular, popular, and important events in the MCPF calendar, and are listed in date order through the Club’s season.
Midphot
The Midland Counties Photographic Exhibition is organised for the MCPF and is open to anyone in the West Midlands and to all MCPF clubs. Again, entries are individual, but there are considerable advantages in a Club entry. There are various classes including monochrome; colour prints; pictorial, and natural history slides; and AV sequences.
If there is a sufficiently large entry via the Club in any class, it will be included in the MCPF Club championships. Minimum entry for this is on a fixed scale according to Club membership, but there is no upper limit. The entry fee is notified annually, and there are sizeable discounts for club entries.
Photofolio
Organised for the MCPF by Smethwick Photographic Society. This is an inter-club competition for Midland clubs, but entries are judged for individual merit as well as for Club awards. There are three classes: monochrome prints, colour prints, and colour slides. Numbers of items required to form an entry in each class will be according to Club membership and the Competition Secretary will advise.
Accepted entries are shown at the Smethwick Photographic Society’s Clubroom in early June. A further selection of accepted prints and slides are assembled into a travelling portfolio, which are usually seen at the Club during December.
It should be noted that although copies of slides are made for the travelling portfolio, prints selected for it will not be returned until the following June.
THE BANNER TROPHY
1 The trophy will be awarded annually to the member of Gloucester Camera Club who in one year gains the greatest number of acceptances at national or international exhibitions, salons, etc.
2 An ‘ACCEPTANCE’ may be a monochrome or a colour print, or a transparency, which is accepted for inclusion in the exhibition etc to which it was submitted. Where the exhibition rules call for a ‘panel’ of prints or transparencies to be submitted, all the prints or slides which constitute that ‘panel’ will count as one acceptance.
3 Because rules and standards vary widely between the many exhibitions, consideration for this trophy will recognise only ‘acceptances’, and no additional mark or credit will be given to entries gaining awards or commendations. Each entrant will be responsible for ensuring that entries comply with each exhibition’s rules: the Exhibitions Secretary will not be responsible for any entry disqualified by the exhibition organisers or the judge.
4 The competition will be based on results received and announced between 1st April and 31st March each year, and the member achieving the greatest number of recognised acceptances in that time shall be the winner. In the event of a tie, the tied member with the highest proportion of acceptances from his/her entries shall be the winner, and if this still produces a tie then the tied members shall hold the trophy jointly for the ensuing year.
The Club annually engages in inter-Club contests, which are called ‘battles’.
Notwithstanding that the battles are fought for honour only, the rivalry, while friendly in both cases, is very keen indeed.
A limit of three prints and three slides (usually) per member is imposed to promote a reasonable spread of members’ participation, and each entry is marked to a maximum of twenty points. The Club with the highest aggregate is the winner.
No print, slide or digital image may be entered in a subsequent battle with the same Club.
For battles and for the Photofolio Exhibition mentioned earlier, the Club always hopes that members will be eager to take part and will offer some of their best work.
The Club always hopes to get so many entries that a panel appointed by the committee will need to meet to select the best possible entry to represent the Club.
(Handbook revised May 2008)
