Opinions on how a photography society should be run-am I taking the wrong view here?

combat squirrel

combat squirrel

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Long story short, iv been social sec of my local photography society for 2 years, and a new committee has just come in, all good.

However as with anything, at 1st there are many members and eventually they just leave and drift off and you end up with 8-10 of say 50 people who originally who turned up.

Now as the society was debating, it some became apparent it was somewhat one sided debate, and that only there way of running things would work.., basic ideas were:

- Diff theme every month (thats fine)...however they say that you HAVE to enter a shot for a certain theme within that month for submission for judging.....then they say, for example on month 4 you can enter any shot that fits that theme from any previous months, giving more scope apparently (all months themes will be provided from day 1), I think this is flawed, when you reach month 11/12, the last 2 months of a particular theme will only have so much experience in a theme, also if you take an awesome shot after the 1st few months that would of been a great entry for the previous months themes, its tough, you cant enter it again.

however I think it would be better to have all themes for each month from day 1, and each month you know what the theme is, and the society will hold 'classes and/or trips out' based on that theme, end of the year everyone submits a pic for each month at once, being able to access there entire collection of work from that year (much better imo) and then judging takes place at the end. - is it me or does that sound more helpful ?

Another thing......its so very militarized, the new society was all 'we will do this, and that on this day and that's that, within that theme, and we shall not deviate very much from that theme'....thinking that sticking to a theme will develop a certain camera technique.....I just see it totally boxing creativity.

Another example of what I didnt like was......the themes being to controlled, for example, one theme was 'Town', which I thought was ace, this could cover architecture, urban photography, sculpture, street photography etc, but the people in question were all 'no no, we will have architecture, and you can ONLY enter sculpture OR architecture, the reason being, ones arty and ones technical'

I really didnt agree with this, its ment to be an open society where people can express themselves its not a photography degree ffs,lol, I Much prefer the openness and creativity of just saying 'Town' as the theme......this all make sense ? lol

Anyways my point is, surely a shared interest group should be about meeting new people, sharing the 'art' of photography, and helping each other along, encouragement, and freedom of choice and expressionism. Not being so restricted, it almost came across as a power trip from the new committee, in that it will b there way and everyone will turn up with there work prepared, am I missing the point here?


A poll if possible ?

Option 1 : Very strict 'timetable' with the above weird way of entering pics for a competition, 'classes' each week and equipment stuff, very strict in what you can enter in regards to theme.

Option 2: A group who meets each week, discusses work, still of course organize trips out and what not.........but think about the photography and not 'grouping' people, freedom of speech, after all its ment to be a shared interest group.


I dunno....seems one ideas about camera enthusiast group; seems the other is about the art of photography itself..


Sorry for rant, just felt like its going to go all tits up and people will leave very very quickly.
 
Running a club is a pain in the neck - people always want to go and do something, but then cannot agree what or when - you need the committee to be strong and take charge otherwise nothing happens and even more people drift away as they get bored

Competition themes should ideally be left as open and inviting as possible - restrict it too much and everyone will similar pics from the same trip. We run our themes for 1 month, and only photos taken in that month can be submited - this stops older hands wheeling out the same great shots over and over again

In respect to the club meetings; an ideal world would want a balance of 1 and 2 surely? Structured meetings so that you know what is happening and can tutor/help newbies, but not so strict as people can each only talk for 30 seconds.
 
I haven't been a member of a club for some time. We used to find fixed theme comps were not very popular, one reason being some people had more time than others, not everybody would have time to get say a good seascape or whatever, this in turn caused bad feeling as it was thought some people had an unfair advantage.
In a small club like your I would suggest a more flexable approach or you'll probably loose members to other clubs.
Option B for me.
 
I'd certainly go for Option 2 as well.

I'm also looking for a camera club to join in Nottingham but haven't found one yet. What I am looking for is a club where everyone feels they can contribute, share ideas, receive help, guidance and constructive feedback on their technique, composition etc without feeling stupid.

But I think you also need some stucture as well, otherwise there's a real danger of things becoming unfocussed, and this will inevitably lead to some people becoming fed-up and leaving. As always, clubs rely on a small number of activists to plan, organise, do the admin, but this shouldn't become too rigid. Same thing with competitions. You shouldn't have to enter, if you don't want to.

After all, photography is all about expressing yourself, using and developing your creativity, learning ... and fun!
 
Uneducated_Rick said:
Running a club is a pain in the neck - people always want to go and do something, but then cannot agree what or when - you need the committee to be strong and take charge otherwise nothing happens and even more people drift away as they get bored etc ......

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Click to expand...

That's the usual problem that arises.

I would never join a club that would have the likes of me as a member.
Groucho Marx
 
I'm a member of a club with a large and active membership. We meet every Monday from September to May. About half these meetings involve a booked speaker talking about their photography and sharing their images. The other half are competitions of one form or another.

The majority of the competitions are open, with no set theme. This does mean mean vastly different styles of photography are judged side by side. If a judge has a preference for nature or portraits, etc this can sometimes come out. Plus many photographers will only play to their strengths, not stepping out their comfort zone. But over the course of a season it all balances out. A good image is still a good image.

We do have a few themed competitions, but not many. When we tried increasing the number it was not popular with the members. And at the end of the day an active membership is what makes a club. I cannot see the strictly regimented approach described being accepted for long. I would not stay in a club like that.

Meetings where member just get together, share their work and talk about it make for great evenings. But these only work for small numbers of people. More than a dozen or so and it gets too unwieldy. In our club we are lucky that, being so big, we can have specialist sub-groups, based on interest (portrait, nature), or experience (freshers, improvers, people going for RPS distinctions) who meet on other nights just to share and talk.
 
I'm the new vice pres for exeter uni photosoc and I would quite like it to be option 2, however right now we are option 3 which is we never meet and do anything and never have competitions or do anything (about 2 socials a year).

Is there anything you can tell me that would help me get into sorting out the society, I reckon there will be quite a lot of impetus for change as its almost a whole new committee (5 out of 6 positions are new people) and the society has been very inactive over the last year
 
i think you have just described why i dont want to join a club.
i enjoy photography for the freedom and the open air that it affords.

i sometimes go with other togs but would rather be on me own to go as and where i want to.

the club hems in and to me stumps creativity.
 
I looked at joining my local club. I don't think I can afford the time TBH to participate properly. That's why I prefer flying solo and lurking around here hoovering up tips, tricks & ideas.
 
I have Not been a member of a club for over 40 years...:D
The problems you are facing are for ever and ever.....

Some people Join for socialising with other photographers both in and away from the club. :love:
some join to learn new things. ;)
some join to talk about and show cameras and equipment.
some join to compete. :bat:

clubs with a lively social basis keep their members of all kinds.
Those that major on competition to the exclusion of the rest, become inward looking and stagnate.

Your committee must decide, itself, what it wants out of a club, what they can add to it. and what sort of club they want it to be.

To some extent Forums like this do fill the needs of many lone photographers.
But it is nice to meet real people and talk.
Competition can be done equally well on line.

Competition night with judges and commentaries are about as boring an evening as I can imagine.

I would much rather every one went to a pup with small prints and just passed them round. comments scribbled on the back if wanted.

If you see anything that brings up a question, you can buy a pint for the author and ask away. :D

The same goes for questions about equipment and technique. Even questions about photoshop, if any one brings a beer proof lap top.
 
I have also been a part of my local CC for a couple of years and have now joined the committee.

I would recommend option 2 as going in the right direction. You can have a few meetings each year where things are stricter IF that is what the members want. But the important thing is to create a place where like minded people can meet to enjoy their hobby.

Our club runs the process you suggest where we define competition themes and club night topics in advance. This works well and the committe is very efficient even planning competition topics and dates a year in advance. The club still leaves plenty of space in the schedule to be flexible allowing us to add content to club meetings adhoc.
 
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