Minutes Dec. 12 Meeting

[Margaret C. Benmore]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    SaltSpring Photography Club Minutes

December 11, 2013

 

 

Opening Remarks:  Well about 25 happy people gathered together have an election of the Executive and talk about the club and it’s future… it was nice to see such a good turn out….

         Curt Firestone (el Prez) read a prepared statement from Bill Gardam on the much-anticipated seminar series “ Doors on Perception… “  ( the full Text of Bill’s email is at the end of these minutes “ ) Starts January 12, at the Library from 2-3:30 pm. 

 

The instructors have now advised us that there will be no formal 30 minute summary presentation at the Club meetings… To fill this gap we have asked a few members who will be attending to take really good notes and bring home some tidbits, for those of us who couldn‘t make it for one reason or another…  At our regular meetings following each new seminar topic (six for the year), we plan to spend 1/2 hour discussing the seminar presentation.

 

It is SSI after all and we do like to share… Everyone is very excited about this series… enjoy and learn lots folks…  The Club is very proud to be a co-sponsor of the series held in the lovely new library and is open and free to everyone on the island… Good work guys…

 

 

Club Business:

 

         Club Membership dues Due:  Please have your $15 to Pat as soon as possible for the 2014 membership… so she can finished with the club finances before her busy tax season starts… was available at the end of the meeting to collect dues and she will be available at the January meeting too… those of you who have joined since October – your $15 membership covers next year completely...

If you can’t come to the meetings please contact Pat to make arrangements for payment… [e-mail]

 

         Club Elections:  Chris Dixon canvassed the network for candidates for the PhotoClub Exec.  finding no willing candidates he called for nominations from the floor… silence…  The present Exec has agreed to serve one more year, with the exception of VP Bob Rogers…

 

All were elected by acclamation… Chris Dixon was nominated from the floor to the position of VP --- he accepted the nomination on the understanding that it would only be for one year… 

 

So the new Executive looks very much like the old Executive… Curt Firestone for President, Chris Dixon for VP, Pat Page for Treasure, Wendy Rosier for PR, Margaret C. Benmore for Secretary… 

 

Bob Rogers has since agreed to attend Exec meetings and offer his sage advice as needed as Past President..  See you can’t get away that easily Bob… we still need your wise counsel…

 

Welcome aboard Chris… nice to have new blood…

 

We are still lacking someone to take on the role of Education Coordinator… Is there anyone out there willing to take this on – it is an interesting and rewarding job… you have control of the minds of the membership  --- think the power of the position… no it is really a fun thing to take on…

 

         Mentorship Program with GISS/Agricultural Alliance:  Curt introduced new member Don Romanchuk who has really jumped into the club and photography on SaltSpring in a big and beautiful way --- WOW – well done Don… Don has taken on the coordination/liaison role for the Club in a cooperative project between the Club, GISS Gulf Islands Senior Secondary and the Agricultural Alliance Group… the aim is to have club members mentoring the students in photography while producing images of farms on the island for fundraising activities…  Many of the members have come forward to mentor and work with the kids and they are having a great time…   thanks Don… welcome to SSI and the PhotoClub….  Don still needs one more mentor if anyone is interested contact Don Romanchuk…

 

         Disclaimer Discussion:  This was a very lively discussion of the issue of with lots of backing and forthing and speculating… the basic outcome of the discussion was:

That we need to obtain legal advise in this area; re the Club/Site/Exec/Members – position re posting of unacceptable or disputed images or comments… a few members have expressed a desire to seek legal/final opinion – this will be done and once again brought to the membership in the form of a body (lawyer) to speak to the Club or a written statement addressing the issues of concern.

 

There was concern about the cost of a lawyer’s opinion…

It was noted that the Club (?) has no legal existence…

The disclaimer given to us by Gregg Elign was put on hold with only a few word- smithing changes until a legal opinion as been given…

 

Some members felt comfortable with the Executive dealing with the matter and bringing forth a solution/action… The Executive of course will do the follow-up and bring forth something to the membership for approval… we will not make unilateral decisions --- this is a SaltSpring club…

 

It is also interesting to note that this topic has been very lively on our Forum site… 690 hits… that is a lot of people at least viewing or the same person reading and rereading it a lot…   so there is obviously a need for more discussion … keep the conversation going and maybe some clarity will appear – it certainly seems to be a tangled web (sorry about that) … but interesting…

 

         Discussion of the Future of the Club:  Curt facilitated a discussion about examining future directions and some of the things we need to consider in going ahead:  things like filling the needs of the membership, what are those needs, what changes do we want to make and how we can go about doing that with the resources we have to work with. 

 

There have been suggestions that we pattern ourselves after other clubs and several models have been presented, Vancouver Island, Gabriola, Cowichan, Comox.

 

Do we want bylaws, policy/regulations, terms or reference, job descriptions for the officers, competitions… ???

 

Do we want competitions ???

 

The basic outcomes from the discussion were pretty straightforward…

1. Don’t change our SSI model – we like the informality, the no rules, regulation or structure… this was the overwhelming response  not to the formalization of the PhotoClub… keep it SaltSpring…
2. If people want to belong to other PhotoClubs that can give them what they are looking for such as competition, structure – go for it… of course you can belong to more than one Photography Club…
3. Pierre will help us look into the introduction of competition that is not competition SaltSpring style, honourable mentions, picture of the month,
4. There was a request to change the venue for the Club Coffee Klatch once a month – I’m not sure where that was left, I will leave it to David Bartel to wrangle those guys out of their cozy corner at Harbour House… good luck…                                        

 

 

Upcoming Events:

        

         Country Grocer Café:  Cliff Kelly coordinates this show and is calling for people who would like to have a show in the café in Jan., Mar., May, July, Sept, Nov.   You can contact Cliff thru his blog posting GVM Deli Hanging… if you are interested…   go for it – it is much appreciated by the café audience and it is fun to see your images on a wall…

 

         January Lobby Show at ArtSpring:  Bob Rogers is coordinating this show.  It is an opportunity for everyone in the Club to show their work to the community…  There is no fee involved and Bob will let us know how many pieces we can each submit (2 or 3).  He does suggest that you keep in mind that this is a very large space and larger images show best…  If you do small works Bob suggests doing them as a composition/collection/series – framed/displayed as a unit… The show will run from January 2-31, Hanging will happen on the 2^nd – so please drop of your work between 9-10 am at ArtSpring.. 

 

This is a chance to really strut your stuff --- show us what you can do… details are available on the website – under events… or contact Bob Rogers --- he is the mastermind… Thanks Bob for the opportunity…

 

         Eclectic Visions 2014: June 26 – July 9^th, 2014 – This will be a 14 day run in the ArtSpring gallery. We are delighted to announce that Avril Kirby has assembled a team --- though there is always room for more, if you want to be part of the fun…  At the January meeting there will be some discussion about whether to have a theme or no theme… To theme or Not To theme that is the question… bring your thoughts…

 

Now Showing: 

 

         Harbour House: Bob Roger’s has his work on display in the lobby and restaurant at Harbour House… it is a wonderful show full of line and colour… Bob has turn reflections in to high level ART… well done Bob… the show runs till Dec. 31…

 

         Bakery Folks (Embe’s café) another show by the team of Doug and Avril --- these guys are amazing, so prolific and exposed… well done guys…

 

         Pemberton Homes Real Estate… Jan 6 - Mar 6’ish will be Anna McColm and Avril Kirby showing scenes from SaltSpring to tempt the real estate shoppers… This is a fun show and a wonderful opportunity to show some of your island images, if you are interested in participating please let Avril and Margaret C. Benmore know… we welcome the company….

 

         Fernwood Café:  Margaret C. Benmore is sending a festive message through her photographs to everyone on the island – come, enjoy a treat and coffee and look at the festive photography… Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings to all… up until Dec. 31

 

         TJ Bean’s Café:  Judy H. McPhee is showing at TJ’s and she has been producing some lovely innovate work lately so looking forward to searching out this show…

 

If you know of other shows in town… add them on to this blog or better yet post it on the event section of our website… Let us all know what you have found and enjoyed…. 

 

Evening Educational session… we had no educational event this evening as the election and discussion of the future directions and the site disclaimer took up the whole time…

 

Evening Slide Show: the challenge for this slide show was “LIGHT “ – and this proved to be an interesting challenge in that - no light - no photograph… Bill Gardam produced a mass of blogs on the subject (thanks for that Bill – I am sure many found them interesting and useful)  The Club members again rose to the challenge and produced some amazing images… with light as the main character and light in a more supporting role… the light through frost, through beer bottles, and sunsets framed in architecture, woman-made flowers in icy surrounds, resort man-managed environments, stormy surf capturing air, light and water… It was a beautiful show with lots of inspiration to temp us all… Well done all who participated… thanks…

 

Slideshow Challenge: the Challenge for the January meeting is “ TEXTURE ‘  - this provides lots of scope for creativity… so go for it… strut your Texture… find it in wonderful places, work with the light and show us what you can do…

 

Next Months Meeting: Wednesday, January 8^th 2014 ( Happy New Year all ---- it is going to be a Magical Year ).  Portlock Portable

 

 

 

Editorial aside: If you have any comments, corrections or additions please feel free --- all help is welcome…

I would like to encourage all club members to take part in the conversations on the website --- they are interesting and endlessly informative…  Share your pictures with the club on the site – you know we all love to look at images and it would give us a chance to get to know a little bit about you …  let’s participate…

 

Cheers… MCB

 

 

 

 

The notice for:   “ Doors on Perception ”  --- as emailed to us by Bill Gardam and read to the members in attendance of the Dec.11 meeting…

 

The seminar series:  ' Doors on perception'. Coming up in the new year.

 

When Simon and I, later joined by Greg, first visualized a separate educational evening for the club it was to fill what we perceived as a gap in the learning component of our club's purpose for being. There was always the potential for inserting more basic learning about camera and composition into the general meeting, but for those photographers who felt a need for more advanced learning there was nothing available. This is how the seminar series began and over time it has developed into a separate entity open to the community at large. Our club has agreed to jointly sponsor this, at no cost to itself, together with the library, as a service to the community at large.

 

Starting in January and continuing for the whole year we three will be presenting, on the second Sunday of each month, a series of FREE seminars and workshops at the library, from 2:00 to 3:30 PM., starting January 12^th. There is no pre-registration, just arrive at the door, and the first fifty, the room's occupancy limit, will get in.

 

These will not be the usual 'how- to' presentation which attempts to capsulize complex ideas into simple steps, but will ask the question' What is photography?', and then guide participants into an examination of their own processes. We supply the question and set about opening many doors of perception so that all can choose their own way, but this time do it with a knowledge of the bigger picture. That view will have three interlocking components, the craft, the art and how these are related through the history of ideas .

 

Every time we take a photo we have technical camera and compositional concerns, beyond that we may be using our craft to express an aesthetic idea ( art) and behind all that we have a set of often unexamined ideas about what a photograph is and where it fits into the practice of photography. While we know that the great mass of images produced around the world in the past and at the present time are documentary or special purpose in nature (' we were here', 'the party', 'the war', advertising, magazines, facebook etc.), the ideas about visual communication that are found within art photography provide a grounding that can then be applied in other speciality areas. That is where we will focus our efforts.

 

A high degree of skill is not required to benefit from this series of seminars and workshops, but an openness to new ideas and personal responsibility for one's own journey is important. Adaptability and positive attitude can carry us all down a long and very productive path.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Curt Firestone]

Always well done and certainly worth reading just for Margaret's uplifting commentary.

[Avril Kirby]

Bravo, Marg.