ALYTH & BLAIRGOWRIE CAMERA CLUB
MINUTES OF THE DEFERRED 2022 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
HELD AT ST CATHARINE’S CENTRE ON WEDESDAY 31st AUGUST 2022
Present: David Stanghon, Chairperson
Dougie Blair, Deputy Chairperson
Peter Messer, Secretary
Mary Connacher, Committee Member
Andy McNee
Avril Douglas
Ian Gardner
Terry McLean
Suz Thomson
Jim Brodie
Iain Galbraith
Paul Cumberland
Neil Jackson
Helen McFarlane
Kym Ellis
Item 1 – Introduction
David Stanghon, as Chairperson, welcomed the members to this deferred 2022 Annual General Meeting of the Club. He welcomed Kym and Helen, two potential “new” members of the Club. At tonight’s meeting the Club was looking for new office-bearers in the roles of Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson, Treasurer and Website Manager.
Item 2 – Record of Attendance (See above)
Item 3 – Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received on behalf of Frank, Kevin and Jack.
Item 4 – Approval of the Minutes of the 2021 Annual General Meeting
Proposed by Dougie Blair
Seconded by Andy McNee
Item 5 – Matters Arising from the 2021 AGM Minutes
No matters of note were raised.
Item 6 – Chairperson’s Report
David started his report by highlighted the fact that since September 2021 the Club had been transformed in many ways, especially in terms of Club membership. Up from 8 members to 25 plus. He briefly reviewed the history and experiences we had at our two previous venues for Club meetings – Alyth Bowling Club and The Angus Hotel. After being faced with a doubling of the room charge at the latter, Andy was able to suggest our current location - St Catharine’s Centre – our thanks to Andy for this, hopefully our location for some time to come.
Other changes included changing the Club’s name to include Blairgowrie; changing from a Monday to a Tuesday night for our Club meetings, both helping to attract new and returning previous Club members. Utilising new communication media gave a real boost to Cub membership. This new media being the implementation of a new updated Club Website and a Club Facebook page. The Club’s grateful thanks are offered to Dug, Avril and Andy for their suggestions to use this new media and for their tireless work in keeping them up to date.
Another new area for the Club was its use of computer and printing facilities at Blairgowrie Library, originally instigated by Dug. This initiative had started well but hit problems with PKC failing to supply ink cartridges and to update computer software. Unfortunately Dug cannot continue in his roles for the Club and he is standing down as Deputy Chairperson and Website Co-ordinator. David thanked Dug for all the work he had done for the Club and for his enthusiasm. He pointed out that Club members should keep providing new images for the website as without new material it would die and be of no interest to anybody.
David also thanked Peter for his work as Club Secretary and his willingness to stay on in this post to ensure some continuity for the Club. He noted that much would not have happened without Peter’s input and that he had been a great help to him and other over the years.
Our Treasurer, Malcolm is not here tonight and is taking a well earned rest from our banking problems. He is standing down and not returning to the Club. David pointed out that Malcolm was a founder member of the Club and he would miss Malcolm’s cheery disposition. As a former bank manager for the Bank of Scotland, Malcolm could not understand why the Club was having such problems with Royal Bank of Scotland regarding the Club’s name change and new signatories for the account. Matters got so bad that very recently Malcolm wrote to the bank’s Business Complaints Team stating that in his opinion “you have been an abject failure as our bankers”.
Finally David said that he was not forgetting those members that volunteered to stand as Ordinary Members on the Committee and offered his thanks. He felt sure that all members would support the Club’s new Committee and that the Club would go on from strength to strength with that support. He also reminded members that if they had any constructive ideas and suggestions to let someone on the committee know.
Item 7 – Treasurer’s Report
As Andy had volunteered to take over the Treasurer Role from Malcolm, he put forward the view that Business Banking appeared to be a problem area for all banks. Hopefully our proposed move of the Club’s bank account from Royal Bank of Scotland to Bank of Scotland would see an improvement. Jim reported that another organisation he was involved with used Bank of Scotland and they had no problems. Andy then handed out copies of the Club’s Financial Statement May 2021 to August 2022 to all those present.
[Summary Financial Situation: The Club currently has £1,673.49 in the bank account, and £50.19 cash in hand. The large part, £1,407, of the monies in the bank account are in fact as yet unspent Grant funding that the Club had received from SSE and ADT in 2019. This means that excluding the Grant funding, the Club had a total of £316.68 available to it to fund speakers, advertising etc for the 2022-23 season. However to this should be added 2022-23’s membership fees of £25 per person, potentially giving an additional £400+ for such uses].
Andy went on to report that future Club meetings would switch back to Tuesdays, starting next Tuesday 6th September. Future meetings will be held upstairs in a newly enlarged meeting room which has been created by knocking together two smaller rooms. Members would be pleased to hear that the cost of this room will be £13.00 per hour, which in today’s inflationary times is only a 50p increase on the old rate we were being charged by The Angus Hotel before they doubled their charge. There were no questions on the Financial Statement.
[Secretary’s Afternote: Copies of the Financial Statement will be available at the next meeting for those who were unable to attend the AGM.]
Item 8 – Secretary’s Report
Peter said that he had nothing further to add to the earlier reports. However he was excited to tell the members about an interesting opportunity that could raise the Club’s profile. The Club had been asked if it could provide a suitable picture to be used on the banner and flyers for the forthcoming Winter Market for Alyth. They were looking for a picture of Alyth Den in the snow, or a picture of one of the bridges over Alyth Burn in the snow or any really good snow photographs. The selected picture would need to be donated to the market organisers but would be credited to the photographer and the Club.
Peter asked members if they could look through their images for any they thought suitable and either send them to him attached to an email or bring them along to the next Club meeting on 6th September.
On the subject of photographic opportunities, David pointed to the Blairgowrie Highland Games scheduled for this weekend. Unfortunately the weather forecast was not looking good for this outdoor event. Paul noted that it was difficult to know about these events unless you knew someone involved in the event. Andy reported another photo opportunity with Stage 1 of the Tour of Britain 2022 cycle race finishing at Glenshee Ski Centre on Sunday 4th September. Parking at the ski centre will be ticket only (in advance £7.00) and would you would probably not be able to leave the car park until evening.
Item 9 – Election of Committee Members:
Club Chairperson No proposals were made
Neil Jackson, Deputy Chair Volunteered by self
Seconded by Mary Conacher
Andy McNee, Treasurer Volunteered by self
Seconded by Dug Blair
Peter Messer, Secretary Volunteered to stay in this role
Ian Gardiner and Volunteered to be Ordinary Members
Suz Thomson Seconded by Neil Jackson
Kym Ellis, Website Co-ordinator Volunteered by self
Seconded by Dug Blair
Item 10 – Any Other Business
Following Helen’s question about accessing the Club’s website, Dug explained to her how to set this up.
In her role with the Club’s Facebook page, Avril highlighted the importance of “Ownership” and asked Club members to post more of their own images onto our page. Otherwise there was the risk that the Club’s Page would contain more images from non-Club members than from Club members. Avril also mentioned that due to prior commitments she would be unable to attend every Tuesday evening meeting.
Updating members on Blairgowrie Library, Dug summarised the situation as being the library’s computer’s software had now been updated and new ink cartridges uploaded. The facility was part of “Makerspace” with a range of computers and printers; plus photo editing software that members could use to improve their images and then print them out in colour on the library’s A3 and A4 printers. The prices for printing had increased and now stood at £2.00 for an A3 print and £1.00 for A4, if you provided your own paper. Costs increased by £1.00 if you used the library’s paper. Dug suggested that it was easy and cheaper if members bought their own paper, ie via Amazon. As to the timing of the Club’s proposed visits to the library, Dug suggested two alternatives for members to consider:
1. On the same Tuesday as Club meetings, members could go between 5.30pm to just before 7.00pm (to give time to change venues! - Up the hill to St Caths). Or
2. On the alternate Tuesday to Club Meetings, say from 5.00 to 7.00pm.
A vote of the members on their preferred option could take place at the next Club meeting, which could then be communicated to Craig at the Library.
After the AGM part of this meeting, David felt that the lack of election of a Chairperson put the Club in a difficult position. He would give the matter some thought and communicate his views to all Club members, including those who unable to attend the AGM.
[Secretary’s Afternote: A copy of David’s plea is attached to these minutes.]
After the formal part of the evening meeting, to educate and hopefully encourage members to consider entering their images in Scottish Photographic Federation Competitions, a part of the SPF’s 2021 Digital Show was shown to the members. For these competitions, because of the number of entries, the judges do not get much time to consider each image. Notwithstanding the high standard of images seen, especially those capturing birds in flight, it was hoped that members could see the opportunity for some of their best images to compete.
The meeting closed at 8.50pm with members reminded that the next meeting reverted back to our usual Tuesday evenings and would be on Tuesday 6th September in the newly extended upstairs room here at St Catharine’s Centre starting at 7.00pm.
Monthly Photographic Project for September: “Solitude”
Members can bring up to three “Solitude” images on an USB stick for screening at the Club meeting on Tuesday 4th October.
