CONSTITUTION
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1. The Club shall be called the ‘Blandford Forum Camera Club’ and any person interested in photography may apply for membership.
2. The aim of the Club is to promote a wider understanding of the art and craft of photography in all its aspects.
3. a. The freehold of the Club known as The Old Water Tower, Station Court, Blandford Forum, Dorset, DT11 7RJ shall be vested in the names of at least three Trustees appointed by the committee, and their duties shall be to act as nominees for the Club in any transactions relating to the said property.
b. Disposal of the property during the Club’s existence shall arise only from a decision taken at an Extraordinary Meeting by a 60% majority of paid-up members and is expected to arise only from a decision to purchase other premises.
c. The income and property of the Club shall be applied solely towards the promotion of the Club’s objectives, and no part shall be paid or transferred, directly or indirectly, by way of dividend, bonus or otherwise by way of profit, to members of the Club, and no trustee shall be appointed to any office of the Club paid by salary or fees or receive any remuneration or other benefit in money or money’s worth from the Club. Provided that nothing in this document shall prevent any payment in good faith by the Club:
(i) of the usual professional charges for business done by any trustee who is a solicitor, accountant, or other person engaged in a profession, or by any partner of his or hers, when instructed by the Club to act in a professional capacity on its behalf: provided that at no time shall a majority of the trustees benefit under this provision and that a trustee shall withdraw from any meeting at which his or her appointment or remuneration, or that of his or her partner, is under discussion.
(ii) of reasonable and proper remuneration for any services rendered to the Club by any member, officer or servant of the Club who is not a trustee subject to proper submission and approval for payment by the Committee from time to time.
(iii) to any trustee of reasonable out-of-pocket expenses subject to proper submission and approval for payment by the Committee from time to time.
(iiii) If the Club is wound up or dissolved and after all its debts and liabilities have been satisfied there remains any property it shall not be paid or distributed among the members of the Club, but shall be transferred to some other Club, charity or charities having similar objectives, which prohibits the distribution of its or their income and property to an extent at least as great as is imposed on the Club by Clause 3c. above, chosen by the members of the Club at or before the time of dissolution and if that cannot be done then to some other charitable object.
d. The loans made by members towards the property purchase shall be repaid in full without interest when sufficient funds have been collected to allow that and at the same time in the opinion of the Committee leave sufficient funds to continue with the normal business of the Club and provide a prudent (reasonable) reserve for the repair and upkeep of the property.
4. The Club shall have a President who shall be elected for life. He may attend any Club activity, vote as an officer, and count as one of a quorum.
5. The affairs of the Club shall be managed by a committee which shall consist of officers (including a Chair, Vice-Chair, Hon. Secretary, Hon. Treasurer, Assistant Hon. Treasurer and a Programme Secretary) and a minimum of four and a maximum of eight ordinary members, all to be elected annually at the Annual General meeting (AGM). The committee shall have the power to co-opt additional members for specific purposes.
6. Apart from the Chair, who may serve for not more than two consecutive years, officers and ordinary members are eligible for re-election annually.
7. The Secretary shall take the minutes of all committee meetings and conduct the correspondence of the Club.
8. The Treasurer shall collect all subscriptions and conduct all financial transactions on behalf of the Club as instructed by the committee. The Treasurer will also draw up a balance sheet at the end of each year, 31st December, to be audited by those appointed by the committee to do so.
9. The Club shall hold an AGM on the first Tuesday in April. Items for inclusion in the agenda must be in the hands of the Secretary at least four weeks prior to the AGM.
10. The annual subscription for members shall be payable in advance and become due on the first programme date of the new season in September and no later than 31st October following.
a. Life membership shall be equal to ten years of the current annual subscription.
b. Joint subscription for husband and wife shall be 150% of the cost of single membership.
c. Junior membership, i.e. up to school leaving age, shall be 25% of the single subscription.
11. Any member who, in the opinion of the committee, brings the Club into disrepute will be required to account for his or her actions to the committee.
12. Extraordinary General Meetings (EGM) may be requested by the committee or convened on a requisition signed by five ordinary members and be received by the Secretary at least fourteen days before the date proposed. Notice of the meeting and details of the proposed resolution(s) shall be posted on the Club notice board at least 14 days before the intended date of the meeting.
13. At committee meetings a quorum shall require the presence of no fewer than five persons who shall comprise officers and members of the Committee, but at least one officer must attend. At an EGM no fewer than 60% of the Paid-up membership shall be present for the meeting to be quorate. No quorum is necessary for an AGM. In all three cases, decisions shall be made by simple majority of those present at the meeting, with the Chair of that meeting exercising a right to vote only when such majority cannot be established
14. No alterations or additions to these rules shall be made except at an EGM.
GENERAL COMPETITION RULES
1. These rules shall apply to all BFCC competitions, including the Annual Exhibition.
2. The print size must exceed 7in x 5in (12.7cm x 17.8cm) except where otherwise specified.
3. Prints must be mounted and any protective covers must not be visible when the print is viewed.
4. Nothing shall be written on the front of the print or mount except for the title, which is optional.
5. The competitor’s name and title of print appear on the back of the print mount, where other information may be recorded.
6. The Competition Secretary or another appointed for the purpose by the committee reserves the right to apply a sticker or otherwise record information for Club purposes on the back of a print mount.
7. Slides must be presented in standard mounts suitable for the Club projectors and may be glass or glassless. That is 2in x 2in (5cm x 5cm) slide mounts.
8. The competitor’s name shall appear on the slide mount.
9. A spot mark must be attached or placed at the bottom left hand corner of the slide mount when it is viewed as it is intended to be shown.
10. The Competition Secretary or another, as in 6. above, reserves the right to record information on the slide mount.
11. Prints and slides may be home- or trade-processed.
12. Monochrome may include, apart from black and white, monochrome colours as produced by the toning of emulsion or the use of coloured inks or base papers.
13. Colour shall be taken to mean the presence of more than one colour, however produced.
14. Entries will be accepted on the night of named competitions but entries for Points Cup competitions must be received at least seven days prior to the date of the event. Entry dates for the Annual Exhibition will be determined and advertised for each event.
15. All entries, for relevant competitions, are to be handed in by no later than 7:30pm on the night of the competition but can be submitted at a previous meeting.
16. A competitor may submit unattended entries, subject to payment of 50% of the normal door fee.
17. Any image submitted for internal competitions may be retained by the competition sub-committee for inter-club competitions.
18. To be eligible for use in SAPA inter-club competitions, prints including their mounts shall not exceed 20in x 16in (50.8cm x 40.6cm)
19. The competition officials, on behalf of the committee, reserve the right to disqualify any entry should it fail to comply with these general rules, or those specific to a particular competition, before the judging starts.
20. The Committee reserves the right to change any competition rule but will provide members with not less than three weeks notice.
21. Members must be fully paid up within the terms of the Constitution in order to enter any competition.
POINTS CUP COMPETITION
SPECIFIC RULES
1. The general competition rules shall apply.
2. This competition shall consist of four sections as follows:
a. Monochrome print
b. Colour print
c. Mono / colour slide
d. Digital Projected Images (DPI)
3. Up to three images may be submitted per round of the Competition. These may be shown in either a single or any combination of categories at paragraph 2 as so desired.
4. Prints, transparencies & DPIs may be entered only once. Transparencies are not to be produced from digital images.
5. Marking will be out of a maximum of ten points for each entry and the highest mark awarded to each competitor for each event will be recorded and displayed in the clubroom.
6. There will be competitions at approximately regular intervals in each club year, as shown in the current programme.
7. Club members called upon to judge, in the event of a booked judge not being available, may not enter their own work but will automatically be awarded 8½ points on that occasion.
8. The number of Points Cup competitions may vary from season to season. A trophy will be awarded in each section to the competitor who records the six highest marks during the course of the season. The trophy will be shared in the event of a tie.
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CUP & TROPHY COMPETITIONS
SPECIAL RULES
1. The general competition rules shall apply.
2. No print or transparency may be entered which has previously been awarded first place in any other BFCC Cup or Trophy competition or Annual Exhibition in any Club class. All other entries from such competitions may be entered into any other competition.
3. Prints may be monochrome or colour.
4. Transparencies must be colour, except where otherwise specified.
5. A maximum of three entries is allowed from each competitor.
6. The judge shall award 1st, 2nd and 3rd places and may commend additional images as being of special merit.
7. Winning images shall be excluded from entry to the current season’s Annual Exhibition in any Club class but will be separately exhibited as the winning image of these competitions.
8. Specific conditions apply to each Cup and Trophy competition and these are separately listed.
SPECIFIC RULES FOR INDIVIDUAL COMPETITIONS
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MARTINDALE & MIKE HARDING TROPHIES
1. These are named subject competitions.
2. The subject matter or theme is agreed by the members at an AGM and will be shown in the programme.
3. Only colour transparencies may be entered in these competitions.
4. For the Martindale Trophy an entry shall consist of one transparency.
5. For the Mike Harding Trophy an entry shall consist of a group of three transparencies, which will be judged as a set.
6. Cup & Trophy Competition Rule 5, (maximum of three entries per member) does not apply to either competition.
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GEOFF KNIGHT MEMORIAL TROPHY
1. This is a set subject competition for prints only, which may be monochrome or colour.
2. Subject – ‘Sport’.
VIEWFINDER TROPHY
1. Set subject competition for colour transparencies.
2. Subject – ‘Rural landscape’.
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BLANDFORD PICTURE COMPETITION
1. For the Fowler Cup, an entry shall consist of one print, either monochrome or colour.
2. For the Randall Trophy, an entry shall consist of one colour transparency.
3. For either competition:
a. The picture must be of Blandford, taken within the boundaries shown on the map displayed on the Club notice board,
b. The subject matter is optional, and
c. The location must be stated on prints and transparencies.
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DORSET CHURCHES COMPETITION
1. The N K Philips Cup is for prints, either monochrome or colour.
2. The Secretary’s Trophy is for colour transparencies.
3. The following qualifications apply for both competitions:
a. The picture must be of a Dorset Church or part thereof.
b. Subject matter may be internal or external and may feature the structure, the fittings, the contents or any combination thereof.
c. The Church involved must be identified on the back of the print or on the transparency mount.
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DR DAVIES CUP
1. An entry shall consist of a set of three colour transparencies.
2. The transparencies can be of any subject matter, but must be related to each other.
3. The transparencies are to be the current season’s work.
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CHILDHOOD COMPETITION
1. This is a set subject competition for monochrome or colour prints.
2. One or more children under the age of 14 years shall be the main subject matter.
3. General Competition Rule 2 will not apply and prints may be of any size.
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DORSET PICTURE COMPETITION
1 The Committee Cup is for prints, either monochrome or colour.
2. The Carillon Trophy is for colour transparencies.
3. The picture must be within the county of Dorset.
4. Subject matter is optional.
5. Location must be stated on prints and transparencies.
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SHOTTESFORD TROPHY
1. This is a set subject competition for single colour transparencies only.
2. Subject – ‘Action’.
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BEAUTY OF LIGHT TROPHY
1. This is a single transparency competition, depicting the “creative use of light”.
2. Cup and Trophy Competition Rule 2 will not apply; previous competition winning transparencies are also eligible, other than those that have previously won this trophy.
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PRESIDENT’S CUP and TROPHY
This annual competition is judged by the President and is intended as a mark of respect. The winners will be the personal choice of the President and, as such, should not be deemed to identify the best of the Points Cup entries.
1. The President’s Cup is for prints, either monochrome or colour.
2. The President’s Trophy is for transparencies.
3. These competitions are for prints and transparencies that have attained nine or more points in the previous season’s Points Cup competition.
4. Prints and transparencies will each be judged in separate competitions.
5. Small prints are not eligible.
6. The number of entries permissible per photographer in each competition may vary from season to season. This will depend on the number of images eligible, in order to limit the total number submitted for judging in one session to a maximum of about forty.
7. General Competition Rule 20 will not apply (i.e. the provision of three weeks’ notice of rule changes) and, unless announced otherwise at the first meeting of the season, a maximum of 3 prints and 3 slides may be entered by any individual.
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WESSEX CUP
The cup is to be competed for annually in a ‘women versus men’ print competition for members
a. Subject – “Open”.
b. Both sides are to submit a selection of twelve colour and twelve monochrome prints.
c. The maximum size for any print, including its mount is 20” x 16”.
d. No contributor may enter more than three prints in each section.
e. Each print will be marked out of a maximum of ten points.
f. The winning side will be that with the highest aggregate score, i.e. out of the maximum of 240 points.
g. In the event of a tie, the judge will award an additional half-point to the print of his/her choice in order that an outright winning side may be identified.
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ANNUAL EXHIBITION
CLUB CLASSES
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FOUNDER’S CUP
An entry shall comprise a set of three monochrome prints of any subject. The content of the prints in an entry may or may not be related but the presentation shall match.
MONOCHROME
An entry shall comprise a single print depicting any subject.
COLOUR
An entry shall comprise a single print depicting any subject.
COLOUR TRANSPARENCY
An entry shall comprise a set of three transparencies of any subject. The subject matter depicted may or may not be related.
DIGITAL PROJECTED IMAGE
An entry shall comprise a single image depicting any subject in either monochrome or colour.
ELIGIBILITY
All prints, transparencies and DPIs are eligible in the above five categories except:
a. cup and trophy winners of set competitions held during the current Club season. They will be separately exhibited.
b. any images - including cup winners - which have already been exhibited in Club classes of a BFCC Annual Exhibition.
ENDORSEMENT
The competition rules embodied in this handbook supersede all previously published versions. Dated amendments will be provided from time to time for insertion in this handbook and these amendments may also be found on the Club’s internet website.
IMAGES FOR DIGITAL PROJECTION
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Open image in Photoshop.
FOR ACCEPT STANDARD SIZE AND SHAPE: Crop-tool. Aspect Ratio: ‘No Restriction’, Width: ‘1400px’, Height: ‘1050px’, Resolution: ‘96 ppi’ (NOT per cm). Create rectangle, adjust it (angled-arrow to rotate, and corner block to alter size) until you have best composition. Use keyboard arrow-keys for fine-tuning.
FOR OTHER DIMENSIONS
a. for landscape format set width at 1400px and height anything within 1050px.
b. for portrait format set height to 1050px and width anything up to 1050px. Note: the projector works at 1400 x 1050 px but fills blank areas with black.
Do any other adjustments you want, but do not alter size, shape or resolution again.
Save As: Navigate to suitable folder (or open a new one) to save images in jpg format.
FOR INTERNAL COMPETITIONS:
Set the Name_Title_Competition (underscore is on Shift-Hyphen key) in File Name box (capitals and spaces are OK but please use one Forename/space/Surname - same one for every image!). Your Filename should look something like ‘Norman Carey_Pigs do fly_071206.jpg’ Note: the preferred name for Competitions is the date of that Competition in the format DDMMYY
FOR INTERCLUB COMPETITIONS:
You need the Club name too so use 4 sections e.g. ‘Blandford_Norman Carey_Pigs do fly_071206.jpg’
Go down to Format and drop menu to select ‘jpg’, Quality 12. Click ‘Save’.
Do that for every image you are submitting in that folder.
Transfer the folder to Memory Stick, CD, etc, to submit images. It will be the responsibility of the entrant to ensure that his work complies with these requirements. Work must be submitted at least a week before the competition.
BFCC COMMITTEE
President – Fred Denham
Graham Poynter - Chairman
Colin Cross - Vice Chairman
Mick Catley - Treasurer
Dave Hurley - Asst Treasurer
Eric Langley - Programme Secretary
June Harfield - Secretary
Sid Damon
Malcolm Bowditch
Norman Carey
Ken Stevens
Alf Tompkins
Brian James
Peter Gafney
CO-OPT MEMBERS
Brian Winkle - Inter Club Competition Secretary
Marilyn Peddle - Website Admin
