Shaftesbury Camera Club AGM 2021: Chairman’s Report

Our eleventh season ended with a membership of 42 members, with 37 members renewing their membership and 5 new members. It is very encouraging to have achieved such a high level of renewals during a complete season of Zoom meetings, and I thank you all for your continued support.

Running the Club on Zoom has produced quite a few challenges for the committee, and I am sure you will join me in thanking them for their efforts over the year. We have been able to enjoy speakers from far-off places at reasonable cost and meet up for field trips, with the latter giving us the opportunity to practice our photography skills and to socialise, albeit at 2 metres apart in the open air! Zoom workshops and discussions have also helped several members to further their skills, and we have a highly active group on Facebook.

At this time, we cannot be sure of how the Club will operate in our next season. Ideally, we would like to return to normal meetings in the hall. But that is very much dependent on the full lifting of all restrictions over the Summer and, of course, the Royal British Legion re-opening their halls for meetings. We have no intention of returning to the hall until we can enjoy our evenings as we used to do in the good old days.

With the continued uncertainty, the programme is being arranged on a flexible basis until Christmas to enable us to meet either in the hall or on Zoom. Plans for the second half of the season will be determined nearer the time.

Meanwhile, more field trips are being planned for our Summer break, and the Club has agreed to act as the official photographers for the Gillingham & Shaftesbury Show. Several members now have their own gallery on our website, and others are very welcome as well.

Whilst we will not have a set subject as part of our Shuffell Competition next season, we do still need members to continue to focus on ‘White on White’ for the annual Sherborne Bradford Abbas evening in the Autumn. And there is now the opportunity for members to fine-tune their photography skills specifically for the WCPF DPIC in early 2022, rather than the Club being dependent on pre-submitted competition entries.

Hopefully, we will all have our freedom back soon and be able to enjoy our photography even more so. Thank you again for your support at this difficult time.