Annual Exhibition 2000
Despite earlier reservations, moving the Exhibition forward by a month has not affected the number of overall entries in the Interclub digital print and slide competitions. The finances are also similar to last year (ie. in the black). I am therefore suggesting to the Committee that they plan the Annual Exhibition in 2001 to take place 7th - 10th February next year.
The earlier date has however posed problems for the Exhibition Secretary, but the main problem of judging can be overcome by completing this on one day with a panel of three judges as arranged this year at the Hazel Grove Bowling and Tennis Club on Sunday 16th January.
This was a most interesting and enjoyable day which started for the NCPS team, of yours truly, Gerald Hallworth, Jon Allanson and the "dinner ladies" Dorothy Redford and Joyce Robson at 10.00am in preparation for the arrival of the judges (Graham Johnson, Tony Pioli and David Hemstock) at 11.00am. The prints to be commended and above were sorted by a 1-5 scoring system for each judge and those to be considered further had to obtain a minimum of 10 marks. These were then sorted into two groups, those which obtained 3 green tiles were considered for HC and above and the Judges conferred on the remainder. The aim of the judges was to select about 20% of the total entries for awards with the proportion of C,HC,VHC dependant on the standard of entries in each category. The Judging of the prints was largely completed by the lunch break when Dorothy and Joyce provided a welcome and an enjoyable lunch. Judging of the prints was completed by 2.30pm. The same procedure was then adopted for the slides and the overall judging of the Annual Exhibition was completed by 4.30pm. All in all,an interesting and fascinating day. Mind you, the NCPS Team had to restrain themselves at times and Jon and Gerald were on tenderhooks whilst the judges' deliberated which print should receive the award for the best photo-journalism print! Eventually they decided in favour of Gerald and Jon received a well deserved VHC.The following day Brian and I sorted out the viewing order for the prints and allocated their positions on the display stands.
When the judging on Sunday had been completed Graham Johnson, supported by Tony Pioli and David Hemstock,said that they would have been prepared to carry out the judging in the presence of the club members or alternatively to give their comments over two club evenings.
Would you therefore, please let the Committee know if you would like them to invite members to the judging next year or to arrange for them to give their comments on two successive club evenings either just before or just after next year`s exhibition.
The success of this year`s exhibition is due to a large extent to all the help I have received from members especially from Tony Redford for his splendid presentation "Yellowstone Through to the Rockies" given at short notice to replace Brian Bower`s slide show. We wish Brian a speedy recovery from his throat problem. I must not forget, either, to record my thanks to Rodney for his help in printing all the tickets and for the display cards mounted alongside the Exhibition prints. And thanks to Jon Allanson for printing all the award certificates and the award labels on the back of the prints. A special thank you to Peter Redford for his computer programming expertise and his help at the Interclub events and for arranging the Exhibition slide titles on the computer monitor. Bill Chadband (with Peter Redford) kindly provided and set-up the amplification equipment - many thanks Bill. Finally a big thank-you to all those members who provided raffle prizes, sold the tickets, took money at the door, served the refreshments, set-up and took down the Exhibition, arranged photo-copying of the catalogue and anyone else I have not mentioned. A wonderful team effort - thank you.
My Final thank-you goes to everyone who entered the exhibition. Congratulations to the award winners. The standard of entries was very high so even if you did not get an award do not be too disappointed.
The points scored in the Exhibition and the results of the Interclub competitions are shown elsewhere in Focus and it would appear that we have at least two new potential contenders for Clubman of the Year - thank heavens for that !!!
All the results and award winning prints and slides are shown on our new website - (thanks are due to Peter and Tony Redford for setting this up). All the award winning prints and slides are now on the Internet and we shortly hope to include the winning Interclub Competition prints and slides.