Page 8 - Cape-Camera-January-2025

January 2025 Cape Camera Cape Camera January 2025

From left: Simon Mouton (treasurer), Joyce Goldschmidt (membership) Richard Goldschmidt (weekend outings and members), Brian
Jones (secretary), Lesley Parolis (competitions and vice-president) and Rudi Pothas (storage, venue and competitions assistant. Also
present, but not photographed: Nicol du Toit (president), Trudi du Toit (Cape Camera) and Andre Mouton (website and Snapshot).

Great plans for 2025 in place from p7
terest from members and if there are sufficient for a class sound setup in the hall is a problem. We are in the
(minimum 6 -8 students per class) we'll contact Martin process of arranging a sound engineer to advise us
for possible dates. More detail to follow. about the set-up of speakers, placement of chairs and
Inspire members to work on Body of Work (BOW) the judges. If required, we'll change the microphones

With inspiring tips and guidance from Kim Stevens, ten used by judges.
to twelve members are already working towards creat- New membership categories
ing a Body of Work for the exhibition to be held during • Juniors and over 80's: We would like to introduce
the 2025 Struisbaai Congress. Kim will send WhatsApp new membership categories with special subscrip-
messages to the people who showed interest for follow- tion rates for scholars, juniors, and people over 80s
up meetings to start streamlining how they want to ex- (who have been members for a number of years). We'll
hibit. She is also planning a talk by ORMS on options for need to update our membership list and subscription
framing and printing. Several exhibition areas in Stru- forms with birth years to cater for these categories.
isbaai, Napier or Bredasdorp are being discussed, but We'll also need to have a special general meeting to
these will only be finalised after another visit to the area. change the constitution to reduce subscription fees
for these categories.
Cherish our members • New member advancement categories: At last
In the past, some members resigned whom we never year's AGM CTPS members unanimously approved
met because they never joined meetings, outings or en- a change to our scoring and advancement systems.
tered competitions. This may well be because they never The reasons for this were explained in the President's
received notifications. We use a bulk mailing service to letter in the September 2024 issue of Cape Camera.
send Snapshot notifications, which does not automati- These changes were further discussed and refined at
cally notify us when emails bounce and we are often the planning meeting.
unaware that you no longer receive these notifications. • From the new competition year — July — our images
Members could also not attend meetings for other rea- will be scored out of 15 and we'll introduce an addi-
sons, which other members could easily have assisted tional junior category, called Proficient. We'll also in-
with — like transport to meetings or outings. troduce new Master rankings. The new advancement
• Member participation: Our membership team of guidelines will be discussed by Nicol du Toit in detail
Richard and Joyce Goldschmidt will therefore keep an in the next issue.
eye on membership participation to identify potential • The Disa challenge: It was emphasised that the
future problems so that we can fix them. Therefore, current Master title awarded to members who earn 10
please, don't feel that we are checking up on you if we golds and 10 new salon acceptances in a year is not
ask if you received notification of meetings etc. — and an advancement category, but a title earned with a
you are welcome to tell us you are not interested in challenge. The name is to be changed to the Disa chal-
attending meetings of outings and we won't bother lenge and all Disas will only be announced at the end
you any further. of the year and awarded with a special Disa certificate.
• Sound in hall: Many members have complained This challenge will be open to all members who are
about our sound during competition evenings when awarded ten scores of 24 and higher in monthly club
the judge sits in front and comments away from the competitions and earn ten new salon acceptances
audience — even when he/she uses a microphone. per year, irrespective of their grade (previously only
This is not a problem for the people watching on available for Salon workers). There will no longer be a
Zoom and it therefore seems that the acoustics and Salon/Master category.

8 Cape Town Photographic Society