Summer 2023 Board Meeting

September 5th, 2023

Meeting by Zoom at 7pm

Attendees  David Fabian, Pres., Jeanie Tyree-Frances, VP, Celia Schulz, Sec., Irene Kuiper, Tres., Wes Fallon, Dir., Allison Hamme, Dir., Robert  Kohlman, Dir.

Secured room at Gateway is set for September and October for 6-9. Rooms can be used prior to meeting for pre-meetings or discussion/gathering; if before 6:30 when David arrives, key can be secured from security. 

Discussion on AI. Determination as club directors on this subject with a vote to follow. (Insert Statement). All were in favor of not including AI images. Individuals are responsible for their submissions on their honor. If there is an image that is a composite we would expect the image maker to footnote the individual original images, of their own making, used to make the final composite. We would expect that an AI creation would not be submitted as there is not a focus for that type of digital art as part of the RCC. We remain focused on images created either by film or digital with photoshop allowed.

David discussed the two committees that we have being the Competition Committee and the Program Committee. See Addendum for previous and revised by-laws. Jeannie agreed to Chair the Competition Committee with Allison, Wes, and Irene.

Discussion for the Program Committee was initiated by David with an emphasis on tapping into the general club members. Allison Hamm volunteered to Chair the position with support by Wes Fallon and evolved into a Co-Chair of the Program Committee by the two. Additional members to be secured from the general Club members.

Webco is no longer our web server. The website has been fully migrated to an Amazon service.

Allison asked what our dues go towards. Dues are $20 and we have very little expenses except paying judges at $50 each when they are secured for a competition.

Discussion on what perks would be available for increased fees hypothetically. Extending summer months may be a time for meet-ups. Festivals, church fests, Racine County Fair, more photo ops during summer. Possibly RCC covering ½ of a paid event to attend. 

Discussion about having paid speakers either at a meeting or a separate event with a cost if the speaker is expensive but people are interested.

Ideas for judging, 12 point critique down to three last year to make it more user friendly. Once a month topic possibly with no competition. Consensus was to select an image from the month time period to continue as a rule to encourage the community to get out and learn new/perfect old skills. 

David talked about meeting formats. One idea is that we could have 10-15 minute sessions of a member or 2/3 talking about their work, not a critique but a display of images from their portfolio.

Zoom will be available for Directors/Chairs to use for meetings. David would be sending the code out as the Zoom account is connected to his IP Address being the main host for security.

Club memberships run out October 13th. Dues will need to be in at the second meeting.

David will mainly be doing publicity and handling web page and FB page but will also join a committee if needed.

PSA and WACCO reps are open seats not voted on last year end. David will check with Jeff Klug to see what is required.

Possible agenda for October; depth of field entry (hypothetically) that can be sent in to an e-mail address, not excluding non-members. Discussion to be on that topic of which the best example images would be submitted for either just discussion or scoring. Type of scoring method to be determined.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm

Respectfully submitted, Celia Schulz, Secretary