Rules of The Society

A: Name and Object

1) The name of the Society shall be Wigan Photographic Society hereinafter referred to as the Society.

2) The object of the Society shall be to encourage the pursuit and promote the advancement of the science and art of photography.

B: Membership
3) The Society shall admit ladies and gentlemen who have an interest in photography as members. The members shall be classified as Full Members, Junior Members and Associate Members.

4) Full Members shall be eligible to enter the Society’s competitions and exhibitions and shall be entitled to all the privileges which the Society may afford from time to time.

5) Junior Members shall be those members under the age of 18 years at the 1st January in any year. They shall be eligible to enter the Society’s competitions and exhibitions and shall be entitled to all the privileges of the Society.

6) Associate Members shall be entitled to attend all the meetings of the Society but shall not enter or vote in any competition or meeting of the Society.

7) Membership is open to all people and shall be confirmed upon payment of the appropriate subscription. All members shall abide by the rules of the Society.

8) The members shall pay an annual subscription, which may be paid in two installments: the first installment being on the 1st January with the balance being due on the 1st April. The amount of the subscription and the proportions for each installment shall be fixed at the Annual General Meeting. Any new Junior or Associate member joining on or after the 1st June in any year shall be admitted on payment of one half of the appropriate annual subscription. Any Full Members joining part way through the year shall be admitted on a payment of a proportion of the appropriate annual subscription based on the month of joining, as follows: 
January to March = Full annual subscriptionApril to June = Three quarters of the annual subscriptionJuly to September = Half of the annual subscriptionOctober to December = One quarter of the annual subscription

9) If any member's subscription falls six months in arrears he/she shall be deemed to have left the Society.

10) The Committee shall be empowered to appoint, at their discretion, as Honorary Life Members such members as may be deemed to have merited this mark of appreciation by reason of their length of membership, or the value of their services to the Society.

11) Visitors may attend up to four meetings of the Society after which they may be requested to become members or to cease attending meetings.

12) Members and visitors under 18 years of age must be accompanied at all meetings and other events by a parent or guardian (or adult with the specific agreement of the parent or guardian), who will be responsible for their safety at all times.

C: Administration
13) The Society shall be managed by a Committee comprised of the officers of the Society together with three ordinary members. The officers of the Society shall be:PresidentPast-PresidentPresident-ElectSecretaryMinutes SecretarySyllabus SecretaryExternal Competition SecretaryInternal Competition SecretaryTreasurer

14) The Committee shall meet as and when required. A quorum at any Committee meeting shall be four members.

15) The Committee shall have the power to co-opt any member and to form sub-committees as it feels necessary. Co-opted members shall have full voting rights.

16) One of the ordinary committee members shall retire annually in rotation. The retiring member shall be ineligible for re-election for one year. The maximum term of service of an ordinary member shall be three consecutive years.

17) The Annual General Meeting of the Society shall be held in April of each year for the following purpose:

i) To receive and approve audited accounts.
ii) To receive and approve the Secretary's report for the year to 31st March.
iii) To agree the level of subscription for the next calendar year.
iv) To confirm the appointment of the President and Past-President for the forthcoming year.
v) To elect the other officers for the forthcoming year.
vi) To elect the ordinary member(s) as necessary.
vii) To appoint two Auditors.
viii) To transact any other business previously notified to the Secretary in writing not less than 14 days prior to the meeting.

18) A Special General Meeting shall be called at any time by the Secretary on receipt of a written request signed by at least five full members of the Society. Such a request must specify the business to be transacted at the meeting. The Secretary must notify all members of the date of the meeting and the business to be transacted within twenty-one days of receiving the written request. Such meeting must be not less than fourteen days and not more than twenty-eight days after service of the notice by the Secretary. A minimum of ten paid-up members shall constitute a quorum.

19) The Secretary shall notify all members of the date, time and venue of all General Meetings at least fourteen days, but not more than twenty-eight days, before the date of the meeting. Only fully paid-up Full or Junior Members may vote. Associate Members may take part in debate but may not vote at any General Meeting.

20) All meetings shall be chaired by the President, or in his absence, the President-Elect. In the absence of both of these officers the Past-President shall act as chairman.

21) The voting at all meetings may be by show of hands but the chairman of the meeting may direct that a secret poll be taken and shall so direct if requested to do so by one third of the members present at the meeting and entitled to vote. In the event of a tied vote, the chairman shall exercise a casting vote. Voting by proxy will not be permitted.

22) The Committee shall be custodians of all property belonging to the Society. They shall make such regulations governing the use of the Society’s equipment and facilities as they see fit and any such regulations shall be binding on all members’ immediately on enactment and shall be submitted to the next Annual General Meeting for incorporation into the rules. Any regulations made under this rule shall be clearly displayed on the notice board at all meetings until the Annual General Meeting. Any regulation made under this rule, which is not approved by the next Annual General Meeting, may not be re-enacted for at least twelve months.

23) No member shall remove from the Society’s rooms any apparatus or other property belonging to the Society, or use the same for the purpose of monetary gain, without the prior consent of the Committee. Apparatus removed from the rooms must be recorded, signed for by the borrower, and witnessed by a member of the Committee in a notebook specially maintained for the purpose. Any apparatus removed shall be at the borrower’s risk and any damage or loss shall be made good by him/her to the satisfaction of the Committee. In case of emergency, the President and Secretary may exercise the powers of the Committee under this rule.

24) The financial year shall commence 1st January.

25) No alteration or addition to the rules may be made except at the Annual General Meeting or at a Special General Meeting convened for the purpose. Such amendment to the rules must be approved by two thirds of those voting at the meeting. Abstentions will not be counted as votes.

26) The Committee shall rule on any matter not otherwise covered in these rules.

27) The Society’s competitions shall be open only to fully paid-up members of the Society.

28) The competition year shall run from August to July inclusive. The Society shall hold twelve print and twelve projected image competitions each year. The top mark awarded to each member in each competition will be recorded. At the end of each season, the top ten marks scored by each member for each Section shall be totalled for the annual championships. Trophies will be awarded for each category as follows:

Section A Prints:- The Clifford Taylor Trophy
Section B Prints:- The Edwin Smith Trophy
Projected Images:- The G. Barber Trophy

29) The dates for the competitions shall be arranged by the Syllabus Secretary and advised in the syllabus. In general this shall be the second Tuesday in the month. Entries shall be handed in to the Internal Competition Secretary at least one week in advance of the competition to allow time for compilation.

30) No print or projected image may be entered in a monthly competition if it has been entered in any previous Wigan Photographic Society internal competition.

31) The negative or slide or digital image from which an entry is derived must be the original work of the author.

32) Internal competitions shall generally be judged by an invited external judge however in exceptional circumstances they will be marked by the members on the night.

33) The judge(s) shall be required to mark entries out of 20 with half marks allowed. The image(s) judged best on the night shall be awarded 20 marks, second best 191/2 and third best 19. It will be permissable for joint awards to be given.
Print Competitions:

34) There shall be two separate sections: ‘A’Section for advanced workers and ‘B’Section which will be judged separately.

35) Members wishing to enter the print competitions will be allocated to either Section ‘A’ or Section ‘B’. Members will normally be allocated to Section ‘B’ until elected to Section ‘A’ either at the discretion of the Committee at the end of the competition season or by the decision of the Committee following the submission of a folio of six prints for assessment.

36) Prints must be mounted on a thick board no larger than 20 x 16 inches.

37) ‘B’ Section prints must be no bigger than A4 with a board size no larger than 20 x 16 inches.

38) Prints may be colour or monochrome.

39) Prints must be clearly marked on the reverse showing the Section to which the member is allocated and the title of the print. If the author does not wish to give a title, the print should be clearly marked ‘No Title’. The author's name must not appear anywhere on the entry. A separate list giving the author’s name and print title shall be provided to the Internal Competition Secretary.

40) Each ‘A’ Section member may enter up to two prints in each monthly competition; each ‘B’ Section member may enter up to three prints in each monthly competition.
Projected Image Competitions:

41) A projected image entry can be a traditional mounted slide - see rules 42 & 43 - or an Electronically Projected Image (EPI) - see rules 44 to 47.

42) Slides must be clearly marked with the author’s name and title. If the slide is untitled it should be marked as ‘No Title’.

43) Slides must be mounted in 2" x 2" mounts and correctly spotted for viewing with a standard 35mm projector. Other sizes may be entered but the author must provide a suitable projector. The spot should be in the bottom left hand corner as viewed normally without a projector.

44) Electronically Projected Images, hereinafter referred to as EPIs, are defined as images prepared for projecting via a digital projector.

45) EPIs must be submitted on electronic media as agreed by the committee. The EPI must be in jpeg format using the sRGB colour space. The maximum image size is 1400 pixels wide and 1050 pixels high. Images smaller than this must be placed on a canvas size of these dimensions.

46) Each EPI must be given a title starting with the author’s three digit identity number. If no title is required, the author’s three digit number must be followed by ‘No Title’ - without the quotes.

47) The Internal Competition Secretary is not responsible for retaining the original images. This will remain the responsibility of the author.

48) All projected images will be entered in a single ‘Open’ category and each member may enter up to two projected images (slide or EPIs or a mixture of both) in each monthly competition.

E: The Annual Exhibition

General:
49) Entries will only be accepted from fully paid-up members of the Society.

50) Entries shall be submitted to the Exhibition Secretary no later than 9.30 pm. on the date given in the current syllabus or any revised date notified by the Exhibition Secretary.

51) Any entry not satisfying the rules or that has been previously exhibited in any of the Society’s previous Annual Exhibitions will not be eligible.

52) The negative or slide or digital image from which an entry is derived must be the original work of the author.

53) The judge(s) shall decide on the best in the following categories in accordance with rules 58, 64, and 70:
a) Monochrome Prints
b) Open Colour Prints
c) Nature Prints
d) Open Slides
e) Nature Slides
f) Monochrome EPIs
g) Open Colour EPIs
h) Nature EPIs

Note 1: Slides must be traditional slides taken on slide film, and shall not be slides created from a digital image.

Note 2: EPIs are Electronically Projected Images.
Annual Exhibition: Print Section:

54) Prints shall be entered into one of three categories:
a) Monochrome Prints
b) Open Colour Prints
c) Nature Prints

55) Prints must be mounted on a thick board no larger than 20 x 16 inches

56) The member's name, the title of the print and the category for judging must appear clearly on the back of the print.

57) Each member may enter up to fifteen prints, and all will be presented to the judge(s). If the number of prints exceeds the available space in the Exhibition, the selection of the prints for hanging will be on the basis of an allocation of an equal number of prints to each member submitting an entry. Prints to be withdrawn from a member's entry will be from non-award-winners in the order of lowest priority given by the member on the entry form.

58) The judge(s) shall award Certificates of Merit (Very Highly Commended; Highly Commended; Commended) in each category to a maximum of three of each for each category. The judge(s) shall also give an award for the best in each category.

59) Slides shall be entered into one of two categories:
a) Open Slides
b) Nature Slides

60) Each member may enter up to fifteen slides.

61) Slides shall be traditional slides taken on slide film, and shall not be slides created from a digital image.

62) Slides must be clearly marked with the author’s name, title, and the category for judging.

63) Slides must be mounted in 2" x 2" mounts and correctly spotted for viewing with a standard 35mm projector. Other sizes may be entered but the author must provide a suitable projector. The spot should be in the bottom left hand corner as viewed normally without a projector.

64) The judge(s) shall award Certificates of Merit (Very Highly Commended; Highly Commended; Commended) in each category to a maximum of three of each for each category. The judge(s) shall also give an award for the best in each category.
Annual Exhibition: Electronically Projected Images (EPIs) Section:

65) EPIs shall be entered into one of three categories:
a) Monochrome EPIs
b) Open Colour EPIs
c) Nature EPIs

66) Each member may enter up to fifteen EPIs.

67) The filename for each EPI shall be in the following layout: - category for judging, membership number, and title.

68) The author shall submit the EPIs on a CD clearly labeled with the authors name, ‘Annual Exhibition’, and the year.

69) The Rules for EPIs are as described in rules 44, 45, and 47.

70) The judge(s) shall award Certificates of Merit (Very Highly Commended; Highly Commended; Commended) in each category to a maximum of three of each for each category. The judge(s) shall also give an award for the best in each category.