I am writing this as our club photographic exhibition draws to a close. And how good did it look! We received many compliments on the presentation and professionalism. The things that helped get these comments? Consistency of framing and mounting, labels and the very professional looking material that was handed out, not to mention the quality of the images. Many of our visitors had real problems choosing their “peoples choice” image due to the wonderful work submitted by our members.

While the increasing concerns about coronavirus kept the numbers down and meant modifications to our opening night I think the size of the gallery made it a reasonably safe space for visitors- drawn mainly from other camera clubs and the local community. We were also privileged to have Dr Gareth Syvret – associate curator from the MGA open the exhibition.

My thanks in particular to the members who committed to getting images onto the walls- and delivered 74 prints for us to hang! The opening and closing and roster to sit the gallery was staffed by members- thanks again. And in particular to the small group who put this together and those who turned up on the day to assist with the hanging. We have discovered John Noble is very talented in terms of framing and hanging, Ken Barnett is very good at putting wires onto the back of the prints (among other things) and Dave Sumner has a good eye for aligning the images!

And to the “committee”- Jen Fawkes, Rosie Hughes and the very talented Trace O’Rourke (labels) and Anthony Pearsall (marketing material, catalogues etc)- my special thanks. We have learned a lot and perhaps when we recover we could do it all again (in a year or two!!)

A count of the visitor’s votes for the most popular gallery image revealed our winner to be new member Daren Fawkes with “Mother and Child”.

If you missed the exhibition you will soon be able to see the images in the In Focus Exhibition online gallery.

We have all been inundated with information around the escalating COVID-19 virus, and today the Premier of Victoria declared a state of emergency.

Today’s statement accompanying the state of emergency declaration included words to the effect that “clubs” should avoid “non-essential” gatherings. And while the context of that sentence refers to “bans” outlined in the previous paragraph (gatherings of 500+ people), it is also clear that our governments intend to take further action.

The WCC Committee is focused on putting the health and safety of our members first. We note that a reasonable proportion of our membership is in the older “at risk” age group. It is clear that conducting meetings (of any sort) would be taking on unnecessary risk with our member’s health. Finally, we note that VAPS have cancelled meetings and have discontinued handling prints.

For all these reasons the WCC Committee has decided that the club will suspend ALL meetings, workshops, outings and any other gatherings until further notice.

Also note the following:

1. The InFocus Exhibition will continue until it’s scheduled finish date (March 22). This is held in a very large space and we only have a couple visitors at any time. If you are scheduled to be a monitor at the gallery, we ask you to please attend. If you have concerns for your health in attending, please contact either Vicki Moritz or myself.
2. In an effort to stagger picking up prints from the InFocus Exhibition, please arrive any time after 12 noon – we would like to avoid everyone arriving at 3pm.
3. The April 7 Competition Night will NOT proceed. We will announce winners electronically. We will work through print collection at a later time.
4. We intend to continue to accept EDI images for monthly competitions and have them judged (our print section, in all groups, is suspended from next month onwards)
5. For April and subsequent months, we will work with judges to see if we can distribute judge’s comments.
6. We understand there are a couple of “special” workshops and events scheduled, some of which we have accepted payment for. We will work through that shortly. The fate of these may be decided at the next committee meeting.
7. Please take advantage of social media and networking in these uncertain times. Join the club’s Facebook group and/or the WhatsApp community. This is a great way to stay connected.
8. The committee is looking at other measures to improve our ability to stay connected and mentor each other.

As regrettable and painful as this decision is, we hope that this decision makes sense to our members. Hopefully we can all get through this health event with limited additional disruption. We will continue to update members via our website and the weekly Watson emails. We will also provide additional updates (such as this one) as required. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me or another Committee member

Take care and stay healthy.
Kind regards, Russell