COVID & WCC Activities

As we are all in lockdown for the next 7 days, it probably goes without saying, but all in-person WCC activities are now suspended until further notice.

Where practical and possible, club meetings, workshops etc. will be conducted via Zoom. This will commence with the June Competition Night next Tuesday, June 1st, at 7:30PM, on Zoom.

At our committee meeting tonight, we decided that while we will proceed with the judging of prints submitted this month (for June 1 judging), we intend to put these prints out for display at the July meeting (assuming we can meet in-person by then). There will be no print competition in July and you will not submit prints, or EDIs of same, by June 1 (for the July comp).

We are hoping that this will be a short interruption to our in-person activities and print comp. We will keep you informed via email, the website, and Facebook as we work through this together.

Please read our weekly WCC Watson Emails where we will confirm proceedings for the next week and whether they are via Zoom or in-person (if restrictions permit), as well as the details for each specific session.

Please stay safe and stay well.

Returning to in-person meetings

We will now be holding a mix of in-person and online meetings. In general the competition night and workshop will be in-person at the Mount Waverley Community Centre, while our special interest groups will generally be online using Zoom but may use the craft room or Wadham House. Check the weekly Waverley Watson email or the calendar for details.

For in-person meetings we will be taking the following COVID safe precautions:

  • Do not attend if you feel unwell.
  • All attendees over 18 years of age must carry a mask indoors and wear these on entry and when not seated. BYO mask, although we will have some (cheap & nasty) ones if you forget.
  • We will provide sanitiser & ensure attendees use on entry & through attendance.
  • There will be several people on the front table, one of whom must record your attendance.
  • The seating layout will be done by Monash Council staff to ensure COVID distancing. Number of attendees must not exceed 70 in the main hall.
  • We have decided not to do Tea/ Coffee until further notice. If you like, you could bring your own drink in a bottle or Thermos.

New Year Event – Picnic-In-The-Park

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a terrific festive season and, notwithstanding the continuing annoyance that COVID brings, I hope you managed to spend some special moments with family and friends.

We are planning a Picnic-In-The-Park event on Tuesday January 12th, starting at 5:30PM at Jells Park. Note that this event will only proceed if current restrictions remain in place and the weather cooperates. It is important that you monitor your email for any updates on the Tuesday.

This will be a catered-for event (with the option to BYO food if you prefer). To make this as easy as possible in the event of a cancellation, we are planning to cater with pizzas, a simple green side-salad, and a choice of two desserts. This approach means we do not have to order anything until the day of the event.

If you have decided to join us, the most important thing is that you must register for the event for the purposes of contact tracing and catering.

And don’t forget, we want to get our print competition up and running again in 2021, so please bring along your prints to the picnic event to submit for the February competition night.

I hope to see you at Jells Park on the 12th.

Conclusion of our “In Focus” exhibition

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”.

Daren Fawkes - Mother and child

If you missed the exhibition you can see the images in the In Focus Exhibition online gallery.

Suspension of all meetings until further notice

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

Inaugural Photography Exhibition “In Focus”

The Waverley Camera Club would like to invite you, your family, friends and club members to our Inaugural Photography Exhibition “In Focus”.

The exhibition will be held at the Track Gallery at the Mount Waverley Community Centre, 47 Miller Cres, Mount Waverley from Thursday 12th March to Sunday 22th March, 10am to 3pm.

The official opening will be held on Friday 13th March 2020 from 6-8pm, all welcome.


Download invitation (PDF 785KB)

For further information please contact: exhibition@waverleycameraclub.org

Social BBQ on Tuesday 7th January 2020

Our first activity of 2020 will be a social BBQ at Brickmakers Park in Oakleigh on Tuesday 7th January 2020 from 6:30pm. Seats might be needed as there is limited seating, but plenty of space at the BBQs.

This is also the due date for our February competition, so bring along your print entries and make sure you are a paid up member!

Our venue:
Brickmakers Park
23-29 Stamford Road, Oakleigh 3166

2020 renewals and a Facebook reminder

Due to popular demand, the Trybooking link for renewing your membership is now active. Although Payments are not officially due until 1/1/2020, there are many who like to get this out of the way before the Festive season. You can now pay to renew your membership for 2020.

On a separate note, Jen Fawkes would like to remind members of the new Facebook Group announced in the last Newsletter:

New Facebook Activity Group for WCC Members

Many of you may know about, and read, the club’s Facebook page. We now have a new group for club members to share information, celebrate success, showcase our work, seek advice and just have some fun. This is a closed group for members of Waverley Camera Club only. There are two ways you can be part of this:

  1. In the main Waverley Camera Club page, click on groups and the members group will pop up. This will take you to the group page and then click ‘join’.
  2. Just search for ‘Waverley Camera Club Members’, ask to join the group and answer a simple question.

Once we get the group up and running, Jen will start posting some links and perhaps run a challenge or two. It’s up to you, the members, to get what you want out of the group. You will be able to post images, ask questions and comment on each other’s work.

Cheers,
Tim