The club is run by committee members.
The current committee for the 2025/26 Season are:
Chair: Terry Rees-Pedlar email: tjrp01@hotmail.com
Treasurer: Lisa Jordan
Secretary: Peter Farrar email: pfa@pmaa.me.uk
Programme Secretary: Adrian Butcher email: butcher.adrian@btinternet.com
Competition Secretary: Peter Farrar
Webmaster: Lisa Jordan
If you have any questions or suggestions about the running of the club please speak to a committee member.
The committee is elected at the AGM. Any member can put themselves forward for any position on the committee at the AGM. If more than one person is interested in a committee post it will be decided by a vote at the AGM. We are always on the look out for new committee members, if you feel you might like to take up a committee post please talk to the current committee.
Image on this page: "Giraffe Triptych" by Elisa Best
Committee meetings are held as and when necessary to discuss the running of the club. Below are summaries of what was discussed at the latest committee meetings:
31/3/26
Finances were reviewed and due to some costs being less than estimated and some income from the WPF Memorials Day raffle they are now looking slightly better than previously thought. We should end the year with a small surplus.
We currently have 27 members including 2 overseas members. There has been low attendance at some recent club meetings and we do not know how many members will renew next season.
Adrian has produced a draft skleton programme for next year. Zoom meetings will alternate each month between external speakers and the monthly web challenge discussion and will usually be on the 2nd Tuesday of the month. The Village Hall programme will include a Print workshop and two evenings presented by club members (Terry and Keith both happy to present one evening). This will cut down slightly on external presenters and keep costs down. Dates were set for next season's competitions. Keith will book judges ready for the new competition secretary to take over.
The Exmoor trip in October is booked and 14 members will be going.
The WPF Memorials Day in February went very well with lots of help from Monmouth members. It was an enjoyable day and brought in money for our club from the raffle. The WPF has asked if we would like to do it again next year. Agreed in principle but need to confirm with membership if someone is willing to take on organisation as Keith is stepping down from the committee.
It was decided that Zoom is our best option at present for remote presentations and Terry will renew the licence when it comes due.
The exhibition in the Library is all organised, running from 18th April to 23rd May. Keith will need some help on the 18th to put up the exhibition, someone to change the prints mid-exhibition, and to take down at the end. Also we will need memebrs to help with the drop-in workshop on the 25th April.
We applied to Monmouth Building Society for a grant from their community fund towards a new projector, but sadly that has been declined.
The upcoming AGM was discussed. If elected, Terry is happy to continue as chair next year, Adrian as Programme Secretary, and Peter as Secretary. Mike is standing down as Treasurer, Keith is standing down as Competition Secretary and Lyn is standing down as webmaster so those three positions will need to be filled.
10/2/26
The meeting started via Microsoft Teams - we were trying out Teams to see if it could be used by the club in future as a lower cost alternative to Zoom. However several of us had problems with severe echoes on the audio and we had to switch to Zoom. This may indicate that Teams will not be a suitable alternative to Zoom - we will research further to see if the issues can be resolved.
The Programme for next season was discussed with the aim of making sure we can keep in budget. While we want to have as many good quality speakers as possible we also considered alternatives for some evenings which could reduce costs. Ideas included training sessions run by members, internal members' presentations, reciprocal arrangements with other local camera clubs where we put on presentations for them and they present to us, and 'fun' competition evenings. We also considered reducing the number of competitions we hold but agreed to keep this as it is for now. Adrian will put together a 'skeleton programme' for review at the next committee meeting.
Terry has received correspondence from Simon Howard of DXO European Marketing department asking if MPC would be interested in discussing if DXO could collaborate with MPC in some way. It was agreed that further discussion would be worthwhile.
20/1/26
Finances were reviewed. Due to increased costs and a reduction in member numbers we anticipate a deficit of approx £300 this year. Possible ways to make savings were discussed. Cost of speakers/presenters could be reduced by having more meetings run internally, (club members giving presentations / workshops, fun competition evenings , PAGB recorded lectures etc).
Zoom Licence - For the past couple of years this has been paid for by Fintan's company, but Fintan has now moved to Yorkshire. The cost to renew, (due in April), is £156. It was discussed whether this was still good value for the club, particularly as numbers attending both Zoom presentations and the Zoom discussion evenings / web challenge have been quite low recently. Terry will look into whether Microsoft Teams would work in place of Zoom as this is considerably cheaper.
Ideas for recruiting more members were discussed again. Terry has contacted the U3A Photography group. The exhibition in the Library will go ahead in April and will possibly include a morning workshop. It was also agreed to look into the cost and possibility of purchasing a vinyl banner for display in places such as the St Mary's Church railings etc.
Iain MacCallum has suggested a club trip to the Lynmouth / Exmoor area. A provisional date of the weekend 16th-18th October 2026 was agreed. Terry will liaise with Iain over details.
WPF Memorials Trophies Competition Day - this is going ahead on Saturday 21st February at Dingestow Village Hall , (moved from Bridges Community Centre due to Flooding). Arrangements are all in place and Keith will send out details to the members who have volunteered to help shortly.
An application for funds for a new projector was submitted to the Monmouthshire Building Society in November, but we are still waiting to hear back from them (probably due to the disruptions of the flooding).
Three members of the committee, Mike Roberts, Keith Sharples and Lyn Sharples will be standing down at the end of the season and we will need a new Treasurer, Competition Secretary and Webmaster.
4/11/25
We have a total of 30 members this year, (including 2 overseas members). This is slightly down on last year's numbers. Ideas for recruiting more members were discussed including articles in "The Beacon", inviting people to a 'taster' session of outdoor photography, contacting the Monmouth U3A photography group and including them in some events. Keith is in contact with the Monmouth Library about having an exhibition of our work hopefully next year and possibly including an 'open day' event in this, which might bring in new members.
Mike reported on finances which are good at the moment with fees having just been paid in, but it is predicted that once all costs have been met, (Village Hall rent, WPF fees, insurance, website, Zoom licence, bank charges, refreshment costs, judges fees and presenter fees, etc), that we will be slightly in deficit by the end of the season. Ideas to reduce costs for next year were discussed. The highest cost is presenter fees. Savings could be made by having more evenings with club members rather than external presenters. Adrian will look into this. It was also agreed that we would have fewer Zoom presenters next year, having just one Zoom meeting per month, alternating between external speakers and Discussion group. It was suggested that we also change the Zoom night to a Tuesday rather than a Friday as this might better suit some members.
Arrangements are ongoing for the WPF Memorials Competitions day we are holding on behalf of the WPF on 21st February 2026. Keith is meeting with WPF representative to confirm details. Terry and Keith will contact places for raffle prizes. Keith will organise volunteers from the club to help on the day.
The possibility of needing a new projector in the near future was discussed. It might be possible to get some funding for this from the Monmouthshire Building Society who sponsor local community groups.
Terry reported on the voting for competition subjects for the 2026-2027 season. The two with the highest number of votes were "Seascapes" and "Street Life".
5/8/25
Peter Farrar has volunteered to be club secretary. This will be confirmed by an EGM at the beginning of the first meeting in September.
Membership numbers were discussed. Currently we have 37 members but it was felt some of those might not renew. We will be having a market stand display of prints on August 30th and a small display in the Library at the end of August to hopefully recruit new members.
The budget for the coming season was discussed. Our main costs are hire of the Village Hall, Insurance, WPF membership, and Speakers and judges. The cost of speakers in particular has risen a lot, if membership numbers drop we may go over budget. It was decided to see if we could reduce this cost by having more internal club member speakers. We may also raise some funds if we hold a raffle at the WPF Memorials event (see below). Another potential expense is a new projector although this is not an immediate need.
Following discussions at the AGM on competitions it was decided to keep competitions with two set subjects and three open subject. It was felt this best meets the needs of most members as some like to have set subjects and some like to have open subject. The committee will come up with a short list of possible subjects for members to vote on to choose the two for the 2026/2027 season.
We had a very successful day at the PAGB dpi championships at Warwick in July and have been asked by the WPF to represent them at the PAGB print championships at Blackburn on October 18th. Keith will coordinate the entry, and is happy to attend on the day at his own expense.
It was decided to see if any members wish to go for an AWPF distinction and if so to set up a group to help and encourage each other.
After last year's successful hosting of the WPF Memorial Competitions at Bridges Community Centre we have been asked by the WPF to host again on February 21st 2026. The community centre is now booked for this and hopefully we will have a team of members to help as they did such a good job last time.
There was a suggestion at the AGM that Monmouth run its own area competition for local clubs. This would be great to do but the committee felt there was a risk of financial loss and that with our finances being somewhat uncertain at present this should be put on hold for the time being.
The upcoming visit to give a presentation at Gwynfa club was discussed, and agreed a Zoom meeting of participants should be held before the event.
