Volunteers

The Victoria Camera club is run entirely by volunteers. The following groups make this a great club:

Executive

  • The board of directors (the elected directors) includes seven members (the president, 2 vice-presidents, the secretary, the treasurer and 2 directors-at-large). The role of this executive is to provide oversight and overall direction to the committees and to ensure that the objectives of the club and its members are achieved.

Close-Up Digital

  • The editor of Close-Up Digital is supported by a small team of proofreaders and many volunteer contributors to the ongoing publication of the newsletter.

Competitions

Internal Competitions Committee

  • The competitions committee is responsible for running the internal monthly competitions for our members and the year-end competition in April.  We find the judges and set up the website to handle the image submissions from members.  We review the submissions before sending them off to the judges to ensure images have been uploaded into the correct category.  We run the Competitions Night meeting on the first Thursday of the month to show the winners and the submissions from the previous month’s competition. We prepare the competition guidelines for the members and judges. 

  • If you would like to be a part of this team, email Competitions Chair

External Competitions Committee

  • The External Competitions Coordinator leads a small committee of volunteers responsible for selecting and submitting images from club members that will be used to represent the VCC in various inter-club photography competitions. 

  • The committee ensures an objective and fair selection process is in place and keeps the Executive and general membership informed about all aspects of external club competitions. This position reports to the Competitions Chair.

Field Trip Coordinator

  • The field trip coordinator leads the committee in organizing field trips to local venues and occasionally trips out of the area.

  • The coordinator is responsible for choosing good photographic sites, seeking permission to attend activities, approaching volunteer specialist leaders, publicizing the event to the membership at meetings and on the website, overseeing the registration process, creating website galleries that showcase participants work, attending field trips and organizing the logistics of the trips.

  • In addition to the committee members leading field trip other club members are encouraged to volunteer to lead field trips.

Members' Night Coordinators

  • Members Night usually has two co-coordinators whose responsibility it is to put together an agenda on the third Thursday of each month, of presentations by members. It provides the opportunity to display or present work that is outside the restrictions of competition. Categories may include slideshows, new members presenting their work, field trips, special interest groups and talks by members on technical aspects of photography. Presenters have the floor for 10 to 15 minutes.

Presenters’ Night Coordinator

  • One or two coordinators organize and schedule Presenters’ Nights from September to April on every second Thursday of the month. The coordinators identify prospective speakers from outside the club in a variety of different photographic interests including but not limited to composition, landscape, lighting, photojournalism, portraits, sports, and wildlife.  The coordinators meet with the prospective speakers to plan the presentation and then host the meeting.

Print Show Committee

  • The club has over the years organized and held print shows in which members have had the opportunity to publicly exhibit and sell all types of prints. A volunteer chairperson assembles a committee of club members who undertake the task of planning and conducting the show.

  • The committee’s tasks include, among other things, determining the timing and length of the show, securing a venue, establishing the criteria for size, mounting and framing of prints, establishing a process for the selection of entries, arranging for the hanging and placement of entries, recruiting members to staff and run the print show and provide refreshments and recruiting a clean-up crew to arrange for the return of entries, clean and restore the site after the conclusion of the show.

Workshops Committee

  • The workshop committee surveys members’ interests, prioritizes learning objectives, seeks out presenters, and hosts workshops by Zoom and in-person. Workshops are presented by both club members and guest experts and are designed to appeal to members of all skill levels. The committee sends out emails announcing workshops and they are also posted on the VCC calendar and listed as “upcoming workshops” under the Members Only tab. Members interested in attending a workshop must be registered to receive a Zoom link.

Tuesday Field Trip Coordinators

Tuesday Shoots

  • The coordinator(s) organize and schedule Tuesday morning photo outings on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month throughout the year. They determine a theme for each outing to challenge participants to use their photographic skills to interpret subjects in a creative manner.

  • Themes are posted along with a brief description, on the club's website calendar page. 

  • Photo galleries are set up on the website for each theme to allow participants to showcase a number of their images.

  • As the social aspect of the Tuesday morning meet-up group is very important first a coffee session to talk about the topic and then a variety of lunch spots to recap the morning is chosen for each shoot. Encouragement and camaraderie in photography are our two motivating factors.

Alternate Tuesday Shoots

  • The coordinator(s) organize and schedule Tuesday morning outings on two Tuesdays a month that alternate with the original “Tuesday Shoot.” These events take place at 10am, on the first and third Tuesdays of each month. Tuesday shoots continue all year.  

  • The outing leader selects locations to give members a change of scenery and a variety of subjects to photograph; posts locations; indicates the distinctive features associated with each site; adds directions for parking, etc. A nearby restaurant or pub is selected to gather for lunch where members can discuss the morning’s experience, or photography in general. (Members are reluctant to attend lunches due to covid, but hopefully that will change.)  

  • The leader also sets up galleries on the website for each date and location for all participants to upload images and solicits new locations from all club members.

Print Shows

  • The print show committee chairman sources the venue for the print shows and organizes the booking. The committee gathers the image submissions, arranges the advertising and sets up the show.  Advertising encompasses any free source available through magazines, newspapers and posters at public locations.

  • The committee also organizes the design and printing of a poster for advertising.

  • The committee will invite a jury to select successful images and notify members whose images have been selected.  They will also be responsible for hanging the show unless it is with a gallery who does their own hanging.  The reception is also organized by the committee, both in planning and in setting up and cleaning after the reception.  The committee will dismantle the show and organize collection of the prints by their owners.

CAPA/PSA Liaison

  • The duties of the CAPA/PSA Liaison are to provide club members with information about the individual benefits of belonging to Canadian Association for Photographic Art (CAPA) and the Photographic Society of America (PSA); to encourage members to submit competition images and articles for publication to these organizations; and to also distribute copies of Canadian Camera magazine and any electronic publications to club members when it is received.

80th Anniversary Committee

  • In 2024, VCC will celebrate its 80th Anniversary.

  • Stay tuned for volunteer opportunities as plans for this celebration begin to ramp up. We will need to build a team of volunteers.

Shared Interest Groups (SIGs) Leaders

Creative SIG

  • The Creative Shared Interest Group coordinator(s) work to create inspiration and provide education for VCC members.They are responsible for directing the organization and flow of the Creative SIG meetings, which happen once a month. Currently this involves finding monthly presenters on any creative aspect of photography and/or photo editing, enabling members to share their work and ideas with each other, and providing educational material designed to help our members enhance their creative skills. It also involves the occasional field trip organization, as well as ensuring the club equipment arrives at the SIG meetings. There is also a publication underway (book and/or periodic journal of our member's work), so the position involves spearheading the organizational committee.

Aerial Photography SIG

  • The Aerial Photography SIG has one coordinator who is developing a program geared to members who own a drone or other things that you can fly or fly in! (Airplanes etc.!), or are interested in learning about this artform.

  • This SIG will help you learn the essentials through a combination of workshops and field trips.

Nature SIG

  • The Nature SIG normally has two coordinators who are responsible for scheduling, organizing and hosting the regular meetings of the group. Meetings are held in the evening of the first Wednesday of the month, September to November and January to April.

  • For the immediate future, meetings will be held by ZOOM. Scheduling requires that notice of each meeting is posted in the Club calendar along with a short description of the meeting purpose, invitation to share images and notification of any special presentations.

  • Organization is assisted by sending a reminder email to Club members about a week before the meeting, again inviting members to share images and noting any special presentations. In its current form, Nature SIG strives to provide a friendly and supportive venue for Club members at all levels of expertise and experience to share and discuss images without the constraints of completion rules and regulations. It ascribes to a very broad definition of what constitutes Nature. 

Street Photography SIG

Administration

Equipment Coordinator

  • The equipment coordinator ensures that meeting leaders, SIG and Workshop coordinators and presenters get the equipment that they need. This is essentially periodic e-mails to all scheduled event leaders reminding them to arrange to get the gear from the person before them and transfer it to the next user. It does not involve routine delivery of equipment to meetings etc.

  • The coordinator ensures the club computer is kept up to date with OS and software upgrades. Fix software problems and deal with hardware upgrades as required. Twice a year run the calibration software.

  • The coordinator manages retrieval and return of materials from our off-site storage as required.

Membership Manager

  • The Membership Manager is responsible for maintaining the Victoria Camera Club’s membership database. The specific duties include: collecting annual membership dues from members; updating member profiles; fielding membership inquiries and reporting on membership activity to the Executive. 

Social Events

  • The Chair of the Social Committee leads a few volunteers to organize the VCC Christmas Party and assists in heading up the Refreshments Committee (running the dispensing of coffee/juice and cookies during Club meetings at Norway House).

  • Refreshment Committee: The duties of the Refreshments Coordinator are picking up supplies, preparing the refreshments for the break during regular club meetings and leaving the kitchen in a clean and tidy condition.  The coordinator is assisted by a couple of volunteers. This is a great way to meet members.

  • Contact Ian Faris DirectoratLarge1@VictoriaCameraClub.ca if you would like to join Social Events and/or the refreshments committee.

Website Team

  • The web team is responsible for all aspects of the Club’s Internet, web and social media presence, as well as marketing.  Volunteers on this team experience great personal satisfaction in contributing to this vital role. Contact the Website Administrator if you are interested in volunteering. 

Updated: September 7, 2022



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