What to do if your club hoards money

I've had a few local friends express an interest in maybe forming a small club and a few that wanted to hook up for a field trip, but frankly I'm a little hesitant. When I'm in a creative mood I get serious tunnel vision, so having distractions around when I'm planning and shooting, is a major irritant. I've belonged to various other hobby oriented clubs in the past and for me it always seemed that the more formal the organization, the less productive it was. I belonged to an informal carving group under the guidance of a master carver who opened his studio to the group to come, work, watch, chat, seek help. No dues, no officers, rules, no competition, no pressure, work at your own pace, etc. If the group wanted to do something special we all chipped in. The amount of knowledge I gleaned on carving from that group was astonishing. Another wood turning group that I belonged to for awhile got so involved in the rules, regulations, and organization that they quickly forgot about just having fun at a hobby.
 
I went to the local photo club once when I first started out hoping to learn and meet like minded people. When I mentioned to a few people that I shoot wildlife and used M43 they kinda turned their noses up at me, one guy actually snorted and walked away. Never went back.
 
I went to the local photo club once when I first started out hoping to learn and meet like minded people. When I mentioned to a few people that I shoot wildlife and used M43 they kinda turned their noses up at me, one guy actually snorted and walked away. Never went back.

Sounds similar to my local club. I showed them a few landscapes and they snubbed me because they were shot on my D7100, which wasn’t full frame, and according to them was incapable of making professional images.

I never went back.
 
BananaRepublic said:
SNIP>>>>Is it best to leave the thing fall apart or attempt to steer it someway. :tapedshut:

Try this tongue-twister:

Oh,how I wonder, how much keg beer,
could the club's slush fund fund,
if indeed the slush fund
could fund fun?
 
What is it about camera clubs? There is one here in Citrus County and it's purely a clique that allows others to come to the meetings and praise their great photography skills. They start the meetings with no intros (they all know each other so why bother) and no agenda (they know what it will be so no problem).
Don't get me wrong, there is some good photography that comes out of there, they just fail as a club.
Only the IN-Crowd knows if they hoard money or not.
 
I am not in a photo club. I am in several photo meet up groups. The ones I’m in are free although there are some groups around that charge a small fee. The groups organize photo outings and social meet ups on meetup.com. The photo outings I attend if it’s somewhere that I don’t want to go by myself, like sunrise down by the pier in Boston or a nighttime shoot under the zakim bridge. There are photographers of all different levels at these meet ups and the more experienced ones are usually willing to help anybody who is looking to learn. I have not experienced any gear snobbery. There have even been some iPhone shooters at one of the photo walks.

Photos get posted on the website after the meet ups for the group and critique can be asked for and given online. Sometimes workshops will be offered at a group rate via one of the members. Because there is no membership dues, there is no expectation that anything be provided for free

My main issue with these groups is that they are large. someone will plan an outing and 75 people RSVP that they are attending. Usually half that will actually show up. That’s still a bit too big of a crowd for me!

Most of these groups meet or plan and event at least once per month. Not sure if meetup website works in Ireland but if it does you could easily start your ow group.
 
Speaking of website; my local CC has a website, but they don't use it. Calendar is never updated, meeting places change, but are not announced, special events are not promoted, and one is required to hunt around for any contact information.

I guess if I wanted to know any of that, I should have attended the last meeting.
 
I'm the treasurer of our local photography workshop, so I guess if we're hoarding funds it's my fault. Members have occasionally referred to the club funds as my holiday fund. (somehow I don't feel I can justify this expenditure unless a larger majority of the group authorize it)
There are a number of regular outgoings that members may not be aware off. As well as the obvious Hall rent, we have insurance, affiliation fees, exhibition fees...
All the members of our workshop are considered members of the steering group, so if any have suggestions on expenditure they'll be considered & for cheaper items such as props etc. generally purchased (or reimbursed) without any debate.

From memory our float is somewhere around £1000 to £1500, which should be comfortably enough to replace the clubs aging laptop & projector if required, but isn't a huge amount IMO.

The word is that we will be having twice our usual space at our biggest exhibition this summer, which could leave us rather short on awnings & display boards. If I'm not mistaken the display boards alone could easily use our float several times over.
 
If you're getting what you want out of your membership in the organization, then don't worry about it. If you aren't, don't bother with them any more.... go elsewhere and just let your membership expire.

There's a couple photo-related organizations in my neck of the woods. The closest, however, I've heard is very elite and closed-minded.

The closest I get to an actual organized 'club' is an informal gathering every Saturday morning at the local brick-n-mortar camera store. Local shutterbugs gather and just discuss whatever comes up. No dues, no memberships, no minutes, no officers, no money.
 
The elitist attitude seems to also cause the thought that the money is not being handled well. When the meeting starts the Treasurer Report is either skipped or the bottom line is stated and a quick motion to accept is done.
If the full report is presented and all understand, then questions of impropriety don't arise. Could be problems with choices made but it's all in the open.
 
The elitist attitude seems to also cause the thought that the money is not being handled well. When the meeting starts the Treasurer Report is either skipped or the bottom line is stated and a quick motion to accept is done.
If the full report is presented and all understand, then questions of impropriety don't arise. Could be problems with choices made but it's all in the open.


Yes its all above board, theres nobody trousering anything but every year the is a surplus of between 6 and 8 Gs. Now that might be small compared to clubs people here are familiar with but with if you factor in some sort of cushion for major emergencies, say half than there still a handy sum to invest in things.

Its not being spent badly its just not being spent.
 

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