A Note from the President

August is always the month that shows promise of what is to come. Where I live the kowhai comes into flower and this results in flocks of tuis arriving and racing in all directions. The morning chorus becomes a racket. I’m probably not alone in being sick of how wet and dreary the weather has been.

By the time you read this, registrations for the 2023 National Convention will have opened. As has been said before, this is the first national convention organised by a central team rather than a host club, brought to fruition after Rotorua was cancelled last year. The very small team has been working on this event very hard to bring together a good balance of speakers.

Our members shoot a wide range of genres and this can make it tricky to bring together speakers who will have a wide appeal. We also live a long way from anywhere so bringing in international speakers is very expensive.

I believe that we have achieved a good balance with our speaker lineup, and I would encourage people to look at the speaker programme with an open mind. There are few photographic skills that are specific to one genre, so it is possible to learn from photographers who shoot vastly different types of photographs than what you may do.

We recognise that many people are under financial pressure and we have tried to keep the registration fees as low as possible. Virtually all of the monies received from our trade partners have been applied to the convention. However, anyone looking for a large reduction in the registration price, due to the core part of the convention being a day less than previously, will be disappointed. Using the same venue as the 2019 convention has clearly shown how much costs have increased in the last five years. Venue and food costs have increased by a third and the panelling necessary for the exhibitions and trade area has doubled in price.

One of the small changes that you will see in 2023 will be in the way seating is arranged at the banquet. In past conventions, there has been a booking sheet on the first day for people to indicate who they wanted to sit with. While this may have been simple for the delegates it was an absolute nightmare for convention organisers. People booked for others without telling them, and the “others” booked themselves, resulting in them ending up on the list twice. Some people were included on the list because their friends knew they were at the convention, when in fact they had opted not to attend the banquet. Then you had people who were on their own and had no idea who to sit with.

After the organisers of both the 2019 and 2021 conventions said exactly the same, it was time for a change. Therefore, there will be no booking sheet at the venue. Rather, in early October, once registrations have closed, we will email all those people who have registered for the banquet and give them the opportunity to reserve their seats. Then, a week before the convention, people will be allocated to tables.

People have often said to me that conventions are a great way to meet new people, so I have never understood why people would travel hundreds of kilometres to then have dinner with the same people that they meet with on a regular basis. Rather than being negative about this idea, please think of it as an opportunity to meet new people.

As I said in the last edition of CameraTalk the future of conventions is very much in the hands of the members. Provided that sufficient members are interested to attend and are not a financial drain on the organisation we will continue to organise them. However, if it comes to a point where we can’t financially sustain them, then we will have to look at other means.

Now some may say that the answer is to find cheaper venues, but the number of venues of the size and facilities needed is limited. We also have members who expect a certain standard and if they are not met we hear about it. The old adage that you can’t please everybody all of the time is very apt in terms of just about everything PSNZ does.

We are still fortunate that we have gone back to face-to-face events, as many organisations have not. You only need to look across the Tasman to see this. The last in-person convention run by the Australian Photographic Society was in 2019. After Covid affected subsequent ones they have abandoned face-to-face conventions in favour of totally online events.

You can measure the growth or even survival of organisations like PSNZ by the flow of new members. We are not alone in struggling to attract younger photographers but we are making some attempts in this area. One of the recent changes in Council was the move by Chryseis Phillips to be the Councillor for Membership. She has instigated a number of changes in the way we welcome new members.

In addition, we have launched a PSNZ Instagram page which can be found by searching @photographicsocietyofnz. If you are on Instagram please follow the page and if you would like to share any posts with it you can use the tags #photographicsocietyofnz or #PSNZ. As with all social media, the more engagement the site gets the greater the chance it will appear in people's feeds. Finally, good luck to all members who have submitted their Honours sets for this year. The Honours Board is meeting in August and by the end of the month people will know whether they have been successful or not. Having experienced both failure and then success at both Licentiate and Associate levels, I know the range of emotions that people are going through.

I look forward to catching up with lots of you in Lower Hutt in October.

Best regards,

Paul Whitham APSNZ President