Wow, time does fly when you are not having fun
I see my last post was three weeks ago. Been kind of doggy.
I have been doing some research on setting up a camera club, and have found that there are a lot more ways to fail than to make it work. I decided not to do much actual work on it until I find out whether anyone actually shows up for the first meeting which is next Thursday.
Just how to organize the club seems to depend a lot upon how many members there are. With just a few it looks like it is best to just treat it as a few friends getting together, in other words don’t bother. With 25 or more it looks like you need to incorporate as a not for profit organization mainly to protect the wealthier members from liability. It is not widely understood that without being incorporated, the members are severally and individually liable for club actions. For the same reason the club ought to be carrying liability insurance. Also being incorporated as a not for profit the club can accept donations.
Another thing I have been thinking hard about is club officers. In the clubs I have been involved with every year the club changed, the old officers all declined to be reelected and a new cliche took over the club and ran it the way they wanted. Sometimes you got a great bunch and the club thrived, sometimes you got a lousy bunch and the club died. I would like to some how set things up so there is some continuity to how things are run, but so that new people can easily become involved in the running of the club.
Then there is the Photography Society of America (PSA). The PSA is the parent club of many clubs. The offer a lot of stuff that a club would find helpful. Luckily the club membership is only $45/year. It is probably a good idea to affiliate with the PSA as a 1000 photo clubs has a lot more clout than one.
So, come next Thursday, we will find out whether we are going to have a Photo Club or not.