News

President's Report - February 2008

Council is delighted to welcome a partnership with Allen and Overy LLP, an international legal practice, as sponsors of the 151st International Print Exhibition. The exhibition will open and be on display for six weeks in Allen and Overy's new building in Spitalfields, which will also be the venue for the opening night press reception and presentation of the awards on 12 June. There will be a magnificent £18,000 prize fund, and the possibility of some images being used commercially, with appropriate fees to the photographers. In addition to the usual open section, there will be an Allen and Overy Prize of £1000 for the image that best reflects the theme of Justice Around the World. This year, all prints submitted must be unmounted.
My special thanks for a superlative response to the survey questionnaire, which attracted a terrific return rate. Council now has a much clearer profile of our membership, your interests, reasons for joining The Society, and the relative value you place upon Society events, Distinctions, the website and the Journal. A preliminary report is included in this issue on page 4. The winner of the prize draw for the Canon EOS 400D DSLR camera, generously donated by Canon, is Dr Ruth Nichols LRPS. Our thanks go to Canon for its support and generosity.
Over 60% of the responses to the survey rated our events and the Journal as good or excellent. This is most encouraging, and a tribute to the volunteers in the Regions, and the Groups who organise the many events and activities for The Society, as well as to our hard working headquarters staff, and the editor and staff of the Journal. This does not mean that we should be complacent, because there are areas which need improvement, and our objective must always be excellence ­ and we shall be addressing feedback on failed Distinctions and access to advice as a matter of urgency. Council also recognises the need to reinvigorate Regional activities in several areas.
All aspects of the survey will be considered by Council, and it will be discussed by the Advisory Board which meets at the end of March, with the conclusions forming part of the Five Year Strategy and action plans for this Council.
One of our objectives, and part of our remit as an educational charity, is to encourage young people in photography. To this end, an audio visual competition, IRIS-25, is being organised by Maureen Albright ARPS, with the support of the Audio Visual Group and financial backing from The Society Projects fund. This is a competition for under 25s. As an incentive to participation, free or discounted software is being made available to those who plan to enter, and there is a special prize to schools or colleges who send in entries from their students. Our thanks go to Igor Kokarev (Pictures to Exe software) and Photodex (ProShow Gold software) for their support. If you know young people who would be interested, please encourage them and their schools or colleges to enter. Further details are available at www.rps.org or www.iris-25.rps.org, and the closing date for entries is 21 April.
With, I must admit, some trepidation on account of my not being an imaging scientist, I attended the Good Picture Imaging Chain symposium in December, organised by the Imaging Science Group. I'm very pleased to report that my nervousness turned out to be entirely unnecessary, due to the speakers'
determination to communicate cutting edge concepts of imaging science in a language understandable to the specialist and non-specialist alike. My thanks to Dr Mike Christianson ASIS FRPS, and the Imaging Science Group Committee, for organising such an excellent symposium.
It was a pleasure to open the Colour Group exhibition and to present the awards. If you missed the exhibition in Croydon, it will be on tour during the year. It's good to see so many members given the opportunity to exhibit such a high calibre of work. Thanks to Colour Group Chair David Wood ARPS and his committee, for their hard work in producing this excellent showcase for Society members' talent.