June Group Meeting-AGM-Plus.

Monthly Group Member Meeting-Wednesday 24^th June-2015-7.00 till 9.00pm

The meeting in June will commence at 7.00 pm PROMPT, with the first groups Annual General Meeting, followed by the normal break for refreshments at 8.00 pm.

There will be NO-CHARGES for attendance at the group AGM.

Member’s, will have the opportunity to meet the group committee and ask any further questions they may have about the group, and help by providing any suggestions to improve or enhance the present ways in which the group operates.

We would like as many members to attend the meeting as is possible, to ensure we have everyone’s input to what is being planned by the group, and that any input provided enhances the current format, to ensure this continues successfully into the future.

This will be the last monthly group meeting at the Willowmere-Middlewich, before the Summer break in July and August, re-starting in September, date TBA. However, we plan to have a number of local instructional photo outings during July and August. Watch the group Web Site ( www.watch-it-and-c.co.uk) for details of these increasingly popular outings.

Following the group meeting we plan to have a curry meal at a local Middlewich restaurant where all are invited. Members wanting to attend the meal should make contact with Cliff Astles, using the group e-mail of 21stctncg@gmail.com.

Number of seats / places may well be limited at the restaurant, so please make sure you book early, requesting number of places required. Members will be required to pay for their own food and drinks.

Cliff Astles

Group Chairman.

News about the website! A message from the Webmaster (Mel Smith)

As part of the move to the website, the details of the next meetings and assignments are going to be displayed on the website rather than on the blog. There will be a link to the correct website page on the Facebook events page, but we hope that as you use the website more you will get used to where to find it.

The intention is that, whenever possible, the information will be available on the 19^th of the month. Occasionally, when there is a special event, such as the North Wales Tour, this will appear early to allow for booking time.

Consequently, the 19^th of each month will be the date on which to expect updates to the website. There will be other updates of course, including those which happen automatically. At the moment these include the blog page (which is updated from Cliff’s Google + linked Blogger account) and the Twitter/Facebook feed (which is an automatic feed from the group’s Twitter and fb accounts).

We are looking into the use of a group Flickr account to update the gallery, provide the members’ photos for the slideshow and a source for the Independent newspaper to view and select photos for publication. The logistics of this is being considered by Brian and me at the moment. If you want to share any information can you please message me direct then I don’t risk missing the information on on the fb feed. This will all be officially proposed and discussed once we know it is a viable option. 

This is important, as we need to establish procedures for any members who can’t (or don’t want to) take up this option.  It is an important move for the group as it will reduce the amount of effort for both the organisers of the group and all of the members (No more re-sizing! Hooray!!)

So that all of the members are aware, there are two other major changes about to be dealt with on the website:

1)      The blog

At the moment comments are difficult to post because of the way the blog is distributed. I have started research into this and believe I have a solution. When this is in place (soon) I will inform you all. All members are welcome to submit a blog on a topic which they feel will benefit the group. Please contact Cliff to do this. It will involve you sending a Word (or compatible word processing) document containing the blog to him via email. Only expected submissions from known sources will be opened to avoid viruses etc.

2)      The forum

The forum has had two issues which we want to ensure are solved before we continue to use this particular application. Firstly, not all of the member sign in information was provided to us so we couldn’t identify who was joining the forum. This was an error in the application and we have recently been informed that they have solved the problem but I have not tested it to my satisfaction yet.

The second, and the more serious issue, was that it linked to member’s fb information automatically which potentially displayed far too much information to the wide world of the Internet. As the group does not want to be responsible for this we need to find a solution. Again, as soon as I have then we will let you know. We would like to use the forum as a means to provide Mal’s  photography Q&A (and more).

Mel Smith (Webmaster)

How to transfer large files.

We are currently considering using flickr for our website gallery and to share the monthly photos with the group at meetings. This should simplify things for everyone, more of this to be discussed soon. However, as mentioned in his latest post, Cliff requires the full resolution versions of some of your photos. I suggest you use WeTransfer ( https://www.wetransfer.com/ ).

This website allows you to transfer large (upto 2 Gb) files from one email to another. You fill in the details on the page and then upload the files. Cliff will get an email and he will be able to download the files. You do not need to sign up for the paid service 'WeTransfer plus' if you have more than 2 Gb to send in multiple files, just send them in 2 batches.

You may get asked about cookies. I can reassure you that I have been using this site for years and have had no issues with spam etc. (It does use Google analytics I believe, but then so does almost every site these days and no data provided through that is personally connected to you.)

Hope this makes things easier,
Mel

Getting best use of the group laptop

 

Exciting news!  We are about to buy the laptop to aid training for the group. We need to be clear on the benefits of this laptop and how it can be put to ‘best use’. In order to do this we need your input.

This is very important!........and is costing the group a great deal of the hard earned GRANT Funds.

It is envisaged that the laptop will have two main functions plus a few options to be considered:

• Firstly to provide a means to present information to the group at the regular monthly meetings. Until now we have relied on the use of members’ and guest speakers’ own computers.

• Secondly, the laptop will be loaded with software including, image processing software, MS Office Suite and other  packages which would beneficial to the members of the group. 

 

• The purpose of this will be to enable training on the use of this software to the group through both the monthly meetings and, potentially, on a 1 to 1 or 1 to a smaller group as required. This is the area which we need most input from members as it is important for us to understand what features of training will be of most use and how we can provide this.

 

• Providing Internet connectivity for occasions where it is available for accessing and training on using on-line resources. There are also on-line training resources that could be used such as YouTube features. The provision of ‘interface software’ to allow the connection of other hardware such as tablets, phones etc is also under consideration for future ideas the group is considering.

• With the point above in mind, the group will also have to install, and keep updated, anti-virus software. This will have a recurring annual cost.

 

• The laptop will also be the primary storage place for the administration files of the group. These will be in a separate section from the 'member' section and will be passworded. The password will only be shared with those who need access for administrator duties.

With all of these points in mind , we will put out a poll to gather information in the near future. This would be a good opportunity to test the mailing system that the group has set up recently. With this in mind, here is  a link to enrol on our members’ list on Mail-Chimp which is the package we are using to provide this service. 

http://eepurl.com/bbn-Rb

It is VERY IMPORTANT that each group member enroll on this as this will be our primary list of members to maintain our charity status. It will be used so we may reach ALL members, at the same time, should we need to cancel or postpone a meeting, event or photo outing, at the last minute.

ALL members must be on this list, so we need you to make sure you all register.

Your data is safe and this particular software package, which is used by government departments,  is set up to ensure that we follow both data protection and ‘spamming’ rules about storing and using data.

 

So many improvements, so little time!

Onward and upward,

Cliff Astles,    Mel Smith

Photos for January meeting, 21st Group Website and new policies.

Canal Boat Photos from Photo Outing-Saturday 17th Jan 2015.


You may, if you wish, add a small (10 to 15) photo album to the 21st group Facebook Page, plus you need to make sure you also let me have your own selection of 5 photos to place onto the Member Photo Presentation for Wed Night.  Why only 10 to 15 ? photos, to make sure I do not have to purchase another disk drive :) Members took many hundreds of photos on this trip :)


Website

As most members now know, you can view the new website at

www.watch-it-and-c-.co.uk

This has been designed and created by group member Melody Smith and is available for members to view / use NOW. More and more facilities will be released to enhance and complete the task to make it 100%,  progressively by Melody, over the next few weeks and months.

Members are requested to feed back to Melody any errors they may find or difficulties they have with using the website plus anything they see as being useful to include in the Website.

Proposed Policies

Both Facebook and the website will be used side by side. However we will need to work out the best way to contact members. Entries into this blog can be viewed on both the group Facebook page and website and this is why I am currently using this to announce member meeting details. It would be good to eventually have this blog for reports on events and subjects (camera and tech related) which may be of use to group members. It is hoped that members will also submit blog posts to me for inclusion. All members are welcome to comment on blog posts. Comments will be moderated.

It is proposed that we use Mailchimp to email club members with details of meetings and other information. This way we are not reliant on:

• members being on fb (not all are);
• members signing on to fb to receive important messages;
• fb privacy settings preventing some members seeing 'shared' information;
• members having Facebook posts sent to their phone.

Mailchimp is fully compliant with data protection laws and ensures that the group is handling member data correctly. To enable this to happen we need your email address. Please DO NOT send these by any means that would make them available publicly. A new 'contact details' sheet will be made available for you complete from the web page shortly. If you have any concerns about this proposed change in group policy please contact me (Cliff) in person or via. the group email. If time permits the subject will be discussed at the upcoming meeting.

We will also be looking for keen members to become committee members or sub-committee members. It is envisaged that committee members will represent the whole group and contribute to steering the club's direction; sub-committee members would help with one or two jobs within the club ie. monitoring comments on the blog or forum, updating the website etc.

Onward and Upward.

Cliff

Welcome to our new website and blog by Mel Smith (Webmaster)

 

Please feel free to explore our website at www.watch-it-and-c.co.uk and make any comments on how you feel it could be improved in the future or extra features that you would like to see. We may not be able to cater for everyone but we can try!

If any member of the group has a topic which you would like to 'blog' about then please submit it to a committee member.