This has been a very busy and exciting year for the club and next year promises to be equally, if not more, exciting. As you know we started the year by moving into our new premises, which has worked out very well. Just as we faced the challenges of our new venue, we also have to face the challenges of the changes in photography and to take advantage of the ever changing technology, which whether we like it or not, is not going to go away! If we don't change with the times we will fall behind. I personally believe there is room for both traditional forms of photography and the ever popular Digital photography and at the end of the day it is the end result, the final image, that is important, rather than the means to get it. This does present us with a challenge when putting together our programme - trying to cater for both forms of photography, something that will appeal to the longer-term members as well as newcomers - something that will appeal to more advanced members and novices alike. We have listened to feedback from you and I hope we have managed to address some of these issues in next year's programme which you will hear about in the not too distant future.

So what else has your committee been up to? Well let's see:

● You are reading this, the first edition of our online Skylight. The benefits of this are reduced costs, more articles and images and once published it will be available whenever you want to go and read it - you don't have to worry about trying to remember where you put your paper copy! If you don't have accesses to the Internet then don't worry, so long as you let Graham know he will print a copy off for you. Please let us have your feedback on what you think about it. We will be able to have more editions, if we get the articles coming in and it would be good to see articles from different members, as I am sure you don't want the same people writing all the time! You can write about your holidays or other exciting things you get up to, you can write a bit about yourself, your photographic experiences, your views of the club or other photography subjects, hints and tips, anything really that you think other members would be interested in and of course your images! Maybe in future we can include Announcements or Articles for Sale/Wanted - what do you think?

● Website revamp - our industrious Web Master, Dave Porter, has been busy working on the montage images entered into the competition, to spice up our web pages and make the site look as though it belongs to a photographic club. He regularly updates it with the results of our competitions and there are also details about external competitions, exhibitions and events - why not have a go at entering some of them, especially those with good prizes! The Web Site is vital to the club, we get a lot of new members through it and it is a good way of letting you know what is going on.

● PCC Members Exhibition. Mike Leonard looked into the possibility of holding an exhibition to show the members work within the club. He looked into various venues and for this year, in September, we will be holding an exhibition at LopLop, at the bottom of Poole High Street. This has been well supported with the quota for the maximum number of members participating being quickly fulfilled - there was a limit because of the capacity of the venue, so sorry if you didn't manage to get in this time, but if this is successful we will continue to look at other possibilities.

● Twinning with Oz. When Sheila went to Australia she went along to a Camera Club in Sydney. As a result they were keen to hold competitions with us and to see how clubs in the UK worked. We have been liaising with Sydney regarding the logistics and technical considerations for this and plan to hold a dummy run of the competition this April, in preparation for two real competitions with them, which are included in next years programme. I think we will be the first camera club in SAPA to hold international competitions with camera clubs abroad - quite an achievement!

● Digital Competitions in SAPA. SAPA clubs currently compete against each other for slides and prints and have been looking into extending this with Digital competitions. They have produced draft rules and much discussion has taken place over this. This will involve a fair bit of work, both within SAPA and the individual clubs and whilst keen to progress with this competition, it was decided not to rush into it this year and wait a while until individual clubs have become more familiarised and experienced in Digital competitions and the technology within their own clubs.

● Lottery Grant. Most clubs within SAPA have now got Digital equipment (Digital projectors, laptops, screens etc) and have acquired these as a result of funding obtained through a lottery grant. We need to be prepared for when SAPA are ready to hold Digital competitions, so need to purchase the equipment and make sure we are confident in using it for competitions. It is not only for competitions though - more speakers and members who are producing Digital images need the equipment to show their presentations. We also need it for tuition on Digital aspects, i.e. Photoshop. It is a minefield, as there are so many options for equipment and technology is moving forward all the time. Gordon has been carrying out a lot of research, checking the web and contacting other clubs who have been through this process and we now have a shopping list of the equipment (hardware and software) we would like. The application for a lottery grant involves a substantial amount of paperwork, but before you even start, you need to formulate a project involving the community. After much thought and consideration we propose to hold an external Photographic competition on Dorset and work in partnership with Lewis Manning to produce a calendar of the winning entries. We also intend to show the images on the laptop to various residential homes in the area that may be interested in seeing them. We are currently in the process of completing the paperwork, which then takes about 8 weeks to get a response, so watch this space. We are unable to start the project until we get the go -ahead, but assuming we do get approval, then we can start purchasing and setting up the equipment during the summer break - ready for use next season.

As you can see then, we have been kept very busy and I thank everyone on the committee for all their enthusiasm, dedication, commitment and time in pursuing these projects. There is still more to do though and as I started by saying, next year also promises to be very exciting, as these changes get implemented. If you would like to take part in any of these ongoing activities (you don't have to be a committee member) or want to know more details on any of these then, please let me know.

Lyn