All the prints and PDIs are now with the judge – Rikki O’Neill – and the fate of the trophies is in his hands.

There was a surprising downturn in the entries this year, in both sections.  Prints are down from 191 to 136 and the PDIs from 198 to 156.  This is a considerable drop from last year, and bucks the trend, especially for prints, which has been rising for the last few years.   One or two regular contributors did not enter for various reasons this year, but even that does not account for the drop.  Rikki will be happy, however, as I had warned him that there would likely be around 400 images altogether, instead of the 292 which were entered.

Members’ Night, when the trophies will be announced and presented is Friday 21 March, so put that in your diary.  But the exhibition has to be set up first, and we have only two days to do this.  Ray Spence will have given his talk on Wednesday 19 March, and we ask members to take their chairs upstairs at the end of the night.  Then a team will set up the exhibition on the Thursday and Friday.  Although we have one or two diehards helping with this – please come along and give a hand.  The exhibition doesn’t set itself up!

Rikki is unable to be with us on Members’ Night night, but will come to EPS on Wednesday 26 to talk about his choices.  Also, for the first time, the exhibition will be open to the public for two days instead of one as previously.  On Saturday and Sunday, 22 and 23 March the Exhibition will be open from 11am until 5pm .  We need volunteers to man the door and take the gate money (£1).  We need members for three sessions on each day – 11am – 1pm, 1pm – 3pm and 3pm – 5pm.  So please get in touch and offer your services.

We also desperately need help at 5pm to dismantle the exhibition – taking down all the prints, dismantling the display boards, and clearing the Digital Room of chairs, and the projector set-up.  We also need to put chairs back in the Main Hall for the CD group’s meeting on Monday 24.  In previous years a small but dedicated and expert team has done this (apart from replacing the chairs – perhaps the CD Group could collect them on the Monday night – pleeease!) – our record stands at 55 minutes!  But we are always on the lookout for more volunteers to help out.  Again, get in touch.

And finally – if you won a trophy last year, we would like it back, well before the Members’ Night.  And please have it nicely polished before you return it.  Polishing 18 trophies just before handing them over is a task we shouldn’t have to do.

Neil Scott, Members’ Exhibition Secretary

Sunday February 23, 2014