[philbaum]

Some call them camera clubs, but the club i'm currently in, we always labelled it a "photography" club.

When i first joined this club about 6 years ago, it was a going concern. But our members are moving on to other interests, e.g. some have joined galleries, other clubs like Audubon, moved out of the area, etc. For a long time, we didn't have an outreach program and that now seems to be hurting us. In fact one of our founding members used to suggest that we really didn't need new members. Course that approach is doomed as there are always losses for one reason or another.

We used to have competitions, field trips, etc., but the number of members willing to help put on such activities has dwindled. And members seem to pick and choose which meetings to attend, like tuning one's television to watch. Because of the lack of anyone else willing to do it, i have now become the club President. One of the things i've always enjoyed about a club is sharing each other's love or passion for the art of photography. We still have some members that have the passion, but too many members have this sort of blank look on their face, like they are waiting for the entertainment to start.

I'm retired, joined a gallery about a year ago, contribute free photgraphy services to a playhouse organization, besides belonging to this club. I don't fancy being an "entertainment" director for this club. I and the vice-president have tried over the last year and a half to get ideas from the members, to put on programs that will interest them, and mostly to no avail. Very frustrating to try different programs and to get so little help and basically indifference from the membership.

We have this one member who acted like i was his employee. He'd say well you should do this or do that. So eventually i turned to him and said something like: Robert - thats a great idea, i'm going to put you in charge to implement that idea. Thank you very much. You never saw a person back out of a suggestion so quickly. He just wanted to criticize, not to be part of the solution.

I've decided to give advance notice and to resign the position in two months. I really like some of the members, but if the club folds, i can continue to meet them outside the club. Sadly, noone else apparently wants to be President of this club.

Is it just my club, or are other camera or photography clubs also finding it difficult to survive in this new culture????

[derekkite]

Some call them camera clubs, but the club i'm currently in, we always labelled it a "photography" club.

When i first joined this club about 6 years ago, it was a going concern. But our members are moving on to other interests, e.g. some have joined galleries, other clubs like Audubon, moved out of the area, etc. For a long time, we didn't have an outreach program and that now seems to be hurting us. In fact one of our founding members used to suggest that we really didn't need new members. Course that approach is doomed as there are always losses for one reason or another.

We used to have competitions, field trips, etc., but the number of members willing to help put on such activities has dwindled. And members seem to pick and choose which meetings to attend, like tuning one's television to watch. Because of the lack of anyone else willing to do it, i have now become the club President. One of the things i've always enjoyed about a club is sharing each other's love or passion for the art of photography. We still have some members that have the passion, but too many members have this sort of blank look on their face, like they are waiting for the entertainment to start.

I'm retired, joined a gallery about a year ago, contribute free photgraphy services to a playhouse organization, besides belonging to this club. I don't fancy being an "entertainment" director for this club. I and the vice-president have tried over the last year and a half to get ideas from the members, to put on programs that will interest them, and mostly to no avail. Very frustrating to try different programs and to get so little help and basically indifference from the membership.

We have this one member who acted like i was his employee. He'd say well you should do this or do that. So eventually i turned to him and said something like: Robert - thats a great idea, i'm going to put you in charge to implement that idea. Thank you very much. You never saw a person back out of a suggestion so quickly. He just wanted to criticize, not to be part of the solution.

I've decided to give advance notice and to resign the position in two months. I really like some of the members, but if the club folds, i can continue to meet them outside the club. Sadly, noone else apparently wants to be President of this club.

Is it just my club, or are other camera or photography clubs also finding it difficult to survive in this new culture????

This is a pretty good club, right here on the forum. I've met and gone shooting with individuals here, even though I'm in a small town a ways away from anywhere else. We swap hardware, talk shop, argue, etc. It is really hard to beat for a constant input of information and sharing of shots. Plus there are separate spheres of interest, some into flash hardware, long lenses, wide angle, landscape, others no pictures but lots of opinions . So what the meetings accomplished, the tech support, exchange of information and similar has been replaced.

What this place can't do is trudge through a swamp, pick up a friend early morning to capture the magical light, set up on some hillside for night shooting, or similar. Maybe if there is a local club that is the type of thing to organize; more a clearinghouse of information, contacts and a way to grab a companion for a shoot.

[jatrax]

I actually was not aware there even was such a thing as a photography club until a short time ago. Personally I would probably join and be active if there was one near me but since I live in the woods there isn't.

I have joined some Facebook groups, which possibly are the modern equivalent. Here is one that is very active: https://www.facebook.com/groups/oregonphotographers/
Does your club have a Facebook page? Maybe that is a way to get members to interact on a regular basis in the modern, busy world.

I briefly belonged to a wood turners club and really enjoyed the meetings, but everyone was "old retired guys" who knew each other and seemed to have the same attitude your founding member had "we don't need any new members". Would have stuck it out but it was an hour and half drive to the meeting and after missing a couple because of work I just quit going.

I think the key to an active group is constant engagement at a level busy people can deal with. Online forums, Facebook and so on. That combined with regular programs might help. Just my 2 cents....

[tim60]

You raise a really interesting question about whether you need the formalisation of an association. My observation now is that with social media, easy communication with mobiles etc people tend to organise their lives more casually, doing what suits them at the minute. Also, work imposing itself more and more beyond standard (predictable schedule) hours has a similar effect. Therefore interest groups are harder to fit in. But three or four like minded people, from the membership, can arrange all kinds of interesting things to do together at times that suit them.


The informal gathering of friends with no ties, such as booking a meeting place, bank accounts, assets of any kind, mailing (contact) lists avoids many legal hassles such as registering an association, compliance with registration requirements, and potential for liability for actions of others. (Notice the current problem of churches and similar requiring that any member who takes any kind of formalised role get police clearance - because of the concerns about child abuse. Otherwise the association might be responsible in some way for the action of one.) It also overcomes the problem of whether the activities suit the interests etc of members.


I have seen a similar thing in another association to which I am linked. They have some activities which usually get a good number of attendees, but they have some assets (sit at my house) but many of the members have marginal interest. But another association I helped establish had to have the formalities because its purpose was to collect and expend money as a charity.

[TaoMaas]

It's always a bit difficult to get people to step up and take on roles within a photography club. For a long time, our officers just kind of rotated because there weren't other members who were willing to contribute. Luckily, we had an influx of people who were more pro-active and now we have a pretty diverse set of officers. I don't know how your club is structured, but ours meets twice each month. One meeting is a program and the other is a competition meeting. We also try to go on field trips most months (weather permitting) and hold several workshops throughout the year. The general idea was to try and teach our members through our programs, give them somewhere to try what they learn by going on field trips, then offer a way to get feed back on your pics via the competition, although that just a general philosophy. The programs, field trips, and competitions aren't tied directly together. We also hold special competitions during the year where the subjects are assigned. Some subjects are very general. The next one coming up is simply, "Texture". But some assigned subjects are intended to urge our members to try new techniques. Last year we had "HDR" and "Vertorama". You've got to bring in new members, though, IMO. That's what keeps things fresh.

[Wolfeye]

I think a lot of clubs, activities, groups members tend to think they are not qualified to lead, so they never ask to do so if there are strong leaders already in place. You pretty much have to keep it as a going concern where everyone must partake of leadership roles or they aren't allowed to be in the club. That said, there are certainly shy people who fear being out in front more than anything. Slide shows, in darkened rooms, are great ways for them to take charge and show their work, but without the drama of being "out front".

I used a slide projector show to overcome my near paralysis in public speaking. Now people can't get me to shut up.

[Murfy]

We have a lot of clubs near me. Some are very official and some I just see on meetup. I joined one, paid dues for the year, and they talked about all the presentations they had and gallery shows and competitions and I just found it was a bunch of people who wanted to prove they were a better photographer than someone else. I went to one presentation on matting and someone else argued with how it should be correctly done (he was wrong). So I joined another one and that one so far has been much friendlier and supportive. I guess it depends on the people in the group. I drive 15 minutes further to go to the friendlier group, 40 minutes one way. They seem to be more open and 'hey I am shooting here if anyone wants to go' via listserv or facebook, which works better for me than attending monthly meetings, which the other group pushed, and only communicated with members at the meeting. If the group is more welcome to new members and work with odd schedules, i am more likely to put the time in.

[VisualDarkness]

I'm in three local clubs, two of them student are student ones, and countless of internet communities. I think the club thing is moving with the rest of the society to a looser global thing with only a couple of small or key ones left as a physical thing.

[BrianR]

I've been in a local club for about 5 years, it's existed almost 60 years. The membership has always fluctuated, we've more than doubled since I joined and we've had to move meetings to a new location. We are very informal, but with a small yearly fee to pay for room booking, projector, nibbles, etc. Most of the members do participate in the monthly friendly slideshows, but it is usually a smaller core that does the organizing. We're a 'self-serve' club, if someone wants a speaker or a workshop it probably won't happen unless they organize it (more experienced members will guide though).

We do have a website, facebook page, flickr group, etc. The online participation isn't really huge given the size of our group, but they do work for notices and I suppose advertising. There just isn't a good platform that people will universally use for online discussions. Facebook is the most used in our group but honestly I think it's horrid for any sort of discussion or image sharing. I can't handle its ephemeral nature.

There are a couple of 'Facebook only' photo groups near me, but they're largely the 'pat on the back' image sharing type (not that this is always a bad thing). I really, really hope these don't push face-to-face clubs to the fringe.

[derekkite]

There is a real need among new camera owners for help. It can be overwhelming to grasp all the basic technique. Even seeing something as simple as an ARCA swiss mount, or some basic post processing. I would think it would be in the interest of vendors to have this kind of help available.

I was in a shop one where they had a good collection of gimbals and various mounting hardware. The sales people didn't seem to know what they were good for. They aren't inexpensive, but there was a fellow who has an expensive 70-200 zoom he used to shoot his kids sports, and was frustrated by a ball head. I think I may have sold one just by describing how I used it.

An old boys club unwelcome to newcomers won't be around for long. This is a better place for that; the distance prevents fistfights.

[disconnekt]

I think it shifted from being a "Physically get-together photography club" to a "Online get-together photo club (aka Forums)" about 10 or so years ago with the internet being so readily available and nowadays cheaper (and faster) to get by everybody, especially for those who are getting into photography.

[FantasticMrFox]

Photography is in itself a solitary activity - there is no need for someone else to have a match with, no need for a team, no one to compete against. All you need is your gear and yourself.

Nonetheless, our university has a photography society which when I joined about half a year ago wasn't especially alive, but is growing bigger and more active now. We're mostly having tutorials for beginners where more experienced members talk about a certain type of photography first and then follow up with some actual shooting. A week ago I gave a presentation on night photography (how to use a tripod, everything about self-timer, mirror lockup etc.) and afterwards we went out into the city and took pictures of illuminated buildings. Next week one of our members who is a basketball coach and pretty decent sports photographer will give a presentation on sports photography and afterwards we'll take pictures of a match of the university's basketball team. We're also planning a field trip to the highlands in spring.

Usually around 15 to 20 people show up for the events, the most popular one we had (light painting in the park) attracted over 30 people. In addition to these events we've got a core of more experienced members who sometimes just meet up informally to take pictures together.

All of us are students between 18 and 26 or so, by the way.

[boriscleto]

Here in Syracuse there is a traditional camera club, and 2 meetup.com groups. I'm a member of the meetup groups and have no interest in the cameral club.

I've only been to a few meetups of the Syracuse Photographers Association, they have a meetup about once a month, even if just a social gathering for drinks.

CNY Photographers is a bit more formal. It used to be called Northern Exposure, but that fell apart over the summer. We now have dues to help pay the meetup.com fees, one theme meeting a month, and at least one photo shoot a month. I even met a couple that use Pentax.

[narual]

I'm in a club, but most of the members there seem to be very much beginners, even after many years of membership. Many of the photos they showcase are OK. Better than snapshots. But there are only a couple of photographers that regularly seem to have great shots. The members here on PF are far, far more knowledgeable and I've learned a lot more here than from the club.

[philbaum]

There is a real need among new camera owners for help. It can be overwhelming to grasp all the basic technique. Even seeing something as simple as an ARCA swiss mount, or some basic post processing. I would think it would be in the interest of vendors to have this kind of help available.

I was in a shop one where they had a good collection of gimbals and various mounting hardware. The sales people didn't seem to know what they were good for. They aren't inexpensive, but there was a fellow who has an expensive 70-200 zoom he used to shoot his kids sports, and was frustrated by a ball head. I think I may have sold one just by describing how I used it....

Well there is probably no one solution for everyone and every situation. Like Derek, i had the advantage of belonging to a club soon after buying my first DSLR. One of the club members routinely gave LR lessons at his home about once a year. Learning processing software with the help of others to get get started is so much easier than doing it on your own, IMO. Doesn't mean that one can't learn on their own, of course.

Thanks to everyone that replied; lots of good comments.

We presently are on the meetup hosting system. It has brought us some new members, but many register and never show up as far as i know. Also i think any pictures you show can be used by the Meetup company in any way they choose.

I'd encourage everyone not to judge clubs by going to just one club. Clubs vary enormously with regard to their emphasis and organization. If you benefited in some way from a club, please consider giving back to that club in some way - it helps keep clubs going.