APS 25 to 40
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Australian Photographic Society Incorporated Twenty-five to Forty Years Compiled by David Oldfield Copyright © 2003 Australian Photographic Society Incorporated All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by The Australian Photographic Society Incorporated, 185 Breton Street, Coopers Plains, Queensland 4108. Contents Foreword ................................................................................................................................ iv 1. The Calm Before the Storm ................................................................................................ 1 2. Interesting Times ................................................................................................................. 7 3. Management and Administration ...................................................................................... 25 4. Image and Australian Photography .................................................................................. 35 5. The Divisions .................................................................................................................... 39 6. Allied Camera Clubs ......................................................................................................... 42 7. Educational Services ......................................................................................................... 45 8. Exhibition Services ........................................................................................................... 47 9. Honours and Awards ......................................................................................................... 52 10. Special Projects ............................................................................................................... 60 11. The Collections ............................................................................................................... 73 12. International Liaison ....................................................................................................... 83 13. Conventions ..................................................................................................................... 90 14. Membership and Finance ................................................................................................ 95 Appendix 1. Abbreviations ................................................................................................... 99 Appendix 2. APS Convention venues ................................................................................. 100 Appendix 3. Presidents of APS ........................................................................................... 101 Appendix 4. Management Committees ............................................................................... 102 Appendix 5. APS Awards ................................................................................................... 104 Appendix 6. FIAP Distinctions ........................................................................................... 107 Appendix 7. APS Honours .................................................................................................. 111 Appendix 8. Membership and Finance................................................................................ 117 Index .................................................................................................................................... 118 iii Foreword This history of the Australian Photographic Society covers the period from the twenty-fifth Annual General Meeting, in 1987, where The Australian Photographic Society Incorporated – The First Twenty-five Years by Heather Howey ended, up to the fortieth AGM in 2002. Chapter headings generally follow those in the earlier volume but the information contained in the appendixes covers the full forty years existence of the Society. As in the earlier volume, photographic honours after photographers‟ names have generally been omitted from the text in the interests of readability and avoidance of repetitive details. Photographic honours awarded by APS and FIAP are listed in the appendixes. The primary sources for information were Management Committee minutes, with valuable additional material from Image magazine and Australian Photography. I would like to thank Tom Tame for providing bound copies of the minutes covering the period July 1987 to June 1989 and Kay Mack for access to copies of the minutes from July 1989 to May 1992 when I joined Management Committee and began to receive copies of the minutes. Thanks are also due to Kay for the chapter on Image and Australian Photography, for finding the first names of early members in the honours appendixes and for proof reading the finished work. I have included quotations from the sources extensively so that the reader can hear the past speaking in its own voice. David Oldfield AFIAP FRPS AAPS HonFAPS September 2003. iv 1. The Calm Before the Storm This is an account of the history of the Australian Photographic Society Incorporated, referred to as APS or the Society, from the date of the twenty-fifth Annual General Meeting in 1987 until the fortieth AGM in September 2002. An account of the first twenty-five years of APS, compiled by Heather Howey has been published.1 This chapter will begin with a snapshot of the Society as it turned 25. As reported to the 25th AGM, held in conjunction with APSCON ‟87 in Perth, the Society ended the previous financial year with 1706 members, a drop of 33 over the previous year.2 Management Committee (MC) for 1986/88 consisted of, President: Brian Rope, Immediate Past President: Roy Berryman, Senior Vice President: Don Svensson, Vice President: Trevor R. Bower, MC Members: Ken Frost, Andrew Henley and Tim Newbery. There were also 17 Executive Directors with a variety of responsibilities to keep the many services and divisions of the Society running efficiently. Members of all Management Committees covered by this history are listed in Appendix 4. Due to the spread of its members across the country a face-to-face meeting of Management Committee and the Executive Directors usually occurred only once a year, at APSCON, the Society‟s annual convention. The President reported in the January 1988 issue of Image magazine that:3 Those members of Management Committee present at Perth held two meetings to discuss a large number of topics. This was very useful even though the lack of a quorum meant no decisions could be made. Nine motions were formulated out of those discussions for consideration by the full membership of Management Committee through our normal monthly postal meetings. There were signs of impending financial strains on the Society in the reported deficit of $4,274 for the 1986/87 financial year. This led the Secretary/Treasurer, John Gough, in the same issue of Image, to urge all members to support the drive to get new members and to retain members who let their membership lapse at the end of each year. The administration of the Society was handled by John Gough in an honorary capacity with Assistant Secretary Margaret Telford and Wendy Spall as paid employees, from a rented office in Surrey Hills, Melbourne. Some of the motions foreshadowed in the President‟s message above resulted in a considerable amount of discussion in MC over the ensuing months. The first was an administrative matter relating to authorisation of cheque signatures by the Secretary/Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer.4 The second, which would, with the benefit of hindsight, have a significant effect on the Society a year later, was that each incoming MC should review the then appointment of the Secretary and determine whether to extend the term or appoint a new Secretary.5 Both of these motions were carried, and so became resolutions, in January 1988. The third motion, which was subsequently defeated, related to a possible amendment to the Constitution to allow MC to appoint a “trainee” for the Secretary.6 One of the reasons for the defeat of this motion was that it was felt that it was not necessary to amend the Constitution to achieve this end. The fourth motion, which was also defeated, was that an honorarium be paid to the Secretary, with the aim of eventually moving to a full time paid Secretary.7 The Secretary/Treasurer provided figures of between $28,000 and $37,000 per annum as the salary which such a person would need to be paid for working seven hours a day for five days a week. The cost of the administrative office, which covered the salaries of the Assistant Secretary and part-time staff, was shown in the 1986/87 accounts as $20,625. A fifth motion, subsequently carried, endorsed enquiries regarding the Society obtaining the status of a charity for taxation purposes.8 It was later found that the Society could not qualify for such status. The sixth motion, subsequently also carried, was a procedural motion concerning the submission of motions for MC.9 The seventh motion, subsequently defeated, was to allow the APS Twenty-five to Forty Years Assistant Secretary to attend a computer training course at a cost of $800.10 The eighth motion, to be carried, was that the then current system of no free Divisions as part of the annual subscription be retained.11 The final motion to originate from the MC discussions in Perth was to give approval in principle