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[LN11AAB498A]

The monthly photo completion is always a good watch. I hope you find these ideas, to extend what we have, interesting.

(1) Photo of the Year Vote.

All 12 winning photos go forward to an annual vote. An appropriate name might be - Photo2Finish or A Photo2Finish2021

(2) Series 2 Club Calendar. (LROI have similar)

Featuring all 13 winning photo`s. But, big but, how to get it out in time for the New Year. That could be resolved by having our photo year begin in September, for example.

(3) Themed Monthly Comp.

Each month would have a selected category e.g. Countryside - City - Weird - Farm - Family -
Muddy2Day - Holiday - Snow - Animals - Water - Mechanicals. Choose your own category list.

(4) Charity Donation.

I thought it would be nice to align ourselves to a LOCAL charity (changed annually) and to donate some or all of the profits from the club calendar. In itself a great thing to do but also a nice bit of club promo. My suggestion would be to donate to one, or more, of the 44 regional Air Ambulances (changed annually). https://theairambulanceservice.org.uk/

What are your thoughts 
 

[Malcolm R]

I like the idea of a photo of the year, it would also serve as a reminder at the end of each year of the previous photo of the month winners. I don't remember seeing any of the photos after the winners announcement (although obviously I could go and look back at them) so an end of year review would be nice to see, even if we didn't vote for a best one. A look back at all the photos of the month could also make a nice page of the B2L magazine (unless the photos are already featured there? I haven't checked)

The calendar with charity donation is a nice idea but I'm not really sure I would buy one. Calendars aren't really my things but if there was enough interest to have some made I might possibly end up buying one for the workshop.

Those are just my thoughts

Malcolm

[Wittsend]

PoMs are supposed to end up in the PoM photo gallery on the web site.

Updating it is not at the top of my list of things to do.

Looking back at the PoMs there are some cracking photos that stand the test of time.

Holding stock of a hard copy printed calendar is out of the question.

Years ago we have done a few calendars and always we get stuck with unsold stock.

People buy calendars for the coming year in November/Christmas time.
A calendar would need to be heavily publicised in the Autumn issue of B2L (deadline for copy September) and the Winter B2L (deadline November).
The calendar pictures need collecting and organised well in advance - as pointed out ^^^

These days there are many online printing services that will assemble a calendar for you for little money.
You send them the pictures and they do the work.
Rather than carry a stock of calendars to be kept by the club shop - as system whereby someone who wants a calendar orders online directly would be a better business model for us. No financial risk to the club.
Adding a £ or 2 to the cost - for a charity donation might also be possible.


There is nothing to stop a club area from choosing a local charity and raising funds for them over the course of a year or from just one event.
The organisers of the club's annual rally can choose a good cause of their choice.
This year any funds raised from the raffle will go to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

You need to choose your charity/good cause with care.
Most of the well know national charities are a rip off - a national disgrace.
CEO's on large salaries in glass place offices in London on full ex's 
Ask how much of your £1 donated actual goes to help someone

Charity begins at home. Local good causes are more deserving.

To Summarise:

We are not grumpy negative people, we have to be practical.
If someone wants to take this on and co-ordinate a calendar and see how it goes - feel free.

Please note:
Next week I'll be at the club's rally in Ripon.
The set up for the July PoM will be a few days late, when I get home.
(We may be able to include some pics from the rally)

I can then think about updating the PoM gallery.
Somewhere I think I have all the images from when I first thought up the idea.
Not all the PoMs make B2L but recently they have been used as the banner on the club's Facebook page.

[Jonny72]

The monthly photo completion is always a good watch. I hope you find these ideas, to extend what we have, interesting.

(1) Photo of the Year Vote.

All 12 winning photos go forward to an annual vote. An appropriate name might be - Photo2Finish or A Photo2Finish2021

(2) Series 2 Club Calendar. (LROI have similar)

Featuring all 13 winning photo`s. But, big but, how to get it out in time for the New Year. That could be resolved by having our photo year begin in September, for example.

(3) Themed Monthly Comp.

Each month would have a selected category e.g. Countryside - City - Weird - Farm - Family -
Muddy2Day - Holiday - Snow - Animals - Water - Mechanicals. Choose your own category list.

(4) Charity Donation.

I thought it would be nice to align ourselves to a LOCAL charity (changed annually) and to donate some or all of the profits from the club calendar. In itself a great thing to do but also a nice bit of club promo. My suggestion would be to donate to one, or more, of the 44 regional Air Ambulances (changed annually). https://theairambulanceservice.org.uk/

What are your thoughts 
 

Great ideas Angle Grinder

The ‘photo2finish’ annual competition sounds fun!

I like the suggestion to have a S2C charity calendar also, with Air Ambulances being a great suggestion for charitable donations - I’d support that, especially as print-runs / postage can be customised according to orders paid to avoid wasted stock.

The @Series2Club Instagram page has picked up ~2,900 followers over the last couple of months (non-photographers or those over 30 might not be so familiar with Instagram admittedly) - some of the best Series 2 photos are shown there, and members also can tag their photos for inclusion.

[LN11AAB498A]

The calendar pictures need collecting and organised well in advance - as pointed out ^^^

You need to choose your charity/good cause with care.
Most of the well know national charities are a rip off - a national disgrace.
CEO's on large salaries in glass place offices in London on full ex's 
Ask how much of your £1 donated actual goes to help someone

Charity begins at home. Local good causes are more deserving.

We are not grumpy negative people, we have to be practical.

Very good points. Of course I appreciate an idea, even a good idea, can be far removed from the feasibility of making it happen, real difficulties involving other peoples time and often a logistical burden.

As for charities, I totally agree and that's why I made it clear, in capitals, they should be LOCAL. The tv networks show the ugly side of charity advertising. A pernicious campaign aimed primarily at the vulnerable and elderly . Remember when a charity would ask for "as little or as much as you can afford". Now, its a MONTHLY MINIMUM e.g. £5 a Month.

Adopt a snow leopard and we`ll send you a cuddly toy and a load of old bumph for your money.
 
PS. Never thought of you as grumpy Alan, keep up the good work 

[Genem]

We are not grumpy negative people, we have to be practical.
If someone wants to take this on and co-ordinate a calendar and see how it goes - feel free.

On the calendar point, one of our Forum members used to create and sell a Calender online, I've not seen it advertised for a while. There is probably a good reason for that :-)

Themes ?  We did an article in B2L featuring peoples dogs..... a lot of us have dogs and photos of them are popular....but another member was outraged that the magazine was "just full of dog photos"... Can't win.

I like the idea of a photo of the year though ?

[Wittsend]

So we currently have a "Picture of the Month" competition.
We can easily extend it to "Picture of the Year".

And why not a GOAT Picture (Greatest of all Time)


 

[LN11AAB498A]

And why not a GOAT Picture (Greatest of all Time)

A goat picture, you are kidding      
           

[Ndrwdz]

I'll speak to our friendly local printer (who is a member) about costs / quantities etc.
He's busy repairing a fried diff at the moment 

Andrew
Club Shop Manager

[Genem]

I'm sorry, I don't agree with the idea of printing a Calendar unless its pre-ordered in significant quantity and paid for in advance. They are literally "dated" as soon as they are printed, utterly useless sitting on a shelf early in the New Year. Our absolute maximum sale is just over 2000 but no-way will we get anywhere near that level.  I had a quick look at the cost of 14 pages of A4, wire bound, good quality print etc - £918 + VAT for 1000, so the basic cost is not the problem - its how many would we actually sell. Note that at that rate the postage would exceed the cost of the item ( £1.99 for a 2nd class large letter).   

I think it was Bioheat who produced one, maybe even a coupe of years worth. He may be willing to give us a heads up on how many were sold ? 

I think its way more effort than its worth, but if people are willing to put the effort in then we should at least "compare the market" - how many people would buy one at say £3.50 - £4.00  if it were available ?     

[DogDave]

No idea on the history of the club doing but I have been involved with two calendars for different charities, both were a lot of hassle to get above break even and neither charity repeated the excersise. There is so much competition and as been mentioned above is very time sensitive.

From my limited experience fundraising other merchandise can work better, especially if something less people are doing but you need a good outlet as well as someone willing to coordinate it.

[Jonny72]

I'm sorry, I don't agree with the idea of printing a Calendar unless its pre-ordered in significant quantity and paid for in advance. They are literally "dated" as soon as they are printed, utterly useless sitting on a shelf early in the New Year. Our absolute maximum sale is just over 2000 but no-way will we get anywhere near that level.  I had a quick look at the cost of 14 pages of A4, wire bound, good quality print etc - £918 + VAT for 1000, so the basic cost is not the problem - its how many would we actually sell. Note that at that rate the postage would exceed the cost of the item ( £1.99 for a 2nd class large letter).   

I think it was Bioheat who produced one, maybe even a coupe of years worth. He may be willing to give us a heads up on how many were sold ? 

I think its way more effort than its worth, but if people are willing to put the effort in then we should at least "compare the market" - how many people would buy one at say £3.50 - £4.00  if it were available ?     

If the Club raised subs just little bit, it might help cover the cost of sending a nice S2C calendar out with the Winter Edn of B2L.

[AlexB]

Indeed

However, I wouldn't want one, so an increase purely to cover that wouldn't go down that well with me

[Genem]

Ditto, I'd not want one nor thank the club for putting unwanted "extras" in the post to me. One reason I gave up my LRO subscription was that I felt I was obviously paying too much if they could afford to send me bits of junk every so often... that and not being interested in most of the vehicles featured.

[Wittsend]

I wouldn't want a freebie calendar nor one to buy from the shop.

I would want to see some market research that showed there was a significant demand.

Calendars were popular 20 to 10 years ago.

These days we have our calendars on our phones.