Reflections on 2018 – Bill Banning, Club President

We’ve had an eventful and positive year in the Channel City Camera Club in 2018. I continue to be impressed with the depth and breadth of activities the club offers to members and guests throughout the year and the relationships we cultivate with members of the local professional photography community. We’re fortunate to have active professionals who support the club by judging and presenting on a regular (and repeating) basis.

This year we implemented some significant changes in our Exhibition Night procedures. While not without controversy, these changes have succeeded in keeping exhibition nights at a reasonable length and offering club members a variety of categories from which to choose at each exhibition night. We offered outstanding program nights and educational content throughout the year. We provided opportunities for one-day field trips that were appreciated and enjoyed by the members who attended, and we continued to offer members opportunities to exhibit work in the Santa Barbara and Goleta libraries. We continue the traditions of socializing in the summer with a club picnic and celebrating in the winter with our annual awards banquet, and we shared information monthly with The Angle, an award-winning digital newsletter.

This year the club surveyed current and past members to get a better sense of what, as a club, we value most and what we’d like to see change. We implemented a comprehensive membership study to consider the effective ways to keep the club’s membership at the best possible levels, and our Board has recently taken action that will put the best ideas from the committee and club members into
practice next year.

Despite the fact that changes are seldom universally appreciated, we’re navigating them well and we remain committed to the Channel City Camera Club as an inclusive and vital resource for all levels of members. There’s a place for those who want to share their photography or their technical and artistic expertise. There’s a place for those who enjoy the opportunity to learn skills and improve their photography through engagement with the club and its members.

As 2018 closes, I look back on my first year as president positively and fondly. I also look forward to next year in anticipation of our continued work and dedication to keeping the club moving forward and responsive to the membership’s diverse interests. Most importantly, I want to express my sincere appreciation for the members of the Club’s Board and for all of the members who have led
and participated in programs, education and training nights, exhibitions (as entrants and as club judges), field trips, and print exhibitions.

It takes enormous dedication of our club leaders to keep the Channel City Camera Club as robust as it has been this year and through a distinguished past. But more than that, it takes engaged members who step up to lead AND those who sit down and fill the seats in Farrand Hall. There’s room for (and need for) every level of engagement. It’s good to know that it all came together in 2018 and looks promising in 2019 and beyond. It’s good to know that it is still going strong after almost 80 years!