THE BEGINNINGS: THE INTERCLUB COMPETITION HISTORY

Rev 5/2011

Churchville has a long history of hosting competitions. We have several competitions among members during each year, and we annually host a print competition open to all photographers with an exhibit of all entries set up in the Nature Center. We also have a long history of showing our work to other Delaware Valley Clubs. In the early years of the Club we belonged to the Delaware Valley Council of Camera Clubs, and sent entries down to Center City for their annual Ray O’Day competition. In 1992 Churchville took first place in the Trade (commercially-made) print division and in 1993 took second place in Slides. Interest in this competition waned however, due to the one-day nature of the exhibit, and the distance.

Since the area clubs share many members, and officers, the idea was broached to have competitions between the clubs. On 2/28/1994 there was a competition held between Churchville and Focal Planes at the Silver Lake Nature Center, limit of 12 entries per person but only 2 in each category of nature and general (color, B&W, slide). Best of Show slide was Marty Malgieri (Indian Woman with rake) and Best of Show Print was Harvey Friedman, Corn Cribs #23 (B&W)
Final Club score was Focal Planes 92 pts vs Churchville 124 pts

On 6 Feb 1995 an Interclub competition was held at Churchville Nature Center with Churchville and Focal Planes again the contestants. This year three entries were allowed from each member in each category. Each category was given awards and entries totaled by club affiliation. This year Churchville had a total of 3521 points and Focal Planes won with 3771.

There was no contest in 1996

The idea of interclub competitions continued to evolve, with the rules gradually being refined. Early years saw the selection of interclub entries being made during a meeting. Recently entries are reviewed at a special gathering of interested members. Charles Wagner, long-time member of Churchville and Focal Planes, offered as a "long -term loan" a wooden trophy depicting a camera to use as the “grand prize” given to the winning club to hold for the year.

On April 21, 1997 the InterClub was held at Churchville with a format close to what is used today. The contestants were Churchville, Focal Planes and Newtown. Each club was allowed 15 prints and 15 slides, with color and B&W prints judged together. No individual awards were given. The results:

CLUB               PRINTS   SLIDES TOTAL PTS.
CPC                      201          213       414
NEWTOWN           205          188       393
FOCAL PLANES      200          191       391

An Interclub Contest for the 1997-1998 club year was held at the Church of God’s Love in Newtown on Dec 18th 1997 with the same three clubs. Churchville won the slide division by two points, lost in prints, and lost overall by two points to Newtown.

November 23, 1998 saw the next InterClub contest at Silver Lake. Each club entered 20 prints and 20 slides.

On December 14th 1999 the InterClub expanded to four clubs and the contest was held at the Jewish Community Center in NorthEast Philadelphia. The results were:

CLUB                PRINTS  SLIDES  TOTAL PTS.
JCC                      366         358        724
FOCAL PLANES      296         359        655
CPC                      312         340       652
NEWTOWN           330         319       649