Friday 7thFebruary 2020

Hello everyone and welcome to the New Year.
Nineteen members attended and we were hosted by Ron, standing in for President Norman.  Ron welcomed everyone and mentioned that he had four badges to give out, but only one member was present to collect. A big welcome to Guy West. We hope he enjoys our club and is able to take part in our events.
Ron mentioned a few members who are not well just now and I’ll take this opportunity to send them our best wishes.
Norm Tillack was an absentee.  Can’t blame him for he was celebrating his 83rd birthday. Best wishes to Norm. No one else is fessing up to age.  The blokes are worse than the women.
With the second of his hats on Ron introduced his Secretary’s report.

• Next quarterly comp 6thMarch. Contact Ron if you need a copy of the rules. Entrants must adhere to the current version to avoid being withdrawn.
• Present rules are once again under discussion by committee.
• Meetup up is to be set up for the club.
• For security, two external hard drives are being used to archive Club movies.

Wearing his third hat Ron gave a synopsis of the Treasurers report. 

• We are financial and have 29 members.

Shortcuts were introduced by Gary H. The topic from the last meeting was ‘4’ (the number). 

• The Significance of Four by Elizabeth showed how the number figured in her life including birthdays, dogs, and cars.
• Gary H. showed another of his talents with how to pick a lock. There were four locks and a selection of lock picking tools. He got us all with eenie, meenie, minie, mo; to pick a lock.
• 4 Tunes by Gary D gave us samples of four tunes – as you might expect, but then he blended them into – not exactly a tuneful masterpiece, but it did fit the required profile.
• Philip took us on a short tour of Rydal Water in the English Lakes showing the area in each of the seasons. He then went on to show how Aboriginals have a different view of the time line of seasons compared with the European version.
• Ron illustrated how the number four can be represented in many ways.
• The Four Truths of Budda, by Robert, was a look at how to get the best out of life. For an in depth explanation I must refer you to Robert.
• The Vagaries and Tragedies of weather by June revisited some of the horrors of the Summer.
• Rain and Hail by Mike followed on with an example of a damaging hail storm, with resulting flash flooding.

All were well received and enjoyed. Great efforts.
In his inimitable style, Gary H. democratically told us what the next topic is.
FRUIT -Could be a rotten choice so watch out for tomatoes Gary.
The next section, on programs being used by members, contained so much information that my pen melted as I tried to keep up. So, with only brief notes, I will refer you to the presenters for more information.

• Richard spoke about some routines he uses to manage time and be more efficient. (Richard has already emailed members with more information)
• Helmut demonstrated Power Director by Cyberlink showing how a number of timelines can be combined using chroma keying.
• Philip expressed some disappointment at the way larger companies don’t advance their products once they have captured their part of the market. He has changed from Adobe to Lamina for stills and Corel for video work.
• Gary H. countered with his experience with Adobe products and how they interrelate. He particularly mentioned that knowing the product well he would not want to change. Other products he uses include Sound Snap. Story Block, Digital Juice, Dropbox. Also mentioned, as used by other members was DaVinci Resolve.
• Joe and Gary favourably compared Affinity and Gimp with Adobe. 

Lastly we had presentations from 

• Helmut and Barbara on a holiday at Lake Manyara in Tanzania.
• Ron on water sports at Eildon showing two versions; one from 2020 and the other from 1999. Same characters, but almost twenty years difference in time.
• Norman had sent a drama about reaction to the death of a dancing partner.
• Geoff ‘s movie about a Medieval Pageant recreation in Warragul featured some quite realistic jousting with one rider being unhorsed.

Ron concluded a busy night by thanking all members for participating, John and Helmut for operating the equipment and Robert for handling the supper.
It was a very busy night with which to start the year.
 
Cheers,
 
Jack