Kirkintilloch Camera Club

Due to Covid we are online at this time. Our website has any needed information. When we open up in September if your not a member you can dip your toes and see if you like it before joining officialy. The season runs from September to April with weekly meetings currently being held by Zoom on a Monday evening at 7.30pm. Give it a try wherever you stay.

What follows is my experience of the club, and my experience only.To be fair I never met anyone at the club, due to the pandemic. My experience may have been different had I met people in person.On zoom sessions I never found the club welcoming. I was not asked to introduce myself as a new member and, bar the secretary, no-one made an effort to introduce themselves to me.Getting into any new environment can be difficult, but when you are an aspiring photographer, and you are faced with some excellent work by other members it can be quite intimidating and off-putting; especially when you want to share some of your own work.I was unable to attend many Monday sessions due to work - no other reason. A club member had suggested another group to me for getting ideas and tips and it worked for me purely from the perspective that meetings fell on a Saturday morning.Earlier this year I decided to make an effort to integrate myself into KCC. I posted one of my pictures (attached) on the club Facebook page, which could not be construed as negative, and a narrative, as above, detailing why I could not attend club meetings. The picture and narrative where approved and liked by a few members, however someone took offence at my narrative and the post was taken down without consultation.At the time the Facebook KCC group rule stated they could take down a picture that was construed as negative, but not a narrative; they have subsequently changed this. I found this fairly poor and not very encouraging for new members. It was very off-putting.The club should have consulted me first, especially when they removed a picture that was not offensive. It was poorly handled.As a result I asked for a full refund of my fees, due to the fact they had not followed their own rules (at the time) and there had been no attempt to ask me to consider editing my narrative before taking it down.It should be noted that I do not know if the club followed it's own complaints procedure (if they have one) as I was not sent a copy. The chairperson, who initially approved my post, was fair throughout and asked the committee to consider my request for a refund, which they subsequently declined, only offering a pro-rata payment of roughly £13.At no point, did anyone in the club, try to offer me a way back into the club as a new and aspiring member. It was, in my opinion, poor, and what came across, I am sad to say, was the battening down of hatches and circling of wagons from a club that appears to not be overly welcoming to new members or complaints.On this basis I would not recommend KCC.