Good afternoon Participants,
At an extraordinary general meeting of the Irish Photo Rally cabinet in the early hours of this morning, it was decided to retract our previous decree that we would not post uncollected badges, as it has caused stress and consternation throughout the Irish Photo Rally community.
I did not explain myself properly in my previous communication. The reason we had made the decision was to reduce the workload of the Irish Photo Rally crew - the cost of postage was not a factor. The crew is a very small number of dedicated volunteers who are not remunerated in any way for their work. The reward for the work is the enjoyment of running the Irish Photo Rally.
Irish Photo Rally has grown immensely since its re-inception in 2003. There were approximately 30 participants in 2003 and 226 in 2017, peaking in 2015 with 243 taking part. While there has been a slight lull recently, we are anticipating further growth in the coming years, especially since it went digital. To ensure the sustainability of Irish Photo Rally, we are preparing for this increase in numbers. Part of that preparation is the automation of as many tasks as possible (let the servers do the work, rather than the crew) and removing/reducing tasks that can only be completed manually (e.g posting albums). However, we may have been over-zealous in this regard.
As I mentioned, the cost of postage did not influence our decision - Irish Photo Rally does not make a profit. We aim to break even each year and set the entry fee accordingly (our policy being that if we don't have profit, we can't argue about spending it). If perchance our income slightly exceeds our expenditure in any given year, we donate any excess to charity. It is also worth mentioning that there are one or two participants that provide us with goods or services free, or at cost price, and will not accept recognition or publicity for same. This also helps us to keep the entry fee at a measly €10 per person.
To reiterate, we will be posting badges to anyone who cannot collect them at the awards presentation weekend, but we will not be posting albums. Putting a badge into an envelope, writing the address and putting a stamp on it is a manageable amount of work; packaging albums of various shapes and sizes with bubble-wrap, wrapping paper, stables and sellotape is not.
I have been contacted by the BMW Club Ulster section to say that they will be returning uncollected entries to participants, as normal - I misunderstood their intention when we discussed the matter earlier in the year.
Having said that, if anyone cannot attend the awards weekend, we would urge them to help us reduce our workload by having their badge collected by a friend, family member or enemy.
Thanking you in advance for your cooperation,
Tim and crew.