1. Competitions are open to all members who have paid the current year’s subscription. Where practical the competition secretary will appoint a qualified judge from outside the Society.
2. Members may enter up to 4 images in any category
3. Entries must be the original work of the exhibitor and not the reproduction of another author’s work.
4. Entries may be colour or monochrome, home or commercially processed subject to specific competition rules.
5. All entries must be clearly marked with the member’s current season membership number and each entry titled. Prints must be mounted and slides spotted in the bottom left hand corner when the slide is viewed normally. Prints must be mounted so that when stacked they do not damage other prints.
6. The maximum size for prints, including the mount is 20 inches by 16 inches. The minimum size for prints should be 7 inches by 5 inches excluding the mount.
7. Digital entries for projection must be JPEGs saved at maximum quality with a maximum size of 1024 pixels horizontally or 768 pixels vertically. They must also be in the sRGB colour space to ensure correct display.
8. Digital entries should have the member’s number in the Author box in the images properties section.
9. Entries for all competitions should be submitted to the competitions secretary by the end of the meeting on the dates specified in the programme unless prior arrangements are made with the competition secretary.
10. Entries may be rejected and awards taken away if the rules are not complied with as determined by the competition secretary or committee.

SET SUBJECT COMPETITIONS
11. The subject for the current season is shown in the program.
12. The SPOT COMPETITION prize is awarded to the projected image which best interprets the subject given in the seasons programme.
13. THE BORDER COUNTIES ADVERTISER CUP is awarded to the print which best interprets the subject given in the season’s programme.

ANNUAL CHALLENGE TROPHY COMPETITIONS
14. Images must not have been entered in any previous challenge trophy competitions.
15. THE ROSEBOWL is awarded for the best projected image of a floral subject in any habitat (garden, indoors etc).
16. CARTRIDGE WORLD CUP is awarded to the best projected image of animal life in any habitat (domestic, farm, zoo etc.).
17. EDDIE KEVILL MEMORIAL CUP is awarded for the best projected image of a natural history (flora or fauna) subject in its natural habitat. Minor changes may be made to the image but the integrity of the subject must not be compromised.
18. PRINTER OF THE YEAR trophy is awarded to the best home processed print produced entirely by the entrant. Up to four prints may be entered by each member at the Social Evening and Prize Night. The competition is judged on the night.
19. THE REFLEX SHIELD is awarded to the best projected image of any subject in the ‘Challenge the Judge’ Competition.
20. THE JOHN MARSH INTERIM CUP is awarded to the best print of any subject in the ‘Challenge the Judge’ competition.

BEST OF SEASON COMPETITIONS
21. Prints and slides must not have been entered in any previous “best of season competitions”.
22. KATHERINE MARSH TROPHY is awarded for the best projected image of the season
23. JOHN MARSH CHALLENGE CUP is awarded for the best print of the season.

CHAIRMAN’S TROPHIES
24. Prints and projected images must not have been entered into any previous Chairman’s trophies competitions.
25. The Chairman’s trophies competition is an open competition.
26. CHAIRMAN’S TROPHY FOR PRINTS is awarded to the best print as judged by the members of the Society.
27. CHAIRMAN’S TROPHY FOR PROJECTED IMAGES is awarded to the best projected image as judged by the members of the Society.

RULES FOR COMPETITIONS JUDGED BY A MEMBER OR MEMBERS
28. Only members have the right to vote on internal competitions.
29. Where a single member is appointed judge the judge’s decision is final and no correspondence shall be entered into.
30. Where the Society's members vote on images this shall be done by secret ballot using ballot papers supplied by the competition secretary.
31. Members may NOT vote for their own images.
32. Points will be awarded as follows five points for each first place given to an image, three points for the second place and two points for the third place, each image that has not been awarded any points through the competition shall be awarded one point for entering the competition.
33. The image with the most points shall be deemed the winner of the competition.
Where two or more images have the same number of points in the winning position, in the first case the image with most amount of first places shall win or if there is a tie for first places, then the image with the larger number of second places as opposed to firsts shall win. If after the above there is no clear winner the President shall choose the winner, under the condition that the person choosing the winner shall not decide over his or her own image

ALL COMPETITIONS
34. COPYRIGHT is an automatic right of the author. The copyright of any entry is retained by the author.
35. DIGITAL IMAGING – Authorship of all original images should be the entrants. Copyright free, Clip art, Royalty free or Copyright expired is inadmissible. This follows MCPF guidance April 2000