[Cathus]

ABERS,

The impression I get is that people join the RPS in order to display letters after their names. I guess if people were only bothered about achieving a standard, & not the letters albeit a standard set by a particular club, they wouldn't be displaying the letters after their name (one only has to check camera club membership list, judging & speakers lists to see how many people do - though I accept you'd never know how many don't display as you wouldn't know they were members if they didn't put letters after their names).

Aren't the RPS awards a 'one off' i.e. you get them on the basis of submission of a panel of photos, you just have to remain a member in order to show others you achieved the one off?

I thought the RPS stuff was judged by a group of judges who decided if it met the required standard, is this not what the MPAGB awards is decided on, you have to reach a set mark? How are they decided upon differently.

I admit my knowledge of this part of the genre of photography is not great as I've not tried for anything but I've heard that work which most people would consider as extremely good can get absolutely slaughtered by RPS judging panels to the extent of causing some embarassment (maybe that's just some individual judges at the time), and some genres, such as sports photography, get quite short shrift despite the skill levels required to obtain high quality body of work in that field.

And the 'so what' part of your question would be that if I put sufficient work to achieve an award I don't think it's morally right that I have to pay in order to advertise the fact that I achieved that award. I accept that them's the rules of that club, so that's probably part of the reason that I don't really want to be a member of that club, it just gives me the impression that the society feels like it's a superior group.