Introduction
This page aims to provide club syllabus and competition secretaries with all that they will need to book judges and lecturers and give feedback on their performance. Please remember that all judges and lecturers are volunteers. YPU has some 38 Judges & 18 Lecturers, whose subject matter is varied and many lecturers have several presentations.
In recent years, the use of remote presentations and PDI judging has become commonplace using conferencing facilities such as Zoom. This has widened the field to allow clubs to engage with speakers from across all 15 Federations.
A major development in the last 4 years is the replacement of the traditional PAGB printed handbook with an area on the PAGB website in the CMS section. CMS: Management System – The Photographic Alliance of Great Britain
This lists under speakers all the YPU and nationally accredited judges as well as all those giving talks. Bona fide Club Officers can obtain a login to enable them to request bookings by email.
The PAGB CMS portal also enables speakers to amend their own contact information and details of what talks they give. There are check boxes to filter the listing to identify those who will visit a club in person and those who will present remotely.
Booking and hosting a Judge
Once contact has been made with a judge through the CMS system a mutually acceptable date can agreed upon. It is recommended that this is followed up by completing the upper part of the booking form, emailing this to the judge and requesting they complete the lower part and return it to you. The Judge Booking Request form has been placed on the Downloads page.The PDF version is now one which can be filled and forwarded for completion by the judge. Also in this area is a Good Practice Guide for Clubs (Judges) and a Checklist for Judges. Please read these, follow the advice therein, and use these forms to ensure a successful visit to your club.
Booking and hosting a Lecturer
Once contact has been made with a speaker through the CMS system a mutually acceptable date can agreed upon and the subject of the talk chosen. It is recommended that this is followed up by completing the upper part of the booking form, emailing this to the judge and requesting they complete the lower part and return it to you. The Lecturer Booking Request form has been placed on the Downloads page. The PDF version is now one which can be filled and forwarded for completion by the judge. Also in this area is a Good Practice Guide for Club Programme Secretaries (Lecturers). Please read this follow the advice therein, and use these forms to ensure a successful visit to your club.
Giving feedback on judges and lecturers
In order to obtain feedback on judges and lecturers, there are assessment forms that can be downloaded from the Downloads page and sent to me. There are two versions of each. The Word templates can be completed and saved as either Word documents or PDFs. The PDF versions can be printed and completed by hand. Ideally, feedback should be the considered view of the club committee or group of members tasked with assembling the response before being sent in by the competition secretary. Once completed, please email or mail the reports to me at the address shown on the form.
I encourage all clubs to give feedback but this is particularly important when Judges are new to the list. Unless a club specifically asks me not to, I forward all feedback I receive to the judge or lecturer concerned so that they can learn to make any adjustments for future visits.
Would you like to become a YPU Judge?
The YPU is always on the lookout for keen volunteers who would like to share their knowledge by judging work at other clubs. We last ran a workshop in early 2024 at Carleton near Pontefract and there is a clear necessity to run another one when I have sufficient interest. Those who would like to be considered for future workshops should contact the Judge & Lecture List Secretary judges@ypu.org.uk so that they can be put on the waiting list for a future workshop.
New judges are placed in the PAGB CMS system as Provisional Judges, and their progress is monitored.
Would you like to give talks to YPU clubs?
Any club member with a good photography-based talk who considers they have the presentational skills to provide an interesting evening is urged to contact the Judge & Lecture List Secretary judges@ypu.org.uk with a view to being listed as a YPU Lecturer.
Alan Stopher CPAGB (Judge & Lecture List Secretary) – January 2026