Introduction

1. The National Club Championship is an inter club competition open to all clubs in good standing with the Federation.

2. All clubs affiliated to the Federation are eligible to enter, i.e. there are no regional qualifying competitions.

Conditions of Entry

1. To compete, a club submits a panel of 10 monochrome digital images and a panel of 10 colour digital images. Clubs may also include two additional images per panel to act as substitutes for disqualified images.
2. The overall award (Sean Casey Memorial Trophy) will be awarded to the club with the highest combined monochrome and colour panel scores. Clubs who choose to enter only one panel will not be eligible to win the overall award.
3. All photographs shown on a panel must be the work of registered members of the competing club.
4. A person may not represent more than one club in the IPF, or in NIPA, in any one year.
5. A maximum of two images from an individual may appear on a panel.
6. All images used in the competition shall be the original work of the author. Where the Federation requests proof of authorship, that proof shall be provided without delay.
7. Images used in previous National Club Championship are not eligible.
8. Scoring in the competition shall be on the basis of the official score sheet. Each judge will score independently. Results shall be based on the aggregate scores given by all judges to each competing panel.
9. The judges’ decision shall be final.

Submission of Entries

1. All entries require a completed online Entry Form, to be received by midnight Friday May 7^th to allow for sufficient time to upload the entries to a Dropbox on or before the closing date for the competition, midnight Friday May 14^th. The link to this entry form is https://irishphoto.wufoo.com/forms/p1a1zi2k09eunpc/where you will find your Club No. opposite your Club Name.
2. On receipt of the completed Entry Form and payment, the club will receive an email from the Dropbox Co-ordinator with an invite to join your Club’s Dropbox Folder to which your images must be uploaded.
3. There will be an entry fee of €60.00 per club.
4. Payment will form part of the online Entry Form process and can be by PayPal or Bank Transfer. The IPF IBAN will be included in the acknowledgement email which will follow the completion of the Entry Form. 
5. All payments by Bank Transfer should use your Club Name as the reference
6. Images should subsequently be uploaded to a Dropbox provided to each entered Club by the IPF on or before the closing date for the Competition.
7. Images for projected panels should be resized to 3,000 pixels on longest edge, 300 PPI, jpg quality 10. The jpgs should be named as per the file naming in section “h” below and must match exactly the same numbers and sequence submitted on your entry form. Image 13 on each panel should be the contact sheet for the panel and be named as follows:  13-Club Number.
8. File naming:
   1. Please use the following format when naming files in the Dropbox,
   2. “Image No”-“Club No”_ “Category”_ “Author”_ “Image Title”
   3. For example:
      01-104_C_John Mahaffy_John’s Castle   to
      10-104_C_Mary Martin_ Long Range
      Would be the entry for a club’s Colour Panel. 
      For Mono substitute M for C in Category.
      Substitute images should be numbered 11 and 12
   4. PLEASE NOTE: The leading zero for image no’s 01-09 is essential and the hyphen 
      (“–“)  between the “Image No” and “Club No” is also essential.  The underscores (“_”) before the Category, Author and Image Title are also essential. 
   5. The file name of the digital files is an integral part in the running of the software which is being used to display and score the competition images. It is therefore imperative that all images are named using the above naming convention, as it’s this layout is understood by the software that automatically creates the databases used in the projection and scoring of the competition.
   6. If the file names are not configured properly in the individual club Dropboxes, they cannot be integrated into the competition folder until the file names are corrected. This will cause problems for those running the competition and we ask your co-operation in this regard. 
   7. The most critical aspect of the file name is the Entry No. The Entry No is made up of the Image No (including the leading zero) followed by a Hyphen or minus sign (-) followed by the preassigned club no.
   8. It must be configured with the leading zero of the Image No and a Hyphen or Minus between the Image No and the Club No. (01-101 is correct, 1-101 is not correct, 01_101 is not correct)
   9. Each club will be preassigned a “Club No” by the IPF.
   10. Clubs should contact Sheamus O’Donoghue  087 2579947  if they need further assistance on naming files.
9. The IPF reserves the right to publish any image entered in the National Club Championships, with due acknowledgement and without payment of a fee, for the purposes of promoting the event and the IPF. This includes, but is not limited to, use on the IPF website. The copyright of all such images remains with their respective authors.

The latest date for the receipt of online Entry Form forms and payment will be:

Midnight on Friday 7^th May 2021

and for uploading entries to the relevant Dropbox will be:

Midnight on Friday 14^th May 2021

Results will be presented on Zoom early June

The Conduct of the National Club Championship

0. The National Club Championship shall take place under the supervision of the Event Coordinator, or other official appointed by the National Council, and who shall act as the Official Referee.
1. The National Club Championship shall be adjudicated by judges appointed by the National Council. This will typically be three people.
2. The judges’ decision is final and no discussion of that decision shall be entered into.
3. It is not permissible to publicly dispute the judges’ decision or comment at any time during the National Club Championship, up to and including the award ceremony. Breach of this rule by a member of a club may lead to disqualification of that club’s entry.
4. The results of the National Club Championship will be announced via Zoom early June.
5. Entry into the competition shall be deemed to be acceptance of the rules of the competition.
6. The National Council’s decision in all matters relating to the National Club Finals shall be final.
7. All entries must conform to the current specification as defined by FIAP in each category.

General

1. The IPF reserves the right to publish any image entered in the National Club Championship, without payment of a fee. Copyright of all images remains with the respective authors.
2. The National Council’s decision in all matters relating to the National Club Championship shall be final. 
3. Where any Club considers that a person or Club is in breach of any of the National Club Championship rules of the National Club Championship, that Club may lodge a formal complaint with the Federation stating the details of the alleged offence, which complaint, to be valid, must be accompanied by a payment of €60 to cover the costs of the investigation into the complaint. If the complaint is upheld, the fee will be returned and the offending Club will be liable for the costs of the investigation, in addition to any other penalty which may be imposed. Any such complaint must be lodged prior to the commencement of judging. Once judging has begun, the organisers will not entertain any complaints.
4. Any Club in breach of the rules shall be subject to a penalty as determined by National Council.
5. It is incumbent on all participating Clubs to ensure that they have adhered to the rules of the competition and all rules shall be enforced on the basis that all competing Clubs and Club members have taken full cognisance of the rules.