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British APL Association News

Vector 14:1, page 11

APL community

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 11

Minutes of Committee Meeting
Held before the AGM Friday 23 May 1997

The Agenda was as follows:

  1. Apologies
  2. Financial Report
  3. Membership Report
  4. Management Committee for 1997/8 (possible amalgamation of roles with the Vector Working Group)
  5. Meetings: Vendor Forum, Internet cafe, speakers for BCS Southampton
  6. Education Vector
  7. Vector content: articles on J etc
  8. Insurance/future of BAA portable computer
  9. Subscription Rate
  10. AOB

  1. Ray Cannon and Duncan Pearson sent apologies. Those present were Alan Mayer (Chair), Nicholas Small (Treasurer), Sylvia Camacho (Secretary), Ian Clark, Marc Griffiths, Ajay Askoolum, Anthony Camacho, Jon Sandles, Adrian Smith (late).

  2. Nicholas’s accounts show a small loss of about £3,000 shortfall of receipts over outgoings. It was agreed that this is sustainable for the near future and that a large part of the difference would be avoided if the Education Vector mailing was ended. (see item 6)

  3. The number of Vectors mailed was 709 as against 750 last year. The loss of members is from the UK. There was the usual discussion about the call for APL expertise. The difference this year is that there is a requirement for APL programmers to vet old code for the millenium problem.

  4. It was agreed that the difficulty of filling Committee posts might be answered by asking all recipients of this e-mail to be prepared to be co-opted to do jobs as the need arises and to be prepared to discuss general management business that could not be settled over the net, if necessary, at a Vector planning meeting. Therefore only four management posts would be specifically assigned, Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary and Editor. It was agreed to drop the title of Education Officer (see 6 below).

  5. It was agreed that meetings had proved difficult to organise and had attracted fewer punters each year. If a Vendor Forum was to be held this must be at the instigation of the Vendors themselves. The Internet cafe had aroused interest but not many people joined in on the night. BCS Southampton group had suggested that we provide “Introduction to APL Speakers” for the benefit of their members (and ours). This matter was deferred for consideration later.

  6. The card included in the last issue of Education Vector, asking people to return it to confirm their continuing interest, has resulted in only about 100 returns so far. This does not justify the print or postage of Education Vector.

It was thought preferable to send copies of Vector itself for the rest of the year with the suggestion that a regular subscription should be taken thereafter.

This matter will be referred to Duncan as Vector Editor. Ian Clark endorsed this position, pointing out that he is no longer involved in the education world and that he has detected no enthusiasm to learn new skills among teachers because they are under too much pressure in other directions.

  1. The balance of material in Vector was discussed with respect to the space given to papers of interest to professional APL programmers, enthusiasts for J and general more philosophical material such as Langlet articles tended to be.

It was agreed that the Editor should be careful not to overload the journal with minority interest material. It was recognised that he depends in part upon the balance of the material sent to be considered for publication

At this point, the time being close to 3.30, the meeting was joined by four members answering the invitation to be present at the AGM. Items 8 & 9 were therefore not taken.