Guest Editorial: APL86 – What Next?

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 3

In a sense, it's all over – after more than two years of planning and meetings the Committee went to Manchester for a week and found that everyone else had decided to go as well. As to the degree of success, I'll leave others to comment, but I hear no reports of physical assault so I guess we got out with our skins intact.

What are we going to do with ourselves now?

Before answering that question it seems appropriate to acknowledge the efforts of all of the APL86 committee in the run-up and during the event itself. By the nature of these things some people do jobs which make them more visible than others, but let's all recognise that this was a cooperative effort in which every member of the committee has contributed vast amounts of time, effort and perspiration. The British APL Association has a great deal to thank Anthony Camacho, Mel Chapman, Cathy Dargue, Phil Goacher, Christine McCree and Dave Ziemann for. Also we would all recognise the additional contributions made by Peter Marchant and Roy Tallis, the ladies of the BCS and by the APL86 Stewards.

So, what do we do now?

In the short term, the work of the APL86 Committee is still not over – we have a number of administrative loose ends to tidy up, not least of which being to get the financial account settled and what we hope will be a worthwhile surplus available for fulfilling the long-term objectives of the British APL Association.

Because, at the end of the day we decided to organise APL86 not just to keep the Committee off the streets and out of trouble but because it was going to be good for the British APL Association. We now are clearly much more visible as a leading body in the APL world, one of the factors being VECTOR itself, which we launched on the back of the Loughborough conference in 1983. APL86 has helped reinforce our position and will in turn enable us to launch other projects over the coming months.

What are these projects?

Watch this space.

What can I do to help?

Lots – volunteer your services, the BAA Committee and Working Groups have never yet been known to turn helpers away; write technical articles for VECTOR; offer to talk about your work, ideas and projects at our regular meetings; get us more members, persuade your colleagues to join, or get your company to become a Corporate or Sustaining member. Remember, APL is what made computer programming fun – spread the word.

But to return to APL86, I think we all found it an enjoyable experience; the tradition of annual APL conferences is a worthwhile one – if you've been you know, if not then why not find out in 1987. See you in Dallas.