Committee Activities

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 15

Meetings¶

Those present enjoyed an excellent special educational meeting at the Royal Over-Seas League on the evening of September 2nd, when Anthony Camacho, Alan Sykes and Frank Evans gave talks levelled at newcomers to APL. The intention had been to attract teachers and others on the I-APL mailing list, but unfortunately the attendance was very small. Due to administrative fumbling the I-APLers were sent details of APL-ication instead of details of this meeting. This was rectified, but only at the eleventh hour. Only three teachers attended, which was very disappointing. Apologies to the speakers and to those who would otherwise have benefitted from being at an excellent meeting.

A post-mortem at the September committee meeting did not prevent disaster overtaking the October Friday afternoon meeting which had to be cancelled at the last minute because the labels for posting the flyers kept not materialising. Should we consider a scheme of answerphone owner accreditation? The cheery offer to return your call can become so familiar as to breed contempt.

BAA Administration¶

A solution to our problems may come in the pleasant form of Alison Chatterton, our new paid part-time administrator. Alison has two young children, the youngest at playschool, and it suits her to take on some BAA administration to do at home. She is being equipped with a PC clone and software to be able to set up articles for VECTOR, manage the software library, keep our records up to date, and print off labels. We are not giving her an answerphone!

Valerie Lusmore wants to re-recruit as many experienced APLers as she can, who may have enjoyed corporate membership of the BAA in the past through previous employment. If you know of any such people please give Valerie a ring on [telephone number omitted] in the daytime.

Outstanding Achievement Award¶

Please may we have nominations for 1989 awards. There are two categories of award, as mentioned at the 1987 AGM, for recent work in APL and for spreading awareness about APL. The award for 1987/88 went to John Scholes for his work in developing Dyalog APL, for which he received a glass apple, which he holds until the next award, and a cheque for £500. This year the prize will again be £500.

Nominations should consist of the name and address of the candidate and two signed and dated statements, one from the proposer and one from the seconder, explaining what the outstanding achievement is and why the candidate merits the award. If, in the adjudicating committee's view, none of the achievements are sufficiently outstanding, no award will be made.

Please send your nominations to the Hon. Secretary of the BAA, Graham Parkhouse, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Surrey, GUILDFORD, Surrey, GU2 5XH, to arrive by 28th February 1989.