Minutes of the AGM of the British APL Association at the IEE on 7 June 1991

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 9

The retiring Chairman, Peter Donnelly, opened the meeting at 2pm by thanking all the members of the Committee who had worked with him during his three years as Chairman. In particular:

the Secretaries, Graham Parkhouse and Anthony Camacho;

the Treasurer, Nicholas Small;

the Education Officer, Alan Sykes, who not only edited Education Vector but also took a leading role on the ASL project and in promoting APL in education;

the Editor, Jonathan Barman, in whose first year Vector had not only maintained its standard but also come out on time. Peter has no hesitation in saying Vector is now the best APL magazine in the world;

the Activities Officer, Peter Branson, who has improved the quality of our meetings and now, with the move to the IEE, made better presentation affordable, as the Barco large screen display is always available.

Peter also called attention to the great efforts put into the APL Statistics Library. He believes the Library will fill a great need and the Association should support it and wish it great success.

Peter then summarised the state of APL in Britain:

It is under pressure in many large companies.

Software is now often bought as a fashion item.

British APL developments are as good and numerous as those in the rest of the world (he mentioned APL2/PC, Dyalog and MicroAPL II among others).

Insurance companies and Actuaries are large users but few attend our meetings.

Many excellent packages have been written in APL and this is one of its best uses (he mentioned Metapraxis, Saladin, HMW and Devon Systems) Open systems such as ADI seem old-fashioned.

Finally, Peter commended the new committee (the list was circulated with the notice of the meeting) to the Association, and in particular, the new Chairman, David Eastwood.

The Treasurer, Nicholas Small, circulated accounts for the year and the two previous years for comparison. The accounts had been done on a cash basis. He pointed out that running expenditure for 1990-1991 exceeded regular income (subscriptions and Vector advertisements), which was the reason for the subscription increase. Next year running expenditure will approximately balance the income. Project and special or extraordinary expenditure will be paid for from reserves and interest on reserves.

In answer to a questioner who asked about the variation in Vector advertising income, Nicholas explained that there was a reduction in income from 1989-90 to 1990-91 as fewer advertisements had been placed, but that the main reason for variation was late invoicing and late payment for 1988-89 advertisements which had reduced that year's income and inflated the 1989-90 receipts.

There were no other questions and the AGM was closed at 2.15pm.