Chairman’s Report

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 18

BAA Chairman’s report - Activities¶

It is with some regret that I must report Peter Donnelly’s resignation as Activities Officer of the BAA. Peter has served on the committee of the BAA for a number of years, notably as my predecessor as Chairman. As the current Chairman I can fully appreciate the time and effort Peter devoted to the BAA Committee and I would like to record our thanks for his many valuable contributions. Peter unfortunately feels unable to continue as Activities Officer due to pressure of work and has stepped down from the position with effect from February 1993. Pending the election of a new activities officer, I will be holding the fort myself.

In addition to finding a new Activities Officer, I am keen to enlarge the activities working group which supports our Activities Officer. I shall take this opportunity to describe the work that lies behind the activities programme of the BAA in order to stimulate the flow of willing volunteers.

Experience has shown that in many respects the most difficult part of the Activities Officer’s job is to come up with ideas for meetings — both for topics and speakers. The danger of having one person do all the work is that we are thereby limited in the range of topics covered. The prime role of the activities working group is to generate helpful suggestions about meetings and, if appropriate, to approach potential speakers. The current activities working group (comprising myself, Misha Jovanovic, Duncan Pearson and Anthony Camacho) have each arranged one meeting this year by agreeing a theme and finding the two or three speakers required.

At the time of writing, we have arranged the remainder of the 1993 programme and are now considering the 1994 programme. You should note that the committee of the BAA has no hard and fast views about the preferred format for meetings and we are prepared to consider any views on revisions to the number, location and duration of meetings. You will note, for example, that our November meeting will be a full day meeting rather than the usual afternoon meeting.

Once a programme of events has been established, the Activities Officer assumes responsibility for briefing the speaker on what is expected and ensuring that the speaker remembers the engagement. We also need to ensure that the correct audiovisual equipment is available on the day. The Activities Officer has to liaise with the Secretary over room bookings and the Publicity Officer to ensure that members are told about meetings.

If any members would like to help out with the pre-planning of meetings, I would be delighted to hear from them — the actual commitment in terms of time is not high, and is often not much more than an informal get-together after a regular BAA meeting and a few phone calls.

The 1993/4 BAA Committee¶

The elections for next year’s committee will take place in time for the AGM on 11 June 1993. As in previous years, a number of current committee members have indicated that they are willing to continue in office. We are always keen to have as many nominations as possible for committee membership and this year we already have the prospect of at least one contested place.

I can confirm, therefore, that we will be having a postal ballot this year, so please send in lots more nominations!

The election timetable is:

At the time of writing the following individuals have indicated their desire to stand for the Committee:

(*) — Holds this position in 1992/3

We would positively welcome further nominations, which must be proposed and seconded by current, paid-up members of the BAA. Candidates will be asked to provide me with a short statement for circulation with the voting papers.

We currently have two candidates for the post of Recruitment Officer: Richard Weber who teaches at Doncaster College of Further Education and currently helps on the Vector Working Group. Mark Harris runs Kestrel Consulting in partnership with Dick Bowman.

You will note that we are still looking for a nomination for activities officer and if anyone is contemplating standing for that (or any) post, they are welcome to contact me to discuss the work in more detail.