 |
Oxfordshire Branch |
| Branch home page | BCSrecruit.com | BCS website |
Chairmen's Annual Letters
Autumn 2007See separate page Autumn 2006See separate pageAutumn 2005See separate pageAutumn 2004 August 2004 Dear Member Welcome to the 2004/2005 program of the Oxfordshire Branch of the BCS. I am pleased to be starting my second term as branch chairman, and hope that you enjoy the program that we have prepared for you. Last year has been a remarkable year for the BCS. At the recent EGM, members voted by a huge majority in favour of the changes to the BCS charter, and May saw the launch of the new membership structure and the Chartered IT Professional (CITP) post-nominal title. Since these changes, there has been a significant increase in membership, while retaining the professionalism and quality members the society requires to prosper. More details of membership structures and benefits are available at www.bcs.org. At a Branch level, we had a very successful program of events. The last of these events was the visit and tour of Bletchley Park. This was well attended and everyone had a good day out and it was another excellent networking event. The Branch committee has been working hard over the summer months preparing the program for 2004/2005. Regulars will notice that that a couple of events have been moved. Our annual trip has been bought earlier to Easter time, and the program now concludes with the branch AGM. I am really looking forward to the upcoming program, as I believe it contains a varied selection of relevant and interesting topics. Details on these and all our events are on the branch website, along with any program updates if they are required. Over the summer months, we have also started the preparation for the third Schools Web Competition which we run every other year. The competition has been very popular, and some Oxfordshire schools are already showing lots of interest. Thanks to Adrian Walmsley and the rest of the web committee who have already put in a lot of work for this year's competition. The Branch has also grown in the on-line world. Adrian, who is also the branch webmaster, has been extending the branch web site into the key information source for branch business. He has been investigating the use of new technologies, such as discussion boards and WIKIs. The branch site has also moved to the hosting facilities of the BCS, and now resides at the new URL www.oxon.bcs.org. If you have not recently looked at our website, I would encourage you to take a look and let us know what you think. I would like to express my thanks for the hard work and the support the committee members have given me over the last year, and for the year to come. At the AGM, I was pleased to welcome Tim Lambertstock who chose to join the committee. Please visit the website where you can find more about the committee members. If you have any feedback for us, please let us know. You can speak to us after any branch meeting; fill out the form on our website; or send an e-mail to the address below. Eur Ing Robert G M Ward. CITP CEng MBCS MSc BSc (Hons) Autumn 2003 August 2003 Dear Member, Welcome to the new programme for the 2003/2004 season of branch meetings. This is my first year as Chairman of the branch, and I am looking forward to the challenges and duties that this role entails. I have been a member of the BCS for over 10 years and with the Oxfordshire Branch for the past 5. I would like to thank the new committee for helping me into this role, and for the help and support they will give me during my term as Chairman. I would also like to thank Geoff Stone, our retiring chairman, for the work he did during his term of office, and for taking on the role of Deputy Chairman, to assist me in my role. Full details of all the committee members are available on the branch website. This year's programme brings together a range of different topics, from the history of computing by the Computer Conservation Society to the latest technology with Real-Time computing at Wimbledon by IBM. We hope that the programme provides something of interest to all our members. Our meetings continue to be held at the Wolfson building, Oxford University. We are following on from our recent successful 'Meet the Committee' evenings with Autumn and Spring Symposiums. The format of these social evenings will remain unchanged. The evening is an opportunity for networking and to talk with the committee and other members on a variety of topics. These meetings will continue to be held in the back room of the Lamb and Flag public house on St Giles, Oxford and are open to all members and non-members. As you are aware, the BCS is proposing changes to the Governance and Membership structure. These changes are proposed to encourage an increased membership, and also to allow the society to grow stronger and more relevant in today's rapidly changing environment. All full members have the right to vote on the changes, and I encourage everyone to take that right to ensure that the society is moved into a situation where it can prosper in our changing industry. Details of the EGM and the proposed changes are available at http://www.bcs.org/thewayforward [not any longer - Ed]. Members will be able to make postal votes, and details of this will be sent out nearer the time. During the past year, we have had a popular series of presentations, with an excellent attendance to all meetings. The Schools Web Competition was another success, with all the children taking part having a good time, and enjoying the educational experience! We thank all our sponsors, without whom we would not have been able to run the competition. We hope to build on these successes in the coming years. We are always open to new members, and suggestions. If you would like to discuss any ideas, questions or advice, then I would encourage you to contact us by e-mail at committee (at) bcsoxon.org or by completing the form on our website at http://www.oxon.bcs.org/. Meetings are available to both members and non-members, so we'd encourage you to display the calendar on the reverse of this letter, so that everyone can find out about the meetings. We look forward to meeting you during the coming year, and hope that you enjoy our programme of meetings. Robert Ward Autumn 2002 Dear Member, This is my first time as the BCS Oxfordshire Committee Chairman and I look forward very much to working with the newly elected members of the committee in sharing the tasks of running the branch. Membership of the British Computer Society for our branch continues to be very healthy: you may be interested to know that you are one of over 800 members living and working in the Oxfordshire area. It does not take very much imagination to appreciate the possibilities this offers for networking with fellow professionals. We look to encourage membership of the BCS and now could be a good time for you to encourage non-members among your colleagues to consider joining. Every month the committee hears more about new initiatives from Head office to provide better services to members and ensure the BCS is a significant force in industry. The enhanced BCS Web site is one initiative to provide greater value to the membership, look out for more information on these developments now and the future. Again this year we have a fascinating range of talks organised by your committee at the usual venue in the Wolfson building, Oxford University. We tried a 'meet the committee' evening last year for the first time and found it to be so successful we have planned another two. This will be at a central Oxford pub, please see the program card for more details. Please come along and meet me, my colleagues on the committee or other members, just for drink and chat, or to make suggestions and ask questions in a relaxed environment. In response to interest to get involved and to support our increasing workload the committee has grown a little this year and I am pleased to warmly welcome my new committee members for 2002/2003. We always welcome comments and suggestions. If you cannot make it to any one of the meetings let us know you are out there and visit the Oxfordshire Web site or send us an e-mail. Support your committee: we are working hard to provide an interesting program, so please tell us what you think. Geoff Stone September 2001 Although the Oxfordshire Branch of the BCS has not had any official meetings over the Summer period. The branch committee has been working hard to put an interesting programme of talks together for the coming year. This years programme will commencing at 7:30pm on Thursday 13th September and will occur monthly through to May 2002. The first of these talks will be presented by Mr Matthew Ducey from CSC Ltd and looks at the shift from hoarding knowledge to sharing knowledge. It will also look at corporate knowledge management systems, of which CSC has been one of the few organizations to develop such a system. For those with Internet access, I trust you have been able to review the Oxfordshire Branch Web Site, which has been updated using the new BCS logos. All the programme meetings are detailed on this Web Site, along with location information, which gives address, parking, map and directions to the branch meeting location. You may also wish to take the opportunity to visit the committee section of the Web Site to familiarise yourself with the 2001/2002 BCS Oxfordshire Branch committee members. Looking toward the end of the year, I am already excited by the prospect of our special Christmas lecture, which will be presented by Professor Heinz Wolff. With over 40 years experience of giving public lectures this proves to be an interesting meeting. As this will be a popular event, entry will be by ticket only, details on how to obtain a ticket will be published on the Web Site in due course or alternatively you can contact the branch secretary. The Oxfordshire Branch BCS presentations are open to members and none members of the BCS and are an ideal opportunity to meet and discuss computing issues with Information Technology professionals. I look forward to meeting new and familiar faces at the first branch meeting of this years programme of presentations on Thursday 13th September. Peter Simpson August 2001This is my first year as branch chairman after picking up the gauntlet from Neill Lawson-Smith, who has performed this role for the past three years. Neill will still be taking an active part in branch issues and will continue to be part of the committee in his new role of Secretary. The position of Secretary became vacant as Ted Murphy stepped down from this role, which he had held for some years. Ted will continue to be an active member of the committee. Last year the branch had an incredibly successful year with an excellent programme of presentations entitled 'The Wired World'. The year was concluded with the Schools Web Design Competition, which held a prize giving ceremony at Cranfield University. The Oxfordshire Schools Computing Challenge Silver Cup was presented to West Kidlington Primary School as the overall winner of the competition. The branch Web Sub Competition Committee should be very proud of their achievements in organizing such a successful event and I look forward to bringing you news on next year's competition. At present the branch committee are working on this year's programme of presentations. Once the details have been finalised, the information will be published on the branch web site and a programme card will be sent out to all branch members. The monthly presentation programme will commence in September of this year and run through to May 2002. These presentations are open to members and none members of the BCS and are an ideal opportunity to meet and discuss computing issues with Information Technology professionals. On a final note, I would like to thank Robert Ward for all his efforts on updating the Oxfordshire Branch Web Site using the new BCS logos. I hope you will find the information on this web site useful, as this along with other initiatives facilitates the move to an online society. I look forward to meeting you at the branch meetings and if you are not already on the automatic emailing system to receiving meeting notifications, please complete the form on the 'register' section of this site. Peter Simpson Autumn 2000 Dear IT Professional, This year sees the BCS taking a more proactive role in providing improved communication facilities for all levels in the society. This web site and branch email facilities are just a part of the development of the BCS into a working online society. Not only will UK members benefit from this initiative, but also UK members abroad on work, and there is potential for the BCS to expand to grow the international membership. The BCS are also re-examining how best to serve its potential new members, and also members looking to step up the membership levels once their experience and education meet the appropriate criteria. In the past, it has been easy to self-assess whether you meet the levels required for membership. The new "Programme 2000" system will allow individuals to assess their basic application by adding up on a points system for experience as well as academic achievement. This should give individuals a much clearer path in joining the BCS and moving up the grades at the appropriate times. The Branch Web Sub Committee (BWSC) "Schools on the Web" competition is gathering pace. The various members of the BWSC have already secured a substantial amount of new sponsorship as well as re-securing existing sponsorship and resources. This includes RM Plc, Zaxus, Entranet, Cranfield University, Focus Multimedia as well as the British Computer Society! The new BCS Oxon web site will have a dedicated section for the Web Competition. This years theme for the Branch is the "Wired World" and we look forward to hosting a number of presentations on how communications and digital information channels are changing the information is being delivered to us. I look forward to meeting you at the Branch Meetings - and if you are not already on the Automatic Emailing System to receiving meeting notifications, please contact me at nls(at)bcs.org.uk Yours Sincerely Neill Lawson-Smith
|
| Generated: 28-04-2008 17:20:21 | © BCS Oxfordshire Branch & Adrian Walmsley 2007 | contact us |