Title: Editorial

Over the years that I have been an active member of ACCU I have always listed three priorities to members; Family, Work, ACCU. From time to time the relative balance between these needs to be re-assessed. The purpose of this editorial is to share my reasons for needing to abandon all the jobs that I currently do in ensuring that you get your copies of ACCU publications in a timely fashion.

I originally took on the job as editor of C Vu with issue 2.4 out of deep frustration with the continued failure of my predecessors to meet deadlines. At that time the Committee of CUG(UK), as it then was, had planned just four issues a year, and had not even specified the size of an issue. As Membership Secretary, I was at the sharp end of complaints from members when they did not get their copies when they expected. I went to the Committee and asked to be allowed to produce the final issue of volume 2 (as the nominal editor was going to be out of the country at the time when it was supposed to be distributed) and offered to produce six issues the following year with a minimum page count of 32 A5 pages. In fact the smallest issue I ever produced in A5 format was 48 pages, and fairly early I found myself reducing font sizes to fit all that was being offered into the space we could afford.

Over the next ten years I managed to get almost every issue out to meet my self-imposed deadlines. Even defeating postal strikes on at least one occasion. However over the last two years I have been increasingly struggling to get anywhere near the delivery times that I consider reasonable. At first it was problems with Centaur Communications Ltd having longer lead times than I was used to, but since control has returned to me the problems have been those of work and family.

My parents have progressed from comfortable retirement where visits from their children were expected as long as they were not too frequent, to the frailty of old age where support and help from the youngsters has become increasingly necessary. At the same time my own children's quietly successful young lives are beginning to expect input from their parents. I recently became a grandfather but this was not an unconditional joy. One of two expected twins died in the womb (a sufficiently common event that more people should be aware of it happening) the surviving twin was born prematurely and has some physical problems (not disastrous, but sufficient that close families such as mine expect to give support). The upshot is that it is time that I put family very much first.

As regards work, though retired from teaching I have continued to work in various aspects of computing. One of those has been presenting training courses. For most of the 90's I put ACCU first to the extent that I would turn down a course if its timing would conflict with my ACCU commitments. I do not feel that that is any longer a choice that I wish to make.

The upshot is that as well as the lessening of energy reserves because of my increasing age, family and work are priorities that mean that I am continually unhappy with my performance on ACCU matters. That is one of the reasons that I announced at the AGM this year that I would not seek nor accept committee office at the next AGM.

I think that I should put that more strongly and point out that I eed others to take over both the editorship of C Vu and the production of ACCU journals. At the same time I urge the ACCU Committee to carefully consider its publication policy for the next decade. If it is to continue printed publications it needs to tackle the issue of acquisition of relevant material for publication. Unlike fiction, technical material has to be actively sought. While an editor can do some of that, every member can help. I do not mean that all of you could write (though most of you could) but that when you see or hear someone express ideas that you find interesting you could encourage them to contribute to C Vu or Overload.

One thing above all else that we should avoid is the attitude that the right way to do something is the way it has always been done. Even if something was right in the context of the past it may well not be in the context of the future. For example, we should be reviewing our publication policies in the context not only of the Web but of the potential for voice rendering of text. Once material is correctly produced as an XML document it can be appropriately rendered for the Web, for printing and for voice (something that might be attractive to more than just those who are sight impaired) Were I starting out to edit C Vu today there are many things that I would examine and certainly some things that I would change but I will leave that to my successor.

Getting back to the future. I need, as soon as possible, someone to take over as editor of C Vu. The lateness of this issue attests to that. I also need someone to take on the production side. As that is a more mechanistic process, I can carry on with it a little more easily. On the other hand I would expect my successor to need some help in learning the procedures (I doubt that we have many expert production editors in our membership, but I might be wrong). While working on the issues that were produced by Centaur Communications Ltd I worked with several professionals in the area and so have acquired many of the tricks of the trade. Since then, working with Parchments our printers, I have learnt several things about getting graphics to print. If it would suit the next production editor, I would happily co-produce one or at most two issues of ACCU publications with them so as to hand on what I have learnt (I hope that most of you think that the standard of production of C Vu and Overload are worth maintaining)

I intend to go on writing for C Vu and Overload and I would happily continue to manage the book reviewing (I have spent a decade building good relationships with the publishers; it would seem a pity to waste that). However I urge the ACCU Committee to consider moving first publication of reviews to our web site. Among other things this would allow more extensive reviews as well as more timely ones.

I would like to see an acquisitions editor, someone who is given free rein to commission material for our publications. All our editors over the last five years have had problems with acquiring enough suitable material so I think that having such a person would be of great benefit.

I hope that members will not take this as an ultimatum, but June 3rd 2002 is my sixtieth birthday, and after that date I do not want to be tied to the treadmill of deadlines.