Title: View from the Chair

Author: Martin Moene

Date: 01 November 2015 09:22:34 +00:00 or Sun, 01 November 2015 09:22:34 +00:00

Summary: Alan Lenton

Body: 

The CVu publication date comes round again. It seems like only yesterday that I was writing the piece for the last issue.

In that piece I mentioned that the Call for Papers for the 2016 ACCU Conference would be out in October. Well it’s out now and you can find it at http://accu.org/index.php/conferences/accu_conference_2016/accu2016_call_for_sessions.

I really would encourage readers to consider presenting a paper at the conference. I know for sure that there is a wealth of experience in the membership, it’s just struggling to get out and be shared. Both 90 minute and 15 minute slots are available, and, of course, there are also the highly entertaining and enlightening five minute ‘lightning talks’. The deadline for the submission of proposals is Friday 13th November – an auspicious date, perhaps!

Confirmed keynote speakers are Andrei Alexandrescu and Jim Coplien (aka ‘Cope’). The remaining two keynote speakers will probably have been announced by time your copy of CVu arrives. The conference runs from Wednesday 20th April to Saturday 23rd April, inclusive, and there are pre-conference tutorials and workshops the day before Conference starts, Tuesday 19th April. Get those dates into your diary for next year now, before you forget...

On a different note, we are starting to get occasional requests from recruiters for confirmation of candidates’ ACCU membership. Now, we are, of course, happy that members put down their membership of ACCU on their CVs. However, whether we are authorised to confirm it, and possibly give information about how long you’ve been a member, to a third party, is something of a grey area.

So, to clarify things, if you do know that a confirmation is going to be required, please drop a line to the membership secretary, Matthew Jones, email: accumembership@accu.org, confirming that we have your permission to provide the information. If we haven’t already got your permission, we will try to drop you a line requesting it. Your email info is up to date, of course. Isn’t it?

Oh! And incidentally, do make sure your membership hasn’t expired, and won’t be expiring during lifetime of your CV. It’s really embarrassing to have to tell the recruiter that the candidate is, in fact, no longer a member...

Finally, something that might be of interest to members. August 13th this year was the bicentenary of the birth of Ada Lovelace, and to celebrate it, the Science Museum has a free exhibition about her. The exhibition brings together portraits, letters and notes, as well as Babbage’s Difference and Analytic Engines. If you live in London, or you’re visiting, it looks like it might well be worth seeing (see http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/Plan_your_visit/exhibitions/ada-lovelace). I certainly intend to take a look, so perhaps I’ll see you there. The exhibition runs until 31st March 2016.

Well, that’s about all there is to tell you about for this issue, since it’s fairly quiet at the moment... In the meantime, I look forward to seeing the proposals for conference sessions flooding in!

Enjoy your programming!

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