Title: View from the Chair

Author: Bob Schmidt

Date: 01 November 2018 17:08:10 +00:00 or Thu, 01 November 2018 17:08:10 +00:00

Summary: Bob Schmidt, chair@accu.org

Body: 

ACCU 2019

ACCU’s 2019 Conference will be held from the 10th to 13th of April, 2019, with a day of pre-conference tutorials on 9th April [1]. Our conference chair, Russel Winder, has announced the four keynote speakers: Angela Sasse, Kate Gregory, Paul Grenyer, and Herb Sutter. Make sure to mark that week in your calendar! I hope to see you there.

Web site crash!

Jim Hague, ACCU’s web master, reported to the committee that our web site crashed in August due to extremely high activity. It turns out that the Overload 146 article ‘Cache-line Aware Data Structures’ hit the high rankings on HackerNews [2], went viral, and our server collapsed under the weight of all the download requests. Our web host, Bytemark, added resources to the server, and the site was back up and running in short order. Congratulations to authors Wesley Maness and Richard Reich for (briefly) crashing accu.org!

GDPR

There have been some minor changes to ACCU’s Privacy Policy [3]. Nigel Lester continues to refine the policy in response to questions and comments. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read the policy and provide feedback.

Code of Conduct and Diversity Statement

I’d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that ACCU has a Code of Conduct (CoC) and a Diversity Statement [4] that articulate our core values. The CoC applies to all ACCU activities, conferences, local group meetings, and interactions on ACCU’s mailing lists. Our conference has its own, expanded Code of Conduct [5].

ACCU’s mailing lists have charters that describe and proscribe the topics that may be discussed. In keeping with the CoC, all ACCU mailing lists are moderated; each list has its own group of moderators. In addition, the ACCU committee bears ultimate responsibility for ensuring that all of ACCU’s spaces remain friendly and open to all our members and guests. Please keep the charters and CoC in mind when using ACCU’s mailing lists.

ACCU committee

It may seem a bit early to be talking about an election and an Annual General Meeting that won’t be held until next April, but we start running into constitutionally mandated deadlines for the Annual General Meeting and elections starting in January (which is only one CVu issue away). We are going to have several critical openings on the committee, and they must be filled in order for ACCU to continue running smoothly.

Treasurer

Rob Pauer has been ACCU’s treasurer for many years now. Rob retired from his ‘real’ job some time ago, and now would like to retire as treasurer as well. He has offered to continue as treasurer until April, and has offered to mentor a new volunteer during a transition period. Unlike most of our committee positions, the role of treasurer requires a person who is located in the UK in order to have physical access to our bank.

It should be obvious – without a treasurer, ACCU will be unable to pay its bills and will be unable to function. ACCU hires and pays for a production editor to lay out our magazines; a printer to print the magazines; and postage to send those magazines around the world. ACCU receives money from new and renewing members, and from the proceeds of our conference. ACCU supports our local groups with financial assistance, and maintains a separate fund for supporting standards activities. Without a treasurer to receive and disburse funds, all of this activity stops. If this activity stops, so does ACCU.

Conference chair

When our current conference chair, Russel Winder, took on the role, he agreed to a four-year sentence term. That term expires as of the end of ACCU 2019, so ACCU needs to find a new conference chair. As with the treasurer position, it would be helpful if the new conference chair shadows Russel as we approach ACCU 2019, in order for there to be a smooth transition. This is one of ACCU’s most important positions – our yearly conference is one of the four ‘faces’ of ACCU (the magazines and web site being the other three). As with Rob Pauer, Russel deserves his well-earned retirement.

Chair

On a personal note, I would like to take this opportunity to announce that I will not be seeking a fourth term as Chair when my current term is up in April. It is time for someone new to inject their ideas and leadership into the organization.

What does this mean for ACCU?

This means that at least two of the four executive committee positions will be open, and need new volunteers, as of the 2019 Annual General Meeting. Vacant executive committee positions put ACCU into caretaker mode, which limits the actions that can be taken by the rest of the committee.

Almost every one of my Views has included a ‘Call for Volunteers’. This View is no different, except perhaps in scope. We still have other positions available. At our last committee meeting we discussed eliminating some of the positions, such as Mentored Developers and Study Groups, due to inactivity in those areas and a lack of someone to take the positions. A final decision on disbandment has not been reached, so there is still time to save them if someone steps forward.

Volunteering to help run ACCU is a way to give back to your community, increase your industry profile, and to hone your skills running and building a diverse community. It looks good on your CV, too. Please contact me if you are interested in volunteering for one of these positions.

References

[1] ACCU 2019: https://conference.accu.org/

[2] HackerNews:https://news.ycombinator.com/

[3] ACCU Privacy Policy: https://accu.org/index.php/privacy_policy

[4] ACCU Code of Conduct and Diversity Statement: https://accu.org/index.php/aboutus/diversity_statement

[5] ACCU Conference Code of Conduct: https://conference.accu.org/coc_code_of_conduct.html

Notes: 

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