Title: View from the Chair

Author: Bob Schmidt

Date: 01 January 2020 17:08:17 +00:00 or Wed, 01 January 2020 17:08:17 +00:00

Summary: Bob Schmidt, chair@accu.org

Body: 

ACCU Autumn 2019

ACCU held a two-day conference in Belfast in early November, in conjunction with the BSI hosting the autumn WG21 meeting. Herb Sutter and Michael Wong were the opening and closing keynote speakers (respectively); there were eight session times and three tracks; lightning talks and a conference dinner which was attended by almost all attendees. Although this is the first time an event like this has been held in Belfast, over 100 persons attended.

Congratulations to Jamie Allsop and Roger Orr for coordinating the conference and chairing its program. Thanks also to event manager Laura Nason of Archer Yates Associates (assisted by Julie Archer) for doing a fantastic job of organizing both the WG21 meeting and the ACCU event.

Of course, a conference is only as good as its programme and we did have a fantastic line up. For that we must thank all those on the programme committee who each made a valuable contribution: Russel Winder, Timur Doumler, John McFarlane, Chris Kohlhoff, Garth Gilmour, and Felix Petriconi. Last but not least the speakers deserve a mention, for they ensured the delegates enjoyed the high quality of talk we’ve become accustomed to at an ACCU event.

This was ACCU’s first autumn conference since 2011. I’m told that Jamie would like to make this an annual event. Given his success this year, I think we can look forward to ACCU Autumn 2020.

My thanks to Jamie Allsop and Julie Archer for providing information on the Belfast conference.

ACCU 2020

ACCU’s flagship conference is scheduled for the 25th through 28th of March, 2020, with pre-conference workshops scheduled for March 24th. The conference once again will be held at the Bristol Marriott City Centre. Proposals have been submitted, and the conference committee is busy putting together the schedule of classes and workshops.

Keynote speakers for the conference have been announced, and they are: Patricia Aas (Owner, TurtleSec); Emily Bache (Technical Agile Coach, ProAgile); Kevlin Henny (consultant); and Sean Parent (Senior Principal Scientist, Adobe).

Registration for ACCU 2020 should be open around the time this issue is published. Make plans to join us in Bristol in March.

2020 AGM

ACCU’s Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday, 28 March 2020 at the Bristol Marriott City Centre, in conjunction with the conference. All members are encouraged to attend.

The important dates for the AGM are shown in the table below.

Important dates for the AGM

Date Deadline Countdown 28 December 2019 AGM announcement deadline AGM - 90 28 January 2020 Nomination/proposal deadline AGM - 60 15 February 2020 Draft agenda deadline AGM - 42 29 February 2020 Agenda freeze AGM - 28 7 March 2020 GM voting opens AGM - 21 28 March 2020 AGM

The main objective of the AGM is election of committee members. Please note that the deadline for committee nominations is 28 January 2020. ACCU’s Constitution paragraph 5.3.3 states

Any member of the Association can stand as a candidate for election to any role on the committee. Any such member shall notify the Secretary in writing (letter or email), including names of a nominating member and a seconder, on or before the Proposal Deadline (described in ‘Section 7 – General Meetings’). The same person cannot stand for more than one role in the same election.

If you are interested in serving on the committee, please make your interest known to our secretary, Patrick Martin (secretary@accu.org).

Call for volunteers

We are still trying to fill several chronically vacant committee positions. As a reminder, this summer the committee announced a new policy to try to encourage participation. Anyone who volunteers for one of the positions the committee deems chronically vacant will qualify for a temporary membership deferral. If already a member, a new volunteer will have their next membership payment deferred for one month for each month of service, up to a year. If not currently a member, a new volunteer will be instated as a member for up to a year, as long as they continue in the role.

The positions the committee has determined are chronically vacant are: publicity, study groups, social media, and web editor. In addition, the position of treasurer will qualify for the incentive, in order to allow Rob Pauer to retire after many years of service to ACCU.

Please contact me (chair@accu.org) if you are interested in one of these positions.

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