The BAA has been quiet for some time due to a multitude of reasons but now we are getting our act back together and re-focussing our efforts. One of the greatest problems we have had was the production of our Vector publication which stalled at V26.4 largely due to the time involved in the collection and formatting of documents into a print ready format. Additionally, the costs of production and onward postage around the world has become prohibitive.

At our AGM meeting earlier this year (minutes sent with this letter) we made some decisions about our way forward and how we would continue as a group. The key points from this meeting are as follows;

Vector will now become an on-line publication with the potential for us to print ‘special editions’ from time to time.

We are currently building a new Vector website which, when completed, will allow authors and sustaining members to publish their articles on-line, allow the BAA to peer review and then make articles public. We aim to make this whole process as simple and as ‘low touch’ as possible thereby keeping the manpower required to a minimum but also maintaining a flow of articles to the membership.

We propose to change our subscriptions for normal membership to zero.

As we do not have the costs associated with Vector production, postage, packing etc. our feeling is that the very low membership fee we currently have can be waived. Once again this would save a lot of manpower engaged in the collection of such fees and the charges related to credit cards and their processing.

We will be holding what we hope will become an annual conference starting in 2019

Our last conference was two years ago now but it was well received and managed to attract a good number of attendees. 2019 will see another similar one-day event in London and we aim to make it free to attend to BAA members. As last time we will be holding it at the RSA building in London but this time in the auditorium probably April/May.

The BAA website and Vector is being updated and improved

Our website is being changed to reflect the changes above but also to provide a better platform from which we can promote APL and the APL community. Current content and archived material will continue to be available as now.

As a result of all the above measures we hope that the BAA will attract more members, be seen to be a more active organisation and become a more significant hub within the APL community.

As a sustaining member we wanted to make sure you were informed of our plans and hope that you agree with our proposals. As you might have guessed the subscription for sustaining membership is planned to remain unchanged as this will become one of our main forms of funding going forward. We also hope that you will be able to use our platforms to publish your own articles or product announcements so that we can all gain visibility together.

The changes announced today are not insignificant and do mark a step change in the way BAA operates but will use technology to best advantage and allow us to once again become much more active. Your ongoing support of the BAA is, to say the least, much appreciated and is essential to our future. We hope that you agree with our thinking and will continue to support us.

Thank you.

Paul Grosvenor
BAA Chairman