Report of Specialist Groups Congress 2001

held at New Ambassadors Hotel, Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0HX.

The Specialist Groups Congress 2001 was held at 11am on Wednesday, 5th July 2001.

Present:
	Jeremy Comley	BCS Marketing Director
	Peter Crouch	Fortan SG
	Stephen Drewit	BCS SG Accountant
	Anna Duckworth	BCS Communications Manager
	Roberta Fuke	BCLO Public Relations
	Charles Hughes	Vice-President Member Services
	Roger Johnson	Advanced Programming SG
	John Kavanagh	The Computer Bulletin
	Brian Layzell	Developing Countries SG
	Chris Lazou	Fortran SG
	Alastair Macdonald	President
	Geoff McMullen	Deputy President
	Carole Pendle	BCLO Public Relations
	David Penfold	Electronic Publishing SG
	Barbara Porch	BCS SG Liaison Officer
	Judith Scott	BCS Chief Executive
	Jennifer Stapleton	Vice-President Technical
	Colin Thompson	BCS Deputy Chief Executive
	John Young	Fortran SG
	around 50	representatives of other SGs
	5	additional BCS staff members

Summary

Introduction Jennifer Stapleton

The V-P Technical outline the purpose of the Congress, to let the SG representatives hear the Society's plans for the future and to give an opportunity for them to comment from the SG point of view. She also reported that at the previous day's Policy and Resources Committee meeting it had been agreed that Specialist Groups should retain the same level of representation on Council under the new arrangements as they have had in the past.

The vision for the BCS Alistair Macdonald

The President outlined the steps the Society had taken since the Pollard Report was published to find out the views of both members and non-members on the Society. As a result the new strategy had been developed with an emphasis on the delivery of services and information via the Web, the formation of three forums to cater for members in the technical area, education and management and to increase the visibility of the Society within the IT/IS industry and to the general public.

Using the specialist knowledge of the BCS Specialist Groups Robeta Fuke & Carole Pendle

The BCS Marketing Director described the need for a public relations programme with two strands, "Making the News" and "Responding to the News". There will be a corporate PR programme and budget. Any SG or Branch PR activity would have to be funded from the SG or Branch support budget.

The two ladies from BCLO described the range of services offered by BCLO in marketing, communications and public relations and their expertise in dealing with the media. They also described how PR can be used and the techniques used.

For the BCS the aim was to establish the Society and its members as THE experts in the IS field. This is an area where the expertise of Specialist Groups can be utilised. They emphasised that when dealing with media enquiries a quick response was required, even if it was negative. The charges for PR activities are £600 per day but general PR advice can be funded from the general PR budget.

The proposed organisational structure for coordinating SGs Roger Johnson

The past President stated that the SGs were the Society's major provider of:

Best Practice Information
Skills Updates
BCS Events
Professional Networking

They were the Society's biggest shop window:

Involving 5,000 - 10,000 members and 5,000 non-members
Turnover £1M+
100s of events each year

But they all relied on voluntary effort and needed professional support from HQ in:

Planning
Developing
Marketing

In the new Society structure the SGs would report to the new Member Services Board via the Specialist Groups Executive Committee. The Member Services Board in turn would report to Council, as indicated in the following table.

New BCS Structure
BCS Council		Policy & Resources Committee
Member Services Board		Knowledge Services Board	Management Forum
SG Exec. Comm.	Branches Exec. Comm.	Qualifications & Standards Board	Education & Training Forum
Specialist Groups Assembly	Branches Assembly	External Relations Board	Engineering & Technology Forum

The SG Executive Committee would organise at least one SG Assembly a year to transact AGM business, receive reports from SGs and provide advice and a discussion forum.

The exact composition of the Executive Committee still has to be decided and how the V-P Member Services and BCS HQ will maintain effective contact with 100 SGs and Branches is still an open question.

The key objective is to ensure that SGs flourish and develop within the new BCS structures to the mutual benefit of SG members and the BCS corporate image.

The new Member Services Board Charles Hughes

The V-P elect Member Services outlined his background. After leaving Manchester University with a degree in Mathematics he joined ICL, rising to become a director in 1985, specialising in sales, marketing and business management. In 1995 he was seconded to the DTI for two years and as Project Director he launched the Government's Information Society Initiative and IT for All programmes. He now runs his own consultancy specialising in the implications of e-commerce and government/industry relations.

He stated that the BCS is seriously undervalued and needs to be at the heart of members business activities. In technical areas SGs represent the Society's position and should aim to attract non-members to join.

The position of the Member Services Board within the new BCS Structure had been adequately covered in the preceding presentation.

Lunch

The new Knowledge Services Board David Penfold

David was standing in for Wendy Hall, V-P elect Knowledge Services. The new board was derived from the old Publications Board but with a wider remit to develop and dissimilate a wide variety of information on IS.

Up to now the Society has not been a comprehensive source of information. In the future as much as possible of SG's knowledge should be accessible from the BCS web site. As some of this will be part of the BCS Digital Library it will not all necessarily be free. There will be a budget for information creation and a more proactive role for SGs. Knowledge Services will want to tap into information know to SGs.

The future organisation Geoff McMullen

The Deputy President said that SGs should ask for the resources and support they felt they needed. Colin Thompson is the contact point for support issues at present, the new Director of Forums will take over when they are appointed. The aim of the reforms is to make the Society less bureaucratic.

He asked the SG representatives what questions did they want addressing and what level of support did they require from BCS HQ?

Parallel discussion sessions

How SGs will relate to the new forums - chaired by Brian Layzell
The future for SGs in the Society - chaired by Roger Johnson

Feedback from the discussions

In answer to questions the Chief Executive said that she envisaged that each forum would concentrate on two or three broad issues each year to engage people in debate. It would be appropriate for the SGs to be involved in the discussions leading to the choice of topics.

Brian summarised the discussions as follows:
- How should the forums should be defined, covering areas such as technical matters, business, society and learning?
- There should be opportunities for cross fertilisation between forums
- There should be a mechanism for culling outdated forums
- Discover how the forums would relate to the subjects covered by SG and to the members interests
- The forum managements should seek input from SGs
- SGs should be able to provide input to one or more forums as appropriate.
Roger summarised the discussions of session 2 as follows:
- There should be at least two meetings (assembly/congress) per year for representatives of all SGs, one being the AGM
- Today's meeting had been very valuable because of the presence of senior Society offices and staff
- Discussion lists should be available before assemblies and for SGs on the Web
- The Society should employ/hire a technical writer to report on meeting, etc.
- Members of HQ staff should attend SG meetings
- There should be more central support for organising events

Tea

Formal Technical Board business

Peter Crouch
August 2001

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