UK TUG Membership Mailing

[Joseph Wright]

Dear Member,

This e-mail follows the recent UK-TUG Annual General Meeting, and aims
to provide an overview of the key points discussed. The formal results
of voting on the new Constitution and the current membership of the
Committee are also included.

Most importantly, it was decided that continuing members of the UK-TUG
will pay no membership fee for 2009.  Please send an e-mail to
membership at uk.tug.org to confirm your continuing membership.

This e-mail has several attachments, all of which are also available at
http://uk.tug.org/.  The full list of attachments is:

1) The new UK-TUG Constitution
2) The Chairman's report
3) The Treasurer's report
4) The Webmaster's report
5) The Membership Secretary's report

New Constitution
================

The new constitution was overwhelmingly approved at the AGM: there were
58 votes for the Constitution and one against.  This is a major step
forward for the UK-TUG.  Particularly notable is the wider
applicability of electronic communication and voting.  With this in
mind, please remember to keep your membership e-mail address up to date.
The full text of the new constitution is attached to this mailing.

Reporting to Members
====================

For UK-TUG to remain relevant it is critical that the Committee,
through consultation with the members, identifies future needs of the
members. The Committee would welcome and encourage your thoughts on this
matter. In particular what do you regard as the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats for UK-TUG as an organization. What do you
want to see the organization doing in the coming years?

The Committee are keenly aware that communication with the membership is
vital to the future success of the UK TUG. In particular, the Committee
is working to restore the full functionality of the UK-TUG website
(http://uk.tug.org).

Future Directions
=================

At the AGM, a resolution mandating the Committee to consider the future
direction of the UK-TUG, and to report back to the membership, was
passed.  This is clearly not a static exercise, but is a dialogue
between members and between the membership and the Committee.  Feedback
from the membership on how the UK-TUG can move forward is always welcome.

Key points at the AGM were that the focus of the UK-TUG should be on TeX
users (rather than TeX developers), and that training was an area that
needed consideration.  With that in mind, the Committee is establishing
a network of trainers. There are TeX trainers in a number of UK
institutions, but they are often isolated and can be hard to locate.  By
establishing a network, the UK TUG will enable new users to find the
help they need, and will help to support trainers themselves.  The
Committee has appointed a Training Officer to co-ordinate contact
between trainers.

The UK TUG Book Scheme
======================

The future of the UK TUG book scheme was discussed, as it has been
under-used for the past two years.  The AGM voted to retain the scheme,
but it was suggested that new avenues should be explored.  The Committee
will be exploring the possibility of seeking access to on-line resources
from relevant publishers (for example Safari Books Online from
O'Reilly). The Committee are keen to hear from members which books and
publishers are of particular interest.

Committee Membership
====================

The current Committee members are:

- Jonathan Fine (Chair)
- David Crossland (Secretary and Webmaster)
- David Saunders (Treasurer)
- Joseph Wright (Membership Secretary)
- John Trapp (Training officer)
- Jonathan Underwood
- Charles Goldie
- Simon Dales

The Committee can be contacted by e-mailing uktug-committee at uk.tug.org.

Joseph Wright
Membership Secretary
membership at uk.tug.org
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