Chairmans Newsletters

January 2002 letter

Dear Branch Member,

As your new Branch Chairman, I take pleasure in wishing you all a Happy New Year - and hopefully one full of pleasurable memories and great successes.

The meetings we held before Christmas have already shown the great spectrum of applications that involve computing these days. The programme was kicked off with a presentation about the "Millennium Map" project. This gave an insight into how aeroplanes, photography and computers can be combined to solve problems for governments, estate agents, power companies, water companies, surveyors or the person who would simply like to see his house from a different angle. The presenter was faced with a never-ending stream of intriguing questions that he handled with mind stimulating answers. This was followed with equally stimulating presentations on how web sites can be made accessible by everyone; another on the legal implications facing the use of computers. This presentation caused so much interest that one of the biggest challenges was how to fit everyone into the room. Fortunately we did succeed, just. The final presentation of the calendar year was "case studies in M-Business", looking at the implications of mobile computing.

The program continues from now through to the AGM in May. Further presentations in this current program include the client-side revolution, the next generation Internet, the way forward for intranets, JAVA – saint or sinner and the human genome project.

You will find a reminder of all five of the planned meetings overleaf. You will find one addition to the programme card we sent out in the autumn. The current programme can always be seen on the branch website.

Your response to the questionnaire last year was very encouraging but we felt that we could not justify the expense of staging it as an annual exercise. This does not mean that the committee is no longer keen on hearing your ideas for future meetings, initiatives or activities. What we are asking you to do this year is to bombard us with your ideas via e-mail to ken.potter@talk21.com or by snail-mail to: Ken Potter, 25 Nellive Park, Newport NP1 9SE.

I look forward to the rest of the meetings in this year’s programme - and to the opportunity of meeting you at them.

One final point for your consideration. The Branch committee has gained some new members during the year but has also lost some members due to changing circumstances. New committee members are always welcome. We meet approximately once a month, but only for nine months of the year; people contribute whatever they can. Contact a member of the Committee, as shown on the programme card, if you would like to attend a committee meeting to see what it is all about.

Yours,

Paul Bulmer

For the Committee of the South Wales Branch