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Chairman's Newsletter - April 2008

Dear Colleague,

It is the time of year when I like to summarise the past year and look ahead at plans for the next year with the BCS. In the last year The South Wales branch organised nine events up to May and also helped organise and promote other events with the IET and IT Wales. These events took place at locations all across South Wales but should you feel your corner of South Wales has been left out, please do contact the committee and tell us your ideas.

Presentation topics ranged across a wide spectrum. We started the year with "Do You Know Your IQ?" where Nigel Turner of BT asked "are you looking for a way of potentially saving your organisation up to 20% of its annual turnover?" . Nigel went on to explain how BT had done just that by improving Information Quality within the organisation. In October a YPG networking event explained how to get your career on track. In November we learned that the IT industry has a similar sized carbon footprint to that of the airline industry. The big difference is that the IT carbon foot print could be reduced to one tenth due to the massive inefficiency that currently exist as outlined in this presentation.

In December our members were encouraged not only to come along to our fourth special Christmas event but to bring along all their family and friends to the Techniquest Centre where there was not just an opportunity to here an excellent presentation by Dr Dave Barnes on the challenges of exploring space using robots but also a whole range of exhibitions in the main hall and planetarium.

Further excellent presentations included I.T. in Extreme Environments: Success on Everest, Freud as Real-Time Programmer, Examining Problems and Opportunities in Second Life and The Use of Technology In British Ports.

The BCS also supported some excellent presentations organised by IT Wales and the IET as well as working in partnership with many other professional bodies.

Last year we made an appeal for your memories, news coverage of historical developments in Wales, information about Welsh products, projects or firms in which computing has been a major factor, academic innovations in computing and ... anything extra you think paints a distinctively Welsh picture of computing.

This May John Tucker from Swansea University will be telling how he and others have been pulling this all together and have started an archive that I am sure will become ever more important to Wales as we move into the future. Please do come along to this presentation, not only to listen to what has been done so far but to also share your ideas with John and his team.

Do not forget that the programme page on our branch website outlines events we have planned for the next few months. In case of any changes please check the emails we send to you or keep an eye on this site to confirm the date and venue of the meetings. In particular, I would very much like to hear from you on how we can best ensure the branch meets the needs of its members. As an added incentive to encourage members to arrive early and to use the opportunity to network we provide an excellent buffet prior to the majority of our events.

Within this bulletin I often bring to your attention some of the recent significant events published by the BCS and once again I feel there are some very noteworthy items that you may be interested in following up.

A recent headline on the BCS home page stated:

"BCS is the leading professional body for those working in IT. We have over 64,000 members in more than 100 countries and are the qualifying body for Chartered IT Professionals (CITP)."

This is something all members can be very proud of and indicates that our profession is starting to gain the recognition I am sure you all feel that it deserves.

The BCS has recently updated the look and feel of its web sites and added far more material and links to information considered of interest to its members.

The BCS always welcome feedback, both good and bad so why not air your views about not only the web sites of the BCS but also any other aspects of membership that you have a view on.

The best way for members to provide feedback is via this form: http://forms.bcs.org/bcs/member.htm

The YPG group has also been very active within the branch. A Career Networking event was provided by the YPG, allowing over 60 delegates from across South Wales to network in a relaxed environment. After Roy Shepherd gave a talk on the SFIA+ and Career Builder tools, delegates took part in a question and answer session with a panel of IT companies and career consultants. A new Facebook group for YPG members in South Wales was also unveiled.

YPG coordinators Max and Gareth have also raised the profile of the branch by being invited to Swindon and Kingston branches respectively as guest speakers this year. Both attended the YPG congress and Max was invited to speak about the branch's YPG success at congress.

Student Chapters continues to be a focus area for YPG, with relationships between University student bodies and the BCS being strengthened. The student chapters concept is set to be piloted, with a joint event between the YPG and a Welsh University currently under development.

My self and the rest of your committee look forward to meeting you at our AGM and we would also be delighted if you would join the committee and help us deliver the many exciting ideas we have for the South Wales branch.

Paul Bulmer Bsc (Hons) CEng MBA FBCS CITP MIMMM

Chairman, BCS South Wales Branch