Well, there is good news and bad news from the Executive Committee. After much deliberation and with much regret, Vanessa Burholt ( University of Wales, Bangor) resigned as Treasurer Elect with immediate effect from May. The good news is that Debora Price ( Kings College, London) has agreed to take over the Office and has been co-opted onto the Executive Committee. She will stand for election as usual at the AGM and, unless we have another candidate, her nomination is likely to be unopposed. However, if there is anyone else willing to be put forward, please notify Ingrid Eyers by the nomination deadline for the on-line election process. Details of the procedure have been broadcast by Ingrid.

Ageing and Society Editorial Board

Judith Phillips was the BSG membership representative on the Ageing and Society editorial board but is no longer eligible in her role as President Elect. We had hoped to have a ‘pilot’ run for the on-line election process, in identifying a new member. In the event, one candidate was nominated and so the process was not necessary. We are very pleased to announce that Robin Means will be our representative and I know he will make a welcome and valuable contribution to the board.

The prospect of a permanent Secretariat

In common with so many other learned societies, the Executive Committee members, and in particular the Secretary, Treasurer and President, are finding it increasingly difficult to juggle employment and ‘voluntary’ workloads. Led by the Chair Tony Maltby (NIACE) the members of the WP for National Development are investigating the prospect of employing a permanent secretariat. Working alongside the Officers, particularly the Secretary, the secretariat would organise, prepare for and take minutes of the meetings. He or she would be the main contact liaison with the conference organisers, GR on-line and the web site. Clearly, we would not be able to undertake this as a ‘stand alone’ project and so two alternatives have been suggested:

• We should seek a ‘host’ organisation who will provide office space, a secretary with agreed average weekly hours, eg 0.2-4 WTE, a dedicated telephone, e-mail and postal address.
• We should seek another learned society, with similar needs, in order to share a secretariat, which could be carried out from home, but each with a dedicated PO Box number, e-mail and telephone number.

Approaches have been made to several organisations and discussions are taking place. More information will be provided at the AGM on 6 September in Sheffield. We are currently investigating the implications for the Society regarding the Charity Commission, but the small scale changes we might make are unlikely to be problematic.

What is problematic of course, is how we might fund the project. Sponsorship is very hard to get now and so in all probability, the Executive Committee will bring a request to the members at AGM in Bristol in 2008 that the subscription fees are increased. We will table a report of the examination so far to the AGM in Sheffield.

IAGG-ER St Petersburg

As I write, I am preparing for the IAGG conference in St Petersburg and am very much looking forward to meeting old friends and making some new ones. Recently, I met with Hans-Joachim von Kondratowitz, current Chairman of the European Behavioural and Social Science Research Section of the IAGG. He expressed total dismay that we did not follow through our bid to host the European Region IAGG conference in London in 2011. He said we would certainly have won the bid. I still feel mixed about it. It would have been brilliant to showcase UK learned societies involved with ageing and an opportunity to put BCA on the world stage. However, it would have meant a tremendous responsibility in terms of time and all the risks associated with financial failure and I still fully understand the BGS reluctance to take those risks. I can’t help feeling though, that it is a missed opportunity for UK gerontology.

Future conferences

To finish on a happy note, though, you will be delighted to hear that the University of Paisley, headed up by Angela Kydd, have agreed to host the 2009 BSG annual conference. It will be very good to return to Scotland. In 2010, we will be at the University of Reading, that will be organised by Christina Victor, Wendy Martin and colleagues. We are currently in discussion about bringing the date of the meeting forward to July. It seems that September is becoming increasingly difficult for delegates to attend as there are so many conferences at that time and tough decisions have to be made in the light of reduced university support. The Keele conference in 2005 was a great success and attendance did not suffer because of the earlier date. Another consideration is the extra work, at a very busy time in the academic year, for the preparations by the Hon Secretary. However, the situation may well be ameliorated by help from the permanent Secretariat, if we go down this route. I know July can be very busy too, especially for European meetings, so we need to think very carefully about timings.

I hope you all enjoy your summer and look forward to seeing many of you in Sheffield.

Kate