1. Welcome and Chair`s opening remarks 2

THE BRITISH COMPUTER SOCIETY
EAST ANGLIA BRANCH
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held at
Citrix, Cambridge Science Park,
on Thursday, 1st October 2015
1. Welcome and Chair’s opening remarks
The Chair thanked Dr Neal Lathia for his talk entitled “Data Science & Data-driven
Innovation” which had preceded the AGM.
2. Apologies
Apologies for absence were received from Irene Melo.
3. Minutes of 2014 AGM
The minutes of the 2014 AGM, held on 4th December 2014, were taken as read and
passed as correct.
4. Matters arising from the minutes
There were no matters arising.
5. Chair’s Report
The Branch Chair, Rob Skinner, presented his report which is appended to these
minutes.
6. Treasurer’s Report
The Treasurer presented his report which is appended to these minutes.
7. Elections of Committee Members for 2015-16
Rob Skinner was proposed as Chair. There being no other candidates, he was
declared elected.
Tony Hainsworth was proposed as Treasurer. There being no other candidates, he
was declared elected.
Ben Dowen, Irene Melo, Malgorzata van Leeuwen, Fran Paterson and Charles
Looker were proposed as committee members.
All of the proposed candidates were declared elected.
8. Any Other Business
The joint event with OWASP to be held on 13th October was announced.
A request was made for a branch outing/visit.
Chair’s Report (AGM) 2015
BCS East Anglia Branch
Robert Skinner FBCS CITP
Branch Chair
[email protected]
Thursday, 1 October 2015
1 Introduction
Thanks to all of the members of the committee, all of whom are volunteers. Particular thanks must
be expressed to Charles Looker who, as Secretary, has worked so hard to organise and facilitate our
activities and to Tony who once again performed as our Treasurer. I am also grateful to Irene and
Malgorzata who have organised and publicised our events.
I also need to formally record the thanks of the Branch to Dr Neal Lathia for his presentation tonight,
to Citrix for hosting us in such an excellent and generous style and to Ben for arranging this event.
2 Report On Branch Activities
As usual we involved ourselves in a number of activities and events, both on our own and in
partnership with other professional bodies and interest groups. I am delighted to be able to record
our thanks to all the partner organisations we have worked with during the year. Our hosts, Citrix
Systems Citrix and particularly Ben Dowen have been extremely supportive of the BCS in East Anglia
and we are grateful to them for that.
2.1 Activities have included:
An event looking at Agile Development, led by Radtac and hosted by ARU. Darren Wilmshurst and
Dragan Jojic of Radtac were very well received when they presented presented on “The Why, How
and What of Agile”.
We have also focussed on participation in the newly introduced BCS national initiative “Making IT
good for society” forming a link with the Get Safe Online organisation. We are anticipating that this
will form a new strand for our work in the coming year. The branch has now been registered with
Get Safe Online and the materials are available for distribution.
We were also able to send delegates to the BCS Branches Convention in London. Thanks to Ben and
to Tony for that.
We also awarded the Annual Branch Student Prize awards. This prize is for the student of the year in
the second year of an undergraduate course in a computing discipline. This year’s prize-winners
were:
Anglia Ruskin University:
University of East Anglia:
University of Cambridge (Wolfson College)
University Campus Suffolk:
Trisha Ware
Callum Coombes
Matthew Toseland
Andre Reis
2.2 Branch Organisation
Since the start of the year we have been trying to ensure coverage and representation into South
Lincolnshire but so far this has not proven to be frutiful. Our branch is “logistically interesting”
Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, and South Lincolnshire. We have favoured the use of eMeetings to
deal with the spread of the branch and reduce travel time and costs. Initially our meetings were
conducted via Skype to save time and travel costs but, following a very positive trial back in the
summer we switched to use of “GoToMeeting”, a product that may be familiar to some here. Much
or most of the day to day organisation and coordination is supported through email and this appears
to suit the committee and its business. We are also grateful for the support and help of staff at HQ
particularly the welcome suggestions and interventions of Marie Setterfield.
We have standardised the use of EventBrite to help organise our meetings and inform/ support
those who wish to attend. So far this seems to be a successful approach. Our next public event is a
co-hosted BCS Branch and OWASP presentation on Cybersecurity and is currently scheduled for
Tuesday 10h November. Details, including an outline of the content, a basic biography of the
speaker and confirmation of timings will shortly be available via on the Branch website:
http://eastanglia.bcs.org/index.htm
3 Closing Comments
My thanks go to all Committee members for their time and effort, which is provided on a voluntary
basis. For BCS to continue to fulfil its mission then each subsequent generation to must pick up the
challenge and build the future. Our Branch has benefitted from the enthusiasm and work of BCS
YPG (BCS Young Professionals Group) and our YPG representative Irene Melo. More information is
available on the BCS YPG via their website.
As Branch Chair I am particularly indebted to the Secretary, and the Treasurer who each have
specific responsibilities which they perform and the Vice-Chair who has made my role so much
easier.
That concludes the Chair’s Report for 2015.
R J Skinner
BCS East Anglia Branch Chair
Treasurer’s Report (AGM) 2015
BCS East Anglia Branch
Tony Hainsworth FBCS CITP CEng
Branch Treasurer
[email protected]
Thursday, 1 October 2015
Inc £
Branch Allocation 2014-15
Travel/Subsistence
Room Hire
Speakers’ Expenses
Catering
Publicity & Materials
Student Prize & Membership
Totals
Exp £
2,326
2,326
0
0
90
90
0
471
651