Sadly there was insufficient time for many delegates to read this before the discussion took place and those that did read it expressed considerable alarm at the way that the conclusions reached in the document did not accord in any way with the declared counts of the survey! The Conference Organiser was approached privately by several delegates before the discussion started to express their concern and a summary document of their concerns was prepared for delegates just before the discussion started [See "Delegates' Concerns" and the other links below] .  Later and after the meeting, former charity trustee Graham Aldred, kindly prepared his own detailed analysis of the available survey results.  His conclusions agree with the points raised by delegates before the meeting and fundamentally differ from those of the Council.  In short a majority of the membership is entirely happy with the present format of the Society and its management and does not see the need for significant change.  Read the documents for yourself here.

Original Questionnaire | Council's Analysis of Results | Delegates' Concerns | Independent Analysis of Results | BSS website popularity

Delegates pointed out that many of the conclusions drawn by the Council from the responses received are actually quite WRONG and that the Council's summary document is therefore confusing. In particular the numbers given in the council's summary document do not accord with the conclusions.  Faced with this extraordinary position an independent analysis was later performed by Graham Aldred and it has been sent to the entire Council. See the link to it above. The conclusions reached by this independent analysis were:

• There is NO widespread call for change from members.

• There is NO greater emphasis on change from younger members than older ones.

• There is NOTHING striking about member's views of the website - It is in fact the most accessed and popular of all sundial related web sites on the Internet. See 'BSS website popularity' link above.

• 83% of members do NOT want a change to the events programme.

• 75% of members are NOT critical of Society management.

• Opinion on society communication is NOT split down the middle - two thirds are satisfied with the present approach.

It ends:

"In view of these and other flaws members cannot be confident that this analysis has been conducted impartially.
There should be full visibility of the actual returns (made anonymous) so that the quality of the published interpretation can be reviewed by an independent sub committee. The returns have been very poor; only 1 in 6 members have replied consequently the published survey results cannot reliably be used to justify radical changes to the direction of the Society.."

The Council's response to the membership is awaited.
 

Chairman - Frank King
Treasurer - Graham Stapleton
Secretary - Chris Williams
Other trustees elected without portfolio - John Foad, Jackie Jones, David Brown, Chris Lusby Taylor

The Independent Examiner of our accounts was reappointed
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A retrospective commentary on the post AGM discussion

After the AGM was concluded there was an opportunity for some discussion. One member who hadn't attended the 2011 AGM, complained that there was no delegate copy of the latest Society accounts in the Conference wallets. The Chairman explained that at last year's AGM (2011) it had been agreed unanimously by the members present (and later properly agreed and implemented as policy by the Council) that, for cost reasons, the full accounts need not be provided to delegates in the Conference wallets because they had been properly approved, were available on display to all delegates throughout the meeting and would in any case be published to all members of the society in a subsequent Bulletin. A supplementary suggestion that if cost was the issue then the complimentary pens in the wallets could be abandoned, was not pursued since they are useful for over a year whereas separate printed delegate copies of the accounts would only go to delegates (that is only to some 20% of the society membership) and in any case several such copies are always displayed at each meeting for all present to study and even copy if desired.  In a further intervention the member pointed out that many charities, for example the Antiquarian Horological Society and the North American Sundial Society published draft accounts for all members to see in the journal before their respective AGMs and subsequent ratification by members. The Editor thought that this was potentially feasible though it emerged in later discussion that in BSS's case there would only be three or four weeks between the end of the Financial Year and the printing deadline for the March Bulletin.  Such a requirement, at a time when very many charities are also at their year end, may well increase the cost of the necessary independent examination and place a burden on the Treasurer.

Another suggestion was made regarding the BSS Reference Library in Nottingham.  A member noted that, having visited the library at Bromley House, the staff had stated that nobody seemed to use it, and he suggested that the council appoint a member who is quite independent of council members, past or present, to review the status of the library.  The Chairman said that the council would consider the suggestion. The council had in fact already discussed this very matter some time ago and formally recognised that the library is an important Society asset. A later comment by a member was that members will be aware that there are several obvious values of the BSS library that are certain to be considered again by the Council. The Library only costs about 37p per member per year. It advertises the Society, it is available to the general public in a central position within the UK and because of this it provides a very recognisable and key contribution to the Charity Commission's requirement for the Society to demonstrate the necessary level of Public Benefit for it to remain a charity. In fact the BSS Library is probably the biggest collection of easily accessible general dialling works in the UK and it meets the core aims of the Constitution of a Society dedicated to disseminating a knowledge of dialling. The current replacement value of the dialling library (not the sale value) of around £16K has little relevance given that the Society has available reserves and savings of many times that and for which there is as yet no planned use.

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After many years service as a trustee, our Bulletin Editor John Davis did not offer himself for re-election at the AGM but he will continue to edit the Bulletin as a Specialist.
Shortly after the meeting Richard Mallet stood down as our long standing webmaster. By his careful attention to standards, Richard has ensured that the BSS website is currently the most popular sundial-related site in the world.
BSS Member Darek Oczki now takes on the role from his home in Warsaw.