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Key facts and quick links....

• The Conference was generally judged to be a great success. A short summary is here

• The complete programme, details of the dial tour and the auction catalogue may all be viewed here.

• A summary of the questionnaires that delegates were asked to complete at the end of the conference may be found here

• No fewer than forty pictures taken at and around the conference can be seen here

• In a discussion, delegates tempered the council's ideas for a change in society direction by showing the Council's analysis was almost completely wrong. See summary here.

• At the meeting we played a clip from a radio Interview that our Chairman, Frank King, had with Chris Evans on the 28th March 2012 about sundials.
  Details of how to hear it yourself are here!

Review of the 2012 Conference

Here we look back at some of the various events and outcomes of, the 2012 Conference. 

Scroll down to see a detailed summary of the conference.

This year our programme of oral papers was particularly strong.  Just click on the image of the printed programme at the left to see the full depth of the talks, the abstracts and all the other aspects of the conference too.

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Some pictures taken during the conference

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Some pictures taken during the conference

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Here are some pictures taken during the Conference.  Click on any of the thumbnails for a larger view...
Images © J Davis, C Lusby Taylor 2012 and used with permission

 

Here are some pictures taken during the Conference.  Click on any of the thumbnails for a larger view and hit the back button to return here...
Images © J Davis, C Lusby Taylor 2012 and used with permission.

What did delegates think of the 2012 conference?

In common with the practice of the last three years, all delegates to the conference were given a questionnaire to complete and asked to return it after the end of the meeting.  The total attendance over the three days was 84 delegates, a figure which included 23 couples so the highest response we could reasonably expect was approximately 61 returns since most (though not all) couples only send in one return between them.  In all we have received 41 questionnaires back -  that's 67% of our highest expectation which is good by any standard and is one of our highest ever responses.  The thumbnail below links to a table that summarises the responses that have been received.   However it should be noted that comments that were expressed as questions have not been included in the analysis.  In the interests of openness anyone wishing to see any or all of the actual responses or who might wish to do their own analysis of the responses, may see an 'anonymised' PDF of them here (NB the file is 2.8MB in size).

Click the thumbnail below (or this text!) to see a one page summary of the results of the 2012 Delegate Questionnaire.

In summary:

• Everyone without exception enjoyed the conference and appreciated the all-in-one venue

• Every respondent thought that the conference was good to excellent value for money

• All those staying at the hotel liked the accommodation

• Delegates enjoyed the conference for its lectures, to meet other people, the venue, the dial tour and the auction

• 92% felt we should consider an hotel based conference again

• 88% wouldn't even change anything next time

• 65% of delegates had viewed this conference page and all but one had found it useful

• About half (51%) of delegates felt the discussion forum should be repeated (see summary below)

• Very few delegates recorded problems of any sort. In fact nearly 60% of delegates had no suggestions for improvement at all.

Thank You!
The Conference has been generally acclaimed a success!  Thank you to all our speakers and to all those who brought displays, for helping to make this conference so enjoyable.
The Conference Organiser, Patrick Powers would also like to thank the many members who have sent him messages of thanks and appreciation regarding this, his last conference as organiser.

On the Saturday afternoon we embarked upon our usual coach tour of some nearby dials and took a look at some of the Cotswold scenery in the process. 

This year's tour concentrated on some of the many vertical dials in the North Cotswolds.  As will be appreciated many of the prettiest of Cotswold dials are on mediaeval churches in villages where access by coach is virtually impossible.  However we still managed to see nine and a bit dials: The wonderful Great Decliner in Moreton in Marsh, seven of the dials on the High Street in Chipping Campden (where we could also browse the High Street shops) and a real puzzle, the dial on top of a dial in Bishops Cleeve.  A composite picture of all the dials we visited can be seen at the left or in larger size here.  Here is some information about the dials we saw.

First off, on the Redesdale (Market) Hall of Moreton in Marsh is the Great Decliner, SRN 0933. It declines some 83 degrees East. The Hall was erected in 1887 by the 1st Baron Redesdale, the grandfather of the Mitford sisters. We then set off North again to Chipping Campden to see seven dials all on the High Street.  First,  SRN 0752 , on Crosby House, formerly Meadow Cottage, the date of the house is recorded as 1691.  Then SRN 0753. Made in 1700. The gnomon has a curl at the end and it also has a nodus but there’s now no clue why.  Next, SRN 0609 on Dial House. Isaac Warner lived there. He was a from Gloucestershire clock-making dynasty. The Warners moved here in the early 18th Century. Like most High Street dials his doesn’t go beyond 3 pm. This too has a nodus without obvious reason now. Then SRN 0750 at the Cotswold House Hotel. Built in 1815 by Richard Miles, a grocer and chandler in a fair way of business, this superb Regency building has featured in a Miss Marple TV series. There, on an outbuilding to the rear, is a delightful dial, We know Richard Miles paid for it, but who made it and who designed it?  SRN 0754, is over Sundial House (Lloyd Loom Interiors) near the Market Hall. The house was remodelled in the 18th Century and the 1647 dial seems to have been similarly treated. The gnomon has been reset in the wrong place so it doesn’t even show anywhere near the right time.

SRN 0751, is on the recently closed Jaffé Neale Bookshop and is dated 1690 . It is canted out from the wall allowing a later time in the afternoon to be shown than the other dials which, owing to the curve of the street, face more or less south-east. Maybe the dial has been brought from elsewhere? This ‘bookshop dial’ was originally said to be used to set the Town Hall clock but you cannot actually see the Town Hall from here as the Market Hall is in the way. Finally in the town we saw SRN 0608,  on Grevel’s House at the end of the High Street, almost opposite Church Street. William Grevel - a rich London wool merchant lived in this magnificent house at the end of the 14th Century. It is perhaps the oldest house in the High Street. We don’t know if they had a dial then but the house has one today, dated 1815.

From Chipping Campden we turned for home but stopped at the village of Bishop’s Cleeve where there is an intriguing vertical dial SRN 3454 on the church of St Michael’s and All Angels. In fact it is one dial on top of another. The partly hidden dial has both lines and numerals all of which seem correct for the location but the stones seem to have been rearranged. Whatever happened?                [Thanks to Jill Wilson for this commentary]

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.

The competition will be run again next year. Why not enter one yourself?  It doesn't have to be as big and grand as this year's winning entry, it just has to be clear and helpful to the reader.  To see the rules and how to enter simply visit: http://www.sundials.co.uk/competition.htm

 

At the meeting and perhaps rather mischievously, we played a clip from a radio Interview that our Chairman Frank King had had with Chris Evans on Radio 2 on the 28th March 2012.  It was about sundials.  It makes interesting listening.  Not only does it extol the interest that there is in sundials of all types but it proves to be the first 'interview' that Chris Evans has had where he did not ask a question!!  An mp3 audio version of the interview (it is 800kB in size) may be downloaded to your PC and played using Windows Media Player or another proprietary package like IrfanView here

Organiser Cancellation. If, in the unusual event that the Society has to cancel any part or all of a reservation or even the whole conference before it has commenced, all associated prepayments or parts thereof made by the delegate(s) will be refunded.  Cancellation of any part or all of the conference after it has commenced will be compensated by a proportionated reimbursement of moneys paid less committed outgoings.

Limit of Liability. No other payments will be made by BSS in the event of any cancellation.  Neither BSS nor its Trustees can accept responsibility for consequential or other loss that may be incurred by any person as a result of any cancellation by any party.

[End of conference page]