BA/6/01
Meeting held at 1.30 pm on 16th July 2001, at RNIB Great Portland Street, London, W1N 6AA.
1. Rollcall: Allan Young, Alison May, Clare Gailans, Iain Millard, Stephen Phippen, Jim McCafferty, David Moodie, Lisa Bhogal, Fred Jakeman, David Boden, Barbara Leighton, Gareth Davies, Richard West, Bill Poole, David Taylor, Hans Cohn, Michael Townsend.
Apologies: David McKerral, Peter Wilkins, Isobel Yule, Sarah Home, Irene Grayson, Peter Osborne, Kevin Carey.
2. Minutes of the last meeting (28th March 2001). Clare Gailans said that under item 4, it was she, and not Lisa Bhogal, who had asked for a letter to be written to ICEB. Richard West said that under item 7, Steve McCall's statement that there were 700-800 readers of braille in England and Wales referred only to children at school.
3. There were no matters arising from the minutes.
4. Officers' reports.
(a) Chair:
(1) Bill Poole reported the death of Marjorie Bolton, at the age of 84. She had served for a long time on BAUK, after having joined in the 50's, and was Vice Chair of BAUK for some time. She was also active in the Birmingham/Warwick project on braille contractions. Bill Poole said that he was very sorry to hear this news.
(2) World Braille Council. Euclid Herie (the President of CNIB) is one of the people taking a lead on this in WBU, and had asked Bill Poole for help. Bill Poole suggested to him that a World Braille Council should get involved in braille promotion as well as code design. Hans Cohn said that Euclid Herie can be a bit slow to move, and that Bill Poole may need to take the initiative.
(b) Secretary.
(1) Stephen Phippen said that he will be updating the membership list, and any changes, including e-mail addresses, should be sent to him for inclusion.
(2) Future meeting dates are yet to be arranged. The December meeting will be at Great Portland Street as usual, but thereafter the meetings will be at the new site in Judd Street. The Secretary will notify members as soon as the December date has been settled. David Taylor reminded the meeting that we should try to avoid a clash with Sight Village when arranging the July meeting.
(c) Treasurer. Iain Millard reported that the accounts had been audited, and the report circulated. A number of organisations had not yet paid their fees, and he asked to be informed of any changes in organisations' Treasurers, in order to speed up payments. The invoices were sent in May and June. Hans Cohn suggested that some organisations could pay by banker's order. David Taylor suggested that RNIB's invoice could include the cost code.
Richard West said that the main difference between the figures for this year and last year was that BAUK received money from RNIB for the UEBC conference last year, but had given out money this year. Bill Poole noted that there had been a fall in assets this year.
Lisa Bhogal suggested an increase in BAUK membership fees, perhaps from the current £35 to £40 per representative. Mike Townsend suggested £50, in line with the fees for UKABP. However, Barbara Leighton thought that VIMA might be unhappy to pay that amount, and David Taylor said that ABAPSTAS might wish to reduce their number of representatives as a consequence. Richard West then suggested a staged increase over 3 years, i.e. £40, £45, £50, which would give organisations a better chance to budget for the increase. Bill Poole said that an increase could be justified on the grounds that more could be done, e.g. braille promotion, conference funding, etc.
A vote to increase the fees in one step to £50 was defeated by 14 to 3. A vote to increase the fees in three steps: £40, £45, £50, was passed by 14 to 1. It was agreed that it would start in April 2002.
(d) Public Relations Officer. The Public Relations Officer was not present and no report was given.
5. Elections. The following were elected: Chair: Bill Poole; Vice Chair: Mike Townsend; Secretary: Stephen Phippen; Assistant Secretary: Allan Young; Treasurer: Iain Millard; Public Relations Officer: Peter Osborne; Trustees: Richard West, David Boden. The following were coopted: Claire Wilson; Kevin Carey.
Hans Cohn asked whether there should be a mechanism to register the attendance of representatives, and inform their organisations. Allan Young suggested that it should be incumbent on an officer to give a report when the item is listed in the agenda; otherwise they should inform the Chair or Secretary, or submit a written report. Bill Poole agreed - this was the minimum requirement in discharging the duty.
David Taylor said that organisations should take their own account of attendance, rather than BAUK. David Moodie added that it was not always possible for people to attend for geographical reasons - organisations might decide to drop their membership if this were to be an issue. Bill Poole summarised the feeling of the meeting by saying that the issue lay with the organisations, rather than with BAUK.
Hans Cohn then asked what the position was with regard to coopted members. Richard West said that our line should be that we expect officers and coopted members to attend. However, there was no need for action to be taken in the constitution: people can simply be taken off when elections are held at the AGM.
Literary Code Committee. Bill Poole said that the LCC is currently in the middle of working on the revision of British Braille; Richard West suggested that the committee therefore be re-elected as a whole. This was agreed. Allan Young suggested that we should try to get as many organisations represented on the committee as possible, but it was agreed that any changes should be done at a future time.
6. ICEB matters. Bill Poole reported that UEBC Committees 5 and 6 (dealing with format and rule writing respectively) needed to have face-to-face meetings in order to complete their reports for the interim Executive meeting to be held in New Zealand in January 2002. Arrangements have therefore been made for concurrent meetings of Committees 5 and 6 to be held on 4-8 September in Markham, Canada. The three UK delegates on these committees are Sheila Armstrong, Hans Cohn and Peter Osborne. It was agreed that all should go, together with Bill Poole. The return air fare is about £450. A fund of $19,000 (Canadian) has been made available by ICEB. The first call on this fund would be for accommodation, then travel within Canada, and any remainder towards travel outside Canada. Nigeria and South Africa would have priority for this funding in respect of their total costs. Hans Cohn said that he may be able to provide some funding for himself. Stephen Phippen noted that observers are also invited; Bill Poole said that their costs would have to be paid for personally, or through their own organisation.
Bill Poole also reported that he had tried to get Committee 2 or the Project Committee to decide between two options on the rules for indicating capitals: the version in the original Committee 2 report, and a version closer to the UK rules supported by Committee 3. He said he would press again for action on this issue before the meeting in Canada. Stephen Phippen said that the matter was not currently under discussion within Committee 2, but he could put it before them and find out whether they would be likely to agree or disagree to a change towards the Committee 3 preference.
Stephen Phippen said that there was some concern at RNIB that the Braillists' Manual is being put on the table at the Committee 5 meeting, but that the authors or owners of the document would not be present to participate in the discussions at a technical level. Both himself and Peter Osborne were hoping that the discussion on format would not become too detailed, but Peter Osborne feared that it would, and so had suggested that Stephen Phippen should attend. David Taylor agreed that UEBC should not become too prescriptive on format; Mike Townsend also said that it would be a mistake if UEBC went down this route, but added that Sheila Armstrong would be able to talk about the Braillists' Manual as it is used at Torch Trust.
Bill Poole then spoke about the Executive meeting being held in January 2002 in New Zealand. He was the only UK member of the Executive; other UK attendees would have to be observers. Observers would have speaking, but not voting rights. The main subject of debate would be the reports of the various UEBC committees, and the final shaping of UEBC as presented to the public. Braille promotion would not be high on the agenda, but Bill Poole said he would try to raise its level. David Taylor said he knew that Peter Osborne would like to go, but he thought there shouldn't be more than two UK observers. This point was agreed, and it would be left to the BAUK Executive to decide this. Mike Townsend said that he would also be interested in going, and may be able to obtain funding from RNIB for this. Richard West pointed out that there was a presumption that the UEBC work would be completed by then, and wondered whether this was realistic. Bill Poole replied that this was the main function of the Canada meeting.
ICEB Elections. Bill Poole reported that it had been agreed that Darleen Bogart should not continue as President, and should become Immediate Past President. Nominations were therefore open for President and Vice President. The Nominations Committee will put forward a slate, after which a month is allowed for counter nominations, then a vote is held (unless there are no counter nominations). Bill Poole said that he would make arrangements that BAUK members' wishes be known if a vote is taken before the December meeting. He has been asked if he would be willing to stand as President or Vice President, to which he said he would. Mike Townsend and Peter Osborne's names have also been mentioned.
David Taylor asked whether Bill Poole thought his participation at the New Zealand meeting would be restricted if he was made President and hence chaired the meeting. Bill Poole replied that he was concerned about this: he could negotiate, but would lose national status. Richard West asked if we would not then be entitled to another UK representative on the Executive, to which Bill Poole replied that we would not - there is no provision in the ICEB constitution for reserving country representation in the Executive.
Hans Cohn asked what was being done as regards consultation, as a decision about UEBC was getting closer. The US are seeking government funding for a consultation exercise. Bill Poole replied that there were still several stages to be passed: if the Executive Council accepts UEBC at its meeting in January, the code will still have to go to the ICEB assembly in 2003, and if it gets through that, national bodies will still have to ratify the code. Braille users will have to be consulted between January 2002 and October 2003. The US is split over the number system, and so there is an incentive for them to embark on a consultation exercise on this. Mike Townsend asked how we would consult in the UK. Shouldn't we be seeking funding? Bill Poole agreed, and David Taylor said that his area of RNIB could be involved in the marketing side.
7. Update on British Braille. Stephen Phippen reported that there had been two meetings of the Literary Code Committee to discuss amendments to the draft, and these had now all been agreed. The next stage was for these to be written into the draft, then for the amended draft to be agreed by the LCC. Next, the word list and index would need to be updated. We would try to present the main part of the document to BAUK at the December meeting.
Lisa Bhogal asked if anyone would be prepared to do a presentation on the changes to British Braille to the UKABP conference in September, but it was pointed out that the rules would not be ready by then. It was also agreed that workshops could not be held until the rules were finalised.
8. Braille Promotion Committee. Bill Poole reported that Isobel Yule thought that the committee's meetings should not be linked to main BAUK meeting days. However, David McKerral said that he would have to resign from the committee if this were changed. Richard West said that the discussion list was very active on braille promotion, and would like this interest to be channelled through our BPC. The membership of the BPC could be wider than just BAUK members (as for other BAUK committees).
Fred Jakeman thought that the BPC should be reconstituted, with a new Chair and new direction; David Taylor agreed that it would provide a useful focus, and he would like participation from RNIB's Education and Employment Division. Bill Poole asked whether a new BPC should be a BAUK committee or of wider ownership; Mike Townsend replied that it should be BAUK hosted and chaired, and Richard West agreed, saying that it would be good for BAUK's PR and image. It was agreed that Richard West should chair the committee, and that David Taylor, Isobel Yule, Mike Townsend and Gareth Davies would be included.
Gareth Davies said the the Braille Promotion Committee should be a proper agenda item at the next BAUK meeting. Richard West said that by then he hoped there would be a working augmented committee, e.g. with a dozen members, and would report on this at the December meeting.
9. Any Other Business.
Allan Young said that he felt a revision of the BAUK structure document was due, as many of the listed committees were not active. This would be discussed at the December meeting.
Richard West reported that the ICEB 8-dot braille committee had done nothing, and asked if Bill Poole could find out if it is still alive.
The meeting closed.