Newsletter No 53 - September 2009A NEW SECRETARY The BSS Council is the governing body of the Society, with eight official members and eight supporting specialists, including, for example, the Newsletter Editor. As the Membership will know, after ten years in office, Doug Bateman retired from the post of Hon. Secretary to the Society at the last Annual General Meeting, held at Grange-over-Sands, on 17th May 2009. Despite the year’s advance notice that Doug gave of his intention to retire, there were no volunteers to take his place, until, finally, Graham Aldred, a serving member of Council, already having other responsibilities as those for the Library and for Restoration, kindly offered his services. If this Society is to continue to flourish, it needs "new blood" in the Council. Remember, this is YOUR Society, so, to use words akin to those of the late President Kennedy, don’t ask what the Society can do for you; but what you can do for the Society. Anyone of you can volunteer for ‘duties’ on Council, which brings a commitment of just four meetings per year, in a friendly atmosphere, when you have the chance to bring your own ideas, expertise and input into running the Society. Travel expenses are paid, as are expenses for those incurred in the course of carrying out any of the Society’s day to day work. Chris Daniel FROM THE SECRETARY Changes in Structure. Despite my efforts to avoid more responsibilities in an already busy life, I find myself writing this piece as the new BSS Secretary. The attempts over the last two years to recruit, persuade or even cajole a new Secretary from the body of the Society were not successful. The reason for this could be the perception that the combined responsibilities of BSS Secretary and Conference Organiser are larger than an average retired person, with other interests and commitments, would wish to undertake. In the absence of a volunteer by the time of the AGM and well aware of the urgency and the need for continuity I put my name forward with some unease but with the intention of dividing the task if I were elected. Fortunately, Patrick Powers has agreed to take on the role of Conference Organiser, a task that he has carried out in his professional life. This split of the Secretarial role was approved by Council in July and Patrick has accepted the vacant trusteeship. As a cautious new secretary I hope to streamline some of our current administrative processes and catalogue the past decisions so that any new council member will quickly learn how the Society is currently managed even though it will evolve subsequently. The Council has had a long term aim to ensure that all the Council functions are so structured that they can be handed over efficiently to a successor utilising their existing skills with a minimum of learning of new processes. This has been achieved in the core computer based tasks: - production of the Bulletin, Dial Registration and management of Membership, the Newsletter etc.. Richard Mallett is currently rebuilding the BSS web site using modern, more friendly web management tools. Graham Stapleton will soon be capturing the Society’s financial accounts using new friendly Charity oriented software. Patrick and I hope to extend this approach to include our non computer based current tasks by producing procedures and guidance notes for our successors in the near future. BSS has the good fortune to attract and keep volunteers either as Specialists or as Members of the Council. Many have served for long periods in the past; Robert Sylvester, Ian Wootton, Tony Wood, Patrick Powers, Doug Bateman, David Young, myself, and, of course, our Chairman who has served the longest. Nevertheless, we will continually need a flow of volunteers to fill all the Council and Specialist roles if the BSS is to survive in its present very successful and unique form. So, please look at the back cover page of the Bulletin and seriously consider which of the roles listed you might be interested to learn more about, even if you are not sure you can do it, help and persuasion(!) is at hand. Members who might be interested would have the opportunity to assist those who already have the responsibility and hopefully then take on the role when the incumbent stands down. Official BSS Address. The BSS now has an official Society address. The BSS has been affiliated with the Royal Astronomical Society for some years, currently two council meetings are held there each year. Now the RAS has agreed that the BSS may use their address on a ‘care of’ basis in all BSS publications and leaflets. The RAS will also receive mail for redirection to the secretary. On the same theme of depersonalising contact details, there are now generic email addresses for BSS business which ‘go with the job’. Both these measures have good cost and efficiency benefits for BSS publications and they will make future transfers to successors much smoother especially for the secretary. The BSS official address is now The British
Sundial Society, Graham Aldred BSS EXETER CONFERENCE April 9-11 2010 In 2010 we shall be holding our annual Conference at the University of Exeter in the lovely county of Devon. We shall be staying in Holland Hall which is on their Streatham Campus. Holland Hall is part of the University's newest accommodation. A coach tour is planned for the Saturday afternoon. The Andrew Somerville Memorial Lecture this year will be delivered by Dr DJ Bryden formerly curator of the Whipple Museum and Keeper of Science and Technology at the National Museums of Scotland. He will speak on: "A Gallimaufry of Dial Makers and Designers". The University require earlier than usual confirmation of numbers this time so it is important for Members to book early. A booking form is enclosed with the current Bulletin and copies are available on the Society’s website. Bookings and payments must be received by February 1st 2010. I look forward to welcoming you all there. Call for Papers The Council is now seeking submissions of papers for oral presentation at the BSS Exeter Conference. A limited number of papers with delivery times in the range 15-45 minutes can now be accepted for presentation. Presentations will be given in a tiered lecture theatre in the University’s Queen’s Building which is equipped with an OHP and its own inbuilt PC-based data projector operating under the latest PowerPoint Software. All presentations should be designed to use either or both of these. Further details are available from the Society website or directly from me. Please do consider giving a talk on whatever aspect of dialling interests you. It will certainly be of interest to others! Patrick Powers FROM THE BULLETIN EDITOR Proof reading. Every issue of the Bulletin is proof-read before it is sent to the printers. Although I do read through myself, I often miss typos and inconsistencies in articles that I have been through several times so it is invaluable to have a fresh pair of eyes look through the draft issue. In recent years, Tony Ashmore and John Lester have done extended stints at this task and I am most grateful to them for their diligent efforts. Now, I would like to assemble a small team of members each prepared to proofread perhaps one issue a year. This way, no-one has the disappointment of getting a new copy of the Bulletin and realising that they’ve read it all before for every issue. So, please consider volunteering for this task – I already have one name to set things running. You do not have to be an expert diallist and I am not looking for the mathematics to be checked for correctness. All it needs is an ability to read carefully and point out any obvious spelling or grammatical errors, or repeated or missing words etc., and you get a sneak preview of the issue! Some of you may have seen the ‘30-minute Project’ to build a sundial on the BBC TV’s Gardeners’ World programme a few months ago. The horizontal dial was made from a slice of tree-trunk and a triangle of slate, using a template which could be downloaded from the BBC website. I had a look at the diagrams and they seemed appropriate for a dial at 52° N, reasonable for a national programme. Unfortunately though, the presenter was clearly seen inserting the gnomon back-to-front in the slot in the dial face, an error seen on so many garden centre dials. I emailed the producers pointing this out and politely offering BSS assistance on any future sundial-related item. Result: no response! John Davis MASS DIAL MEANDERINGS Alan Cook is intending to complete his survey of Yorkshire mass dials which he started wth the publication of BSS Monograph No. 3 'Mass dials of Yorkshire'. Alan's survey was based on O.S. square SE and, whilst covering a large part of Yorkshire, necessarily left some areas unexplored. The work will be published as an Addendum to Monograph 3. It is perhaps a good idea to explain the position of the Yorkshire Monograph and also Bob Adams' Lincolnshire volumes: These two works are part of the Mass Dial Register and will be archived as such. The dials therein do not yet carry Mass Dial Register numbers. - however ....... There are, of course, reports from other recorders for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and these will be published as Annexes. The dials covered there will be entered into the Register with a Number and this will be attached to those dials already covered by Alan and Bob. Summarising: we have Yorkshire and Lincolnshire as 'independent' listings, with an Addendum to Yorkshire and Annexes to both Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. NADFAS, as ever, are providing a steady trickle of dial notifications; the latest from Chobham in Surrey. Their (digital) photograph is a big improvement on what we had in the files and reveals some text inscription previously unrecorded by us. There is now an even stronger case for snapping away at any mass dial you come across as decent photos can now be provided in place of many previously murky ones! The Rollrights in Oxfordshire have been subject of the attentions of John Lester and Ian Butson- with differing results. I intend to go and see for myself and sort it all out!! Some hopes; - If John and Ian have been at least there are lots of lovely photographs to help and they deserve honourable mention for all their efforts in our little world of mass dials. A.O.Wood REPORTING SUNDIAL RESTORATIONS It is possible that Members may become aware that a local sundial has been restored or possibly members have initiated a restoration or possibly even been the restorer. In any of these cases please would you make a report to either John Foad or me. Ideally it should be a fixed dial report whether that dial is already recorded or not. But otherwise an informal email to either of us will suffice. It does not matter if we get two reports of the same restoration. It is very desirable to record the number of restorations that are going on and we need to maintain the history of any given recorded sundial in the Register of fixed sundials. But there are exceptions; the restoration may be of a privately owned sundial that the owner does not want to be registered. Please remember that if there is a worthy local sundial that you would love to see restored there is now a modest fund under the BSS Grants Policy that can be accessed for up to 50% of the restoration costs. This fund can also cover certain costs of small appropriate educational ventures. Graham Aldred MEMBERSHIP NOTES The British Sundial Society attracts enthusiasts from far and wide. Since the last Newsletter we have increased our European membership as well as those nearer home. We would like to welcome our new members. Paul Crespel, a compass maker from Italy; Dr Juergen Hoefeld, an engineer from Germany; Gilbert and Madeleine Meurge from Paris; Dr Derek Tagg, engineer from Reading; Dr Dick Worley, retired scientist from Bristol; Theodor Korner, a teacher from Germany; Dr Martin Parry, anaesthetist from East Sussex and Dr Stephen Blake, geology teacher from Olney. Jackie Jones COUNCIL MEETINGS Points from the meeting of 2nd July 2009 : In the interests of continuity, it was agreed that Officers of the Society should have standard email addresses, relating to the position, not the current holder (see for example my new one at the foot of this item!). These will be shown on the back page of the Bulletin from now on. Their use is not mandatory, of course. The Society accounts have long been held in Excel on a now over-stretched PC. A new PC will be purchased for the Treasurer, together with professional software designed for Charities accounting. It is important that the Society functions such as the Accounts, Membership, Register and others are maintained on up-to-date versions of software. With the highly beneficial rates available to Charities through a scheme operated by Charity Technology Exchange, the MS Office applications of all Council members will be upgraded to the level of Office 2007. As foreseen in the last Newsletter, the Dialling Miscellany has now been updated and, printers willing, will have been found accompanying this quarter’s Bulletin. This represents an occasional distribution to all Members, and will be repeated occasionally, possibly every five years. Patrick Powers’ offer to act as Conference Organiser was gratefully accepted, and will remove some of the pressure on the Honorary Secretary who has previously done that job as well as his own. Mike Cowham had made a number of suggestions for widening membership through advertising. His suggestions were welcomed and a small budget was agreed for this purpose. Next Meeting. Thursday 29th October 2009, at the Royal Astronomical Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London. John Foad DOLPHIN DIAL The Membership might be interested to know that the ‘dolphin’ sundial, formerly in the grounds of the main buildings of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, has now been moved from its original site to the garden just south of Flamsteed House in the Royal Greenwich Observatory, where it was installed on Tuesday 23rd June 2009. GREENWICH OBSERVATORY It has been proposed to arrange an informal visit to the Royal Observatory in the near future. Any members who might be interested in such a visit should contact me as soon as possible. Chris Daniel BSS SUNDIAL DESIGN COMPETITION I have only had a few applications so far and there are prizes up to £500 available. Don't forget you only have until Dec 1st to get your entries in. Tony Belk, NEWBURY BSS ONE DAY MEETING This is on Saturday 26th September 2009 at Mary Hare
Grammar School RG14 3BQ. Close to junction 13 M4 / A34. This year is
a special one as we are welcoming International visitors. Another
good day is planned - with a good line up of eight short talks on a
wide range of interesting subjects - including a very unusual
sundial. We are also looking forward to an excellent display of your
sundials and other interesting objects All are welcome - members and
visitors. Mobile phone - text please - 07880
802 912 Look forward to meeting you all there. David Pawley
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