Fifty-second report of the Executive Board 1 January to 31 December 2008 The Society of Indexers had a successful year in 2008, searches in Indexers Available were noted and discussed. building on the previous year’s achievements in An e-survey was prepared to discover members’ views on developing internet resources and looking confidently to proposed changes to the order of display and the results of the future by launching two major initiatives. Working this presented at the conference in July. Further discussion parties were set up, one to examine possibilities for prompted the establishment of a working party to re- making the next edition of the training course available examine SI membership structure and qualifications. online, and the other to overhaul the membership and Executive Board meeting agendas included consideration qualifications structure. Members’ views have been of online membership renewal, promoting SI-Announce as canvassed via online surveys and used to guide priorities an effective means of communication with the and planning. The Society’s website provides an membership, the revision of the training course, indexing increasingly valuable resource to promote SI and indexing standards and a legal assistance scheme for members. It is in general, while developing facilities for members. The still the aim of EB to achieve charitable status as soon as Society continues to face the future with optimism and to time allows. assert and promote the value of indexing in the electronic age. Finance: The Society’s finances remain on a stable footing. We aim to maintain a minimum financial reserve equivalent to the income from one year’s membership fees ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT and, despite a reduced net surplus in 2008, our reserves remain above this minimum. This puts us in a good Annual General Meeting position to meet the anticipated development costs of the The 51st Annual General Meeting was held at Winchester new edition of the training course, due to be introduced in University on 12 July 2008 during the annual conference. early 2010. From January 2009 the EB is adopting a more Eighty-three members of the Society attended the meeting. rigorous budget planning process to ensure that in-year The Annual Report and Accounts for 2007 were received. spend is closely monitored. There being no other nominations the following were elected to the Executive Board for the period 2008–11: Hilary Faulkner, Adele Furbank, Jan Worrall. The Consultative Council reappointment of Westons of Sheffield as reporting The Consultative Council (CC) met in May and accountants to the Society was approved. A query was November. It is always well attended; group raised regarding the appointment of a new Chair of the representatives send a deputy if they find it impossible to Executive Board following the retirement of Sue attend so that it is rare for a group to be unrepresented. The Lightfoot. According to the SI Articles of Association the Society’s committees are always represented, which means Chair and Vice-Chair are now elected by the Executive that the Council is in direct contact with each committee. Board from among its members. The CC email group enables groups and committees to stay in contact between meetings. The Chair passes Executive Board matters from the Council to the Executive Board and The Executive Board (EB) met four times in 2008, in reports back to the Council about Executive Board February, April, July (at the annual conference) and meetings. Jane Coulter resigned as Chair in November and October. A telephone conference also took place in June. Janet Reed was elected to replace her, with Cath Topliff Directors’ attendance at meetings is close to 100 per cent. taking over as Vice-Chair from Janet Reed. Ann Kingdom took over the Chair of SI from Sue Lightfoot after the AGM and continues to carry the brief During the year, the Council receives news from the for marketing until a replacement can be found. James Executive Board and the various committees of the Lamb was elected as Vice-Chair. Paula Peebles resigned Society and so provides a means of disseminating from the Board early in the year and Jan Worrall was information about Society matters and initiatives to the coopted to take her place as Director for Professional group members. This year, these topics included matters Development. Wendy Simpson was coopted onto the EB relating to the training course, the status of external in November. training qualifications, especially BIPT, public liability insurance for group meetings and requests for contacts for A summary of minutes of all meetings was printed in the Marketing Committee SIdelights and posted on the website. In June the Board decided that in the light of recent developments in the Topics initiated by the Council itself have included the quality and rigour of the Training Course, only those with possibility of the SI buying the BIPT course from Ann an SI qualification should be eligible for inclusion in Hall if and when she should choose to sell the course, Indexers Available from 2012. In April and June concerns delays to schedules and the resultant effect on freelancers, expressed by members on the display of results in subject negotiation, feedback on training course papers which 1 have been failed, the time limit for completing the training This year it was the turn of the Wessex Group to put on an course, working for middlemen such as packagers, excellent conference (‘The Round Table’) at Winchester. outsourcing, and how to widen the representation of The Yorkshire Group has spent much of the year planning members on the Council. the 2009 Conference to be held in York in September. Thanks are due to everyone involved for making these There is discussion about all these matters in the meetings conferences possible. and the views of the various groups are returned to the meeting or can be aired on the email discussion group. The The special interest groups continue to be in email contact, results of these discussions are passed back to the some more than others, and the Medical Indexing Group Committee representatives and the Executive Board as sends a representative to the Consultative Council. appropriate. It remains desirable to widen the participation and representation of members by extending membership Those local groups which meet regularly, even if of local groups beyond the immediate area. sometimes infrequently, continue to be a great strength to the Society and are highly valued by their members. All those involved in their organization are to be thanked for Groups their hard work, as are the Consultative Council Many of the local groups again had a successful year, representatives who disseminate information from the meeting several times, remaining in email contact between Council and collect feedback from their groups. meetings and sending representatives to the Consultative Council. 2009 should see the groups continue successfully, sharing new ideas for meetings. Hopefully, it will also see the New members were welcomed by the group organizers appearance (or reappearance) of groups in areas currently and invited to group meetings. Each group was encouraged not served. to keep its web page up to date and it is hoped that the details of future meetings will shortly be available in a International Issues website diary. Group memberships varied from single The next International Meeting, where the International figures up to 50 or 60, with some members travelling long Agreement is reviewed, was scheduled to take place in distances to meetings, although many groups vary their South Africa in March 2009, organized by ASAIB. meeting locations to share out the longer journeys. SI was represented by Pam Schofield at the 40th ASI Meeting content varied considerably. Apart from ‘social’ conference in Denver, Colorado. Representatives of meetings, at which indexing matters are generally several of the other societies attended the SI conference in discussed, peer reviews were again popular and were also Winchester and took part in an informal meeting. being planned for 2009. Several groups have held SI Although the China Society of Indexers was not workshops in local venues and others are arranged for represented by a member from China, SI member Liqun 2009. This has proved a popular alternative to attending Dai represents CSI through her position as Honorary SI-arranged venues, reducing the cost of travel. Board Member of CSI. The Kent Group held a meeting examining the indexing Interest by other indexing societies in their members being software used by its members, the London Group able to take the SI training course has continued. Members examined an indexing program under development and the of the other indexing societies can now take our course Yorkshire group had a presentation on indexing Chinese without becoming SI members. The training does not lead names from a member. The North East Group was visited to Accreditation, but a Certificate of Completion is by Max McMaster, for a talk and discussion on the ANZSI awarded. mentoring scheme and mentoring in general. Membership Several groups have met for visits, including the Yorkshire The total number of members was 658 (686 in 2007), Group to the National Railway Museum’s Search Engine including: 9 (9) Honorary, 36 (36) Life, 5 (5) Founder, 21 (its Library and Archive Centre), the Three Choirs Group (25) Joint, 59 (60) Overseas, 31 (32) Over-70s, and 6 (4) to the Bletchley Park Museum and Arley Arboretum, the Corporate. New members totalled 91 (127) and Sussex Group to the village of Bosham, the West Anglia resignations and non-renewals 128 (136). Group to the Cambridge University Press (including a talk on CUP-XML), the Kent Group to two gardens and the Office North West Group to Lancaster Castle.