BA Branch Newsletter – November 2008
This month’s content:
1: BA name change
2: Structure of Branch Support
3: News from the Branches
4. Funding
5: Branch Expenses
6: Working with young people and CRB checks
7: Register your event for NSEW
8: Is your event newsworthy? Let us know…
1: BA Name Change
We would like to remind branches not to use the new name in any way before the rebranding on the 15th January 2009. Please continue to use The BA and the current logo until then. We will be sending out guidelines on the re-branding on the 15th January.
2: Structure of Branch Support
Pam Buchan the regional officer for the North has left us to go on maternity leave. She will return to the BA in the autumn and has passed over all her duties to Natalie Lane. Natalie spent two weeks with Pam in order to get a feel for the role and meet as many of the North of England branches and contacts during that time as possible. During her keep-in-touch days Pam hopes to be able to attend some branch meetings and the forum so might see you before the autumn.
3: News from the branches
Election fever in Edinburgh
The Edinburgh and South East Scotland Branch elected new officers at their AGM, held on 1 Oct. Stephan Matthiesen, project manager in Geoscience at the University of Edinburgh and freelance editor/translator, becomes the new Chair. Nigel Over brings his long-term experience to the post of the Branch Secretary for Committee/Membership and Julia Kennedy, astronomer at Edinburgh University, fills the post of Branch Secretary for Events. Sam Yoffe, a physicist at Edinburgh University, will take over as Treasurer in the near future, but for a transition period Jane Ilsley remains co-opted for the post.
The new officers want to thank the previous officers Tony Weir (Chair) and Anton Immink (Secretary) and all the leaving committee members for their work for the Branch and for their ongoing support of future science activities in the area.
The new team is committed to continue the established work of the Association and fill it with new ideas and new concepts in Edinburgh, contributing with a diverse programme of events to the public debate about scientific issues.
More change in Scotland
Peter Robertson from the Aberdeen branch has announced his intention to step down as Chair of the Branch. Peter Robertson has served as Chair for eight years and we would like to thank him for everything he has done for the BA.
Ken Skeldon the former chairman of the West Scotland Branch has moved to the Aberdeen area and is now working with the Aberdeen branch. Susan Andrews who works with Scottish Engineering is now the new chairperson of the West Scotland Branch.
Branch restructure in the South-West
The Bath and Bristol Branch held their AGM on 25th November; Eric Albone remains Chairperson, Patrick Slade is the new Honorary Secretary and Claire Knight takes over as Honorary Treasurer. Patrick and Eric will be sharing the secretary role. The branch wishes to thank outgoing branch Secretary Bryan Berry, and Treasurer Richard Hatton, for their time; they both remain part of the branch committee. After the AGM the branch ran the ‘Meet-a-Medic’ event in association with Red Maids School and Science Café@RMS.
In other Bath and Bristol Branch news, Eric Albone has been elected onto the BA Council
New volunteers in the South
Volunteers for the new Central London Branch met for the first time on 13th November at Imperial College London. Following presentations from the Regional Officer and Sue Brumpton about the Club Science event, new branch members brainstormed ideas for the 2009 programme of events. The branch will hold their launch event in February and are coming up with further ideas for 2009… watch this space.
The Plymouth Branch has also seen a surge in volunteer numbers, with an induction workshop on 25th November. 37 students and alumni from Plymouth University attended and registered their interest in becoming branch members. Pipeline events for 2009 include science demonstrations in the City center, a water rocket experiment and an energy-saving themed talk, while the future of the branch’s regular sciBAr is currently in discussion. An interim committee has been set up for now with Nigel May continuing his involvement in the branch as Treasurer, Gemma Lewry as Secretary, and Kirsty Yule as Branch Chairperson. The next meeting will take place on 16th December.
Recruitment continues in Thames Valley, Bedfordshire, Exeter, Oxford and Cambridge with induction workshops in the pipeline for new volunteers to cover the South of England.
And in the North
The North West branch has started a new SciBAr to complement the hugely successful Knutsford SciBAr. Didsbury SciBAr held it's first event during Manchester Science Festival and were inundated with local people keen to hear what Ian Morrison, of Jodrell Bank, had to say about whether we are alone or if there are aliens out there! The varied discussion considered how we might find alien life and why we might all be Martians!
4: Funding
National Science and Engineering Week Grants for Branches
As in previous years, six BA grants of up to £500 will be available in the first instance for BA Regional and Branch events for NSEW 6-15 March 2009. We will look particularly favourably on any application which:
• Promotes an innovative event preferably incorporating a discussion element and / or
• Delivers activities designed to attract new audiences and / or
• Maximizes the use of the local media.
Applications should be submitted online by Friday 30th January 2009. Award winners will be notified by Friday 6th February 2009. All recipients of awards will be expected to register their events on the NSEW online programme at www.the-ba.net/nsewevents.
Please click here for more details and application form.
East Midlands NSEW Grants – deadline 12th December 2008
Anyone who wants to organise an event within the East Midlands during NSEW is eligible for a grant of up to £500. For more information and application form please go to www.nsewem.org.uk or contact Philip Brown, the BA East Midlands Regional Officer.
Welsh NSEW Grants – deadline 9th January 2009
We are pleased to announce that once again the Welsh Assembly Government has provided a small fund of money (approx. £500 per project) to help stimulate and support events and activities throughout Wales during NSEW.
Priority will go to:
• Events which target new and hard to reach audiences, for example in a socially disadvantaged or rural communities.
• Events that would not otherwise be able to take place due to lack of funding.
• Organisations which have not previously been involved in running science events.
• Events that have great potential for raising the profile of NSEW locally and/or have broad media appeal.
• An activity that directly promotes BA activities or benefits BA members (e.g. an event promoting or celebrating BA young people's awards or BA supporters in Wales)
• Activities that fit under the broad objectives set out in the WAG Innovation Action Plan/Science Policy
Please click here for more information and the application form or contact Jo Harris.
Scottish Government Grants – deadline 16th January 2009
For 2009, the Scottish government is providing a small fund of money to help stimulate and support science, engineering and technology events and activities in Scotland. Events must be held during NSEW to be eligible. Grants are usually limited to £500 as it is a small fund to be divided by many. For more information click here or contact the BA Regional Officer for Scotland Sandy Smith.
Other Sources of Funding
More information on other sources of funding and tips on making applications, approaching potential sponsors and a list of available grant schemes is available from the BA website.
5: Branch Expenses
We have updated the branches expenses claim form, the mileage rate has been changed to 20p per mile. Please make sure you use this updated form when submitting your expenses. The new form is in the form repository.
6: Working with young people and CRB checks
In running any activities for young people, it is important to involve parents and/or teachers and to bear in mind the needs of the Child Protection legislation. The BA is committed to a safe-guarding culture, and expects staff and volunteers to maintain high standards and to report any concerns over inappropriate behavior.
Adult volunteers should never be in a situation where they are alone with a young person or small group of young people without other adults present, unless they have been formally police-checked through the Criminal Records Bureau.
From autumn 2009, there will also be additional legislation in place covering all volunteers working with children, young people or vulnerable adults. For more information on CRB and other checks for branch members, please contact the Manager of Regional Programmes by emailing here.
In addition we ask branch members working with young people to abide by the BA's code of conduct for child protection. This is to ensure that all BA employees and volunteers are aware of the importance of child protection in their activities and are aware of the steps they must take in order to secure this.
BA Code of conduct (word 48K)
7: Register your event for NSEW
All events registered on the BA website will go straight onto our new and improved online programme. This is easily searchable and will provide the latest information on all events occurring across the country for NSEW 2009.
There are several reasons why we recommend you register your event as soon as you can:
1) Our major marketing campaign starts fully in the next couple of weeks.
2) If we don’t know about your event then we can’t pass on that information to national or regional press.
3) For schools who register their events there is a free prize draw – deadline 1st February 2009
4) The more events we know about the greater the chance we have to raise collective funding for future events through the evaluation of national impact.
Please register your event here:
http://www.the-ba.net/the-ba/Events/NSEW/WhatsOn/Programme.htm
Would you be interested in hosting a Minister at your event?
NSEW is funded by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and Ministers are keen to show their support for events taking place. Please let us know if you are running an event where you would be able to host a Minister. This may lead to press coverage so if you think your event will be of interest to local press, or even potentially to local radio or TV, please let us know.
8: Is your event newsworthy? Let us know…
In addition to ensuring that you register your event on the BA website, do let our Press Officer, Lisa Hendry, know if you think it might be of particular interest to your local (or even national) media. Highlighting your event in this way means that such events are at the forefront of our regional media plans and can be highlighted to regional journalists (whether via press releases or over the phone). There are also likely to be opportunities for us to promote particular events to national media. Last year, for example, the Telegraph, Independent, Times and Guardian newspapers each highlighted a selection of events from around the UK after hearing from us, and we were even able to get national TV coverage for a couple of particularly quirky stories. We hope to be able to do the same this year.
If you have a visual event and would be happy to have a TV crew film it, or if you would be interested in giving an interview on your local radio station, then please tell us as there may be opportunities for us to set something up if you don’t have your own contacts.
Our Press Officer is also keen to hear about any of your own media plans. If you issue your own press release (and we encourage you to do so), please do mention that the event is taking place as part of National Science and Engineering Week and that further information about the Week, including an online programme, is available at www.the-ba.net/nsew. A press release template will be made available online shortly, or can be requested directly from Lisa. All of your efforts contribute to raising awareness of the Week, complimenting our own national and media activities, and helps us to increase its profile year-on-year. We’d be delighted to hear about any media coverage you receive.
Please contact Lisa at press@the-ba.net.
More information shortly
More information on our mass participation events and NSEW activities to come shortly!! We will have a campaign called ‘Save our Bees’, a blog for social and scientific debate called ‘Change Exchange’, national activities related to the celebrations of Darwin200 and International Year of Astronomy, the new ‘National Science and Engineering Week Awards’ with £1000 prize money, a school competition called ‘Darwin in Space’, information about our NSEW online shop and much, much more!
The BA Regional Team
regions@the-ba.net
020 7019 4963/37