Join UK TUG!

All existing UK TUG memberships are carried through to 2008 at no charge.

For people who would like to join UK TUG, the 2008 Membership Joining Form is available online in PDF and TeX formats.

For joint UKTUG-TUG members, the 2008 Renewal Membership Form is available online in PDF and TeX formats.

Constitution

At the 2006 AGM a motion was passed which stated: "That the Committee prepare a draft replacement Constitution for UK TUG, based upon the Model Constitution for a Charitable Unincorporated Association provided by the Charity Commission, and that this draft replacement Constitution be circulated to members for comment not later than three calendar months before the 2007 AGM."

Over the past few months the committee have been working hard to draft a new constitution. Unfortunately we are a little late distributing a draft to the members, due in part to the complexity of the process, other issues which have taken priority, and a lack of man power on the committee.

Now we are asking for your help. We have taken the Charity Commission draft constitution as the starting point for the new constitution and attempted to adapt it to the specific role of UK TUG, while also keeping in mind that the UK TUG is not currently a registered charity.

We are now circulating this draft to all members, and you will find it on our website, at

http://uk.tug.org/events-files/agm/2007/constitution/draft_2.tex http://uk.tug.org/events-files/agm/2007/constitution/draft_2.pdf

And the http://uk.tug.org/events-files/agm/2007/constitution/ directory contains all the drafts, and their diffs, to date.

We have added a number of explanatory notes to the draft where we think it is helpful - it is not our intention that such notes will form part of the final constitution.

Here's where we need your help: We need our members to be happy with the constitution, and that means we need feedback on this draft from you. Will this draft serve UK TUG and its aims and goals effectively? Is there something that you feel should be added or clarified? Is there anything in here that you feel should be removed?

Very specifically, the committee has had some difficulty working out how best to adjust the constitution to better reflect the increasing electronic nature of the organization. By this we mean issues such as:

  • making allowance for electronic voting on AGM motions (and also motions at special general meetings)

  • how to facilitate discussion on motions electronically such that all members are included

  • how best to allow the committee to conduct its business electronically, including the passing of motions

  • how to allow for electronic voting in committee and chairman elections

  • how to define a quorum when people are contributing electronically

So please, take the time to give this draft your attention. We have set up a mailing list (uktug-constitution at uk.tug.org) specifically to allow us all to discuss this draft. Please go to

http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/uktug-constitution

to join this list and contribute your thoughts. If you would rather send your comments to the committee in written form, please mail comments to the UK TUG chairman.

UKTUG Project Funding Opportunities

UKTUG has a sum of £5000 available for supporting TeX related projects, made available by a motion passed by its members. To that end, we have set up a sub-committee to identify projects that the members would like to support. The sub-committee comprises: Jonathan Fine, Jonathan Underwood, David Saunders and David Crossland.

We are inviting submission of applications for support of projects. Project applications will be circulated to all members for comment, and where appropriate to independent referees also.

All projects that benefit the members will be considered. Examples might be: software projects projects aimed at providing training and teaching resources users, documentation projects, support for meetings etc. UK TUG can pay for web-site hosting, travel to conferences, purchase of books and similar materials. It can also pay for team members to travel to meet each other (but not for the work done at that meeting).

Applications should be no longer than 2 sides and should detail:

  1. The intended project
  2. How the UK-TUG funding would be used.
  3. what the objectives of the proposed project are
  4. What timescale the project will be completed in
  5. How the project will benefit UK-TUG members

The sub-committee will review all feedback from UK-TUG members and the referee reports prior to making a decision on whether to support each project.

There is no deadline for submission of proposals, however funds are limited. We are happy to receive applications of support for projects of all sizes.

Please send proposals to uktug-funding@uk.tug.org

Website Technical Difficulties

We apologies for the recent and ongoing technical difficulties with our website, and hope to get the full site reinstated as soon as possible. Thank you for you patience, and please do not hesitate to contact webmaster@uk.tug.org for any information you require.