The 2010 Spring Meeting will follow a theme of "Data Matters" and will be held at the University of Warwick between 12th and 15th April 2010. The thinking behind this is to have a broad ranging theme which can encompass every aspect of a crystallographic study, whilst promoting an interdisciplinary feel for the conference.

Gift Aid doesn't cost you anything, it's simple to do, and, most importantly, the benefits go straight into BCA bursaries.

When you join the BCA you have an opportunity to fill out a Gift Aid Declaration which allows the BCA to claim 28p for HMRC for every £1 of your membership payments of donations.

I feel deeply honoured to have been elected at the Loughborough BCA AGM to be the new President of the BCA: the first President of the Association in 1982 was Professor (later Lord) David C. Phillips, who took me on at LMB Oxford as a card carrying experimental nuclear physicist in 1987, with a view to transmuting me into a macromolecular crystallographer! However, I also find it a daunting prospect to succeed Paul Raithby. Beneath Paul's unfailingly jovial demeanour there is efficiency and steely determination to do the best for the BCA and the profession of crystallography. Although Paul has made his name as a very creative small molecule crystallographer, he has a sympathetic understanding of other areas of crystallography. Since I started as a physicist and am now in a Biochemistry Department, I hope I can follow his example in this respect. 

The 2009 IG Autumn meeting will be held on the 5th November at World of Glass - St Helens. It will include a morning session of Young Crystallographer presentations.

More details are on the Industrial Group's meeting page: Autumn 2009

Professor Elspeth Garman was elected as the President of the British Crystallographic Association at its AGM on 22nd April 2009. She takes over from Paul Raithby who retires after three years in the post.

A full list of council members is available here. There are three new ordinary members of council: David Beveridge, Andrés Goeta and Alex Griffin. Anne Kavanagh is the new Industrial Group representative and Richard Cooper has taken over as website editor.

The Editors and Taylor & Francis have announced that members of the British Crystallographic Association will now be able to receive all four issues per year of Crystallography Reviews by taking advantage of the new special and greatly reduced Member's Subscription rate agreed with the Association. 
Please go to http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/gcry and click on 'Society Speical Offers link' for more details.  The rate is currently £25 for issues 1-4 for this year.

I am delighted to report that after the consideration of several very strong nominations, the BCA Officers have recommended the election of two new Honorary Members of the BCA, Frank Allen and David Watkin, in recognition of their outstanding services to BCA and crystallography. They will receive their letters of election at the Loughborough Meeting.

The xForum (http://www.x-rayman.co.uk/xforum) is an international on-line web-forum, set up in 2006, for open collaboration and exchange of issues and information related to X-ray studies.