Old hands will know that we elect our Officers and Council members by secret ballot at our AGM during the Spring Meeting. This year is the Big One in this sense - we will elect a new President. The President serves for three years, and should be a person that members feel can represent a broad swathe of crystallographic interests. But we cannot afford to elect a figurehead; the president has to chair the Council meetings and play a leading role in developing the BCA still further. Our very distinguished and hard working past Presidents have been:

• 1982-1984 Professor David Phillips
• 1984-1988 Professor David Blow
• 1988-1990 Professor Michael Woolfson
• 1990-1992 Dr Bob Diamond
• 1992-1996 Professor Judith Howard
• 1996-2000 Professor Michael Glazer

Despite these dates, the President is now elected for a single three year term, as is shown by the following extract from the Statutes

Elections shall take place as follows:

a. Elections of Officers and Ordinary Members shall take place at an Annual General Meeting of the Association.

b. Each elected member of Council shall serve from the end of the Annual General Meeting at which the election took place until the end of the third Annual General Meeting following the election.

c.The President shall normally serve for one three-year term only.

d.No person shall serve more than two consecutive three-year terms in the same capacity.

e. No person shall serve more than three consecutive three-year terms in any elected capacity.

Other Council vacancies this year are for Treasurer and for three Ordinary Members.

Please send your properly seconded nominations to me as soon as possible.
I will accept nominations until two weeks before the date of the AGM on 15^th April 2003.
If you nominate someone, it is your responsibility to make sure that the person you nominate is willing to stand for election.

Two nominations have been received so far for the office of President, and statements from each of them can be found on this website,

Professor John Helliwell, Professor of Structural Chemistry, University of Manchester.
Nominated by Professor Paul Raithby and seconded by Dr Naomi Chayen.

Professor Chick Wilson, Head the Crystallography Group, ISIS neutron sources at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
Nominated by Professor Chris Gilmore and seconded by Dr Christine Cardin.

Christine Cardin
Hon Secretary BCA