Byelaw 38: the cost of membership

NEWS T his issue of A&G shows how ubiquitous the use of the internet has become in research: here are plans for a virtual observatory , bringing vast volumes of data to a monitor near you; a comet tracked and recognized in double-quick time and web pages everywhere. Future research will depend on electronic access to data collected and stored in electronic form. The potential benefits are huge. Just look at the advances in seismology made possible by collection of data across a broad band of frequencies. But at the same time as realizing the potential of new technologies, we should be spending time and effort on the seemingly dull field of archive storage. After all, research triumphs mean nothing unless they are available to the community. As an incentive, think of the fate of a great project of the 1980s. The digital Domesday book was to record the state of Britain in 1986, rather like the first one did in 1086. Instead of paper, the improved version used 12 inch video disks, which have deteriorated and are essentially unreadable, after just 15 years (even if you have one of the few obsolete computers with which to read it). T he Council has decided to resubmit to the AGM in May 2002 a reformulation of its proposal of May 2001 to change Byelaw 38. For long-serving older members who would in future become eligible, the change replaces the concession of zero contribution with a concession at the rate for registered students (£17 per annum). The AGM last May defeated a similar proposal at considerably higher rate, but the Council is convinced that a change must be made. From the Society's perspective, the argument to change is that there is now an unsustainably large proportion of Fellows who pay nothing, namely about 25%, and rising because of the demographics of the membership. Partly as a result, the financial structure of the Society has become more dependent on uncertain income, with the publication surplus vulnerable to market uncertainty and current investment income much reduced. At the same time the influence – and corresponding costs – of the Society are increasing, for example since the Society became responsible for the UK's IAU subscription. The Soci-ety's finances are in good shape at the moment, but Council has to be defensive. Older Fellows are valued by the Society. They offer consistent support to astronomy through …