2001 Chair's Report

Melanie Quin, BIG Chair 2000-2001

BIG AGM 17 January 2002, MSI, Manchester

The outgoing sofa reports to the BIG AGM highlighting the situation on all things BIG:

Over the last two years, Ian Simmons and I as vice chair and 'sofa' respectively have run a carefully tandem operation. A clear goal we set ourselves for 2000 was to raise BIG's profile internationally. That went hand-in-hand with a second goal: to make BIG a louder voice on the UK scene.

One measure of 'success' would be the variety of participants at the BIG Event - from arts and sciences, exhibits and programmes, British and overseas, Explainers through Directors. In 2001 as in 2000, BIG event participation just topped 100, and included people from the USA and Australia as well as what we Brits fondly call continental Europe. Later in the year, the Fabricators' Meeting was the best-attended ever. If Americans were scared off after 11 September, we nevertheless engaged members old and new, millennial and miniature!

Non-numerical measures are harder to define, but it's significant that as BIG Chair I was invited to speak at the Wellcome Trust's conference for science centres in November 2001 then became (with Sue Brumpton) a member of the Action Group set up to establish a new national science centre network. Wearing BIG and ECSITE editor hats, I had fun drawing up a constitution and defining a frame of action such that BIG and ECSITE-UK should be complementary partners not treading on each other's toes. I then couldn't resist applying for the job of executive director. And got it! ECSITE-UK's top priority is advocacy for the interactive science sector, in which BIG will be a key partner. It's also been decided to bring ECSITE-UK sessions to events organised by others, first among them the BIG Event and the BA annual festival - rather than inventing yet more meetings no one has time or budget to go to - so I now have at least two reasons for coming to the 2002 Event.

ECSITE-UK's committee includes former stalwarts of BIG - Gillian Pearson, Alistair Flett, Ian Simmons - while Science Projects in the name of Steve Pizzey and the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester, in the name of Patrick Greene (together with NHM and NMSI) are voting members of ECSITE Europe. So these are names we'll see at the BIG event, but no longer in BIG hustings. Venn diagrams, Chinese boxes, federated networks - choose your metaphor, I'm not sure which is most apt. But without doubt the science-communication field is expanding, networking and upping its professional game.

Let me run rapidly round the - inevitably personal - BIG highlights as perceived from the S.o.f.a.

BIG Event
2001 was the 5th BIG event, and once more at Herstmonceux, a venue without equal, and we'll be hard pressed to supplant. So - with a HUGE thank you to Steve Pizzey and Jenny Crouch - that's where we'll be reconvening in July. A block booking of rooms has already been made at the Castle, and the FAQs list for session convenors and new committee members is lodged firmly in the Committee meeting minutes of 2001 and in Jenny's experience honed over 5 years. Diary dates to ink in are: 25 -26 - 27 July.

BIG News
After a considerable and occasionally intractable series of obstacles - "Hey, Andy, the moment to move house and have a baby is not that at which to start working flat-out on a commercial project, nor - Phil - is surgery generally recommended as a precursor or co-requisite to taking on a new editorial project" - Andy Lloyd handed over the BIG News helm to Phil Pinder, and the smart first edition came out before Christmas. Press releases to the newsletter editor are welcome - get your publicity department to put Phil on their mailing list, and do send him stuff direct too. News articles and comments/views/think pieces are all very welcome as are good quality digital images - it's so much nicer to propose something than to be needled by the Pinder… you have been warned!

BIG Chat
Is an unalloyed success story. The recent Disappearing Leprechaun strand is a case in point, and Prashanth's request for talented and professional consultants from the BIG fraternity for his project in Bangalore, is a measure of how far the website reaches. Great thanks to Martin Glancy, our unseen web- and chat-list master for assuring continued excellent service and visibility.

Elections
The year 2002 kicks off with a new Executive Committee peopled with faces well known from Herstmonceux and names familiar from BIG-chat, including sufficient former committee members to ensure a smooth transition and act as the living archives who prevent too much burrowing in the lever-arch of Minutes. Sue, James, Richard and team: "Good luck and enjoy - if you have half as much fun meeting BIG challenges as Ian, Adam and I have had over the last two years you're in for a roller-coaster ride of testing stimulation and rewarding friendship."

Newsletter Spring 2002 Contents

Fabricators' Event 2001
Skagen Odde Natur Center, Denmark
Museums Service Placement
Accessing SETNET
Fossil workshop tips
Going free entry - what are its effects?
Scientists meet the public
BIG AGM 2001 Chair's Report