President's Report

This issue of the Newsletter sets the stage for a more active role by the members of the SGML Users' Group in the ISO process. Charles Goldfarb has contributed a number of ISO documents describing the review and revision process that ISO 8879 SGML is currently undergoing. It is our hope that Chapters of the SUG will set aside part of their agenda to review the ISO progress and contribute their thoughts, requirements, and recommendations to the process. As reported in the Minutes of the 1996 AGM (SGML Users' Group Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 3 July 1996), Charles Goldfarb has suggested that 'the national chapters themselves should offer to become the national equivalents of WG8 in those countries for which there is currently no equivalent to WG8. In other countries, where there is an active WG8, chapters can request the right to send members to the WG8 equivalent. This would lead to a direct vote, and some significant political clout in the standard making process.'

Participation at the working group (WG) level has decreased over the years since SGML was adopted. Above the WG8 level, there is almost complete ignorance about the use of the standard. 'The danger being that in the 5-year [review] life cycle of the standard, through neglect, the standard may be withdrawn.' Thus, even though the numbers of corporations and whole industries that use SGML may be growing exponentially, those who vote on its continuance may be uninformed about its following and need. The information contributed by Charles Goldfarb contained in this issue is a first step in providing you, the members of the SGML Users' Group, with the information you need to begin contributing to the ISO process. The SUG's class A liaison status does not allow us to vote, but does allow us to send delegations. Chapters which become their national body equivalent of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 18/WG 8 will, however, have a vote."

Since the last issue, we have received a proposal from Robin Cover to create and maintain an SGML Users' Group Web Site. Robin Cover is a humanites computing consultant for the CELLAR project at the Summer Institute of Linguistics, and is maintainer of the SGML Web Page (http://www.sil.org/sgml/). This proposal was forwarded in the form of a ballot to the Executive Council members. I am pleased to report that this ballot has passed and we are currently in discussions with Robin regarding the setting up of the site. Charles has suggested that in addition to an open site, that we also make a provision for SUG members to have password access to an area where they can participate in a discussion of the ISO work that is underway giving each of you the ability to have direct input to the outcome of the revision. This is not possible at the site that Robin Cover would be setting up, so we are investigating an additional service to provide that capability.

In the last issue of the Newsletter, we also published a proposal for the creation of a Chapter membership class. The proposed changes to the constitution have been sent to each of you earlier this month as a ballot for approval. I hope you will give this matter consideration and send back your vote. The changes were designed to respect the current status of each member while creating the opportunity for chapters to provide the benefits of international membership to their local members, thus helping the Group to grow.

Further, we are asking each Chapter to declare whether or not it will opt to become a Subsidiary or Affiliate Chapter within the next calendar year. I am pleased to report that we have already begun receiving feedback from a couple of Chapters who will become Affiliates.

I would like to stress here that an existing Chapter can retain its current status as a Chapter of the SUG. In doing so, however, it's individual members would not enjoy the benefits of membership in the international organisation, such as discounts on books and conferences, receiving the Newsletter, or, in the case of the website, password privileges.

Naturally, we hope that each existing Chapter will vote to become a Subsidiary or Afflliate Chapter over time. The larger the membership in the group, the greater its buying power. This increased buying power will enable us to provide more benefits for our members.

One such benefit will be a complete revamp of this Newsletter. We are aiming to have a newly designed (both in look and content) newsletter starting with Volume 3 Issue 1, due out in January 1997 (see the following article).

In this issue, we have also reprinted the Executive Council list. We had a number of changes requested to the list we printed in the July issue and decided that a complete reprint was preferable to a list of edits.

The SUG will be having its annual mid-year meeting at SGML '96 on Tuesday, 19 November 1996, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel and Towers, from 16:00-17:30. (This is a change from the published programme.)

This meeting will be used as an opportunity to answer questions about the proposal ballot and also to hear from Charles Goldfarb about his ideas for participation by the SUG in the ISO process. If we have further information on the Website or on the new Newsletter, we will also put those items on the agenda. This is an open meeting and I look forward to seeing you there.

As you can see, the SUG has a busy agenda over the next 3-6 months. On behalf of all the officers, Charles Goldfarb (our Honorary Technical Consultant), and myself I look forward to hearing from you over the coming months.

Pamela Gennusa
October 1996