Letter from the Chairman
 
The current publication is quite an achievement for our Group. This is the first time we have ever been able to publish twice in one year, which is very encouraging progress.
 
I believe the Review is important because it reaches about 10 times as many people as the average number of attendees at a London meeting (25).
 
That doesn't mean that the talks are not important; they are, but for a different reason. The talks bring members together in a more focused way in which some of us can get to know each other and our speakers better.
 
For those who are able to attend our meetings there is the added bonus of also being able to meet our speakers for a meal afterwards in a local restaurant where discussion can continue in a more relaxed atmosphere. Needless to say, the speaker's meal is paid for by the BCS (via the Group) but we have to pay for our own meals.
 
The Committee is very keen to expand the base of contributing members, particularly for the Review, but unfortunately we cannot afford to pay for more than one or two committee members to attend meetings from outside London, so we wonder whether we can interest any members in becoming Correspondent Committee members with whom we can build up a closer relationship for our mutual benefit. The expanding use of e-mail, frequently available in academic environments but now more widely used in business and privately, should make this form of co-operation easier.
 
If you have a particular interest in some aspect of machine translation or even just in multilingual software please share it with us so we can both benefit from the synergy of the group. Please contact me or any other Committee member if you would be interested in joining the Committee on this basis.
 
Roger Harris, whose official title is Rapporteur (a position requested by the Society to keep BCS HQ informed of what the Group is doing), is assembling a considerable amount of interesting and useful information on the Group's pages on the Society's World Wide Web pages at http://www.bcs.org.uk, so if you have Internet access have a look at this sometime.
 
All opinions expressed in this Review are those of the respective writers and are not necessarily shared by the BCS or the Group.

PLEASE NOTE
 
As membership is currently still free we must review our membership list from time to time, and the time has come round again. To renew your membership and to continue to receive the MT Review and notification of meetings please complete the form at the end of this Review (or a copy) and return it to me at the address shown.
 
J.D. Wigg

BCS Library
 
Books kindly donated by members are passed to the BCS library at the IEE, Savoy Place, London, WC2R 0BL, UK (tel: +44 (0) 171 240 1871; fax: +44 (0) 171 497 3557). Members of the BCS may borrow books from this library either in person or by post. All they have to provide is their membership number. The library is open Monday to Friday, 9.00 to 5.00 pm.