A reminder that the Newbury one day meeting will be held this Saturday, 17th September. As well as the usual talks and displays the AGM will also be held here. Full details were included in the September Bulletin and are available here.
Events
The highlights of each year are without doubt our annual residential conferences, held each spring, though we also hold a smaller informal one day meeting in Newbury each September. Our residential conferences continue to be remarkably successful events
This page contains details of previous and forthcoming events. In 2014 we have started to add videos of some of the Conference talks: these are also available from this page.
The BSS York Conference 22-24 April 2022
The 2022 Conference will be held at the Hilton York hotel from 22nd to 24th April 2022, and online booking is now available. For paper bookings, please use this updated version of the booking form. This corrects a couple of inaccuracies in the version included with the December Bulletin which should no longer be used.
The hotel is in a prime location โ within the City walls (not to be confused with other Hiltons), 600 metres as the crow flies from the railway station and a similar distance to York Minster. It is well placed for the walking tour which is being organised by Louise and Chris Smail. Of course, there are many attractions in York if members wish to make use of some free time or are staying any extra days. Parking at the hotel is limited but there are many public car parks nearby: details are included in the December Newsletter that accompanies the Bulletin.
As well as the lecture programme there will be the usual display and many books will be on sale. For the Andrew Somerville Memorial Lecture we are privileged to host Dr Gloria Clifton. Dr Clifton is an acclaimed expert on historic scientific instruments and will talk about professional sundial makers in the British Isles from the late sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Included will be an examination of specially commissioned sundials at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, including some designed by members of the British Sundial Society.
We are hoping that members will be able to give talks about any sundial topic of interest, usually of 20 โ 40 minutes duration. Talks from new members will be very welcome. Prospective speakers should contact Doug Bateman in the first instance.
BSS One Day Meeting – Newbury, 25 September 2021
We are again meeting at Sutton Hall, Stockcross, Newbury RG20 8LN (directions below).
Exhibits – Talks – Bookstall
Beautiful country village setting. Plenty of free parking. Modernised village hall with ample space, tables and chairs for all your interesting displays (indoors and outside) of sundials, models, photos etc. Please include a card with your name on any displays.
Please bring something along:
- Dials: finished, or in progress
- Pictures
- Paraphernalia
Speakers welcome – 10-minute talks / demos. Please e-mail David Pawley with suggestions for talks, ideally before mid-September 2019 if possible.
BSS Virtual Conference – follow-up
A number of people have requested to see the chat discussion from the recent virtual conference: it is now available as a PDF or text file.
The full responses to the SurveyMonkey survey are also available, apart from Q10 which contains contact details for the people who entered the draw for a free annual subscription to the BSS. Thanks to all those who left feedback and who entered the draw: the winner, drawn at random, was Martins Gills. We will be in touch with him to confirm the details.
Update #2: BSS Zoom Event โ 17 April 2021
We successfully held our first Virtual Conference via Zoom on the 17th April and were joined by about 150 participants from around the globe. Feedback about the event has been extremely positive and all the speakers – Roger Bailey, Woody Sullivan and Fred Sawyer, with the event introduced by Frank King – were very highly rated for their fascinating talks.
The full video of the session, lasting a little over 90 minutes, is available here:
Although the vast majority of participants were able to enjoy the session, unfortunately a small number of people did not receive the joining instructions. We hope that the video above makes up for that and we have taken those issues, as well as the large number of comments and suggestions, fully on board. We will provide information about how we plan to proceed in due course but there is clearly an appetite for more events like this!
Save the date: BSS Zoom Event โ 17:00 to 18:30 BST, 17 April 2021
BSS Zoom Event
In lieu of our 2021 Conference we plan to host three talks via Zoom on 17 April 2021. They will start at 17:00 BST and expect the entire event to last about 90 minutes. This time of day should suit those living in any time zone from the west coast of North America to the Middle East.
The speakers will be Fred Sawyer (President of NASS), Roger Bailey (sundial designer and former Secretary of NASS) and Woody Sullivan (Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington and instigator of the first sundial on Mars), all of whom are well known to those who attend our Conferences. We shall provide titles for the talks in the new year. Meantime, Fred has promised that there will be no equations in his talk!
Registration
If you would like to attend please email conf2021@sundialsoc.org.uk. You will be sent an acknowledgement and, later, a formal Zoom invitation. The event is free and open to anyone.
Zoom
Many people have become very familiar with Zoom over the last few months but if you have managed to avoid it so far and would like some help, please read on for guidance on both its use and how to install it, kindly provided by BSS member Mike Faraday, as well as an offer of 1:1 assistance from Frank King.