Keith Duckitt
Many members will be saddened at the death on 3 October of Keith Duckitt, who was appointed as ALT’s first Honorary Life Member in September 2004. Keith, who was head of ICT at the Further Education Funding Council (and subsequently the Learning and Skills Council), was hugely influential from the mid 1990s onwards in ensuring that learning technology got the strategic attention it deserved in English Further, Adult, Community, and Work-based Learning, and in making the LSC a funding partner of JISC.
 
John Gray, who worked closely with Keith for much of this period, writes a more extended and personal reflection elsewhere in this newsletter.
If any reader wishes to contribute to either of the charities nominated by Keith’s family, these are The Alzheimer's Society www.alzheimers.org.uk/ and the South Warwickshire Carers' Support Service www.swcss.org.uk/. Donations can be sent c/o John Taylor Funeral Service, 9 St Johns, Warwick, Warwickshire CV34 4NE. 
 
Staffing changes
Maren Deepwell, who recently finished her PhD in Anthropology at University College London, and who has been covering Mel Fox’s Administrator role during the latter part of Mel’s maternity leave, will be filling the new role of Membership Services Manager from 1 November until the end of April 2009. Mel returns from maternity leave from the same date. There are brief biographies of all ALT staff on the ALT web site at: www.alt.ac.uk/team.html.
 
New Trustees, Vice Chair, Chair, and President
We welcome Carol Higgison, from Bradford University, whose election as Vice Chair of ALT was announced at the Annual General Meeting on 10 September. Steve Ryan, from the London School of Economics, becomes Chair of ALT, having served a year as Vice Chair. Cathy Ellis, from Becta, becomes President, having served a year as Chair. Also elected as Trustees of ALT were Nicola Whitton from Manchester Metropolitan University, and Linda Creanor from Glasgow Caledonian University.
 
New Chair of the ALT Publications Committee
As reported in ALT-N 62, Paul Bacsich stood down as Chair of the ALT Publications Committee, after the maximum six year period as a Trustee of ALT. Dick Moore, from Ufi/ learndirect, who was elected as a Trustee in September 2007, has been appointed in Paul’s stead.
 
Getting directly involved in ALT
We have further delayed issuing a call for people to express an interest in serving as member of one ALT’s four operational committees (Further Education, Membership Services, Publications, and Research) due to the pressure of running the ALT Conference. The call will be issued shortly; please be on the look out for it.
 
CMALT
We continue to make steady progress in enrolling applicants onto CMALT at the 50% preferential rate supported, with our thanks, by a generous grant from JISC. By the end of September we were closing in on our target of 180 registrations.  We are now turning our attention to supporting applicants through the certification process, with a view to everyone registered under the scheme submitting their CMALT portfolios for assessment by December 2008. If you or your organisation wish to take advantage of the JISC-supported scheme, please contact the ALT office by email – admin@alt.ac.uk  – by no later than the end of November 2008.
 
Memoranda of Understanding
During the 2008 ALT Conference ALT signed two revised memoranda of understanding: with JISC, and with ascilite, our sister organisation in Australasia. In both cases these agreements strengthen and formalise longstanding collaborations between ALT and two key partner organisations. Copies of each are available on the ALT web site at www.alt.ac.uk/documents.html.
 
ALT-C
A review of the 2008 ALT Conference appears elsewhere in this Newsletter.  For ALT’s staff, many of whom are new in post, our 2008 conference was a particularly demanding challenge. I place on record ALT’s thanks to them, and to conference co-chairs Jill Jameson, from the University of Greenwich, and John Sandars, from the University of Leeds, and to the rest of the Conference Programme Committee for all of their efforts.
 
We are now turning our attention to ALT-C 2009, ‘In dreams begins responsibility’ – choices, evidence, and change, which will be co-chaired by Tom Boyle from London Metropolitan University, and Gilly Salmon from Leicester University. The conference will be held in Manchester between 8 and 10 September 2009. Nearly 100 people (a record) have expressed an interest in membership of the 2009 Conference Programme Committee, which will begin its work over the next couple of months. Meanwhile, the call for organisations to sponsor the 2009 conference can be accessed at www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/. Proposals for inclusion in the ALT-C 2009 programme will be accepted, from www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/ between
1 December 2008 and 16 February 2009.
 
Seb Schmoller
seb.schmoller@alt.ac.uk  8/10/2008