Extra-curricular professional activities
Quantitative Sociology Newsletter (Editor)Founder member of the BSA Maths and Computing Applications Group which eventually became Quantitative Sociology Group and published the newsletter. When the group was wound up the residual funds were used to endow the Mark Abrams Prize (see below)Study Group on Computers in Survey AnalysisFounder member and Secretary. SGCSA was the predecessor of the Association for Survey Computing and was the vehicle for collecting data for the the first UK directory of Survey Analysis Software.UK SPSS Users Group (UKSUG)Founder, Chair and Newsletter Editor. UKSUG was the predecessor of ASSESS (European SPSS users)BSA Survey Research GroupFounder and organiserBSA Research CommitteeInstigator of (and survey organiser for) directory of research methods courses in UK sociology depts. Instigator and joint author of guidelines on commissioning fieldwork agencies for survey research.Alderman, London Borough of HaringeyChair, Research Panel, which produced "Haringey Trends" modelled on "Social Trends"Mark Abrams PrizeFounder and Chair of panel of judges for the Mark Abrams Prize to mark the 80th birthday of Dr Mark Abrams in 1986. The prize was awarded via the Social Research Association for the best piece of work (in any one year) on survey research, social theory and/or social policy. On retirement I passed responsibility to the SRA, but a lack of enthusiastic trawling and disagreements over criteria resulted in a dwindling number of entries and the prize was discontinued in 2008.