VSJ – March 2004 – Members' News

University of Lincoln becomes IAP Education Partner
We are pleased to announce that the Institution has entered into a partnership arrangement with the University of Lincoln. This means that a range of courses offered by the University’s Faculty of Applied Computing Sciences will now be evaluated in terms of the IAP’s points system.
Mike Ryan, Director General of the Institution, said ‘This is good for Lincoln and good for us. From now on students will know in advance which of Lincoln’s courses to take if they want to become members of the IAP. This provides a new incentive for students to study at Lincoln. From the IAP’s viewpoint it provides a new source of courses that we can wholeheartedly recommend to the many people who call us for advice on training and IAP membership.’
Paul Reeve, Head of Department of Computing and Informatics in the Faculty of Applied Computing Sciences at Lincoln commented, ‘This is an excellent opportunity for students to enhance their academic qualification with a credential that has professional merit. The fact that students accumulate IAP credit at the unit level means that those on joint awards and those progressing through a programme can see an immediate and appropriate return on investment’.
Full details of these courses can be obtained through the Institution’s Education Officer, Robin Jones, at eo@iap.org.uk.
John Ellis (who writes elsewhere on these pages) and Raymond Butler are standing for re-election to the Council this year. They talk about themselves and their aims below.
I’m married with 4 children. I’ve been an IAP member since 1992 and in computing since 1977. My career began as a computer operator working on ICL and Honeywell mainframes for medium-sized computer bureaux and within a few years had progressed to programming primarily working in COBOL and RPG. These days, it’s VB and ASP but I still like the feel of a good COBOL program. I have been involved with systems ranging from Order Processing and Stock Control to Finance Systems in the retail/wholesale food industry. I spent 9 years in Local Government as an analyst/programmer and, finally, development manager. I was responsible for introducing Community Charge, Council Tax and Housing Benefit systems, plus most of the rest that goes with the territory. In later years I have been working on Insurance and Finance systems for software houses and financial institutions. Throughout my computing career I have been fortunate to be at the forefront of many new business applications, from the introduction of Barcodes in shops, introducing PCs to the business as a real tool to designing e-commerce solutions. In local government, I spent many years dragging them out of the dark ages into using desktop applications and VB to reduce costs and improve development times, opening the way for more efficient use of people and their time. While being currently employed by a financial institution, I also have business interests that include technical support, video-editing and software design companies and, of course, a Web design company. (They say the more you do, the more you can do.) As I am primarily an applications designer and programmer I feel I am probably well in the mainstream of IAP membership. I would like to see the IAP grow in terms of its membership and would continue to work to that aim by providing a timely information resource for members.

John Ellis, FIAP


I originally trained in mechanical engineering, gaining my HNC in 1977. I moved into IT in the 1980s, and studied part-time for the Graduate Diploma in Computer Science at what was then South Bank Polytechnic, graduating in 1992. I joined the IAP in 1993. I spent a number of years providing user support for a range of DOS and Windows applications and carrying out database development in dBase and, later, Microsoft Access. I became involved in Web site development in the mid-90s, and also gained some experience of network administration. During the past few years I have become a ‘back-room boffin’, working on Unix, Windows NT and Open VMS systems, mainly concerned with file system and user account maintenance and Internet technologies. I do most of my programming in C and Perl. If re-elected, I would want to continue to enhance the range of services provided by the Institution and to encourage interaction amongst the membership.

Raymond Butler, MIAP

[Don’t forget to email eo@iap.org.uk with items of news about you or your company.]

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