POSTS

UK TeX users — from here to there

We've got just 15 weeks!

Summary

The UK Tex Users Group (UK TUG) is in perhaps terminal decline. For several years a poorly attended AGM and distribution of DVDs was all it did. That's here, where we are.

I want to be somewhere better. That's there. Less of the original paying-membership and print-centric model. Less focus on paper and PDF typography. More focus on web pages, interaction and accessibility. And open-membership.

I'll be devoting 2 to 4 hours a week for the next 15 weeks helping to revive and renew the community I've loved and been a member of for so long.

Every Thursday 6:30 to 7:30pm GMT until the end of March, I'll be holding zoom TeX and LaTeX office hours. They're open to all. Beginners especially welcome.

I want to improve and increase interaction between TeX users, particularly those well outside UK TUG. And talk about using TeX on servers and in the web browser (via MathJax).

Email me jfine2358@gmail.com for the zoom link. And visit this blog for news.

Here

For at least the last 5 years the UK TeX Users group has been in steady decline. Last year David Carlisle, a senior member of the LaTeX development team, at the AGM moved a motion that UK TUG dissolve and distribute its assets. UK TUG has about 90 members. The motion was defeated 20 to 9 (with 7 abstentions).

This year the AGM is not being held. The committee didn't find a way to hold a zoom meeting. Instead, next year the committee will most likely ask a special general meeting to dissolve UK TUG and distribute its assets. I expect it to be passed this time, unless the membership can see an alternative.

Substantial distribution of funds has already happened. The Committee voted to donate up to £6,000 to the learnlatex project. This is about half of UK TUG's funds at that time. The stated purpose of the funding is to improve the accessibility of the website.

This project was set up in February 2020 by David Carlisle and his LaTeX team colleague Joseph Wright (who is also Secretary of UK TUG). For clarity, none of this money is being paid to Carlisle and Wright. But it is going to support their project, and it could have gone elsewhere.

Accessibility

I've a special interest in accessibility. I asked blind mathematicians to share there experience of learning LaTeX. They all pointed to HTML documents (rather than PDF).

I find it really interesting that documents created from a structured source were ranked highly. And that none mentioned the learnlatex site or my latex typing tutor, even though links to both were highlighted.

There

Nicola Talbot, a long-time member of UK TUG and author of online LaTeX training materials has a concern. She wrote

Regardless of whether or not UK-TUG folds, I'd like to see a continuation of the UK-TUG community.

Last week I wrote to a physics professor, asking if he was interested in helping to renew and revive our group. By way of introduction I gave a link to my final report as chair (in 2010).

The reply I got was very interesting. It expressed gratitude for the good things UK TUG has done in the past. But the reply didn't see a sustainable role for a closed-membership, geographically limited TeX user group.

TUG, the international TeX Users Group, is very much closed membership (and in poor health). TUG's Vice President Arthur Reutenauer is also a Committe member of the UK TUG. The dissolution of UK TUG is a poor omen for the future of TUG.

We don't have an open world-wide TeX organisation, I think now's a good time to grow an open-membership TeX group in the UK.

Email me jfine2358@gmail.com for the zoom link to the TeX Office Hour.

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you found it helpful.