Let me start by saying how sorry I am that Colin Hempstead can't be here today. Colin is one of our most active members, organizing the Airy Meeting last year and the one we are about to have today. He was recently pulled into hospital, and I am sure we all wish him a swift recovery.

Peter Ford, who is organizing this AGM was elected last year as our Honorary Secretary. The previous Hon Sec, Sophie Duncan still hopes to serve on the Committee. Mike Thurlow, who had been serving as our Web Editor and Lucy Gibson who has been our Newsletter Editor have both felt that they must leave the Committee because of pressure in their professional work. Which shows the real difficulties that our younger members have.

New members of the Committee include Professor Denis Weaire, who is speaking at the Meeting today, and who, at short notice has organized a replacement speaker for Colin who was also to be a speaker. We have co-opted Geoff Hughes from the History of Science Department of Manchester University - co-opted only because at the moment he is not actually a member of IOP.

Turning to actual activities. Lucy edited the 16^th Newsletter - as ever a very good newsletter. She has done a remarkably good job as Newsletter Editor. She will be a hard act to follow, but Christopher Ray has agreed to try.

The Newsletter reports the content of the ½-day meeting that we organized with the High Energy Physics Group at the 2002 IOP Congress on the Life and Work of Paul Dirac; the Oxford Science Walk and Tour that Olivia Davies organized and the Airy Meeting. But also there are extra articles on the two Braggs and on Robert Hooke who died in 1703.

A little less than a year ago we had a meeting about Airy at Newcastle University, jointly organized with the North Eastern Branch. Ben Rudden spoke briefly about Airy as a Northumbrian Astronomer and the plan to gain permission to have an Institute Blue Plaque where he lived. Ivor Grattan-Guiness spoke of Airy's Mathematical Tracts and its French background. Robert Warren from the Royal Observatory described Airy's equipping of the Royal Observatory and Allan Chapman spoke of 'Airy the Man and the Astronomy Royal'.

We must confess that this has been a quiet year - we normally organize two half-day meeting and this year there has only been the one. Today we start the new year with our meeting on 'Discoveries, Theories and Natural Philosophers' so let us hope we can be a bit more active.

That leads me to a real concern - we have ~550 members in the Group, but the vast majority are non-active - it's a small inner core which does everything and we have to find ways of getting more involvement by our members. I was impressed by the Dirac meeting which we did with the High Energy Physics Group as an attachment to their scientific conference - we had an enormous audience - people couldn't get into a large room. So I am sure we should do more as attachments to conferences on current research. Such as the large Condensed Matter Conference etc. Having a joint meeting with a Branch was very pleasant - I liked it immensely, in my case because I had never been to Newcastle,which turned out to be so interesting that I stayed on for an extra day - but the audience was no more that we usually get.

Denis Weaire on our Committee has been elected Chairman of the History of Physics Division of the EPS has suggested that we should collaborating in some way. The Committee was very receptive to the idea, and given the success of our Oxford Walk, suggested the idea of a Paris Walk organized by our two bodies. I have discussed it with Denis and was very enthusiastic and he is sure he can find local organizers - so hopefully we will be in 'Paris in the Spring'.( It, in practice, will be in September 2004)

Ian Butterworth, Chairman

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