Dear members,
In the blink of an eye we are already well into 2016, and I find myself once again reflecting on what's been happening since my last Membership Matters. The first few months of the year are always pretty full-on for the Membership Secretary
- whilst my Council colleagues are busy making plans for the big events like the Amsterdam 'Table Talk' Exhibition, for the Membership Secretary it's all about getting the subscriptions invoices out and processing the incoming payments. You should have received your personalised invoice through the post by now, so if you haven't it could be that I don't have the correct address for you (but then you wouldn't have received this News & Views either!). Thank you so much to all the prompt payers, it's really a big help.
I thoroughly enjoyed the 'Table Talk' this year, and I would particularly like to mention my appreciation for the heroic behind-the-scenes efforts of Council member David Baines which meant the event ran smoothly despite the change to our usual venue. Organising an event like that is really a major endeavour, and I know how much time many people, but David in particular, dedicated to the cause.
Early in the year I managed to attend Professor Charles Spence's lecture, a report of which you will find elsewhere in this issue. I found it extremely interesting and thought-provoking. The cross-modal interaction of all senses involved in our perception of foods is a fascinating area and brings up some intriguing concepts. I particularly liked the notion that a shape (either the food itself or some aspect of packaging) can influence not only our expectation of its flavour but even the way we actually perceive it. For example, as Prof. Spence remarked, "if you want to make it sweeter, make it rounder.."! By the way, many thanks to all our members who took the trouble to complete our first online survey. This is a new venture for the BSF - we want to understand how to move forward and make everything we do appeal to as many members as possible. There was some really useful feedback, and I feel certain that this is something we will revisit in the future.
Finally, here we have the names of our latest new members, to whom the Council extends a warm welcome:
Nicola Price - Student
Simon Phillips - Student
Maria Palassarou - Student
Rongmin Huang - Fellow
Marina Stoliarova - Associate
Serge van Kleef - Affiliate
Li Li - Student
Yvonne Lin - Associate
Asim Das - Associate
Best wishes,
Stephen