[GAP Forum] The GAP Council

[Leonard Soicher]

Dear GAP Forum,

Edmund Robertson has stepped down as Chair of the GAP Council after
over five years of service, and I have been elected by the Council to
succeed him.

The main job of the Chair will continue to be as Editor in Chief for
our package refereeing system, which continues to be one of GAP's major
attractions to serious users.  I hope to speed up the refereeing process
where possible, and also to work to encourage more submissions from you,
the GAP community. Please email me any new package submissions or queries
about package submission.  I also look forward to the Council continuing
to support GAP in other ways, such as providing guidance, as well as
general promotion of Computational Group Theory and the GAP system.

I wish to take this opportunity to publicly thank Edmund Robertson,
not only for his excellent work as Council Chair since October 2003,
but also for his many important contributions over a long period both
to Computational Group Theory and the development of the GAP project.
He has provided invaluable support and advice to GAP developers as well as
GAP councillors, he was closely involved in the original transfer of GAP
HQ from Aachen in 1997 and the setting up of the current four centres,
and he was instrumental in having the GAP Group awarded the 2008 Jenks
Prize. The GAP community owes him a great deal.

Leonard Soicher 
(Chair of the GAP Council)