Introduction
The AFCEA (UK) Southern chapter is a particularly active group.
For the second year running it has been awarded the prestigious Model Chapter
of the Year Award. Its growing membership
is made up of C4I professionals belonging to civil government agencies,
the military and industry in the South of England. Meetings
are held on the third Thursday in the month and take the format of an informal
supper followed by a talk on a topical subject. E-posters for the forthcoming
meetings can be obtained from the Publicity
Secretary. The venue for the majority of meetings is The Vine Hotel, Ower
(which is 400m west of the A36 Services roundabout at junction 2 of M27) but
some meetings are held at one of the major defence C4I establishments
in the area such as HMS Collingwood at Portsmouth, The Royal School of Signals
at Blandford Camp and DERA at Portsdown.
In addition, every two years, the Southern Chapter organises
a Symposium at HMS Collingwood or the Royal School of Signals where senior figures
from both government and industry are invited to address topical C4I
matters.
Useful information for website contributors is available on the administration
page. For details of all committee members, please see the committee
page.
The chapter is also delighted to have a new sub-chapter of approximately 20
at Lajes in the Azores. When this group grows big enough it will become a chapter
in its own right under the Portugal regional umbrella.
AFCEA UK Southern is keen to foster professional links with local business
and industry. To this end, the Southern Chapter is listed on the Hampshire
Economic Partnership Defence Network website, which also lists Hampshire
based companies with defence related business.
In a similar vein, AFCEA UK also has a link for Service leavers to/from the
MOD's Career Transition Partnership. The
Southern Chapter is ideally placed to allow Service men and women of the CCIS
disciplines to maintain the currency of their professional knowledge and to
meet fellow specialists in industry, research, academia and consulting.
