About the Association

The Future

The BVA predominantly had an educational mission during its first decade of life. It has quite clearly had a positive impact on the level of knowledge of Voice and on interdisciplinary Voice work. The BVA will continue to expand on this mission, and will most likely focus on the following four areas:

Education

Education has traditionally been the BVA’s key role for its membership, and it will be continued as such. The education committee, a key subcommittee of the Council of the BVA meets regularly to propose and discuss educational events. We have recently polled our membership as to what they wish to hear, and have responded directly to their wishes. We will most likely continue with the formula of two large educational events, one in the autumn and one in the spring in association with the annual general meeting, and four tightly-focused small events at other times of the year.

Prevention of vocal disability

Prevention of vocal disability is an important focus, with precedents in European law, and will likely become a major issue for the next decade. This concept, preventing voice disability before it occurs, or preventing worsening of disability, applies to many arenas and fields of endeavour: school teachers, students in classrooms, aerobics teachers, barristers, brokers, administrators, telephone users, actors, singers, etc. Basically, occupational safety is the issue here. The Pan-European Voice Conference in Utrecht in 1999 (PEVOC3) had occupational voice disorders as its theme.

Communication skills

Communication skills is an area that already has many proponents, both inside and outside of the BVA. Improvement of communication skills is crucial for management of almost any organization. The BVA should continue to emphasize this area.

Research

The population in the UK is currently undergoing marked growth in both extremes of life: there is a ‘baby boom’ and at the same time an ever-increasing life expectancy. Issues such as children’s voices, the role of in-classroom evaluation of vocal problems, the effects of ageing and endocrinological changes on the voice, etc., are each important areas for study and should be supported by the BVA.