the value of salaries and Douglas Laurie called a meeting on 15 December 1917 to draw up a memorandum to present to the Board of Education. Almost as an after thought he invited representatives of Assistant Lecturers from all Universities. The meeting was attended by delegates from 15 institutions. The issues raised by the memorandum drafted at the meeting included: pay; tenure; status; grading; opportunities for research and superannuation. Finally a motion was passed to a new association with the name "The Association of University Lecturers". The name (which implicitly excluded professors from membership) caused some dissent but a split was prevented. However the Scottish Lecturers went their own way and formed a separate Association in 1922 which later merged with AUT in 1949 but retained some of its autonomy. The issue of pensions brought the idea of professional unity to the fore. The pension scheme for lecturers was to be left out of the new Teachers pension fund formed by the Teachers' (Superannuation) Act 1918. As pension funds affect staff at levels of their career this created pressure the Association to be one which included professors as well. At a conference in Bristol 27–28 June 1919 professorial delegates were present. The name of the new Association was left until all other matters were decided. The draft rules circulated at the conference read "The name of the society shall be... (to be decided at a later date)". This was to be repeated nearly a century later when delegates to the 2005 AUT council were presented with a draft rulebook for the merger with NATFHE which stated: "The name of the union shall be [insert name]". Speaking from the chair Laurie pointed out that "the idea which brought the Association into being was of a trade union character, but expressed the hope that, when material conditions had been satisfactorily improved, educational matters generally would form the essential points on which discussion would take place". In the end it was agreed that the new association's objectives would be"the advancement of University Education and Research and the promotion of common action among University teachers in connection therewith" with membership open to professors. Finally the name Association of University Teachers was voted for nem con (no votes against but some abstentions) and Douglas Laurie was elected as the first President. It is interesting to speculate how the Association would have developed if professors had