In this newsletter: * 2018 journal progress * ConTeXt Meeting updates * Board elections * 2018-2019 membership invoices * Becoming a CG member * Membership promo action = 2018 journal progress = Production of the 2018 CG journal has finally started. With articles by Alan Braslau, Willi Egger, Hans Hagen and Taco Hoekwater, this will be a varied and even rather substantive issue. CG Members that attend the 2019 ConTeXt meeting will receive their copy at that meeting. The other CG members will find the journal issue in their mailbox about a week later. This is the first issue that will use the free IBM Plex Sans and IBM Plex Mono font families instead of the commercial Alwyn New and Inconsolata. See https://www.ibm.com/plex/ if you are interested in this new font family. = ConTeXt Meeting updates = We filled in the abstracts page with the parts of the program that we already know right now. We have quite a varied program already, and more is yet to come! The ConTeXt meeting is an excellent way to get help with any problems you may have in ConTeXt, to learn about future directions of ConTeXt and LuaTeX, or just to talk and have a drink with other ConTeXt users. You do not have to be a ConTeXt Group member to attend the meeting, but members do get a meeting fees discount worth more than the CG membership fees for a year. In fact, if you attend for the very first time, there is an extra discount for that as well. Oh, and there are now just nine days left for the early registration discount! For registration and other information, see the website at https://meeting.contextgarden.net/2019 The 13th ConTeXt Meeting is sponsored by Dante e.V (www.dante.de) and NTG (www.ntg.nl), as well as by Pragma ADE (Hans & Ton) and Bittext (Taco). We are very grateful to all our sponsors! = Board elections = The ConTeXt meeting is also the location of the annual CG membership meeting. This year, no less than four board members are forced to resign according to the bylaws. We are looking for CG members to help fill those spots in the board. If you are interested in joining the CG board, please send a message to any of the current board members and we will get in touch with you. We can really use the help! = 2018-2019 membership invoices = The invoices for the membership fees for the current period (2018-2019) will be sent out digitally early next week. = Becoming a CG member = Our official stated purpose: * to promote the ConTeXt typographic system; * provide its users with infrastructure and information; * support its development; * provide a platform for discussion of quality automated typography; * serve as a meeting place for people who want the best possible typography for the languages and writings of the world; * organise congresses and trainings for users and ConTeXt developers to meet; * provide financial support to those involved in documentation and ConTeXt development, including through their participation in conferences; * produce and sell printed materials on ConTeXt; * sell advertising items for ConTeXt. The more members we have, the more we can do. If you are not a member already, please consider registering at https://group.contextgarden.net/register.shtml Membership fees are €40 per year for normal members, €20 for students, and €200 for institutions and corporations. = Membership promo action = ConTeXt Group currently has close to 50 members. We have in fact been close to 50 members for a few years now, but we never seem to actually reach that number. So as a special promotion, the 50th active member will have their meeting fees waived for their first membership period (2018-2019 or 2019-2020 at your option). = That’s all for now = Keep happy ConTeXting! Best wishes, Taco