Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics
Minutes of Meeting
Members Present: Ralph A. Sawyer – Chairman and Acting Director, S. A. Goudsmit, W. W. Havens, Jr., Vincent E. Parker, S. L. Quimby, Mary E. Warga
Absent: R. B. Lindsay
Guests: H. William Koch – Director Elect, Arnold A. Strassenburg – Director of Education and Manpower, Mary M. Johnson
The Chairman called the meeting to order at 9:30 a.m.
1. Minutes
Upon motion made and passed, the minutes of the meeting of October 7, 1966, were approved as distributed.
2. Death of Former Board Members
The Secretary reported that former Board members R. C. Gibbs, J. W. Buchta and W. F. Meggers had died on October 4, October 23 and November 19, respectively. Upon motion made and passed, the following form of resolution was adopted in tribute to each former director, with appropriate changes:
WHEREAS, The Executive Committee of the Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics desires to record its deep sorrow at the death of its esteemed colleague, , who served as a member of the Governing Board from to , be it
RESOLVED, That the Executive Committee of the Institute hereby gives formal expression of its loss and does hereby note in its records the passing from this life of a man who was esteemed by his associates and respected by all; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to his family.
The Secretary stated there will be a Memorial Service for Mr. Meggers at the National Bureau of Standards on December 16 and the Chairman and Director Elect indicated they planned to attend.
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The Meggers Trust Fund
The Secretary said that friends of the late Mr. Meggers who had expressed a desire to demonstrate their sympathy had been asked by his family to make contributions to The Meggers Trust Fund at the American Institute of Physics. The Fund is for the promotion of physics teaching or for whatever other purpose the Institute may wish to use it, and contributions to date total about $300.00. Because of Mr. Meggers’ interest in the welfare of the Institute, and his gifts over the years, it was deemed appropriate that a contribution to the Fund be authorized by the Executive Committee, and the following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that the Institute contribute the sum of $500 to The Meggers Trust Fund.
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AAPT Executive Secretary
The Chairman announced that Mark W. Zemansky will succeed J. W. Buchta as Executive Secretary of AAPT, beginning in March 1967. It is understood that Mr. Zemansky will spend a day or two a week in an office which the Institute will provide for him and an assistant in the headquarters building.
3. Financial Statement for First Three Quarters 1966
Copies of the financial statement for the first three quarters of 1966 had been distributed to all Board members prior to the meeting with a covering letter from Mr. Gilbert. (Copies are enclosed with these minutes for those who were not included in the initial distribution.) Mr. Gilbert reviewed the highlights of his letter and distributed a comparison report which showed that the unit cost of handling a member subscription for the nine-months period dropped from $1.4866 in 1965 to $1.3565 in 1966. The total number of subscriptions increased from 196,980 to 206,525 and the total number of addressed labels increased from 2,350,706 to 2,482,110 during the same period.
4. Budget for 1967
A preliminary budget for 1967 showing an anticipated deficit of about $45,000 had been distributed to Executive Committee members prior to the meeting along with a letter explaining assumptions made and containing historical background data on the budgeted and actual expenditures of various departments and activities. (Note: Changes made in the budget by the Executive Committee before adopting it necessitated editing the letter. The edited version is attached to these minutes.)
In discussing the proposed budget, the Secretary pointed out that the projected deficit for 1967 was less than the anticipated income for 1966 and, in view of substantial net income from each of the previous three years, budgeting a deficit for one year might be justifiable provided it did not become a habit. However, if the Executive Committee was opposed to adopted a deficit budget, it could either consider making substantial reductions in expenditures for various programs or authorize increases in some charges. The publication charge is one which can be increased almost immediately and increasing this charge for THE JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS alone should add about $70,000 to income and wipe out the deficit with some to spare.
All present then participated in a general discussion of possible sources of funds in future years for our growing activities in education, information, public relations, history and philosophy, etc. We can seek grants to cover part of the expenditures but it looks as if AIP may have to develop it owns sources of revenue in some manner. Increasing the percentage of dues paid to AIP by Member Societies from the present 10% to the 15% permitted by contract would give about $38,000 added income. The physics information program promises to be very expensive and, although much of the needed money will initially have to come from grants, AIP may very probably have to put up more funds than are available from any current source. Mr. Havens suggested that all the AIP and Society journals might logically share in the cost of the information program through some surtax on journal costs. This idea sounded promising and the staff agreed to explore it.
A review of our 1966 publication costs indicated that a $60 publication charge for JCP would not violate our policy that income from publication charges on a journal should not exceed “front end” costs, the following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the publication charge on JCP be raised from $50 to $60 per page as soon as possible.
It was then pointed out that the JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS and THE PHYSICS OF FLUIDS were non-advertising journals similar to JCP in character and could have the $60 publication charge without violating policy. Accordingly, the following motion was made, seconded and passed:
MOVED that the publication charge on JMP and PF be raised from $50 to $60 per page as soon as possible.
Before a motion to approve the 1967 budget, as amended, was introduced, the Secretary pointed out that the budget had been prepared on the assumption that the Executive Committee would approve the matters covered in Items 5 and 7 of these minutes.
Mr. Strassenburg had been invited to the meeting because some Executive Committee members had requested more information about details of education plans for 1967. Mr. Strassenburg then made his presentation and answered a number of questions. (Attached is a summary of Mr. Strassenburg’s comments as prepared by him.)
The following motion was then made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the proposed budget for 1967, as modified by actions taken at this meeting, be adopted. (Copy of budget adopted is enclosed.)
5. AIP Payment of Full Premium for New York State Disability Insurance
The Secretary stated that the budget, just approved, provides for the full payment of New York State Disability Insurance premiums by the Institute. Heretofore each employee has been paying $1.30 per month (the maximum which can be charged to employees) and AIP the balance. Employees paid a total of $2,622 in 1965. AIP paid $1,156 but received reimbursements of $719, making a net cost to AIP of $437.00. This insurance is required by law and was authorized by the Executive Committee on December 10, 1960. Now that we have another payroll deduction in the form of the New York City Tax, we would have to go to a larger accounting machine if we were to continue deducting these payments as in the past. Because of this, and the fact that it now takes considerable accounting time to distribute charges and credits to the various departments, the staff recommends that the Institute pay the entire cost of New York State Disability Insurance starting next year.
After brief discussion, the following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that, beginning in 1967, the Institute assume the full cost of New York State Disability Insurance premiums for all employees.
6. Immediate Insurance Coverage for New AIP Executives
The Secretary said that our group life insurance and major medical insurance policies do not cover new employees until they have had three months service. The staff feels that new executives should be covered immediately and recommends the addition of a clause to provide coverage for all new employees earning $15,000 or more. In the case of our Director Elect, the cost to the Institute for three months would be $73.26.
The following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that the Institute’s group life and major medical insurance policies be amended to provide for immediate coverage of new executives earning $15,000 per year or more.
7. Subscription price on Soviet ASTRONOMY-AJ for 1967-68 Year
The Secretary reported that all of our translation journals except the news ones and Soviet ASTRONOMY-AJ are in good financial condition. The latter has consistently lost money and a price increase seems justified and is provided for in the 1967 budget. The following motion was then made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that the price of Soviet ASTRONOMY-AJ be increased for the 1967-68 year from $35 to $45 for domestic subscriptions and from $38 to $48 for domestic subscriptions and from $38 to $48 for foreign subscriptions, and that the single copy price be increased from $7.00 to $8.00.
Permission to Accept 1967-68 Subscriptions on Translation Journals at Current Prices
The Secretary reported that our past experience indicates we will be receiving orders for our 1967-68 translation journals early in 1967 although the subscription year does not begin until July 1. Having to return the orders and money is laborious and expensive so the staff recommends that it be authorized to accept such orders. The following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that the staff be authorized to accept now 1967-68 subscriptions to the translation journals, with the exception of Soviet ASTRONOMY-AJ, at the current rates.
9. PHYSICS TODAY Situation – Limit on Pages
The Secretary stated that it appears PHYSICS TODAY will run over its page budget in 1966 which was set at 750 text and 870 advertising pages. Mr. Ellis, the Editor, and Mr. Vorburger, Advertising Manager, have both requested larger page budgets for 1967 but we are limiting them to the 1966 totals as recommended by the PT Editorial Advisory Board. As indicated at the Executive Committee meeting of June 10, 1966, we have increased the advertising rates in PT from $650 to $750 per page, effective with the October 1966 issue.
10. Proposed Meeting of Society Secretaries and Treasurers
The Secretary said that we have delayed calling a meeting of the Committee of Society Secretaries and Treasurers until we were ready to discuss plans for the change-over to magnetic tape for our dues and subscription fulfillment operations. We now plan to schedule such a meeting around the same time as our March 1967 Governing Board meeting.
We intend to employ a programmer early next year and the change-over should be complete by the middle of 1968 in time for the 1969 dues and subscription billing. The 1967 costs for this change-over are not included in the budget. We plan to capitalize all such costs as indicated in the letter which accompanied the preliminary budget but we should have Executive Committee approval to incur these additional expenses of approximately $50,000 during 1967 and 1968.
The following motion was then made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that the staff be authorized to incur expenses required during 1967 to effect the proposed change-over to magnetic tape for dues and subscription fulfillment operations, with the understanding that such expenses will be treated as deferred expenses and capitalized in a manner to be determined later by the Executive Committee.
11. Appointments
Upon recommendation of the Chairman, a motion was made and passed that H. William Koch be nominated as our representative to the U. S. National Committee of the IUPAP for a three-year term to succeed Ralph A. Sawyer whose term expires December 31, 1966.
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Committee to Select Candidates for Fourth Karl T. Compton Award
At the Executive Committee meeting on October 7, appointment of the subject committee was authorized. The Chairman reported that he had appointed Messrs. Robert S. Shankland (chairman), Henry A. Barton and S. L. Quimby to constitute the committee.
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Property Committee
The Chairman stated that he had appointed the following as members of the Property Committee which was authorized by the Executive Committee at its meeting on October 7:
- Ralph A. Sawyer, Chairman
- H. W. Koch (AIP)
- W. W. Havens, Jr. (APS)
- M. W. Zemansky (AAPT)
- Wallace Waterfall (AcSoc & AIP)
The Secretary reported that negotiations on the Federal Building at the New York World’s Fair have been abandoned but various other prospects for future housing have emerged. He described some proposals which might merit consideration and said that he is sure the Property Committee will want to investigate all possibilities.
12. Society for Applied Spectroscopy
The Secretary reported receipt of a letter from J. K. Hurwitz, Secretary of SAS, commending the Institute for the effective job it has done in publishing and distributing their journal.
13. Second John T. Tate Award
The Secretary reported that a letter had been received from Mr. Lindsay notifying us that he had presented the Tate Award to H. W. Thompson in London on December 2. Mr. Lindsay said that pictures were taken of the ceremony and copies would be sent to us.
14. Next Meeting
As reported previously, the next meeting of the Executive Committee will be a breakfast meeting at the New York Hilton Hotel on Thursday, February 2, 1967.
Just before the meeting adjourned at 12:20 p.m., Mr. Koch, Director Elect, said that he was most impressed by what he had seen and heard at the meeting, and that he was very anxious to assume his new responsibilities.