December 15, 1972

Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics

Minutes of Meeting

Members Present: H. R. Crane – Chairman, Joseph A. Burton, W. W. Havens, Jr., G. A. Jeffrey, H. William Koch, A. I. Mahan, Gerald Holton

Absent: I. E. Dayton

AIP Staff Present: H. William Koch, Director; Wallace Waterfall, Secretary; G. F. Gilbert, Treasurer; Lewis Slack, Assoc. Director for General Activities; Robert H. Marks, Assoc. Dir. for Publishing & Information; Dorothy M. Lasky, Assistant to the Director; Mary M. Johnson, Assistant to the Secretary

Chairman Crane called the meeting to order at 9:33 a.m.

1. Minutes

Upon motion made and passed without dissent, the minutes of the Executive Committee meeting of September 19, 1972, were approved as distributed.

2. Report of Administrative Review Committee

For discussion of this subject the AIP staff members present were excused at approximately 9:40 a.m. and recalled, after the discussion, at 10:20.

Jeffrey, chairman of the committee, said that two members of his committee had met with the five AIP officers at the offices of the Institute on Saturday, November 11. He said that the third member of the committee had been contacted by telephone subsequent to the meeting and had agreed to the report which was being submitted. He then presented a copy of the report which is attached as Exhibit A.

Subsequently, the Secretary was informed that the Executive Committee had authorized certain changes in the salaries of officers, effective January 1, 1973, as follows:

3. Proposed 1973 AIP Budget

Crane proposed that discussion of various items on the proposed 1973 budget proceed as indicated on the agenda but that over-all action on the budget be deferred until after discussion of the CPI products program and action on the separate budget for the Information Services Division. There being no objection, the meeting then proceeded according to the agenda.

1. 1973 Budget Summary

   A copy of the proposed 1973 budget had been sent to all Committee members prior to the meeting (a copy of the budget as adopted is attached as Exhibit B). A document entitled "1973 Budget-Summary Statements" had also been prepared by Gilbert and copies distributed prior to the meeting (copy attached as Exhibit C). Gilbert proceeded to discuss the summary statements. He pointed out that the first sheet contains three columns for comparative purposes. The first column is the budget adopted for 1972, the second column is the projection for 1972 based on actual figures for the first six months of the year and is identical to the projection presented at the September meeting of the Committee, and the third column shows the proposed budget for 1973. No more recent projection was made because no more recent solid figures have been available. He asked whether presenting budget information in this summary form was helpful. Burton commented that he thought it was but he would prefer to see gross rather than net figures used in many cases because the net does not give a true picture of the magnitude of the activity in question.

   In answer to a question by Holton about the meaning of "undistributed administration", Gilbert explained that each AIP officer makes an analysis of how he spends his own time and on that basis about two-thirds of the total cost of administration is prorated on various projects and activities. The remaining one-third is charged to AIP general expense as "undistributed administration" and represents the portion of administrative time spent on what might be called corporate activities.

2. Assumptions and Considerations Underlying Budget Preparation

   Koch called attention to a document bearing the above title which had been distributed to all Executive Committee members prior to the meeting (copy attached as Exhibit D). He pointed out that there are two 1973 budgets, the general AIP budget contained in the black book and the separate budget for the Information Services Division which had also been distributed. The assumptions and considerations apply to the general budget and the budget for the Information Services Division is to be discussed later. In arriving at the proposed budget the staff has cut expenses in many places and has eliminated various program improvements which had been planned. The staff recognizes that the Institute must remain financially sound and that many things which we believe should be done will have to be postponed until later with the hope that the picture will look better next year. In the publishing field we have examined all income sources to see whether they could be increased and recommendations are being made to increase subscription prices on translation journals as much as appears legally possible. We propose to maintain a strict limit on the number of unhonored pages published even though this will increase the backlog for some journals. The PHYSICS TODAY staff is being reduced and we expect to reduce costs by eliminating most color and otherwise cut printing costs. We propose to close the Washington Office at the end of this year and thereby save approximately $10,000. Significant cuts have been made in all of the general activities except in the Manpower Division. Activity in the Education Division will almost be brought to a standstill except for the Society of Physics Students. The History Division has been cut down to three people and we consider this to be a minimum standby operation.

   Burton asked several questions about the presentation of the budget for General Activities as shown on Page 37. He noted that the over-all amount budgeted for Manpower in 1973 is substantially higher than the 1972 budget and asked whether this meant that the staff was being increased. Slack replied that the only substantial staff increase contemplated would be for temporary staff needed to handle the Register questionnaire.

   Burton also said that comparison of the Education Division budgets for 1973 and 1972 on Page 28 gave the impression that this activity was being expanded rather than reduced as claimed. Slack replied that the Education Division has had heavy support from NSF in the past which we do not expect to continue in 1973 and therefore the program as a whole will be substantially reduced. Some of the Executive Committee members questioned whether it was justifiable to spend so much money on the Society of Physics Students. Koch said this is an activity which we hope to be self-supporting eventually. It has not become that yet but we believe continued expenditures are justifiable toward that end.

   In discussing the AIP support for the Education Division, Holton expressed concern over what effect it may have in discouraging physics students. He mentioned a study which indicates that in the 1980’s we are likely to have a shortage of physicists and there now appears to be a substantial shifting of capable students from physics to other fields.

3. Translation Journal Subscription Prices

   Marks referred to the statement about Soviet translation journals contained in the "Assumptions and Considerations" document and also to the table of current and proposed new subscription prices which had been distributed prior to the meeting (copy attached as Exhibit E). To the latter was also attached a copy of a letter which Marks had written to legal counsel to get counsel’s opinion on the legality of the proposed price increases. Marks said legal counsel had advised him that we cannot increase prices to compensate for loss of subscriptions but counsel agrees that it should be permissible to increase prices to compensate for increased costs, particularly when such costs are the result of an increased number of pages over which we have no control. We have been netting about $100,000 per year from the translation program and we need that amount for our other activities. We budgeted a net of $178,000 for 1972 but, because of increased costs and increased pages and the failure of the two new journals to live up to expectations, our projected net for 1972 is only $51,800. By increasing the prices as proposed for the 1973-74 subscription year, we expect to net about $110,000.

   Because of uncertainty about the number of pages in the Soviet journals, Havens suggested that we might consider taking subscriptions for six-month periods only. He also suggested that we might commit ourselves to provide translation for a fixed number of pages at a fixed price and then request additional payment if the pages exceed the commitment. Marks said he anticipated that either of the suggestions would involve substantial fulfillment complications but that they would be considered.

   The following motion was then made, seconded, and carried without dissent:

   MOVED that the proposed subscription prices for Soviet translation journals for the year beginning July 1, 1973, be approved.

4. Status of Solicitation of Friends of the History of Physics

   Slack distributed copies of a letter in which Hutchisson reported to the Council of the Friends on progress made to date on solicitation for funds. He also gave a status report and copies of his report and the Hutchisson letter are attached as Exhibit F. Several questions were asked and answered by Slack.

   Then followed a brief discussion of the actions taken by the Executive Committee at its meeting in December 1971 and by the Governing Board at its meeting in March 1972. The consensus appeared to be that AIP should make no changes in the current level of support for the History Program while Hutchisson and the Council continue their efforts to obtain outside support. The following motion was then made by Havens, seconded by Mahan, and passed without dissent:

   MOVED that the proposed 1973 budget for the History of Physics Program be approved.

4. CPI Products Program

Koch introduced this subject by saying that, heretofore, we had been defining the Current Physics Information Program rather narrowly because of NSF’s attitude on what they were willing to support. He said that, henceforth, he wanted to broaden the concept of the program to include not only computer tapes and microfilm cartridges but also a variety of products based on the primary journals. All journals are now printed by offset. The more they can be persuaded to adopt common indexing and common formats, the better and more economically AIP can serve them and the more secondary products will be possible to absorb costs. Abstract journals in physics and other disciplines make possible a lucrative market for the heads and tails which we keyboard for our primary journals. We also see the possibility of producing a variety of directories from our subscription fulfillment tapes. Largely with NSF support we have developed a whole new capability which we should now make the most of.

1. Organization and Relocation of Information Services Division

   Marks recalled that he had described the formation of this new Division at the September meeting of the Executive Committee. He said that the Division had recently been moved from the Allied Arts Building to quarters in the floor we rent at 800 Second Avenue where the Publications Division is also located. To make room for this new Division PHYSICS TODAY and Advertising have been moved to the Allied Arts Building. The Information Services Division staff now consists of 28 people which is a substantial reduction from the 45 who were formerly doing this work. We expect to make still further reductions. Eventually the Information Services Division will become a section of the Publications Division and this should reduce administrative costs.

2. Status of Subsidy from NSF

   Koch said he was satisfied that NSF intended to furnish AIP the approximately $300,000 we have requested for continuation of our CPI activities in 1973. He said he had hoped he would have either a telephone call or a grant letter to show the Executive Committee but it had not yet arrived.

3. Establishment of Article Charge

   Koch said that, in discussing the budget for the Information Services Division, he was going to propose that an article charge of $20.00 per article be established for AIP-owned journals and he hoped that the Societies would soon agree to let AIP collect a similar char.ge for articles in their journals. He distributed a sheet describing the article charge (copy attached as Exhibit G). He said he recognized that there might be some difficulty with respect to APS because APS now collects an abstract charge to subsidize PHYSICAL REVIEW ABSTRACTS. However, Koch said he hoped that all Societies would go along with the article charge some time in 1973 and certainly by 1974.

4. Marketing Non-AIP Journals

   Marks pointed out that we are now putting other than AIP-published journals into our SPIN data base and it would help defray costs of producing that base if we could also collect an article charge from them but that appears unlikely. Another scheme is to offer such journals in current microfilm form and ask the owners of the journals to give us marketing rights in this country for the microfilm. We should be able to sell such microfilm at a sufficient markup to help defray the cost of putting the journals in the data base. The British Institute of Physics has indicated they may be receptive to such an idea. Marks said he was requesting authority to approach outside publishers whose journals we want in our data base on the question of marketing rights in this country on microfilms of their journals. The following motion was then made, seconded, and passed without dissent:

   MOVED that the staff be authorized to negotiate with outside publishers on rights to sell microfilm as suggested.

The meeting adjourned for luncheon at 12:40 and reconvened at 1:18 p.m.

5. 1973 Budget for Information Services Division and Plans for 1974

   Marks distributed copies of a revised proposed budget for the Current Physics Information program for 1973 which also contained a projection for calendar year 1974 (copy attached as Exhibit H). He pointed out that the budget for the preparation of the data base is separate from the budget for the CPI program and that the anticipated income from the article charge is shown as a credit of $145,000 in 1973 against the total cost of the data base of $706,400. $78,000 of the $145,000 is expected to come from AIP-owned journals and the rest from Society-owned journals. The net cost of the data base, amounting to $561,400 then appears as part of the cost of producing the products and services planned as a part of the CPI program.

   In response to questions, Marks said that SPIN subscriptions in 1972 will amount to approximately $30,000 and there should be no problem in continuing that in 1973. Income from subscriptions to CPAA and CPT will amount to approximately $55,000 in 1972 and the rate at which this is growing makes us believe we can double that amount in 1973. The terms of the contract on Nuclear Science Abstracts which we expect to sign should even make it possible to realize $85,000 income from that source. We now have seven subscribers to CPM and current interest in CPM makes us feel safe in projecting 20 subscriptions in 1973. By June of 1973 we should have a good picture of what our 1973 income will be and we should then be able to make a fair appraisal of prospects for 1974. We do not expect any NSF subsidy in 1974 and the viability of the program beyond calendar year 1973 must depend on our appraisal of the situation as we see it next June.

   There was then some discussion of the likelihood of obtaining $145,000 from the article charge in 1973. Both Burton and Havens said they believed it was unlikely that APS would authorize AIP to collect the article charge on their journals in 1973. The APS Publications Committee has expressed concern about increasing page charges. Waterfall said he had received the same reaction from the Acoustical Society. Havens expressed concern that, if we keep loading costs on the author or his institution, the articles will go elsewhere to be published. There will be no advantage to the author in publishing in an AIP journal if non-AIP journals are also included in the AIP system.

   Koch pointed out that there is approximately $150,000 left in the Abstract Fund which was collected on articles some years ago. Money from this fund had been used to subsidize PHYSICS ABSTRACTS but not all of it was used. Koch suggested that it would be legitimate to use money from this fund to make up the difference if the full $145,000 income from the article charge was not realized in 1973. The consensus appeared to be that this was a possibility which should be borne in mind for later action.

   There was some discussion of the 1974 projection shown in the budget but it was agreed that we should wait until June of 1973 before any conclusions can be reached about prospects for 1974.

   The following motion was then made by Jeffrey, seconded by Mahan, and passed without dissent:

   MOVED that the proposed $20.00 article charge be authorized for all AIP-owned journals, excluding
   PT and the translation journals, and that the staff be authorized to request the Member Societies to authorize collection of the same article charge for their journals.

   Suggestions were made about how the Societies should be approached on the above subject and Koch said he would introduce it with an editorial which he is writing for the February issue of PT.

   There was some further discussion of the proposed 1973 budget for the Information Services Division and the following motion was made by Jeffrey, seconded by Holton, and passed without dissent:

   MOVED that the proposed 1973 budget for the Information Services Division be approved as presented.

5. Approval of 1973 General AIP Budget

Koch said he believed now would be an appropriate time to act on the 1973 AIP budget since most of the subjects bearing on it had been discussed. He said there was a possibility of some additional credit to overhead if we are successful in securing some of the grants still to be discussed but such problems are always faced in adopting a budget.

Burton said he would like to know whether the over-all payroll, particularly for the higher-salaried people, is increasing or decreasing. Gilbert said he could not answer this at the moment but would have figures in time for the meeting at the end of January on the payroll then compared to the payroll at the end of January 1972.

The following motion was then made by Havens, seconded by Holton, and carried without dissent:

MOVED that the 1973 general AIP budget be approved as proposed.

6. Status of Revision of Subscription Fulfillment System

Gilbert distributed copies of a memorandum from Martino dated December 14 in which he explained the present situation and the reasons for it. Gilbert said that a large number of incoming checks for dues and subscriptions had not been processed because of the delays in the fulfillment system but a satisfactory way had been found to make a record of the checks and deposit them and he will be able to make substantial payments to the Societies before the end of the year but a detailed accounting of receipts will not be possible until late in January. One result of the delays has been that second notices have not gone out to members according to the usual schedule. He suggested that it might be best to send just one more notice this time rather than the three which we usually send. This suggestion seemed to meet with favor. Burton said he believed the second notice had been going out too early anyway and that one additional notice would be satisfactory.

Waterfall said that the delays mentioned in Martino's letter had already caused complaints from Society members and that the Society officers might expect a flood of such complaints during January and even February. He suggested that all Society officers should be advised to expect such complaints. Havens suggested that Gilbert compose a letter explaining the situation and what is being done to correct it which might be used by Society Secretaries in answering member complaints.

Gilbert said that one reason for the difficulties we have experienced may have been his desire to hold down the costs of the conversion. Havens suggested that, if there is a lot of ill will among members, we will wish we had not been so anxious to hold down costs and will know better next time.

7. Status of NSF Grant Proposals

1. Institutional Coupling

   Koch recalled that the $150,000 proposal to NSF on this subject had been discussed at the September meeting of the Executive Committee and at the following meeting of the Assembly. He said that NSF officers had indicated they were unable to support the project and had encouraged us to combine those parts of it which they consider attractive with our proposal on industrial internships.

2. Industrial Internships

   Slack recalled that a proposal on this subject had been discussed at the February 1972 meeting of the Executive Committee and that, by a mail ballot of the Committee, the staff had been authorized to submit a proposal to NSF in the amount of $6,454,450 to operate the program over a three-year period. The proposal was submitted to NSF but about the middle of November they suggested that we revise it to a more modest level. The revised proposal requesting $1,604,160 was submitted about December 1. We have not yet been given any indication about its acceptance.

3. Data Tagging for NSRDS

   We have been encouraged by the National Bureau of Standards to set up a system for tagging data for the National Standards Reference Data System of NBS. Accordingly, with the endorsement of NBS, we have submitted to NSF a proposal requesting $96,700 to do the tagging for a period of 15 months. (Since the meeting NSF has advised us that they are unable to support our proposal.)

8. Status of Real Estate Tax Exemption

Waterfall said we had learned that the Bar Association got tax exemption for their property by going to court and that the United Engineering Trustees got continued tax exemption for their large building through presentations to the City Tax Commission. We authorized our attorneys to take our case to court and they proceeded accordingly but the New York City Corporation Counsel said he did not want to go to court and asked for a delay which we willingly granted him. Our attorneys interpret this to mean that the Corporation Counsel believes we may get tax exemption without going to court and so we are just waiting to see what happens.

9. Building Mortgage

Gilbert read a prepared statement (copy attached as Exhibit I) recommending that we give no further consideration to paying off the mortgage at this time. There was no disagreement with his recommendation.

10. Corporate Associates for 1973

Lasky reported that the billing to Corporate Associates for 1973 dues went out about November 1. At this time we have received payments totaling $55,250 from 45 Associates. At the same time last year we had about $1,000 more from 57 Associates. We have canvassed about 95 companies who formerly were Corporate Associates but none of them has come back as of today. Lasky indicated she did not have much hope of reaching our goal of 100 Corporate Associates for 1973. She invited suggestions about how we can attract more Corporate Associates and prevent losing the ones we have.

11. Status of Negotiations with IEE

Koch reported that our negotiations with the British Institution of Electrical Engineers for the establishment of a World Physics Information system have not been abandoned but are probably in limbo. Since they are unwilling to pay us what we think they should for our contribution to a joint data base, we question how much we would have to gain at this time from the proposed WPI system. We have proposed a trial exchange of tapes in 1973 and also that each of us purchase from the other the tape items which we want. We are waiting for a response. In the meantime we are continuing to distribute their journals here and they will distribute our journals over there.

12. Miscellaneous Publishing Activities

1. Sale of Individual Reprints from AIP Journals

   Marks said that ACS and some other societies have started offering for sale reprints of individual journal articles. The ACS program has not been a great success but they are continuing it. We have been offering for sale reprints of articles in JPCRD and have been fairly successful by breaking even already even though the program was only announced during the summer. Our CPAA program gives advance announcement of articles to appear later in journals and we believe it might help create a market for reprints. We would like authorization to try this out for AIP-owned journals beginning some time during 1973. The initial investment would be small and we would like to see what kind of response we get. We would sell the reprints for cash only to save costs and keep the price low. Havens said he doubted whether the program would be successful but he made the following motion which was seconded by Mahan and passed without dissent:

   MOVED that the staff be authorized to offer for sale reprints of individual articles from AIP-owned journals as proposed.

   Marks said he would give the Executive Committee an interim report on this project at the June meeting.

2. Microfilm Marketing

   Marks said that libraries are trying to clear their shelf space and ACS, taking advantage of this trend, has offered them a substantial price reduction on complete back files of all ACS journals in microfilm form. Marks said he believed AIP could derive substantial income from a similar offer by offering a discount of up to 25% complete back files. If AIP is successful in this with its journals Member Societies might be interested in doing the same thing. Marks said he contemplated a special arrangement for the translation journals. The following motion was then made by Burton, seconded by Havens, and passed without dissent:

   MOVED that the staff be authorized to offer AIP journals in microfilm at a discount as proposed provided complete sets are ordered, and that the staff be authorized to suggest the same kind of arrangement to Member Societies.

3. Royalty Arrangement on IEEE Reprint Books

   Marks reported that the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers had been publishing books containing reprints of articles about one-half of which are from journals published by AIP. In the past we and our Member Societies have given IEEE permission to do this without any royalty. We believe we are entitled to a royalty and have suggested 20% on that fraction of the book consisting of AIP-published articles. If we can reach an agreement with IEEE, AIP would like to keep whatever royalty it can collect during the first year regardless of what journals the articles are copied from. After the first year we propose to split up the royalty and credit it to the various journals which are being copied. If the Executive Committee approves of this action we will inform the Societies what we propose to do and they can register any objection if they wish. The following motion was then made, seconded, and passed without dissent:

   MOVED that the staff be authorized to pursue the proposed agreement with IEEE concerning royalties on reprint books with the understanding that AIP is to keep whatever royalties it collects during the first year and that the Member Societies are informed and agree to the arrangement.

4. Production of Society Directories

   Slack said that AIP is developing a capability to produce various directories from the information we collect in the Register questionnaire. He said the questionnaire would go out soon after the first of the year. We are considering an industrial directory, a Government laboratories directory, and a faculties directory. In addition we believe we can produce Society directories competitively with other processes. We welcome inquiries.

5. McGraw-Hill Marketing of AIP HANDBOOK

   Slack reported on the fiasco which has developed in McGraw-Hill's handling of the marketing of the third edition. The original price was to be $49.50 with a special price to AIP members of $39.50. McGraw-Hill subsequently and inadvertently published a price of $35.00. The Library of Science Book Club made a quantity purchase at a discount and offered the HANDBOOK for $29.95 provided the purchaser committed himself to certain other purchases. We have heard of a still cheaper offer by the Library of Science Book Club. The unfortunate part of all this is that all the various offers were made almost simultaneously. Both we and McGraw-Hill have received many letters from irate members. McGraw-Hill is as much concerned about the situation as we are and we are waiting to see what they propose to do about it.

13. Appointments

Koch distributed a list of certain proposed appointments (copy attached as Exhibit J) and the following motion was made, seconded, and carried without dissent:

MOVED that the proposed appointments be approved and that the Chairman and Director be authorized to make such additional appointments as may be necessary for these positions during the coming year.

14. Special Meeting of the Corporation

Waterfall said that six favorable votes had been received from Member Societies on the admission of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine as a Member. No negative votes have been received. We are now in a position to have the special meeting of the corporation as authorized at the September 20, 1972, meeting of the Governing Board to formally vote on AAPM. We propose that the meeting be held at 10:00 a.m. at The New York Hilton hotel on January 31, 1973, or immediately following the Executive Committee meeting on that date. There were no objections.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:50 p.m.