Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics
Minutes of Meeting
Members Present: R. A. Sawyer – Chairman, Joseph A. Burton, H. R. Crane, Ronald Geballe, W. W. Havens, Jr., H. William Koch, R. B. Lindsay, Mary E. Warga
AIP Staff Present: H. William Koch, Wallace Waterfall, Lewis Slack, G. F. Gilbert, Robert H. Marks, Mary M. Johnson
Chairman Sawyer called the meeting to order at 7:50 a.m.
1. Minutes
The Secretary called attention to the fact that the revised 1971 budget which had been attached to the minutes of the previous meeting had been prepared in accordance with the actions taken at that meeting in all but one respect – the reprint prices on the price list attached to the minutes were a little higher than those which had been presented for approval at the meeting. There being no objection to the change indicated, upon motion made and passed without dissent, the minutes of the Executive Committee meeting of December 11, 1970, were approved as distributed.
2. National Information Service for Physics and Astronomy
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Status of NSF Grants
The Director reported that AIP had requested from NSF the three following grants for continued funding of the Information Program:
- Advance Planning $238,477 for 18 months
- Stage II Development $843,093 for 18 months
- Operations and Services $543,500 for 12 months
The first two grants have been received. We understand that the third grant is about to be issued but that it has been reduced by about $100,000. This is in line with our discussions with NSF and it will be satisfactory to us. NSF has expressed enthusiasm for the system we are developing. It is substantially different from others which NSF is supporting.
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Exhibit at APS-AAPT Meeting
As reported at the Executive Committee meeting on October 5, 1970, the Information Division is having an impressive exhibit at the current APS-AAPT meeting showing the products on which it is working. We hope to include these in our journal catalog this summer and have them ready for the market by January of next year. We intend to present our plans and proposed prices to the Executive Committee and Governing Board at the March meetings for their approval.
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Planned Operation of NISPA
The Director then described the four Information Division products currently planned. One of them is a microfilm to be issued periodically and containing full texts of all articles appearing in AIP and Society journals during a given period. It was pointed out that the distribution of this microfilm would make it possible for the organization leasing it to reproduce whole articles quite easily and this might have the effect of reducing the number of non-member journal subscriptions. The charge for microfilm and its use would have to be high enough so that both the Institute and the Societies could be properly compensated for any loss in subscription income. The Society officers present indicated that they would have to get the approval of their governing bodies to the proposed plan before they could give consent for the production of such a microfilm. The Director said he understood this and that he would make an effort to have full details of the program in the hands of all Society secretaries immediately after the March meeting of the Governing Board.
In telling about receipt of the NSF grants for continuation of the Information Program, the Director said he had been very much concerned for a number of weeks about the possibility that NSF might be changing its attitude toward support of information programs and AIP would find itself in difficulties. Then followed some discussion of what would be the position of AIP if grant funds should stop suddenly. Several Committee members indicated they had recently had such experiences. Mr. Havens pointed out that there are commitments to personnel and possibly other commitments in connection with space and leased equipment all of which must be taken into consideration when grants are to be terminated. He recommended that the staff examine the Information activities carefully and determine what would be the termination cost if the subsidy were stopped. He requested that the staff report back on this to the Executive Committee.
3. Publishing Operations
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Operation for APS at Brookhaven
Mr. Marks reported that the lease of space at Brookhaven National Laboratory had been approved by AEC and that AIP was now occupying that space. Twenty-four new employees have been hired and we will soon be transferring 21 people from the APS payroll to AIP payroll. February will be used for training the staff and then work will start on typewriter composition for the June issue of PHYSICAL REVIEW D. Mr. Burton said that Mr. Goudsmit and all of the APS officers are very enthusiastic about the way this Brookhaven operation is getting off to a good start.
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Journal Schedules
Mr. Marks said that all 1970 issues of all journals were in the mail before the end of 1970. A number of the journals are still two weeks to one month behind schedule but we are pushing hard and hope to catch up with schedules soon. Some personnel changes have been made in the Publications Division and there has been a general reorganization of the Division which should improve performance. We are also examining closely our printing and composition contracts with the expectation of being able to reduce costs.
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Projected Backlog of Unhonored Pages
Mr. Marks pointed out that the 1971 budget, as approved by the Executive Committee, contemplated that page charges would be honored on approximately 85% of the pages in all AIP archive journals. This puts a strict limit on the number of unhonored pages which will be published in each journal during the year. We entered 1971 with a substantial backlog of unhonored unpublished papers for some journals and we expect this backlog to increase during the year. For example, with the JCP carryover from 1970 and the current rate of receipt of manuscripts, it appears that any manuscripts received after April which are not honored cannot be published this year. The situation with other AIP journals is not so bad but there will surely be a substantial backlog for all journals by the end of the year.
In response to a question Mr. Marks said that the publication charge order forms have been revised so that the author can be given some indication of the possible delay in publishing his paper when it is accepted.
At a previous meeting the Treasurer had indicated difficulty in collecting page charges after payment had been promised by purchase order or otherwise. He was asked for his current experience in collections and reported that he was still trying to collect on some papers published in 1968 and possibly before. He is now discussing the matter with our auditors to get their opinion on whether the Institute should set up a reserve for bad debts.
4. Report of Society-Member Programs Review Committee
The Director said that this Committee had been set up by the Governing Board with instructions to report to the Board at its March meeting. However, we have received a preliminary draft of the Committee’s report which contains some quite definite recommendations about the general activities of AIP. The Director read some of these recommendations and said it was his intention to contact the advisory committee in each of the three program areas before the meeting of the Governing Board in March and tell them about the report and get the reactions of the advisory committees on the recommendations. By this procedure the Director said he hoped to be able to get the approval of the Governing Board on changes to be made. Executive Committee members voiced no objection to the procedure the Director proposed.
There was some further discussion of the recommendations of the Programs Review Committee but, since the report will not be formally submitted until the Governing Board meeting, no action seemed appropriate.
5. Staff Response to Executive Committee on Indirect Ways of Obtaining Funds from Member Societies for AIP General Activities
Mr. Gilbert presented the staff response which is attached as Exhibit A. Following the presentation Mr. Havens recalled that he had been responsible for the motion making the request of the staff and he said he was satisfied with the response.
6. Request from Seaborg for Free Journals for Africa
Chairman Sawyer reported that he had received a letter from Mr. Seaborg, Chairman of AEC, telling about his visit to African universities and their need for physics journals but their inability to pay for them. He suggested that AIP send copies of all of its journals by air mail to nine universities in Africa. Mr. Sawyer said he had advised Mr. Seaborg that this would cost the Institute about $4,000 per year and that a gift of this magnitude would have to be considered by the Executive Committee. Mr. Havens said that APS had received a similar request and that the APS Executive Committee had agreed to give PR ABSTRACTS free to the nine universities along with any other journals which AIP might decide to give. Discussion indicated that PHYSICS TODAY might be an appropriate contribution and it was also suggested that AAPT might wish to contribute THE PHYSICS TEACHER. The cost of sending any journals by air mail did not seem to be justified. The following motion was then made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that AIP send PHYSICS TODAY without charge and by regular mail to the nine African institutions listed in Mr. Seaborg’s letter.
7. Request from Magnetism Conference to Continue Publishing Proceedings in JAP Through 1972
Mr. Sawyer reported receipt of a letter from Mr. Jacobs on behalf of the Annual Magnetism Conference in which he complained about the AIP decision not to publish the Conference proceedings in JAP after the March 1971 issue which will contain the proceedings of the 1970 Conference. AIP had indicated willingness to publish proceedings of subsequent Conferences only in the Conference Proceedings Series which AIP initiated recently. Mr. Jacobs said that his Conference associates preferred publication in JAP and felt they should have had longer notice of our intentions. The Director said that we had them of our plans nearly a year ago and that he felt they had had adequate notice. After brief discussion the following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the request of the Magnetism Conference to continue publishing their proceedings in JAP be denied.
8. Preparation and Distribution of 1970 Annual Report
The Director pointed out that $7,000 had been included in the 1971 budget for preparation and distribution of the 1970 Annual Report. This being the 40th anniversary of the Institute the staff had decided that it would be appropriate to use the money in a little different way than formerly. The Director then explained his plans as follows:
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The June issue of PT will contain a picture story of four decades of AIP history along with a short introductory statement by H. A. Barton. It will also contain an article “on physics, physicists, and physics societies” and the annual report of the Board of Directors to the membership in somewhat shorter from than usual. The annual report will contain abbreviated financial tables as heretofore. A reprint containing the above items will be prepared with a special cover and about 5,000 copies of the reprint will go to those who normally have been receiving the Institute’s annual reports.
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The new expanded Purpose and Program booklet recently published will be reprinted with a different cover and in large enough quantity to mail copies to all 55,000 individual members of Member Societies. We expect this mailing to be made late in April or early in May.
The Director said that he hoped to be able to do all of the above for the $7,000 included in the budget and he asked the approval of the Executive Committee for this way of handling the annual report. There have been recent indications that individual members of the Member Societies know very little about general activities of the Institute and the new Purpose and Program booklet should help them understand what AIP is and what it is doing. The following motion was then made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the proposed plan for distributing the 1970 Annual Report and other literature, as proposed by the Director, be approved.
9. Request from American Geophysical Union to Become an AIP Affiliate
The Director said he had received a request from AGU to become an AIP Affiliated Society and that it would be referred to the Governing Board for action. It appeared to be the consensus of Executive Committee members that AGU was properly qualified to become an affiliate.
10. Other Business
Miss Warga expressed interest in being brought up to date on what AIP is doing in connection with the unemployment situation among physicists. She was given a copy of the newsletter on the subject which was being distributed at the current APS-AAPT meeting and told that copies of this were being made available by APS to any society which wished to distribute it to its members.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:38 a.m.