Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics
Minutes of Meeting
Members Present: Ralph A. Sawyer – Chairman, S. A. Goudsmit, Ronald Geballe, W. W. Havens, Jr., R. Bruce Lindsay, S. L. Quimby
Absent: Mary E. Warga
AIP Staff Present: H. W. Koch, Wallace Waterfall, G. F. Gilbert, Lewis Slack, Mary M. Johnson
The Chairman called the meeting to order at 7:58 a.m.
1. Minutes
Upon motion made and carried, the minutes of the meeting of December 12, 1968, were approved as distributed.
2. Report on Governing Board Mail Ballot re Continuing W. Waterfall as Secretary
The Secretary reported that, in accordance with action taken by the Executive Committee on December 12, 1968, a mail ballot on extension of the Secretary’s term to March 31, 1970, had been sent to all Governing Board members on December 17. Favorable replies have been received from all but one Board member who did not respond. In compliance with New York State law, the results of the mail ballot will have to be confirmed by the Governing Board at its March 22 meeting.
3. Report on Publication Charge Honoring
The Treasurer distributed copies of a report containing publication charge statistical data which had been prepared for this meeting (copy attached). These data indicate that honoring of publication charges went down some during the latter part of the year but the final figure was not as low as we had anticipated and, therefore overall journal performance for 1968 should be better than projected. Similar information is being furnished to the Societies for their journals. We find that reduced publication charge honoring is accompanied by some build-up of reprint sales which further helped to improve the financial picture.
There was some discussion among Committee members about what could be done by the Institute and by Societies to compensate for the loss in publication charge income. Society dues or subscription prices can be increased in some cases. It was also suggested that there is justification in some cases for increasing the page charge. It was agreed that the Institute and each Society separately would have to examine its particular situation and act accordingly.
4. Report on Meeting of Publication Board and Committee of Society Secretaries and Treasurers
The Director recalled that the Executive Committee, at its meeting of June 7, 1968, had approved a two-day meeting of Society Secretaries, Treasurers and journal editors to be held in January of this year. That meeting was held on January 12, and 13 with excellent attendance. Forty-six were present at the Sunday evening session and 49 were there on Monday. The meeting focused on the economics of journal publication. Written recommendations were submitted by the staff and attendees were asked to vote on them. The results of the votes are being studied and, where necessary, recommendations will be formally submitted to the Societies for consideration.
Based on the unanimous endorsement of Secretaries and Treasurers at the meeting, we propose to change our method of allocating editorial mechanics costs, beginning with the first quarter of 1969. The old method was based on a complicated formula and the application of this formula resulted in a substantial delay in preparing quarterly financial statements. The new method involves assigning a group of copy editors to a specific group of similar journals and dividing combined salaries and fringe benefits among the journals on the basis of the number of pages. Fixed costs and overhead of the Editorial Division would be distributed over all journals in all groups on the basis of number of pages. The Director requested that the Executive Committee approve this method of cost distribution and, on motion made, seconded, and carried without dissent, the proposed method was approved. It was pointed out that, in addition to the general charge arrived at by the new method, special charges would be made for special services required by any particular journal.
The Director also reported that he had received a letter dated January 22 from the American Physical Society requesting that AIP develop a proposal on typewriter composition for an additional section of THE PHYSICAL REVIEW. He said that the staff was working on the proposal and expected to respond within a few weeks, after consultation with Mr. Goudsmit and others.
5. Exhibit Income
The Secretary recalled that, at the Executive Committee meeting of September 25, 1968, the Committee had concurred with a recommendation of the staff that AIP handle exhibits at the joint APS-AAPT meetings for 25% of gross income from sale of exhibit space with the understanding that the remaining 75% less exhibit expenses, would be distributed to the Societies. This proposal was transmitted to the Societies involved by Messrs. Geballe and Havens. Mr. Havens later suggested a meeting with AIP staff members which was held on December 19. At that meeting Mr. Havens suggested that, since expenses connected with exhibits are considerable and are completely under the control of AIP staff members, he felt it would be better for AIP to receive a percentage of the net income which would give AIP an incentive to hold expenses as low as possible. Following this meeting the Secretary made some calculations to determine what percentage of net income would give AIP about what it would have received from the 25% of gross at the 1967 and 1968 exhibits. In his memorandum of January 24 to Messrs. Havens, Quimby, and Zemansky the Secretary recommended that Societies be given their choice of allowing AIP either 25% of gross income or 20% of net income. If they elect 20% of net income, then AIP should prepare a budget for each exhibit for the approval of the Society or Societies involved. It was also pointed out in the memorandum that, in the past, the Institute had made no charge to the Societies for many services furnished in connection with meetings and, if AIP is to be deprived of most of the income from exhibits, the Societies will have to be charged for these services. It was the consensus of the Committee that the proposal was reasonable and, on motion made, seconded, and carried without dissent, the Committee approved the proposal. It is understood that appropriate officers of APS and AAPT will consider the matter and tell AIP of their decision. The Director and Secretary of AIP were authorized to execute contracts with the Member Societies involving the decisions made.
6. Abstract Charge
By way of background the Director reminded the Committee that AIP has been collecting $10 per article in most journals with the understanding that funds so collected would be used for abstracting and indexing the articles in PHYSICS ABSTRACTS and to subsidize member subscriptions to PHYSICS ABSTRACTS. In 1967 AIP collected approximately $82,000 and used about half to subsidize subscriptions. The balance has not been used. Continuation of the abstract charge in 1969 has been authorized by the Societies but with the understanding that money collected on abstracts in Society journals and not needed to subsidize subscriptions will be returned to the Societies if they request it.
The Director pointed out that next year IEE proposes sizable increases in both the coverage and prices of PHYSICS ABSTRACTS and APS and others have opposed continuation of the subscription subsidy. On suggestion of the Director the following motion was made by Mr. Havens, seconded by Mr. Quimby, and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that member subscriptions to PHYSICS ABSTRACTS should not be subsidized with AIP funds after the current calendar year.
The Director indicated that IEE knew that we have been considering this action and will not be surprised by it.
The Director mentioned that there are costs in connection with publication, such as indexing, which are the same for each article regardless of its length and, therefore, it might be appropriate to replace the abstract charge with what might be called an “article charge.” The Director suggested that he might develop some further recommendations along this line and the Committee requested that he do so.
7. Status Report on UNIVAC Problems
Mr. Gilbert reported that, following numerous computer breakdowns and malfunctions, the Director had written a strong letter to the president of UNIVAC on December 16, 1968, which had resulted in a conference with top UNIVAC representatives on January 23. Since then we have been getting the best of maintenance service and difficulties have decreased but some still bother us. We realize that many organizations have had difficulties with new computer installations but will not be satisfied until our installation is completely dependable.
8. Review of COMPAS Activities
In reporting on the meeting of COMPAS the previous day, Mr. Slack said that in response to a request formulated by the Executive Committee at its December meeting, COMPAS has agreed to undertake to develop, for presentation to the Governing Board, guidelines for involvement by AIP in non-technical areas of public concern. To this end there was appointed a subcommittee consisting of D. Z. Robinson (chairman), H. R. Crane, and E. L. Goldwassser who will prepare preliminary statements for study by COMPAS.
Recognizing that one of the most fruitful activities for COMPAS can be a catalytic role in generating informed discussion on topics of wide interest that involve physics and society, chairman H. R. Crane appointed a subcommittee consisting of W. O. Baker, M. Mead, D. Z. Robinson, and J. A. Wheeler to suggest and collect topics and participants for symposia, panel discussions, and invited papers. These would be made available to societies and other groups requesting help in putting such programs together.
A draft for the second survey of support of physics had been prepared and was discussed. The final version of the report will be distributed to the Governing Board for approval and then to physics department chairmen and others interested.
The matter of representation on COMPAS was also discussed at the COMPAS meeting. (At its meeting the following day, the Robinson Subcommittee agreed to examine this point further and make recommendations to Mr. Koch.)
In response to a query, Mr. Slack agreed to see to it that each member of the Executive Committee receives a copy of Mr. Crane’s remarks at the Physics and Society Session.
9. Corporate Associates
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Status Report
The Director read a report on the status of 1969 dues collections which indicated that gross receipts as of January 31 were $111,505 compared with $115,000 a year ago. There were 111 paid Corporate Associates in contrast to 122 last year at the same date. Formal withdrawals for 1969 were received from six companies while only two have been added.
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Sandia Laboratories
The Director reported that Sandia Laboratories had applied for Corporate Associate membership at the rate of $3,500. Upon motion made, seconded, and passed without dissenting vote, Sandia Laboratories was elected a Corporate Associate of the Institute.
10. Other Business
The Chairman reported that Mary Warga was absent from the meeting because she was recuperating from recent surgery. He suggested that the Secretary be instructed to send to Miss Warga the Committee’s best wishes for a speedy recovery. By motion made, seconded, and carried without dissent, the Secretary was instructed so to do.
Mr. Gilbert said that progress was being made in getting Accounting operations on our computer. The first to go on will be payroll and the target date for the first run is April 1.
11. Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Executive Committee will be held at the offices of the Institute on Friday, March 21, 1969. There will be a meeting of the Governing Board on the following day, Saturday, March 22, at the Institute.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:46 a.m.