Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics
Minutes of Meeting
1. The meeting was called to order by the Chairman, Mr. Klopsteg, at 2:15 p.m. in the office of the Institute. Members present: Messrs. Fletcher, Gibson, Harrison, Pegram; absent, Mr. Tate. Present by invitation: Mr. Barton and Miss Mitchell of the Institute staff, Messrs. Dodge and Gibbs of the War Policy Committee and Mr. Tryttan of the Selective Service National Committee on Physicists.
2. The minutes of the meeting of March 13, 1942 were read and approved by vote.
3. The Secretary reported mail ballots as follows:
- Nov. 9, 1942: Appropriating an additional sum of $1,000 for the work of the War Policy Committee as of July 1, 1942. Favorable 5; Opposed 0.
- Nov. 12, 1942: Authorizing the Chairman to appoint Associate Editors for the Review of Scientific Instruments, The Journal of Chemical Physics, and the Journal of Applied Physics. Favorable 5; Opposed 0. (Associate Editors have duly been appointed.)
On motion it was voted that results of these mail ballots be confirmed and recorded in the minutes as official actions.
4. On motion the Committee voted approval of the action of the Treasurer and the Assistant Treasurer in investing $15,000 of the present surplus of the Institute in short term U.S. Treasury Certificates, 7/8 per cent, due Dec. 1, 1943.
5. Director Barton presented for consideration by the executive committee tentative budget schedules or 1943, with comparative figures from the 1942 budget and from the actual figures (preliminary audit) for 1942. (In discussion of the budget one figure on the typed copies as presented was revised).
On motion it was voted to approve and recommend to the Governing Board for final adoption the proposed budget as presented by the Director (with the one revision), subject to revision that may be indicated by the final 1942 audit and by other circumstances that may arise before the Board Meeting.
In the discussion on the budget the fact was recognized that it was necessary to redistribute administrative overhead costs between the Publication department and the general Operations and Maintenance department, on account of relatively smaller publication activity. Copy of the budget schedules is appended to the official minutes.
6. The Chairman discussed the present status of cooperation between the Institute and the manufacturers of scientific apparatus, stressing the desirability of giving more thought to the development of greater cooperation and more continuous contact after the war.
7. It was voted that the annual meeting of the Governing Board should be held at New York on March 12, 1943, beginning at 10:30 a.m.
8. Mr. Barton read to the Committee a letter from Dean Alpheus W. Smith, Ohio State University, expressing concern over the teaching of physics in high schools. The subject discussed: reference was made to the report of a Joint Committee of the American Chemical Society, to a campaign led by Professor Lark-Horowitz for better high school physics in Indiana, and to invitation received by the A.A.P.T. to take part in the program of a meeting of the National Education Association in February.
It was the sense of the committee that the letter of Dean Smith should be referred to the Association of Physics Teachers.
9. Mr. H. H. Trytten, Secretary of the Selective Service National Committee on Physicists, was requested to discuss for the committee some of the problems of conserving and providing physicists for uses in which they can serve the national interest most effectively in this war. After this discussion it was the sense of the committee that a member of the Institute’s War Policy Committee should draft resolutions bearing on this subject to be laid before the American Physical Society for adoption if the Society so desires, at its annual business meeting on January 21, 1943.
10. The committee then adjourned at about 4:40 p.m.