Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics
Minutes of Meeting
Members Present: Ralph A. Sawyer, Chairman; Wallace R. Brode; S. A. Goudsmit; W. W. Havens, Jr.; R. B. Lindsay; S. L. Quimby; Francis W. Sears
AIP Staff Present: Elmer Hutchisson; Wallace Waterfall; Henry A. Barton; Mary M. Johnson
The Chairman convoked the Executive Committee at 8:30 a.m.
1. Minutes
Upon motion made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote, the minutes of the meeting of December 9, 1961, were approved as distributed.
2. “Highlights of 1961”
The Director distributed copies of “Highlights of 1961,” which had previously been sent to all Board members. He reviewed briefly the work being done in connection with documentation research, public relations, and the history of physics project. He reported that there are now over 190 Student Sections with approximately 5,000 students, a large fraction of which are members of at least one of the Member Societies. The staff is still seeking a director for our manpower studies, a grant for which has already been received.
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Status of Building Addition
The Secretary reported that construction is a little behind schedule but we hope to be able to obtain a temporary certificate of occupancy for the basement by the middle of June. Occupancy of the rest of the building may be possible during July. “Extras” may add about $40,000 to our contract.
3. Status of APS Directory
The Director reported that work on the APS membership directory was nearing completion when it was discovered that a large number of names were omitted. Much of the work has had to be done over and the directory will be considerably delayed. Since the omission was the fault of the Institute staff, the charges to APS will be adjusted appropriately.
4. Status of Proposed Constitutional Convention
The Director stated that a letter had been sent to all Member Society Presidents telling them about the proposed “Constitutional Convention.” The Society of Rheology has endorsed the idea and appointed delegates. APS will discuss it at the April meeting. AAPT, ASA and OSA have indicated interest and it is believed they will be in a position to designate delegates when the “Convention” has been definitely decided upon. The subject will be included on the agenda for the Governing Board meeting in March.
5. Annual Report
The Director said that the Annual Report he is preparing for 1961 will be somewhat briefer than it has been in the past but it will still be a sizable report and will be accompanied by the usual financial statement.
6. Circulation and Dues Handling Activities
The Director reported that G. F. Gilbert had been appointed Director of Service Operations and would have full responsibility for circulation and data processing activities.
A study of our circulation processing operations showed that the single set of punched cards was a bottleneck. Access to them for making corrections was difficult because they were needed almost continuously for addressing journals. Work has been expedited by the preparation of a duplicate set of punched cards. We are aware that impressions from the cards are not always as legible as we would like and are investigating other processes.
An inquiry desk was set up near the APS-AAPT registration tables to assist members having journal problems and to record complaints. A letter explaining our circulation changeover problems had been prepared by the Director and distributed to all members of the Executive Committee prior to this meeting and we believe that, with the controls now being instituted, the situation will improve rapidly.
7. AIP Staff Changes and Additions
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Revised Organization Chart
The Secretary distributed copies of a memorandum and simplified organization chart which was recently circulated to all AIP employees. The chart was discussed briefly and the Secretary stated that it will be expanded and issued, together with communications manuals, to both AIP staff members and interested outsiders.
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Additions to Editorial Department
The Secretary reported that employee tornover (turnover) in the Editorial Department was 97% last year. Ruth Bryans, whose resignation was reported at the last meeting, has been replaced by Jean Doty; and James Mills, who has been supervisor of the Editorial Department, has resigned and will be replaced by David Biesel.
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Personnel Turnover
The staff is concerned about the high turnover rate, which was 46% for the Institute as a whole last year. Efforts are being made to determine the cause and effect a solution.
8. Status of Special Project Proposals
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APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
It was recalled that, at the last meeting, a projected journal of APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS had been discussed, and the Director reported that a proposal had been submitted to NSF requesting a grant of $87,000 to underwrite the cost of getting such a journal started. It is planned that James H. Crawford, Jr., Editor of JAP, will manage the operation at Oak Ridge and it is intended that the journal will be distributed free of charge once a month for the last six months of this year. In 1963 and 1964 it is to be published semi-monthly and will be available on subscription at $5.00 and $10.00. By 1965 the journal should be self-supporting with subscription prices of $8.00 and $15.00. The publication charge will be $45.00 per page.
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Educational Apparatus Center
The Director stated that the proposal for an educational apparatus center grew partly out of the work of the Apparatus Committee and partly from the Design of Physics Buildings project. We have requested a grant of $120,740 from NSF to finance the project for a two-year period.
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Information Center for International Physics Activities
The subject proposal was submitted to NSF about six months ago and, while considerable interest in it has been expressed, the grant has not yet been received.
The Director stated that we would like to issue a revised edition of our booklet on “Physics Organizations Abroad” about May and we believe it will contain considerably more information than did the first edition.
We have requested support for a program of sending American physicists abroad to visit foreign institutions and, although NSF has informed us they cannot back this activity, we have received an expression of interest from the US State Department.
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Century 21 Seminar for Science News Writers
A grant of $34,140 has been received from NSF to conduct a seminar for science news writers at the time of the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle about the middle of this year, and preliminary plans for the seminar are already under way.
9. PHYSICS ABSTRACTS
Mr. Quimby brought up the subject of PHYSICS ABSTRACTS, and the Director reported that the 1960 index has been delayed (partly because of the publisher’s installation of a punch card system). The number of abstracts which appeared so far this year (1961) has been low but it is increased toward the end of the year and it is expected that a total of 21,167 abstracts will be printed compared with a target of 22,000. At the Arden House meeting last fall, the subject of a $10 charge per abstract was discussed and we have recently been informed that AAPT has approved such a charge to take effect when other AIP Societies take similar action.
10. Corporate Associates
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Status Report
The Director stated that 148 Corporate Associates have paid 1962 dues as of January 23 and, with the increased dues scale, our net income from this source is already greater than it was last year. We have eleven new Corporate Associates for 1962 and we have lost twelve old ones – one because of a merger. The Secretary commented that one of the applicants listed below had been a Sustaining Member of the Acoustical Society but had recently broadened its scope of operations beyond acoustics.
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Election of New Corporate Associates
The Director reported that the following organizations had requested to become Corporate Associates of the Institute and, on motion duly made and carried, they were so elected:
Institute for Defense Analyses $1,000 Ampex Corporation 500 The Harshaw Chemical Company 500 Edo Corporation 500 The Carpenter Steel Company 500
11. Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Executive Committee will be held at the offices of the Institute on Friday, March 23, 1962. The Governing Board will meet at the Institute on the following day, Saturday, March 24, 1962.
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June Meeting
An Executive Committee meeting had been scheduled for June 1, but discussion brought out the fact that this was not convenient for all members and the date was tentatively changed to Friday, June 8, subject to confirmation at the next meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 10:15 a.m.