Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics
Minutes of Meeting
Members Present: H. R. Crane – Chairman, Joseph A. Burton, W. W. Havens, Jr., H. William Koch, A. I. Mahan, Gerald Holton
Absent: I. E. Dayton, G. A. Jeffrey
Guest: E. Leonard Jossem – AAPT representative on AIP Governing Board
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 7:40 a.m.
1. Minutes
Upon motion made and passed without dissent, the minutes of the Executive Committee meeting of December 15, 1972, were approved as distributed.
2. Fiscal Matters
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Proposed IRS Audit for 1970
Gilbert said he had previously told the Executive Committee that the Internal Revenue Service had indicated they would audit AIP for calendar year 1969 and later had cancelled the audit. We have now been informed by IRS that they will audit AIP for calendar year 1970 and that work on the audit will commence on March 5.
Waterfall commented that IRS had audited the Acoustical Society for 1969 and again for 1970 and had rendered favorable reports in both cases.
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Report on Investment Advisory Account
Gilbert presented a written report (copy attached as Exhibit A) indicating that the 1972 performance of the account was very favorable. In answer to a question, he said that the investment was primarily in equities and was a back-up for our Building Reserve. The income which is very small is reinvested.
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Status of Revision of Subscription Fulfillment System
Gilbert distributed a memorandum (copy attached as Exhibit B) in which Martino described the current situation.
Burton said he was somewhat confused by the memorandum because Item 4 indicates that within a week membership records should be updated and reasonably current whereas Item 3seems to contradict that statement and does not give a clear picture as to when updating will be complete for information received through December. Gilbert replied that the report speaks only for the Data Processing Division and, at this time of year, incoming payments and communications are so heavy that there may be some delay before the information is processed and sent to Date Processing. Gilbert said further that the situation was changing rapidly and he would keep Society secretaries and treasurers advised as to progress by periodic reports.
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Report on Payroll Information Requested by Executive Committee
Gilbert presented a written report (copy attached as Exhibit C).
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Separate Dues Billing for 1974
Gilbert said APS has already indicated their desire for a separate dues billing of their members for calendar year 1974. He also said that, some time in February, he planned to question other Member Societies to determine their wishes in this matter. All Societies may wish separate billings or some of them may decide they want to combine their billings. There could be as many as ten separate billings. Separate billings will require operational changes at AIP involving programming changes, form designs, work flow, and cost accounting. All of these changes will have to be decided upon by mid-year if they are to be made effective for 1974 billings and, to accomplish this, we need some fast decisions from the Societies.
Burton pointed out that separate billing would offer a number of new opportunities to APS. The billing form could suggest voluntary contributions by members for certain projects and also could give members the chance to check off which programs they would like to support with their contributions. Special communications from Society officers to members could also be included with the dues bill.
3. CPI Program
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Receipt of NSF Grant
Marks reported that we had finally received the official NSF document indicating that we would be granted an amount slightly under $300,000 in calendar year 1973 to subsidize the production part of the CPI Program. This is in addition to the .money carried over from two previous grants. The official grant document says that "No further requests for this Information project will be considered by the Foundation." In answer to a question, Marks said we do not fear any impounding of funds since they have actually been committed, but Gilbert added it is possible we may have some difficulty in actually getting the money because of delays in issuing the necessary letters of credit.
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Contract Supplements Covering CPI, Microfilm Sales, Reprints
Marks said we had presented our plans with respect to the subject activities to most of the Societies but we do not have any formal agreement with them yet covering marketing arrangements and we believe such agreements can best be covered by supplements to the service contracts which now exist. Waterfall added that the service contract provides for supplements which need not be the same for each Society and this would make for some flexibility in case all Societies did not wish to go along with all of the proposed marketing arrangements.
Koch and Havens said that APS had agreed to a version of the article charge which will be applicable until December 31, 1973, and this could be covered immediately by such a contract supplement.
4. Report of Ad Hoc Committee on Implementation of 1972 Assembly Recommendations
Slack reported that the Ad Hoc Committee had been formed with Philip Morse as chairman and that the Committee had held its first meeting on January 29. The original purpose of the Committee was to arrange a meeting with E. E. David to try to arrange for better coupling between Washington and the physics community. Before the Committee meeting David's resignation had been publicized and the fact that Stever of NSF was to take over responsibility for many of David's previous activities had also been publicized. With this knowledge the Ad Hoc Committee decided it would be appropriate to try to arrange a meeting with Stever and this is what the Committee is now attempting to do. Slack reported that the meeting with Stever had now been arranged for March 2 and the Committee has agreed to meet again on February 19 to prepare an agenda for the Stever meeting.
Slack said that one subject discussed by the Committee was the possibility of the Societies arranging for topical conferences or symposia on subjects such as energy in which Washington shows great interest. A subcommittee consisting of Milan Fiske, W. D. Compton, and Kenneth Ford was appointed to identify suitable topics on which various Societies might arrange such conferences. Another subcommittee consisting of Richard Bolt and Joel Primack was appointed to identify people other than Stever to whom the Committee might find it worthwhile to talk.
Crane pointed out that the present Committee is ad hoc and its function is to define the problem. We hope that, through the meeting with Stever and others, the Committee will have a good report for the March meeting of the Governing Board which will recommend the next steps to be taken.
5. Interim Report of AIP Long-Range Planning Committee
Koch said that the Committee planned to present an interim report at the Governing Board meeting in March. He said that, during the next few weeks, the staff would be drafting a statement which would be presented to LRPC for consideration at their meeting on March 1. This statement could form the basis of the LRPC report to the Governing Board.
Havens said that the APS Council, at a recent meeting, had voted to establish a professional concerns committee. The Council also established a committee on education and appropriated $27,000 for part-time professional help in planning APS programs in the fields of education and manpower research. These APS Council actions were the result of recommendations of a Committee on the Future of APS which was chaired by Krumhansl. Another Council resolution required that the APS divisions prepare annual reports on new developments in their specialized areas.
Holton asked whether the APS committee intended to concentrate on graduate and college level education and this started a discussion in which several participated. Havens indicated that he envisioned a joint AAPT-APS committee to determine the areas in which each Society would concentrate and to prevent unnecessary overlap. Koch said that he assumed the work of these committees would require staff help and APS would probably contract with AIP for such help. Holton said it had been a tradition for AIP to take leadership and he hoped that AIP would be able to continue in this role, supported by the Societies interested. Koch said that AIP had very limited resources to finance such specialized activities and needs help from the Societies who are most interested. Havens said that APS was entering a new era in which it intended to assume responsibility for activities in a number of areas where members had shown concern. Crane added that the function of AIP was to serve the needs of the Societies, that Society subsidies for specific AIP programs seemed to be working well, and that he felt this method of operation should continue.
6. Appointment of AIP Representative to AAAS Section B
Slack reported that AAAS is being reorganized and, under the new organization, AIP will have one rather than two representatives and that the one AIP representative will be officially a representative to a specific section of AAAS. Warga and Slack have been the two representatives in the past. Crane said he was appointing Slack as the single AIP representative for the future.
Slack said that, under the new organization, societies are invited to name an official representative to at least one section but are permitted to be affiliated with up to five sections if they wish. Havens said he believed there were some other sections than physics on which AIP should be represented and Slack agreed to explore this and report back to the Executive Committee.
7. Request for Travel Expenses from Board Member Abroad
Koch reported that he had received a letter from a Governing Board member who is in Europe on sabbatical this year and had asked to know whether AIP would pay travel expenses from Europe to attend the Governing Board meeting. Koch said he recognized that travel expenses from some places in Europe to New York might be no greater than from the West Coast to New York but he felt that some policy should be established and that it should be that AIP would pay travel expenses only within the United States. Executive Committee members expressed agreement with this policy.
8. “Birth and Death of a Star”
Slack reported that the first of the two films we are sponsoring had been completed and that there had been two premieres of it last week, one in Washington and one in New York at the Hayden Planetarium. This film is also scheduled for showing on Channel 13 in New York on Saturday, February 3. Slack said that reactions to the premiere showings have been mixed but most of them have been favorable.
Slack said that arrangements were being made through the Public Broadcasting Service through which school systems in about 53 cities will have the tape available for showings and that other distribution is also being planned. Slack said that funds had been requested from NSF for production of the second film "Structure of Life."
9. Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Executive Committee is scheduled to be held on Friday, March 30, at the offices of the Institute. There will be a meeting of the Governing Board on the following day, Saturday, March 31.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 a.m.