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, Mary E. Warga, H. W. Koch
AIP Staff Present: H. W. Koch, Wallace Waterfall, G. F. Gilbert, Lewis Slack, Mary M. Johnson
The Chairman called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m.
1. Minutes
Upon motion made and carried, the minutes of the meeting of February 4, 1969, were approved as distributed.
2. Reports of AIP Journal Editors
The Director reported that the customary annual reports had been received from editors of all AIP journals except the editor of the JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS. There appeared to be no particular problems which require Executive Committee action. Copies of the reports are available to all who may wish to see them.
3. Status Report on UNIVAC Problems
Mr. Gilbert distributed a written report which showed that equipment failures had caused much less difficulty in recent weeks. We have received excellent cooperation from UNIVAC employees and present difficulties are not much more than might be expected during the normal operation of such complicated equipment.
4. Advertising Prospects for 1969
The Director said he had been looking into the subject because he had heard of sharp drops in advertising in “Chemical & Engineering News” and in other publications. Prospects for advertising in PHYSICS TODAY appear to be holding up surprisingly well. Present prospects are that income from advertising will be a little below our budget for 1969 but about equal to 1968.
5. Late Financial Statements – Cause and Correction
Mr. Gilbert distributed copies of his memorandum of March 12 to the Director in which he pointed out that the financial statements were late because the journals were late. The memorandum also pointed out the fulfillment problems which arise as a result of late journals. (Copy of memorandum attached.)
The Director said that at the Governing Board meeting on the following day he intended to make certain recommendations which were contained in his letter of March 20 to the Governing Board and he read the following recommendations from that letter:
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Journal indexes should be separated from the textual material in December issues and mailed separately.
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The costs of the indexes should be estimated and included in the final financial statement for the year.
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Distinct monthly sections of a given journal should become separate journals.
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The AIP Editorial Section should be given the full responsibility for meeting the important date on the schedule when the line-up of corrected galleys is returned to the printer. This will result in the journal going to press with the material on hand at AIP on the schedule date. This responsibility can be removed from AIP upon special notification from the editor who then assumes the responsibility for lateness. Backlogs of unpublished material and some cast increases may result from this procedure and may have to be tolerated in favor of maintaining schedules. The December issues may be thin because of the very tight time schedules and heavy work-loads at that time of year.
There was some discussion among Committee members about who was at fault in journal lateness. The journal editors, AIP’s Editorial Section, and the printer are all involved and there is a tendency for each to blame the other. After further discussion the following motion was made by Mr. Lindsay, seconded by Mr. Goudsmit and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the Governing Board and Member Societies be urged to adopt the recommendations made above by the Director.
6. Cut-Off Date for Changes in Publication Charges
In June of each year the Societies now furnish us information about dues rates and journal subscription prices which are published in our “Journal and Membership Information” booklet for the following year. Mr. Gilbert pointed out that in December of each year we start correspondence with large organizations who are in the habit of giving us blanket purchase orders to cover publication charges and reprint orders for the succeeding calendar year. Such orders are usually based on fixed publication charge rates and subsequent changes in the publication charges involve negotiations and sometimes the organizations say they will not honor the higher charges. To avoid complications Mr. Gilbert urged that by December 15 of each year the publication charges for the succeeding calendar year should be fixed. Some Committee members pointed out that changes in the publication charge might be necessary on short notice to avert great financial difficulties. The following motion was finally made, seconded, and passed without dissent:
MOVED that acceptance of blanket purchase orders be made with the understanding that publication charge rates are not firm and are subject to change on 90 days’ advance notice.
7. Membership Rates on AIP Journals for SPS Members
Mr. Slack said there was some confusion about the right of members of the Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma to receive Institute-owned journals at the member subscription rates. To clarify this matter the following motion was made, seconded, and passed without dissent:
MOVED that members of the Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma be allowed the privilege of subscribing to Institute-owned journals at the member rates.
8. Status of Offer of THE PHYSICS OF FLUIDS and JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS to APS
Mr. Waterfall reviewed the action taken by the Governing Board at its meeting of October 3, 1967, in which AIP offered to transfer ownership of PF and JMP to the American Physical Society on certain conditions. It was understood that the transfer was to take place not later than January 1, 1969, and APS had not taken advantage of the offer. The situation with respect to the two journals is now different than at the time the offer was made and it is the opinion of the staff that the offer is no longer valid and, if and when it is ever revived, it should be on a different basis. Mr. Havens said he agreed completely with the position taken by the staff.
9. Handling of Subscriptions to Foreign Journals
The Director mentioned that we are now acting as agent for the British Institute of Physics and Physical Society in soliciting subscriptions for eight of their journals. Our principal reason for doing this was because we believe it fits in with our long-range plans for our Information Program. We would now like to approach three other countries – Japan, Canada, and Australia – to see whether we can make similar arrangements to handle their physics journals. The Director asked that the Executive Committee approve negotiations with the understanding that final arrangements would be brought to the Committee for approval. The Committee approved negotiations.
10. Microforms
The Director distributed and read Mr. Wolfe’s memorandum of March 20, 1969, proposing a plan whereby AIP would market microform copies of all AIP and Society journals. (Copy of memorandum attached.) The Director said the staff would now like to have encouragement to proceed with negotiations with the Societies and with University Microfilms with the understanding that the final arrangements, including prices, would be presented later to the Executive Committee for approval. The following motion was made, seconded, and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the staff be authorized to proceed with negotiations looking toward the sale by AIP of microform editions of journals with the understanding that details are to be presented to the Executive Committee later for consideration.
11. Review of Governing Board Agenda
The Committee then proceeded to discuss the various items which appeared on the agenda of the Governing Board meeting to be held the following day. The more important parts of the discussion are recorded below.
Mr. Gilbert reported that the books for 1968 were still not closed but it appeared that the Institute would suffer a loss for the year of approximately $57,000. This is in contrast to an income of approximately $45,000 which was projected at the time the 1969 budget was approved. This will necessitate a re-examination of the 1969 budget and the staff expects to make some recommendations about revising that budget at the June meeting. One large loss item is the Ukrainian Physics Journal. We had anticipated a loss on that journal of approximately $18,000 in 1968 but it will turn out to be closer to $30,000. As of a few days ago we had only 111 subscriptions and it appears that we face another $30,000 loss in 1969. Most subscriptions are on a July to June basis and the staff believes the journal should be discontinued after the June issue. On motion made, seconded, and carried without dissent the Executive Committee authorized discontinuation of the Ukrainian Physics Journal.
Under the new By-laws the financial handling charge for 1969 had previously been set at one-half of one per cent. The staff recommended the same charge for 1970 and, on motion made, seconded, and carried without dissent, the Executive Committee recommended that the Governing Board adopt one-half of one per cent as the financial handling charge for 1970.
The Director indicated he was pleased with the prospects of controlling journal finances by the better control of publication charge income which was provided by the adoption of the “two-track” system. It is too early to tell what our experience with honoring will be in 1969 but we can at least exercise some control over the number of unhonored pages which we publish. It was pointed out that the delay in publishing of unhonored pages would not take effect until after the first quarter so we should anticipate some substantial journal losses for the first quarter.
12. Next Meeting
After some discussion, Wednesday, June 11, 1969, was set as the date for the next meeting of the Executive Committee.
13. Other Business
The Secretary pointed out that Mr. Quimby had served on the Executive Committee for eight years and this would be his last meeting. The following motion was made, seconded, and passed unanimously:
MOVED that Mr. Quimby be thanked for the many contributions he has made to the work of the Committee during his eight years of faithful service.
Mr. Gilbert recalled that our new computer was intended to provide a number of services and maintaining low costs depended on utilizing it as completely as possible. Dues collection and fulfillment are now on and accounting is scheduled to be next. After discussions in staff and with our auditors it had been decided that we should employ the services of some consulting organization to help with the accounting conversion. The following motion was made, seconded, and carried without dissent:
MOVED that the staff be authorized to commit up to $10,000 for employment of assistance in computerizing accounting activities.
As his final comment as a member of the Executive Committee, Mr. Quimby said he would like to compliment Mr. Gilbert and his staff for the way they had handled the APS payroll.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:05 p.m.