Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics
Minutes of Meeting
Members Present: Ralph A. Sawyer – Chairman, S. A. Goudsmit, W. W. Havens, Jr., Vincent E. Parker, S. L. Quimby, Mary E. Warga
Absent: R. Bruce Lindsay
AIP Staff Present: H. W. Koch, Wallace Waterfall, G. F. Gilbert, Lewis Slack, Mary M. Johnson
The Chairman called the meeting to order at 2:02 p.m. and welcomed back Miss Warga who had been absent from the previous two meetings because of illness. He reported that Mr. Lindsay had been hospitalized due to a heart attack and was progressing satisfactorily.
1. Minutes
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Executive Committee Meeting of January 31, 1968
Upon motion made and carried, the minutes of the meeting of January 31, 1968, were approved as distributed.
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Executive Committee Meeting of December 19, 1967
The Secretary reported that an error in the minutes of the December 19, 1967, meeting had been called to our attention subsequent to their approval on January 31, and the following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the minutes of the December 19, 1967, Executive Committee meeting be emended as follows: Page 8, Item No. 11, Paragraph 2, line 7 and Paragraph 3, line 3 – change “American Association for the Arts and Sciences” to “American Academy of Arts and Sciences.”
2. Report of Property Committee
The Secretary reported that the Property Committee last met on September 20, 1967, and it was the consensus that rental space in the area of our headquarters building should be sought for our immediate needs. Since that time the staff has been in constant contact with a multitude of real estate agents and several possibilities have been inspected and considered.
Our Editorial and Advertising Departments are currently housed in rented space and we are now looking for 7,000 to 8,000 square feet for the Information Division. We anticipate that we will be able to charge the cost as a direct expense against the NSF grant, and it is our intention when we do find something suitable, to add the cost to our grant request.
At the direction of the Property Committee, the staff is also continuing its long-range effort to secure a larger building to replace our present one so that, eventually, all of our operations will be housed again under one roof. We are not eager to make any commitment at the present time but we are keeping abreast of the situation with an eye toward the future.
3. Reports of Editors
The Director reported that annual reports for 1967 had been received from the editors of the JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS and APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, THE JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS, PHYSICS TODAY and THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS. Reports have not yet been received from the editors of THE PHYSICS OF FLUIDS and the JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS. He said no unusual trends with respect to receipt of manuscript or number of pages were noticeable.
The Director displayed a copy of the monthly Publication control Report and stated that, since the Institute added a Production Manager to the staff of the Publications Division last September, there has been steady improvement in meeting journal schedules.
4. Progress on Installation of Univac 9300
Mr. Gilbert distributed copies of a status report on our conversion to magnetic tape for fulfillment operations. The report covered systems design, programming, software and hardware, data input, and a change-over timetable which indicated that specific system phases would be tested in about one week and limited systems testing would be started in about two weeks. Major systems testing would be started in three to four weeks and, depending upon the success of these tests, the actual change-over would, hopefully, be effected about the middle of May. If all goes well, the conversion could be accomplished in two or three days over some weekend.
5. Indirect Cost Rate on NSF Grant for Information Program
The Treasurer recalled that he had reported at the January 31 meeting receipt of a grant in support of our Information Program for six months to June 30, 1968. At that time he also reported that we were in the process of preparing additional figures for the National Science Foundation to aid them in determining an overhead rate for grants in 1968. On January 22 we submitted our overhead proposal based on our 1968 budget and using the same computations NSF accepted in determining our present 16.78% rate. If the Information Division is housed in rented space as proposed, with rent as a direct charge, the resulting rate should be 22.95%. We are awaiting their reply.
6. Review of Governing Board Agenda
Items on the agenda for the Governing Board meeting on the following day were reviewed in detail, and only those items on which action was taken or on which there was considerable discussion are reported below.
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Publication and Information Programs
The Director displayed a chart (copy attached to Governing Board minutes) and explained that it had been prepared to illustrate the separateness of the Publication Program from the Information Program.
He also reported that the staff has been investigating the feasibility of microform copies of journals and plans to prepare a proposal for presentation to the Member Societies before the next Executive Committee meeting. This proposal would describe an arrangement whereby the Institute, working through a contractor such as University Microfilms, would handle the pricing and sale of microforms. The following motion was made by Mr. Havens, seconded by Mr. Goudsmit and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that the Executive Committee strongly endorse this proposal in view of the fact that microforms will undoubtedly play a major role in the future of published material; and that the staff be urged to work out some plan in which microform sales will be independent of journal subscriptions and at prices producing substantial net income.
The Director reported receipt of a request from Sweets Catalog Service, a division of F. W. Dodge Corporation, for permission to make and sell copies of individual articles from our journals for which they would pay us a royalty of two cents per page. After brief discussion, the following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that the Institute be authorized to consummate the arrangement with Sweets Catalog Service described above.
Miss Warga stated that the Optical Society had received and accepted a similar offer. The Secretary said the staff will notify the Member Societies of this action and recommend that they do likewise.
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Taxation of Advertising Income
The Secretary summarized a statement which he had prepared for the Governing Board meeting (see Governing Board minutes), and reported briefly on the conference on “Federal Tax Problems of Non-Profit Organizations” held at the American University in Washington February 26 and 27, which he and the Treasurer had attended. The following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that the Executive Committee express its approval of the proposed action and its appreciation to the staff for its diligence in pursuing this matter.
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Appointment of Committees and Representatives
Copies of a proposed list of committees and representatives for the coming year had been distributed to all Board members prior to the meeting and, upon motion made and passed without dissent, the Executive Committee recommended that the Governing Board approve the proposed list and authorize the Chairman and Director to make additional appointments as required.
7. Acknowledgment from Mrs. Herbert A. Erf
The Secretary reported that the Institute had received from Mr. Erf an acknowledgement of the resolution passed by the Executive Committee on January 31 upon the death of Mr. Erf, a former Board member.
8. Request for Services from the Society for Applied Spectroscopy
The Secretary reported receipt of a letter from SAS, an Affiliated Society, requesting information about the possibility of AIP performing additional services for them. We now collect dues and publish their journal at cost plus 15%. We will arrange a meeting with their officers to determine specifically what their requirements are and will present to the Executive Committee for approval any plan to provide additional services.
9. Society for Non-Destructive Testing
The Director reported that the subject organization had inquired about becoming an Affiliated Society of the Institute. He said we expect to have a formal application from them by the time of the next Executive Committee meeting.
10. Next Meeting
By mutual agreement, the next meeting of the Executive Committee was set for Friday, June 7, 1968, at the offices of the Institute.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:10 p.m.