October 19-20, 1979

Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics

Minutes of Meeting

The Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics met in the Seville Room of the Sheraton Airport Inn at Albany, New York, starting at 4:05 p.m. on 19 October. Following dinner an evening session was held, and the meeting was continued on the following day, 20 October, ending at 11:40 a.m. For clarity in presentation, events are not recorded in the minutes in the exact order in which they occurred.

Members Present: P. M. Morse – Chairman, A. A. Bartlett, A. M. Bueche, R. B. Clark, C. B. Duke, H. Frauenfelder, L. W. Fredrick, J. B. Gerhart, R. M. Grant Jr., W. W. Havens Jr., R. W. Hoffman, H. W. Koch, I. M. Krieger, S. Millman, J. Ovadia, Y. H. Pao, J. W. Quinn, N. F. Ramsey, A. L. Schawlow, E. A. G. Shaw, M. Strasberg, A. A. Strassenburg, H. F. Weaver, D. Williams, R. A. Young

Absent: R. T. Beyer, P. B. Boyce, L. M. Branscomb, W. F. Brinkman, J. A. Burton, W. A. Fowler, I. Hirsh, A. I. Mahan, W. J. Smith. Betsy Ancker-Johnson had resigned from the Board prior to the meeting.

Nonvoting Participants: R. Bauman , R. G. Fuller, W. H. Kelly, M. B. Penny, S. W. Boercker, C. Swartz (all representing AAPT).

Guests: H. R. Crane (Past Chairman, AIP Governing Board) for Item 5a. M. Fiske (Chairman, APS Panel on Physics Manpower) for Item 6b(3). D. Lide (Chairman, AIP Publication Board) for Item 6b(1). H. Rosenberg (Wilke Davis Associates, design consultants) for Item 4. H. Rosen (Harold Rosen Associates, consulting engineers) for Item 4.

AIP Staff: H. W. Koch, Director; S. Millman, Secretary; C. F. Gilbert, Treasurer; R. H. Marks, Associate Director for Publishing; L. Slack, Associate Director for Educational Services; D. M. Lasky, Assistant to the Director; H. M. Johnson, Assistant to the Secretary; M. Koch, Assistant Director – Publications Division, for Item 3b. A. Kranz, Manager of Building Facilities, for Item 4. S. Weart, Director of Physics History Division, for Item 1b.

Chairman Morse called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m. on Friday, 19 October, and introduced Y. H. Pao, new member-at-large of the Governing Board, and E. A. G. Shaw of the Acoustical Society of America who was attending his first meeting.

1. Minutes

Upon motion made and passed without dissent, the minutes of the Governing Board meeting of 30-31 March 1979 were approved as distributed.

2. Report of Chairman

Morse summarized the highlights of the activities of the Executive Committee since the March meeting of the Governing Board on long-range planning, including a proposal to form a Committee on Public Affairs, an addition to the Woodbury building, the status of the computerized composition systems, ATEX and UNIX, the status of the computerization of the AIP accounting system, and the related item, the engagement of a new auditing firm, Touche Ross & Co.

3. Status of Publication Production at AIP

The meeting was recessed for dinner at 6:00 p.m. and reconvened at 7:30 p.m.

  1. Report on Highlights of Recent Meeting of the Publishing Policy Committee

    Marks reported that the Publishing Policy Committee is exploring the possibility of publishing a reprint book of Physics Today articles, and at the possibility of offering a companion publication to Physical Review Abstracts, or possibly establishment of a titles journal.

  2. Report on Experience with ATEX and UNIX Computer Composition

    Marks introduced Mitchell Koch, currently the Assistant Director of the Publications Division, who presented a brief review of the performance of the ATEX and UNIX systems.

  3. Proposed Changes in the Organization of the Physical Review Publishing Operations by AIP

    H. W. Koch announced that AIP intends to consolidate the publication of the Physical Review, currently being produced at three locations: (1) copy editing in New York by AIP, (2) composition by typewriter by AIP at Woodbury, and (3) composition for part of PR-8 at Brookhaven by AIP staff but managed by APS, into one location at Woodbury. The AIP manager of this PR operation at Woodbury would report to Marks. APS will purchase the equipment required for this operation. Koch distributed copies of the proposed Supplemental Agreement No. 3 to the Memorandum of Agreement between APS and AIP embodying the proposed changes, and stated that when we modify our Memo of Agreement with one Society, we must offer the same service to all. When some of the work that is now being farmed out is brought back in-house and added to what will be left after the PR work is removed, it will constitute about the same volume and will also be of an efficient size.

    A motion to approve the proposed supplemental agreement with APS, as modified, was made by Williams and passed with 15 votes in favor, 2 opposed, and 2 abstentions. A copy of the modified Supplemental Agreement No. 3 to the Memorandum of Agreement between APS and AIP is attached as Exhibit A.

  4. Expansion of Publishing Activities at the Woodbury Location

    Marks stated that in line with the proposed activities discussed in Item 3b establishing a separate publication division with the move of ATEX to Woodbury and the increase in in-house composition for a total in-house composition of 70,000 to 74,000 pages a year, the required area of the addition to our Woodbury building has been increased from 19,000 to 22,100 square feet.

4. Detailed Discussion of the Proposed Addition to the Woodbury Building

Kranz displayed artists' renderings of the proposed new redesign for the Woodbury addition and described in some detail the latest design features. Rosenberg stated that he is revising all the plans and preparing new drawings to be ready to submit to bidders at about the end of October. Bids from at least six bidders should be back about the end of November and the contractor should be able to start by mid-December. We expect completion by the first of November 1980.

Gilbert discussed the proposed very favorable financing arrangement for the construction of the addition which involves taking advantage of the tax-exempt bonds to be floated by the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, with the mortgage loan to be amortized over a period of 25 years. Koch noted that the Executive Committee met just before this Board meeting and recommended the following motion for passage by the Board:

WHEREAS the Board passed a motion approving the expenditure of $1.3 million for the 19,000 square-foot addition to the Woodbury building at its meeting on 31 March 1979, and

WHEREAS the negotiations with building contractors have not yet been completed,

THEREFORE, IT IS MOVED that the Board approve:

  1. A redesign of the Woodbury building covering the construction of a 22,100 square-foot addition and the required renovation and necessary upgrading of the present building with a total cost, including retirement of the existing mortgage, legal fees and other costs not to exceed $2,175,000;
  2. Delegation to the Executive Committee of final approval of the negotiated contract with the construction company that will be engaged to meet the 12 December 1980 completion date required by our mortgage loan agreement with The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America.

After an overnight recess, this motion was proposed by Williams, seconded, and passed unanimously.

5. AIP Membership and Governance

  1. Report from Committee on Constitution and Bylaws

    Crane reported for the Committee on Constitution and Bylaws, of which he is Chairman, and which consists of the following additional members: W. W. Havens Jr., J. R. Knox, J. B. Gerhart, L. Slack. The Committee has held two meetings including a meeting in Albany on 19 October. Letters have been sent to all Board members and Society Secretaries asking for their suggestions. Any suggestions by Board members should be sent to Slack or Millman.

  2. Application for Affiliated Society Status by AAAS Physics Section

    Millman reported that the Physics Section of AAAS has asked to be an Affiliated Society of AIP and the Executive Committee, at its September meeting, so recommended. The following motion was made by Strassenburg and passed without dissent:

    MOVED that the Physics Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science be elected an Affiliated Society of the American Institute of Physics.

  3. Proposal to Drop 2 Affiliated Societies from Roster of Such Membership

    Millman reported that in a recent checkup on the status and activities of the Affiliated Societies, he found that five of them, all physics clubs, did not have any members subscribing to any AIP journals. He wrote to all five and determined that three of them are indeed still active. One replied that it is in the process of dissolving and is considering donating its assets of $74 to our Center for History of Physics. One did not reply after he sent two letters. The following two motions were then made, seconded, and passed without dissent:

    MOVED that, whereas the Physics Club of Philadelphia has informed AIP that it has for some time been inactive and has no plans to function as an organized physics club, it be dropped from the list of AIP Affiliated Societies.

    MOVED that, whereas the Physics Club of New York has not responded to two letters from the Secretary of AIP requesting information about its charter and current goals, officers, and membership, and a copy of the Treasurer's most recent report; it be dropped from the list of AIP Affiliated Societies.

  4. Status of Amendment to AIP Constitution

    Millman informed the Board that, as of the present date, five Societies (APS, OSA, ASA, AAS, AVS) have approved the Constitutional amendment to decrease the size of the Board. We have thus obtained the five necessary yea votes to pass the amendment, but it is not sufficient since the Constitution requires that there should not be more than one nay vote within one year from the date of official notice to the Secretaries of the Societies (11 April 1979).

6. Function Planning, Function-Oriented Reports, and Function Characterization of AIP Operations

  1. Introduction to Function Planning

    Koch called attention to his previously distributed report on Long Range Function Planning and the Appendices, containing reports which were written as relevant background material by H. R. Crane, 1974 Chairman of the Governing Board; Rita Lerner, Manager of Special Projects; A. W. K. Metzner, Director of the Publication Division; David Dresia, Manager of the Marketing Division; Joyce Goodwin, Head of the Office of Rights and Permissions; Lewis Slack, Associate Director for Educational Services; Spencer Weart, Director of the Physics History Division; Audrey Likely, Director of the Public Information Division; Dorothy Lasky, Assistant to the Director, and P. M. Morse, the current Chairman of the Board. After reviewing some of the activities during the past 12 months, related to planning, he presented a list of seven basic functions which can currently characterize AIP operations. These are divided into two groups as follows:

    Functions that Contribute to Scientific and Technical Communication

    1. Publication production services that are cost effective and of high quality
    2. Publication of research and education news and reports that can best be done by AIP on behalf of the Societies, jointly or singly, rather than by the Societies themselves
    3. Publication distribution and marketing services that are cost effective and of high quality and that maintain the competitive position of AIP and Society publications
    4. Fiscal accounting and other administrative services that are cost effective and of high quality

    Functions that Contribute to Community Affairs

    1. Information collection and analysis that makes possible self-assessment of the state of the physics related science community
    2. Dissemination of reliable information about physics and related sciences to various public groups and institutions
    3. Liaison activities to provide the organizational means for concerted relations between AIP and the Societies, their members, Government and industry

    He noted that the reports of various Governing Board advisory committees to be presented in Item 6b have been organized in such a way as to illustrate their relationship to some of the seven functions listed above.

  2. Function-Oriented Reports

    1. Research and Education News and Report

      Lide, who was a member of the Parr Committee appointed to review the operation of The Journal of Chemical Physics, called attention to some of the recommendations in the report that this Committee prepared, copies of which had been distributed previously. Koch added that we are trying to review every one of the AIP journals once during a 5-year period. The Physics of Fluids will probably be reviewed next.

    2. Fiscal Accounting

      Weaver reported on some of the activities of the 1918 Audit Committee. He noted the appointment of a new auditor for the 1979 audit, Touche Ross & Co.

    3. Information Collection and Analysis

      Fiske reported that the work of the APS Panel on Physics Manpower came to a conclusion this summer and a report under the title "The Transition in Physics Doctoral Employment 1960-1990" has been issued and is available from the APS office at a price of $5.00.

    4. Public Dissemination of Science

      Slack reported that the Committee on Public Education and Information met on 26 September and covered current activities and programs going on in the Public Information Division. The Einstein Exhibit, and the "Science News Reports" distributed to public radio stations, have been successful. Under the Science TV News project, we hope to have two sets of short films completed and distributed by the end of this year.

    5. Liaison Activities

      Morse noted that, similar to the APS Panel on Public Affairs, a number of questions would be better handled if we had more liaison with the other Member Societies of AIP. He proposed that a Committee on Public Affairs be set up that would be supported by AIP and would consist of one member from each of the Societies. That member would have a direct route to the President of his or her Society. The chairman would presumably have close contact with the Board and with the Director of AIP.  

      A show of hands indicated that it was the consensus of the Board to proceed with Morse's proposal.

  3. Recommendations re Function Planning

    The following motion was made by Koch, seconded by Duke, and passed with 22 votes in favor and one abstention:

    MOVED that the AIP Governing Board adopt the set of seven functions listed under Item 6a on Pages 7 and 8 of these minutes as a basis for Institute operations.

7. Status of Planning for 50th Anniversary Celebration

Lasky referred to the action taken by the Governing Board at its March 1979 meeting on plans for celebrating AIP's 50th anniversary, which include a 2-day meeting, now scheduled for 15-16 October 1981 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington with the Hyatt Regency as the official hotel, the appointment of a subcommittee to develop a physics handbook, a subcommittee on an historical exhibit, and a subcommittee to work on a design for a new AIP logo. The Board also approved proposals to try to get the U. S. Post Office to issue a special stamp commemorating physics, and to find appropriate souvenirs for distribution. Lasky noted that two of the three subcommittees, the Subcommittee on an AIP Anniversary Physics Handbook and the Subcommittee on 1981 Historical Exhibit, have met since last March, and the Board will hear reports from those subcommittees. Both reports will go to the parent Committee to Plan AIP 50th Anniversary Celebration which was appointed at the September 1978 Board meeting. This Committee will present specific recommendations for action by the Board at the next Board meeting scheduled for 28-29 March 1980.

Lasky also noted that AIP has formally requested the Post Office to issue the commemorative postage stamp and our request was passed along to a citizens committee that handles such things.

  1. Proposal for a Data Handbook

    Lide, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on an AIP Anniversary Physics handbook reported that his subcommittee met in June, and he referred to the minutes of that meeting noting the objective and recommendations of the subcommittee. The objective would be to produce a very concise collection of the most important equations, data, and other factual information which physicists need to refer to frequently. The subcommittee considered the following three options:

    1. A "shirt-pocket" booklet (8 x 14 cm, ~100 pp.) similar to the Particle Properties Data Booklet
    2. A "briefcase-size" book (20 x 28 cm, 200-250 pp.)
    3. A full-sized handbook comparable to the existing AIP Handbook published by McGraw-Hill

    The subcommittee decided to recommend Option No.2, the "briefcase-size" book.

    The following motion, made by Duke was passed without dissent:

    MOVED that the Governing Board appoint Dr. Herbert L. Anderson as editor of a proposed data handbook, along the lines recommended by the Handbook Subcommittee, to be published by AIP in time for the 50th anniversary celebration. Dr. Anderson is requested to develop a detailed plan and budget for the handbook to be presented to the Board for approval at the March 1980 meeting.

    Lide suggested that consideration may be given to subdividing the briefcase-size handbook into pocket-size subgroups after the main book is produced.

  2. Plans for Exhibit

    Weart, a member of the Subcommittee on 1981 Historical exhibit, summarized some of the suggestions the subcommittee discussed and tentatively agreed to. He said we might adopt the format of the Einstein Exhibit which has been so successful. For the anniversary exhibit, we would concentrate on the physicist as a person rather than on physics. A survey will be made to determine the extent of interest. If the results are favorable, AIP will be asked to put up $30,000, with matching funds to be sought from the National Endowment for the Humanities, or some such organization.

8. Future Meetings

Koch reminded the Board that the next meeting is scheduled for 28-29 March 1980, and stated that AIP will try to work in an Assembly of Society Officers at that time, perhaps on 27 March or on the morning of the 28th.

Millman added that the annual meeting of the AIP Corporation could be scheduled just before the Board meeting on the 28th.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:40 a.m. on 20 October 1979.