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 called the meeting to order at 8:20 a.m.
1. Minutes
Upon motion made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote, the minutes of the meeting of 8 December 1962 were approved as distributed.
2. Addition to Signature List for Payroll Account
The Treasurer stated that the staff considers it advisable to add the name of G. F. Gilbert, Director of Service Operations, to the list of persons empowered to sign checks drawn on the payroll account and, upon motion made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote, the Executive Committee so authorized.
3. Publication Charge Increases
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THE PHYSICAL REVIEW and PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS
The Secretary reported that the American Physical Society had increased the publication charge from $40 to $50 per page for THE PHYSICAL REVIEW and from $45 to $50 per page for PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, effective with the 1 April 1963 issues.
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AIP-owned Journals
The Secretary stated that the staff recommends increasing the publication charge on the following AIP-owned journals from $40 to $50 per page in accordance with our previously stated philosophy that this charge should cover editorial and composition costs. According to the 1963 budget, these costs are estimated to be as follows:
RSI $54.00 JAP 51.20 JCP 40.30 PF 47.70 JMP 46.50 Some of the costs are above and others below $50 per page but it seems wisest to have a uniform charge for all of the journals and $50 is a good average. In answer to a question, the Secretary explained that the cost per page for JCP is lowest because editorial management costs are spread over a greater number of pages.
The following motion was then made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the publication charge for the above-listed journals be increased from $40 to $50 per page, effective as soon as possible.
4. Election of Corporate Associates
The Director reported that, at the present time the Institute has 149 Corporate Associates who have paid $120,250 gross, and it is hoped to reach 200 for the year. At this time a year ago we had 148 Corporate Associates with gross receipts of $109,550.00. Of the following organizations which have asked to be admitted as Corporate Associates, the first two had dropped out now and now want to be reinstated. On motion duly made and carried, the following were elected Corporate Associates of the Institute:
- Lear-Siegler, Inc., $500
- International Harvester Co., 500
- Bell Aerosystems Company, 500
5. Appointments
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1963 Magnetism Conference Steering Committee
The Director reported that, under authorization to make appointments granted by the Executive Committee at its meeting on 23 March 1962, A. M. Clogston of Bell Telephone Laboratories had been appointed a delegate to the 1963 Magnetism Conference Steering Committee to replace J. S. Smart. The AIP delegation to this Committee now consists of:
- J. F. Dillon, Jr.
- H. C. Wolfe
- J. A. Osborn
- A. M. Clogston
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THE PHYSICS OF FLUIDS
The Secretary reported that Mr. Frenkiel had indicated that it was his intention to resign as Editor of the subject journal but had been dissuaded from doing so by his Editorial Board. The Executive Committee was pleased to learn that Mr. Frenkiel will continue as Editor of THE PHYSICS OF FLUIDS.
6. Proposed Meeting of Committee of Society Secretaries and Treasurers
The Secretary reported that there has been no meeting of the subject Committee in over a year, and it would be appropriate to have such a meeting in the near future so that the staff can explain details of our operations and anticipated changes in accounting procedures. It is hoped that the planned changes will be far enough along in March so that the meeting can be called soon thereafter.
The Director suggested that this Committee might also concern itself with simplifications which would reduce operating costs.
7. Status Report on Dues Collection and Subscription Handling
The Secretary displayed a chart bringing up to date the information on dues collection presented at the 8 December 1962 meeting. All member dues bills (nearly 27,000) were mailed out by 14 December. Remittance had been received from 82% of the members by 24 January 1963. A second bill was sent out a few days before the meeting to approximately 4,800 who had not yet paid and we are confident that over 90% will have paid before the end of February. (It was 96% on 18 February 1963.)
About 13,500 non-member subscribers had been billed as of 31 December, of which 8,280 have now paid. We expect to have 12,000 paid before the cut-off date in February and estimate that non-member subscriber income will be about 10% higher in 1963 than it was last year.
The Secretary presented other charts showing that:
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Change of address requests had mounted to a peak of 3,700 for the month of November and dropped to less than 1,000 in January.
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Member subscription correspondence had reached 600 letters per month in November, had dropped a little during December and January, but was still high.
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Non-member subscription correspondence hit a maximum of 1,500 letters for November, was about 1,000 in December, and was still heavy in January.
The Secretary said that Cresap, McCormick and Paget, management consultants, had not completed their report but had made some suggestions about ways to reduce costs through simplifications and uniform practices. These and other suggestions are being studied with the intention of presenting them to the Committee of Society Secretaries and Treasurers at its meeting. He said the Accounting Department is working on closing the books for 1962 and we expect to have a trial balance by the middle of February. We hope to have the audited report for 1962 by the middle of March.
8. Development of Niels Bohr Library
The Director said it has been his ambition to make the Institute a center of information for physicists and one step in this direction has been the creation of the Niels Bohr Library of the History of Physics. (He displayed two booklets published recently about the Library and history project – “The Niels Bohr Library of the History of Physics” and “Sources for the fuller Documentation of The History of Physics.”) The Library requires a continuing expense for the acquisition of books and professional library service, and it would be helpful if we could interest people in supporting it. One suggestion has been made that to be known as patrons of the Library might be set up as an organization to increase interest in and help provide funds for the Library and the projects connected with it.
In the discussion which followed, some additional suggestions for attracting and maintaining such a group were offered and noted, and the following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that the staff be authorized to proceed with the formation of a continuing group, to be designated “Friends of the Library” or by some other appropriate name, to help farther the purpose of the Library and Institute projects connected therewith.
Mr. Lindsay said he was concerned lest the Institute should fail to receive early enough a renewal of its grant from the National Science Foundation to document the Recent History of Physics in the United States. The present grant expires 30 June 1963. He asked whether the project could be supported with Institute funds if the renewal is not approved. The Director stated that he had received indications that there may be several months’ delay in processing our request and he felt we should make every effort to retain the services of Mr. King who is supervising the work. The cost of the project runs to approximately $30,000 per year.
Mr. Havens than made the following motion which was seconded and passed without dissenting vote:
MOVED that, if necessary, AIP provide the support required to continue the Recent History of Physics project through 30 June 1964.
9. Policy on Discrimination
Following an incident at the APS Business Meeting in which a member criticized a meeting announcement in PHYSICS TODAY, Mr. Havens requested that the staff of AIP reaffirm its policy of refusing to publish any advertisement or notice which, by implication or otherwise, discriminates with respect to race, color or creed. Messrs. Hutchisson and Waterfall assured Mr. Havens that that is our policy and any breach had been purely accidental.
10. Commemorative Journal Issue
Mr. Havens reported that the Council of APS has adopted the policy that no memorial issue of its journals shall be published without specific authorization from the Council, nor shall any dedicatory meetings be held without Council approval. He made the following motion which was seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that there shall be no memorial or commemorative issues of AIP journals without the specific authorization of the Institute’s Executive Committee.
11. Commemorative Postage Stamps
The Director reported that it had been suggested the Institute use its influence in urging that an American postage stamp be issued to honor Niels Bohr or some important American physicist. The Executive Committee approved this suggestion and authorized the staff to proceed with whatever action is required.
12. Postal Regulations
Mr. Brode stated that, with reference to his remarks concerning second class mailing privileges (see minutes of Executive Committee meeting 8 December 1962, Item 8, Page 8), legal sources in Washington are preparing a statement on this subject which will be forwarded to the Institute for distribution to all Member Societies.
13. THE PHYSICAL REVIEW Editorial Mechanics
Mr. Goudsmit reported that the APS Council had agreed that AIP should take over more of THE PHYSICAL REVIEW editorial mechanics. The Director and Secretary agreed to follow up on this.
14. Washington Office for AIP
In answer to a question from Mr. Sears, the Director stated that, because of some unfavorable reaction and also because of our limited budget, plans for a Washington Office of AIP are dormant at the present time. There has been considerable interest in a west coast office and we shall proceed to investigate this. It was the consensus of the Executive Committee that the Washington Office proposal should not be abandoned.
15. Next Meeting
The Director reported that the dates previously set for the next meeting of the Executive Committee and the spring meeting of the Governing Board had been advanced by one week from 22 March and 23 March respectively, to 15 March for the Executive Committee meeting and 16 March for the meeting of the Governing Board.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:10 a.m.