Executive Committee of the American Institute of Physics
Minutes of Meeting
Members Present: R. A. Sawyer – Chairman, S. A. Goudsmit, W. W. Havens Jr., R. B. Lindsay, Vincent E. Parker, S. L. Quimby
Absent: Mary E. Warga
AIP Staff Present: Wallace Waterfall, G. F. Gilbert, Lewis Slack. H. W. Koch was absent because of the death of his father.
The Chairman called the meeting to order at 7:30 a.m.
1. Minutes
Upon motion made and carried, the minutes of the meeting of December 19, 1967, were approved as distributed.
2. Resolution on Death of Herbert A. Erf
The Secretary reported that Mr. Erf, former Board member and current Treasurer of the Acoustical Society, had died on December 27, 1967. The following resolution was proposed, seconded and passed unanimously:
WHEREAS, The Executive Committee of the Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics desires to record its deep sorrow at the death of its esteemed colleague, Herbert A. Erf, who served as a member of the AIP Governing Board from 1958 to 1967, be it
RESOLVED, That the Executive Committee of the Institute hereby gives formal expression of its severe loss and does hereby note in its records the passing from this life of a man who was esteemed by his associates and respected by all; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to his family.
3. Acknowledgement from Mrs. Alan T. Waterman
The Secretary read a letter from Mrs. Waterman thanking the Executive Committee for its action on December 19 and saying that her husband was “happy and proud to receive the Karl T. Compton Award,” and that the citation had been read at the memorial service held for him.
4. Reduced Rate for “Physics Abstracts” and “Current Papers in Physics” Subscriptions
The Secretary reported that the 1968 booklet giving information on journal subscription rates indicated that members of both Member and Affiliated Societies could subscribe to “Physics Abstracts” and “Current Papers in Physics” at special member rates. There are three or four such subscriptions from members of Affiliated Societies. Also several members of AIP Student Sections have requested subscriptions at member rates. On November 28, 1950, the Executive Committee took action authorizing member rates to members of Affiliated Societies “on Institute journals.” Since “member subscriptions” to both PA and CPP are now subsidized by AIP, the staff recommended that member rates be limited to members of Member Societies. The following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that special member rates for members of Affiliated Societies and Student Sections apply to Institute-owned journals only.
5. 1970 Symposium on Flow, Its Measurement & Control in Science & Industry
Mr. Slack reported on a conference held at the Institute on November 8, 1967, attended by representatives of AIP, the Instrument Society of America and the National Bureau of Standards, at which the possibility and desirability of planning for the subject symposium was discussed. The same three organizations had sponsored the successful temperature symposium which was held in Columbus, Ohio, in 1961. NBS had been responsible for the program of that meeting and ISA and AIP had each netted about $13,000.
It was the conclusion of the November 8 conference that it would be feasible for the three organizations to sponsor the “Flow Symposium” in 1970 on the same basis as the 1961temperature symposium. It was agreed that the General Committee should consist of two representatives of each sponsoring organization with Mr. Wildhack of NBS as chairman. A dozen or more other organizations, including the American Physical Society, the Society of Rheology and the American Vacuum Society, would be invited to become “Cooperating Organizations” to assist in preparing the program but without financial responsibility.
After brief discussion among members of the Executive Committee, the following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that AIP accept responsibility for sponsoring the 1970 Flow Symposium as proposed with the understanding that the Chairman will appoint the two AIP representatives and that they will take care in planning to avoid any financial loss to AIP.
6. Employee Savings Plan
The Treasurer reported that the details of the Employee Savings Plan, which had been approved in principle by the Executive Committee on December 19, 1967, had now been worked out by AIP legal counsel and the Plan was ready for submission for approval by the Internal Revenue Service. A Trust Agreement with Bankers Trust Company has been prepared and is ready for approval. (Copies of both documents are attached to official minutes.)
The Treasurer said that, in anticipation of IRS approval, the AIP staff had been told of the plan on January 19 and offered an opportunity to participate as of January 1 with contributions beginning the end of January. Staff enthusiasm has been gratifying but it is too early to know how many will participate.
After several questions and answers, the following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the American Institute of Physics Incorporated hereby adopts the Employee Savings Plan in the form submitted to this meeting, effective January 1, 1968, and authorized its Director and Secretary to execute such Plan and the Trust Agreement thereunder with Bankers Trust Company.
The Employee Savings Plan requires a committee to administer it and at the December 19 meeting it was agreed that the committee should be the same as the one, consisting of three staff and two non-staff members, which administers the Revised Retirement Plan. The Treasurer pointed out that administering the Employee Savings Plan involves mostly small details which could easily be handled by members of the staff. He recommended, and the Executive Committee agreed. That the Employee Savings Plan should be administered by the Personnel Committee which consists of the Director, Secretary and Treasurer.
7. Organization of Education and Manpower Activities
Reporting for the Director, the Secretary reviewed the difficulties which had been encountered in employing a full-time head and other professional employees for the Education and Manpower Division. Mr. Strassenburg had indicated he did not wish to continue on the basis of half-time at AIP and half-time at Stony Brook because of the commuting problems and he had found it difficult to attract physicists away from academic institutions for full-time jobs at AIP. However, he did indicate a willingness to spend a major part of his time on AIP activities if they could be headquartered at Stony Brook and he was confident that professional staffing of some jobs would be much easier if prospective employees could be offered some of the academic advantages of the Stony Brook environment.
To pursue the above possibilities, Messrs. Koch, Waterfall, Slack and Strassenburg had visited Stony Brook for a discussion with John Toll, President, and T. A. Pond, Executive Vice President and Head of the Physics Department. They agreed that AIP education activities could be headquartered at Stony Brook with the understanding that (1) Mr. Strassenburg would spend approximately three-quarters of his time on such activities but would be fully paid by Stony Brook, (2) AIP would make a suitable grant to the Stony Brook Foundation, (3) that all other staff on AIP activities at Stony Brook would be fully on AIP payroll, and (4) that Stony Brook would make no charge for space occupied by the AIP staff at Stony Brook. The Stony Brook officials pointed out that such an arrangement was consistent with the educational objectives of the University and also similar to arrangements with other organizations which had made grants to the Foundation. It was left that Mr. Strassenburg would prepare and submit to AIP a proposal for a two-year project covering the arrangement.
Following the Stony Brook meeting, Mr. Koch had discussed the proposed arrangement with several members of the Executive Committee and with officers of the American Association of Physics Teachers and others concerned with the AIP education program and all had expressed approval. It is understood that AIP manpower activities would continue to be headquartered at AIP and that some staff rearrangements would be necessary.
The Secretary said that the Director recognized this as a major change in AIP organization and wanted approval from the Executive Committee before proceeding. After some discussion, the following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the Director be authorized to proceed with arrangements to headquarter AIP education activities at Stony Brook on a two-year trial basis as proposed.
It was understood that the proposed arrangement could start approximately September 1968.
8. Progress of Editorial Mechanics Study Committee
Reporting for the Director, the Secretary said that contacts had been made by the Director with several persons who might be employed to assist the Committee with its study. In addition, with the help of staff members, the Director has started a study and will report his findings to the Study Committee.
Various aspects of editorial mechanics problems were then discussed by the Executive Committee. It was pointed out that the Study Committee, consisting of Messrs. Lindsay, Sawyer and Quimby, was meeting immediately after this Executive Committee meeting so further discussion was left for that meeting. Mr. Quimby urged that any changes in procedures which the staff felt would reduce costs without impairing quality should be adopted immediately.
9. American Mathematical Society Offprint Service
At the December 19 meeting mention was made of a service being started by AMS in which they would supply offprints of mathematical articles from various journals to match interest profiles of subscribers to the service. They would like to include offprints of articles from our JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL PHYSICS in their service. Their initial request suggested prices which we could not accept. We made a counter proposal including prices consistent with our reprint prices to authors and AMS has accepted. The following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the staff be authorized to supply AMS with offprints of JMP articles on the basis proposed with the understanding that AMS will furnish us reports periodically on the success of their Offprint Service.
10. Situation on NSF Grants and Overhead
The Treasurer reported that a grant of $239,300 had been received from the National Science Foundation to support the proposed Information Program to June 30, 1968, but had not been accepted because it would be impractical to recruit staff and secure space without assurance of support for the two-year period as originally requested. We have been told that NSF is preparing a letter of intent to support the program for two years. (Such a letter was received immediately after the meeting.) AIP now has several NSF grants providing support for various phases of the Information Program.
The Treasurer recalled that NSF had authorized an overhead rate of 16.78% on 1967 and certain other grants to AIP but had indicated that a new rate would have to be established for 1968. The Treasurer said he is now preparing figures to be submitted to NSF to aid them in determining an overhead rate for grants in 1968.
11. Information Program – Status and Plans
This item appeared on the agenda of the meeting but, in the absence of the Director, it was not discussed. Instead, Mr. Slack distributed copies of a statement on the Information Program which had been prepared by Mr. Koch and used by him as the basis for his paper presented at the current APS-AAPT meeting.
12. Society of Physics Students – Sigma Pi Sigma
Messrs. Parker and Slack reported on recent discussion with officers of Sigma Pi Sigma. The merger of AIP Student Sections and Sigma Pi Sigma was approved in principle by the AIP governing Board by letter ballot in August 1967. Formal documents detailing the merger plans were approved at a national Sigma Pi Sigma meeting in December 1967 with the understanding that some minor revisions were to be made and the final documents submitted to all Sigma Pi Sigma chapters for approval. The final documents are not about ready and will be sent to the Sigma Pi Sigma chapters for action and to AIP for study by the staff and legal counsel. It is expected that final action can be taken by the AIP Executive Committee and Governing Board at their meetings in March.
13. Other Business
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Mr. Gilbert reported that AIP had been granted exemption from Illinois sales taxes. This would be helpful with purchases in connection with the APS-AAPT meetings held in Chicago.
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Mr. Gilbert said that he has to sign almost 1,000 check each month and the use of a facsimile signature would save much time. He requested authorization to do so and the following motion was made, seconded and passed without dissent:
MOVED that the Treasurer be authorized to use a facsimile signature on all payroll checks and all other checks under $100 for which a single signature is authorized.
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Mr. Havens reminded the Committee that, when the 1968 budget was adopted, it was the consensus that substantial additional funds would be needed for our History and Philosophy of Physics activities to attain their objectives and such funds could come only from outside sources. Definite progress should be made before the end of 1968 and he wanted to know what action was being taken. Mr. Gilbert said that both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Social Sciences Division of NSF had shown interest. AIP and AAAS are submitting a proposal to NSF requested funds of approximately $90,000 per year for a three-year period. Mr. Lindsay expressed hope that the proposal would be accepted by NSF and he also urged that a meeting of the Advisory Committee be held soon.
14. Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Executive Committee is to be at AIP headquarters on Friday, March 22, followed by a meeting of the Governing Board on Saturday, March 23, 1968.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 a.m.