Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics
Minutes of Meeting
Members Present: P. M. Morse – Chairman, H. L. Anderson, A. A. Bartlett, R. T. Beyer, William Brinkman, J. A. Burton, R. B. Clark, C. B. Duke, Hans Frauenfelder, J. B. Gerhart, W. W. Havens Jr., I. R. King, H. W. Koch, I. M. Krieger, A. I. Mahan, Sidney Millman, Jacques Ovadia, J. W. Quinn, N. F. Ramsey, A. A. Strassenburg, Dudley Williams, Emil Wolf, R. A. Young
Absent: Betsy Ancker-Johnson, L. M. Branscomb, A. M. Bueche, W. A. Fowler, L. W. Fredrick, Martin Greenspan, I. J. Hirsh, R. W. Hoffman, Robert Karplus, Murray Strasberg
Nonvoting Participants: R. E. Alley Jr. (AAPT), R. M. Grant Jr. (AAPT), M. L. Shoaf (APS)
AIP Staff: H. William Koch, Director; Sidney Millman, Secretary; G. F. Gilbert, Treasurer; R. H. Marks, Associate Director for Publishing; Lewis Slack, Associate Director for General Activities; Dorothy M. Lasky, Assistant to the Director; Mary M. Johnson, Assistant to the Secretary
Chairman Morse called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. He noted that the newly-elected member-at-large, Betsy Ancker-Johnson, was unable to attend; and also that Marvin Goldberger, representing APS, had resigned as a member of the Board effective 18 September 1978.
1. Minutes
Upon motion made by Havens and seconded by Anderson, the minutes of the Governing Board meeting of 31 March – 1 April 1978 were approved as distributed.
2. Report of Chairman
Morse reported on highlights of Executive Committee actions at the meetings of 23 June and 7 September 1978, noting the approval of the renovation of the Manhattan headquarters building and the decision to initiate a study of plans for the Institute's future.
No increase in subscription prices or page charges was requested except in the case of one Soviet journal where the number of pages has increased substantially. There was an increase in reprint prices of ten per cent. There was authorization to publish and market, with the Optical Society of America, a Soviet book on optics. Five thousand dollars was authorized for a traveling exhibit to be displayed at meetings of other societies. The appointment of a committee to plan AIP's 50th anniversary and activities connected with it was authorized.
3. Action Items
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Confirmation of Mail Ballot on the Appropriation of $425,000 for New Furniture for Headquarters Location
Millman noted that the Executive Committee, on 23 June, authorized a mail ballot of the Governing Board on the expenditure of $425,000 for new furniture for the headquarters location. The results were as follows: 32 yeas and 0 nays, with 2 members not voting. The following motion was made by Millman, seconded by Wolf, and passed:
MOVED that the results of the mail ballot authorizing the expenditure of up to $425,000 for furniture for the headquarters location be confirmed.
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Renewal of Affiliation Status of AIP with AAAS
Slack noted that AIP has for some time been an Affiliate Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. We are periodically asked whether we wish to continue, or else we are automatically dropped. We renewed our affiliation three years ago and are now being asked for another renewal. The following motion was made by Havens, seconded by Ramsey, and passed:
MOVED that AIP renew its affiliation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Need for Revising Size of AIP Governing Board
Millman called attention to the attachment to the agenda on this subject, previously distributed, outlining the need for doing something about revising the size of the Governing Board, since by March 1979 there will be 35 Board members and the AIP Certificate of Incorporation which was revised some years ago had set 35 as the upper limit of the Board membership. He noted also that in the very near future we might have to go up even further. To amend the Certificate of Incorporation requires the approval of only a majority of the Member Societies at a meeting of the Corporation. The other possibility is to change the formula provided in the AIP Constitution so as to effect a decrease in the total number of directors on the Governing Board to about 30 or less. This, however, requires a Constitutional amendment.
At the 7 September Executive Committee meeting the consensus was quite strong in favor of shrinking the size of the Board, and the Secretary was asked to come up with a specific formula, which was included in the attachment. This formula is logarithmic, starting with one director for membership up to 2,500 and increasing by one every time the upper limit is doubled; thus, one director for 0-2,500, two for 2,501-5,000, three for 5,001-10,000, four for 10,001-20,000, and five for 20,001-40,000. He also called attention to another document, distributed just prior to the start of the Board meeting, suggesting a modified formula to shrink the Board size. Millman noted that our present formula is only about 13 years old. Prior to that we also had a logarithmic formula starting with one director for 0-500 members, and ending with five for over 4,000.
The following motion was made by Quinn and seconded by Gerhart:
MOVED that steps be initiated to change the AIP Certificate of Incorporation to allow for 40 directors.
The motion was defeated with 9 votes in favor and 11 opposed.
Havens then introduced the following motion which was seconded by Ramsey:
MOVED that the following formula, described in the column labeled "JAB-WWH-SM" in the document distributed just prior to the meeting, with the addition of "35001-48000 for 6 directors" be proposed as an amendment to the AIP Constitution:
Up to 3000 members 1 director 3001 to 8000 members 2 directors 8001 to 15000 members 3 directors 15001 to 24000 members 4 directors 24001 to 35000 members 5 directors 35001 to 48000 members 6 directors After some discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of a large Board and the need for more time for deliberation, Bartlett moved that the motion be tabled and the tabling motion was approved by a vote of 11 to 10 with the Chairman casting the deciding vote in favor of tabling
After an interval of about five hours, during which time other items on the agenda were discussed and lunch was served, the Board returned to the subject of revising the size of the Governing Board. Wolf introduced the following motion which is substantially the same as the one previously made by Quinn and defeated:
MOVED that steps be initiated to change the AIP Certificate of Incorporation so as to raise the limit on the number of directors to 40.
This time the motion was passed by a vote of 19 yeas and 3 nays.
Morse suggested that Board members get in touch with their respective Society officers to give them a briefing on the discussions at this meeting. The Secretary was asked to find out from the Society presidents how the Societies feel about what should be done at the next meeting.
4. Information Items
The meeting was recessed for luncheon at 12:05 p.m. and, following a tour of the Chemical Abstracts Service operations, was reconvened at 3:00 p.m.
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Building Renovation and Planning
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Woodbury Occupancy
Marks reported that the Woodbury operation is going very well. The labor market is quite favorable. Since the last meeting of the Board, the Society of Physics Students has moved in. Our reproduction operation is expected to move from Manhattan to Woodbury next January.
AIP has let a contract for fencing, enlarging the parking lot, and putting on a gate. This is scheduled for completion at the end of October.
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Headquarters Renovation
Marks reported that the design has been completed for all the planned renovation. We have obtained three bids and have been negotiating with the low bidder whose estimate is slightly under our budget. We expect to begin renovation during the first week of October, starting with the fourth floor. We are aiming for completion by the end of March.
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Fiscal Matters
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Status of Computerization of Accounting
Gilbert reported continued progress in the computerization of accounting and said he will mail a copy of the consultant’s report to Governing Board members (mailed 5 October 1978).
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Proposed Revocation of Tax Exempt Status
Koch reported that AIP has not yet heard the results of the meeting with the IRS regional conferee, but noted the favorable ruling that APS has received on its 501(c)(3) status.
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Letter from New York City Administration
Koch reported that AIP has received a letter from Mayor Edward Koch and City Council President Carol Bellamy requesting a contribution in lieu of taxes, and this was discussed by the Executive Committee on 7 September. No response is planned for the time being.
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Publishing Matters
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Report on Soviet Visit to AIP
Marks reported on a visit by two Soviet representatives of the Copyright Agency of the USSR that took place on 5 September to explore the possibility of their taking selected articles from AIP and possibly Society journals for reprint books in Russian.
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Contract with Fachinformationszentrum on Abstracts
Koch reported that an agreement has been reached with the German physics organization to pool information on physics research literature on a world-wide basis and to commit this to magnetic tape as well as a printed journal of abstracts. The German Fachinformationszentrum will provide English-language abstracts of journal articles and reports assembled from their own sources, will combine that material with AIP abstracts, which they can use directly without alteration, and will produce the tapes and printed journals.
The English-language product will encompass the abstracts of nearly all physics material published in the world. The combined abstracts journal will be called Physics Briefs/Physikalische Berichte (PB). The same material will also be reproduced in machine-readable form on magnetic tape for English-language read-out.
Distribution of the combined abstracts journal and magnetic tapes will be handled in North America by AIP and in all other places in the world by Fachinformationszentrum. Ownership and control of the journal and tapes belong to Fachinformationszentrum, which will provide approximately 75% of the material in the combined abstracts. AIP, making up the rest of the material, will license Fachinformationszentrum to reproduce their abstracts.
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Role of AIP in the Planned Publication of Proceedings of 1981 Temperature Symposium
Marks reported that the next Temperature Symposium will be a joint conference sponsored by the National Bureau of Standards, Instrument Society of America, and AIP. It is held about every ten years and a fairly substantial set of proceedings comes out of it. The Executive Committee has given approval for AIP to be the publisher of the 1981 Proceedings and we are now negotiating with the other two societies on a specific 3-way contract.
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Report on Operation of Page Charge System
Koch presented a brief report on the operation of the page charge system and indicated that a more detailed report will be presented to the Publishing Policy Committee and to the Board at its next meeting.
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Status of Computerization of Composition
Marks reported that the ATEX system is about 95% debugged and it was used to compose the major part of the September issue of the Journal of Applied Physics.
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Plans for Noting the Upcoming AIP 50th Anniversary
Lasky noted that AIP has initiated steps to mark the Institute's 50th anniversary which will be in 1981, and Morse announced the appointment of a committee consisting of Frank E. Jamerson – Chairman, Herbert L. Anderson, W. W. Havens Jr., Dorothy Lasky, and Spencer Weart. He anticipated that this committee will have some recommendations at the next Board meeting for an appropriate way to celebrate this event.
5. Reports by Chairmen of Governing Board Committees
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Audit Committee
Strassenburg reported that the AIP Audit Committee will meet in November to review the 1977 audit and make plans for the 1978 audit.
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Advisory Committee on Physics Today
Millman reported for Peter Franken, the Chairman of the subject Committee, that the Advisory Committee on Physics Today met on 12 September and had a very constructive meeting, and came to the conclusion that PT continues to be a successful magazine under very good stewardship. Franken sent a letter to the Editor mentioning some administrative suggestions. There was encouragement given to PT to expand its reports on applied physics, which will be done through the department called "Search and Discovery." It was the sentiment that this be integrated with the basic physics reports in that department which would result in its expansion by about one-third.
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Publishing Policy Committee
Gerhart reported that the Publishing Policy Committee met early in September. It recommended appointment of a review committee for The Journal of Chemical Physics, and also that the present Advisory Committee on Translations be discontinued and a new Translations Editorial Committee be established with the chairman to be an ex officio member of the Publishing Policy Committee and the Publication Board.
The following motion, intended to implement the recommendation of the Publishing Policy Committee, was made by Young, seconded by Gerhart, and passed:
MOVED that the present Advisory Committee on Translations be discontinued and a new Translations Editorial Committee be established, with the chairman to be an ex officio member of the Publishing Policy Committee and the Publication Board.
6. AAPT's Interest in Proposed U.S. Department of Education
Strassenburg presented a brief report on the status of Congressional bills which would create a cabinet-level Department of Education.
7. AAPT Proposal for Traveling Exhibit
Bartlett expressed his appreciation for the collaborative efforts of Strassenburg and Koch in taking steps which will bring about well designed traveling exhibits for display at meetings of other societies.
8. Future Meetings
It was agreed to hold the next meeting of the Governing Board on Friday and Saturday, 30 and 31 March 1979, with the annual meeting of the Corporation to be held on the afternoon of 30 March.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 p.m.