Minutes of the October 2011 DLS Executive Committee meeting
Santa Cruz Room, Hotel St. Claire, San Jose, CA
October 18, 2011
Present: Steve Cundiff (chair), Carlos Stroud (chair-elect), Henry Kapteyn (vice-chair), Warren Warren (past chair), Anne Kelley (secretary-treasurer), Anthony Johnson (councilor), David Reitze (member-at-large), Maria Allegrini (member-at-large), Amy VanEngen Spivey (newsletter editor).
Steve Cundiff called the meeting to order at 9:15 am.
The minutes from the last Executive Committee meeting at CLEO/QELS were approved.
Anne Kelley presented a treasurer’s report. The Division’s net assets have held relatively flat over the past few years following an earlier period of rapid growth when CLEO brought in more revenue and our return on investments was much higher. The APS ledger for the Schawlow prize shows investment income but no new contributions. Henry Kapteyn has convinced some previous winners and others to pledge matching funds, but apparently nothing has been contributed yet for them to match. Steve volunteered to send an e-mail to members suggesting contributions of $50 to the Schawlow prize fund.
Anne reported on the Student Travel Grant and Child Care Grant programs. 13 applications were received for the student grants, of which ten were funded at $500 each; the three not funded either did not meet the stated criteria or, in one case, was from a research group already receiving two other grants. There was discussion about whether more than one grant should be made to a single research group. The consensus was that this should be allowed, but priority should be given to a single applicant per group. Also, the advisor should be required to be an APS member unless he is from outside the U.S. Only one application was received for the child care grant program, but it is hoped that more will be received once the program becomes better established. The committee voted to allocate $5000 per meeting (CLEO and FiO/LS) for the student travel grant program for next year, and $1200 total for both meetings for the child care grant program.
Anne reported on the DLS elections. The voting period closes on Friday, Oct. 21. Because Anne is running for re-election, Steve will tally and report the votes.
A request from 2012 chair Dan Stamper-Kurn for funding for 2012 New Laser Scientists Conference (Rochester) was discussed. The committee voted to approve $5000 for expenses associated with the New Laser Scientists meeting.
Steve and Warren Warren led a discussion of CLEO and its future including a rather detailed report from CLEO Steering representative Dan Heinzen. The negotiations accompanying renewal of the CLEO management contract with OSA, with Kate Kirby negotiating on our behalf, resulted in a contract that is a considerable improvement. The new contract more closely ties the management fee to conference revenue, making it less likely that the meeting will go into the red. The 2015 meeting has been moved from Baltimore to San Jose so as not to compete so directly with Lasers Munich. There was a brief discussion about the diversity of the program committee, and the small number of women was identified as an issue.
Hal Metcalf reported on the Symposium on Undergraduate Research, which took place Sunday night and Monday. The symposium continues to be a great success and the number of participants continues to grow, now into the mid-40s. The whole event costs $30K-$40K, but much of the cost is offset by grants ($7K from NSF, $5K from industry) and by the students’ institutions paying travel costs, so typically the cost to DLS has been only about $5K. However, this year the cost to DLS will likely be higher because of the increase in the student registration fee from $165 to $200. The committee voted to allocate $8000 for the Symposium on Undergraduate Research in conjunction with FiO/LS in Rochester next year.
John Dudley (European Physical Society) gave an update on the International Year of Light. Only the UN General Assembly can declare an “International Year” of anything, and a long planning horizon is required. The proposed IYL will be 2015. There are four themes: Science of Light, Tools for the Future, Pioneers of Light, and Light for Development. It involves outreach and educational activities at international, national, and local levels for each theme. Serious planning starts next year, with an expected budget of $15M-$20M globally. The committee voted to add the DLS name to one of the statements of support already provided by another society.
Chad Stark (OSA meetings manager) and Liz Rogan (OSA CEO) joined the committee for a discussion of Laser Science 2011 and beyond. The numbers of contributed papers for both LS and FiO are about the same as they were in San Jose in 2009. Chad provided some other statistics indicating that the meeting is roughly holding even. There were some issues related to staff performance this year that caused problems in conference organization, but most of these appear to have been corrected prior to the meeting. Future sites are Rochester 2012, Orlando 2013, Tucson 2014, and San Jose 2015. Student registration fees were discussed, and Chad agreed to consider a lower fee for undergrads, possibly just for those in the symposium because student IDs may not distinguish graduate students from undergrads. The lack of signage (e.g. badge ribbons) for designating APS Fellows, award winners, etc. at FiO/LS was discussed. OSA agreed to ask us what we want in this regard prior to the next meeting.
The program chairs have been appointed for the 2012 Laser Science conference: David Villeneuve (NRCC) and Philippe Fauchet (Rochester). In general, LS has suffered from lack of continuity in getting chairs appointed early enough. It was proposed that each year’s chairs be asked to stay on for 3 years so that there would be a rolling 6-person committee to advise on the program. Another suggestion was to name the chairs for 2013 very soon, and the 2014 chairs next summer, so both sets of chairs could participate in program planning. It was left to Carlos and Henry to decide. The committee voted to allocate $12,000 for Laser Science 2012, to be used by the program chairs for registration fee remission and/or travel support.
Anne received an inquiry from a Japanese member about DLS promotional materials that he might give away at an event. Several possibilities for promotional materials in general were discussed, including pens or laser pointers on a keychain. It was also pointed out that OSA members who do not belong to APS may be our best potential source of new members and that the CLEO and OSA bags should at least include some promotional materials with information about membership, even if just a photocopied sheet. Steve will contact Kate Kirby about help with obtaining materials as well as possible cost-sharing with APS.
A written report from Paul Berman on the APS International Travel Grant Program was discussed. DLS is currently supporting this program, which allows us to have a member on the selection committee. It was decided that we should send information on this program to Amy for inclusion in the Newsletter, and also send out a general e-mail to DLS members soliciting nominations.
Steve filled in the committee on March meeting participation. DLS is listed as a sponsoring division, but had done nothing for several years. A new person at APS, Christine Lenihan, is our contact for March meeting programming. This year Steve, Carlos, and Nick Vamivakas (Rochester) put together an all-invited session with five speakers for upcoming March meeting. We need to tell Christine each year who is the DLS contact person, normally the chair-elect, and she will get in touch with that person about programming. The number of sessions we’re allocated is determined by the number of DLS members who attend.
APS President-Elect Bob Byer visited with the committee regarding the ongoing APS long-range strategic planning process. Three main components are being examined: publications, meetings, and “member services”. Open-access laws that could jeopardize the peer-reviewed publication structure are being addressed by providing access to journals through local libraries and high schools. There is discussion of decoupling the annual APS convocation from Congressional Day to make it more useful as an orientation for the new group of unit leaders. There was considerable discussion of making APS more international by offering cross memberships with other societies and inviting more international members to participate in the APS leadership. APS sees a need to build up its meetings department so it can do the money management it’s legally required to do and provide needed services without getting too expensive.
A request from Gordon Drake to suggest new members for the Phys. Rev. A editorial board was discussed. A number of names were suggested; they will be forwarded by Steve.
The Newsletter format and timing were discussed. The main suggestion was that the e-mail informing members of the availability of the Newsletter should contain headers of all the sections and some brief information about what’s in it, to make people more inclined to read it.
Steve summarized the status of next year’s committees. The Schawlow committee will consist of Jorge Rocca (this year’s winner), Frank Wise (chair), and three others to be named. The Fellowship committee will be the newly elected vice-chair, Henry, Nancy Levinger, Fred Raab, and one more person to be named. For the Nominating committee, we appoint two members and APS nominally appoints the third member, but they may ask us for suggestions.
There was a brief discussion of offering the option of remote participation via teleconference or Skype for future EC meetings. Anne will look into this.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 pm.