Section Representative Report

Cherie Lehman

On January 10, 1999, during the AAPT meeting in Anaheim, there were two meetings which the section representatives attended: Section Officers Exchange and Section Representatives Meeting.

During the Section Officers Exchange, section representatives and officers of the sections met to discuss and recommend people as recipients of the various AAPT awards.

• It was announced that the Quebec section never really became an organized section and doesn't really exist. AAPT was only recently made aware of this.
  
  
• Since Sandra Harpole's three year term as chairperson of the Section Representatives would conclude at the end of the winter meeting, Steve Iona was elected chair and George Spagna was elected secretary. The chairperson of the Section Representatives serves on the Executive Board.
  
  
• Cherie Lehman was elected to serve on the AAPT Nominating Committee, and Mary Winn was elected to serve on the Membership and Benefits Committee. Two members were elected to be on the Section Representatives Nominating Committee.
  
  
• We discussed travel reimbursement for the Section Representatives. Representatives are partially reimbursed for travel, food, and lodging for three days and two nights of the winter meeting if they attend the three meetings: Section Officers Exchange, Section Representatives Meeting, and the Council Meeting. It was announced that the amount of money available for this purpose is to be reduced from $20,000 to $15,000 in the next budget.
  
  
• Sandra Harpole reported on the following topics which had been discussed at the Executive Board meetings.
  
  
  1. If the association does not take steps to reduce spending, the 2000 budget will have have a $150,000 deficit. Several steps toward that end had been discussed by the Board, including reducing the amount of information published as hard copy in The Announcer. For example, abstracts of talks to be presented at national meetings would be available on the web but not as hard copy in The Announcer. It was also suggested that the Section News part of The Announcer be reduced. Of course, reducing the Section Representatives travel reimbursements is another measure which has already been implemented.
     
     
  2. A Section may get mailing labels of AAPT members in its area twice a year. The Executive Office agreed to supply the names of any new members joining the AAPT if each Section agreed to reciprocate by sending the names of the members of the Section to the Executive Office. This seems like a good plan since membership in the Section is actually independent of membership in the AAPT.
     
     
  3. The AAPT is offering half-price one year memberships to the following people:
     
     
     1. Section members joining AAPT for the first time
        
        
     2. Former members of AAPT whose memberships lapsed between 1992 and 1997
        
  
  
• Larry Bader requested that we inform high school teachers that the PTRA summer program is scheduled from July 26 - August 2. Interested teachers can find more information including an application form by clicking on the PTRA link above.
  

• Tom Okuma, the AAPT President, discussed some of the 1998 AAPT-sponsored programs. These included the Revitalizing Undergraduate Physics Conference, the Workshop for New Physics Faculty, PTRA, and TYC21.
  
• Alex Dickison, the AAPT Treasurer, reported that the 1998 budget ended up balanced, but that a deficit of $200,000 is predicted for 1999. There was discussion about ways to reduce the deficit.
  
• Bernard Khoury, the AAPT Executive Officer discussed the work that had been done by the executive office in planning future meetings. Holding the summer meeting on a college campus is becoming increasingly expensive as colleges and universities have come to realize that renting their facilities for conferences and meetings can be lucrative. After a heated debate on the wisdom of having a winter meeting in Philadelphia, the Council approved the following meeting locations and dates:
  • Summer Meeting 2001 (July 21 - 25) - Rochester, New York. It will be headquartered in a hotel and convention center, but we will still be able to utilize some of the technical facilities from Rochester's universities.
  • Winter Meeting 2002 (January 19 -23) - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
    
    
    • We were reminded of the following future meetings:
      • Summer Meeting 1999 (August 3 - 7) -- Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
      • Winter Meeting 2000 (January 15 - 19), Kissimmee, Florida
      • Summer Meeting 2000 (July 29 - August 2) -- University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
      • Winter Meeting 2001 (January 6 - 11) -- San Diego, California; joint meeting with American Astronomical Society
      
      
    • For the year 2000, dues for members receiving the American Journal of Physics will be $117, dues for members receiving The Physics Teacher will be $91, and dues for members receiving both journals will be $154.
      
    For more details on these items, click here to go to the board and council actions summary at the AAPT website.