BOG Members in Attendance:
Julia Abrahams, Andrew Barron, Vijay Bhargava, Aubrey Bush, Robert Calderbank, Agnes Chan, Roger Cheng, Daniel Costello, Anthony Ephremides, Thomas Ericson, Tom Fischer, Tom Fuja, Jerry Gibson, Bruce Hajek, Chris Heegard, Hideki Imai, James L. Massey, Steve McLaughlin, Ramesh Rao, Paul Siegel, Stuart Schwartz, Shlomo Shamai (Shitz), Henk van Tilborg, Sergio Verdu, Serena Zabin
Others in Attendance:
Sergio Benedetto, Ezio Biglieri, Michelle Effros, Hendrik Ferreira, Tor Helleseth, Witold Holubowicz, Torleiv Klove, Torleiv Maseng, Anthony Kuh, Alon Orlitsky, Miroslaw Pawlak, Han Vinck
1. The meeting was called to order at 7:30PM in the Mountain Suite of the Delta Whistler Resort, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.
2. The agenda for the meeting was approved.
3. The minutes of the June 26, 1995 BOG meeting were approved.
4. President Bruce Hajek announced that volunteers are being sought for the IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB) Councils.
Bruce Hajek will recommend those members who are interested in TAB Council participation to the TAB nominations committee.
5. Several issues were addressed with regard to IT Symposia and Workshops:
- Conferences and Workshops Committee Chairman Dan Costello reported on the possible transition to a yearly IT symposium schedule. The Committee, consisting of E. Biglieri, D. Costello, J. Gibson, T. Ephremides, and P. Siegel, investigated this issue in response to an earlier request made by the Board. The
recommendation of the Committee was that the current 18-month cycle for scheduling of IT symposia be maintained. Responses to an IT Newsletter solicitation for comments on this issue were also overwhelmingly in favor of the current scheduling frequency. In light of these sentiments, a motion was made by Dan Costello to maintain the status quo with regard to the 18-month scheduling cycle of IT symposia. The motion was unanimously approved by the Board.
- Paul Siegel reported on the 1995 IT Workshop held in Poland.
The attendance at the workshop totaled 85. All of the expenses for the workshop have been paid and all of the fees have been received. From the IT Society and IBM grants, there remains $52.40. The remaining amount from the NSF funds is $658.10 since some of the participants being supported by these funds submitted requests for less than had been expected. The total surplus thus generated from the workshop is $710.50.
- Vijay Bhargava reported on the 1995 ISIT held in British Columbia. A three-year comparison of the number of attendees and their composition for the 1993, 1994, and 1995 IT symposia was provided. The number of attendees in the respective years was 577, 593, and 596. The corresponding number of IEEE members, nonmembers, and student members, respectively, in each year was: 338, 66, and 173 in 1993; 353, 93, and 147 in 1994; and 348, 73, and 165 in 1995. The registration fee (in U.S. dollars) for IEEE members was $250 in 1993, $320 in 1994, and $300 in 1995. Fund-raising efforts for the 1995 ISIT yielded a significant amount of money, which is earmarked for students and junior faculty. The availability of ISF funds facilitated the invitation of 8 Russian information theorists, 6 of whom were able to attend the symposium. The majority of the attendees at the symposium came from overseas (47% came from North America). A motion was made by Vijay Bhargava requesting Board approval of financial support for 8 students who assisted in preparations for the symposium. The maximum allocation per student would be $735 U.S. and would be used to cover hotel expenses, registration fees, and transportation costs. The request was made with the provision that only symposium-generated surplus would be used in subsidizing the costs. The motion was approved by the Board.
- Shlomo Shamai (Shitz) submitted a detailed financial report on the 1996 Information Theory Workshop to be held in Haifa, Israel. Jim Massey made a motion that a separate line-item be included in the workshop budget for discretionary funds in the amount of $5000, to be used at the discretion of the workshop organizers for the purpose of assisting the workshop speakers with their expenses. The motion was approved by the Board.
- Han Vinck reported on the 1997 ISIT to be held in Ulm, Germany. A motion was made by Stuart Schwartz to approve the budget, which includes the IT Society loan. Bruce Hajek noted that the IT Society has a 70% share of the surplus or loss, the German Section of the IEEE has 10%, and the German Chapter of the IT Society has 20%, which is consistent with the recent distribution formulas. The motion was approved by the Board.
- Torleiv Klove submitted a written proposal for an IT Workshop to be held July 7-11, 1997 in Longyearbyen, Norway. Torleiv Klove (workshop chair), Tor Helleseth (program chair), and Oyvind Ytrehus proposed that the workshop focus on topics in coding theory. A motion was passed approving the meeting. A formal budget will be submitted by the organizers for consideration by the BOG at a future meeting.
- The possibility of having an IT Workshop in South Africa in 1999 was presented by Hendrick Ferreira as an issue for consideration by the Board. A detailed plan for the workshop will be provided at the next meeting of the BOG.
- Torleiv Maseng submitted a proposal for a seminar on turbocodes to be held in January of 1996. The proposal was not approved by the Board. It was suggested that the organizers reconsider the budget and timing of the seminar.
- Vijay Bhargava reported on the 1996 International Symposium on Information Theory and Its Applications (ISITA'96). The 3-day symposium will be held in Victoria, British Columbia in September of 1996.
- Ezio Biglieri requested that the IT Society provide Technical Co-sponsorship of the fifth Communication Theory Mini-Conference. The mini-conference (in conjunction with GLOBECOM '96) will take place in London, England. The motion passed.
6. Tom Fuja gave the Treasurer's report: The net worth of the IT Society's assets as of June 30, 1995 was $842.4K. There was one outstanding loan in the amount of $5K to the organizers of the 1995 IT Workshop in Poland. The value of the long-term investments as of July 31, 1995 was $486.7K. This represented a gain of $65.3K (15.5%) since January 1, 1995. The projected surplus for 1996 is expected to be on the order of $100K.
Tony Ephremides suggested that the overall financial status of the Society be evaluated so as to determine the best means of using and investing the funds of the Society. Bruce Hajek will appoint a committee to make a recommendation policy on the use of the surplus and encouraged those wishing to provide suggestions on this matter to contact him.
The Board expressed its thanks to Tom Fuja for his six years of service as Treasurer of the IT Society. The fine job done by Tom Fuja was acknowledged with a burst of applause.
7. Membership Chairman Roger Cheng reported on efforts that are being made to increase the IT Society's membership. In June, letters were sent out to those IEEE members who identified IT as an interest in their Technical Interest Profile but who were not IT members. This resulted in an increase in the Society's membership by 71. In the future, IEEE and IT Society membership application forms will be included in the IT brochure. (Both forms are currently available on the IEEE Web page). In addition, the IT Society's membership can potentially be increased by identifying conference participants who are not IT Society members. This can be done via a question on the conference registration form. The IT Society membership application form can then be included in the packages of those participants who are not IT members.
The excellent job done by Roger Cheng over the past three years as the IT Society's Membership Chairman was applauded by the Board.
8. Editor-in-Chief Robert Calderbank submitted a written report:
The transfer of Publication Editor responsibilities from Jody O'Sullivan to Steve McLaughlin took place on August 1, 1995. Robert Calderbank succeeded Richard Blahut as Editor-in-Chief of the IT Transactions on September 1, 1995. The following new appointments were approved by the Board: Rajiv Laroia (at AT&T Bell Labs) as Associate Editor of Source Coding (to replace Nariman Farvardin); Nambi Seshadri (at AT&T Bell Labs) as Associate Editor of Coding Techniques (to replace Paul Siegel); Alexander Vardy (at the University of Illinois) as Associate Editor of Coding Theory (to replace Hideki Imai); Cormac Herley (at HP Labs) as Associate Editor of Detection/Estimation/Signal Processing (to replace Anatoli Juditsky); and Ken Zeger (at the University of Illinois) as Associate Editor at Large (to replace Erdal Arikan). Steve McLaughlin has revised the checklist for authors.
9. Newsletter and Web Editor Ramesh Rao submitted a written proposal for the establishment of a permanent Web site for the IT Society and enhancement of its contents based on feedback from the members. The proposed cost for an integrated Web server and authoring environment was $19,000. A motion was made by Jerry Gibson to approve the proposed cost. The motion was approved by the Board.
10. A sample IEEE Press Book Sponsorship Agreement was submitted by IEEE Press Liaison Stuart Schwartz for consideration by the Board. This was in regard to a book currently being considered for sponsorship by the IT Society. Stuart Schwartz requested those Board members interested in providing input on the book to contact him.
11. IT Representatives to the Neural Networks Council (NNC) Andrew Barron and Anthony Kuh reported on the activities of the Council to the BOG. The financial situation of the NNC has stabilized. The IT Society's decision to withdraw from the NNC in 1994 was reconsidered by the Board. A motion was made to extend the IT Society's membership in the NNC beyond 1995. The motion failed.
12. Chris Heegard distributed a list of BOG candidates for the 1996 elections. A slate of 15 candidates was approved by the Board. The following nominations were also approved: Thomas Ericson and Paul Siegel as the candidates for 2nd Vice-President; Sergio Verdu as the candidate for 1st Vice-President; and Jerry Gibson as the candidate for President.
13. Jerry Gibson reported on the status of nominations for the IEEE and IT Society Awards.
14. In response to a request made by several Russian scientists, Jim Massey moved that six subscriptions of the IT Transactions be given to the Council of Cybernetics in Moscow. The Council would, in turn, insure proper circulation of these Transactions. The motion was approved by the Board.
15. The next meeting of the BOG will be held in March of 1996 at Princeton University (in connection with the CISS conference).
The meeting adjourned at 11:05PM.