Forum Affairs
Hard vs. Soft "Physics and Society"
As you are aware, several years ago we reduced the number of issues of Physics and Society that are printed and mailed to all members of the Forum from four to two in order to reduce our yearly costs to less than our income. (All four yearly issues are available on our web site, http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/index.cfm) We now spend approximately $12,000/year of which approximately $8,000 is for our two printed newsletters. The other costs are primarily for our April Executive Committee meeting and travel expenses for invited speakers to FPS-sponsored sessions at the March and April meetings. Our income in 2004 was approximately $20,000 from our share of dues, investment income, and the March/April meeting registration fees. We currently have accumulated $33,000 in our account. The Executive Committee has begun to explore ideas for how best to spend our extra income (eg. sponsorship of student research relevant to the Forum) and we would like your suggestions. Please send them to me via email. I look forward to hearing from you.
Andrew Post-Zwicker
Secretary/Treasurer
azwicker@pppl.gov
Report from the FPS Executive Committee
On March 1, 2005 the Executive Committee held a teleconference attended by Mark Sakitt, Bo Hammer, Al Saperstein, Mark Goodman, Joel Primack, Caroline Herzenberg, George Lewis, Sherrie Preishe, Andrew Post-Zwicker. The primary purpose of this meeting was to discuss the FPS budget surplus brought about from decreasing the number of printed copies of our newsletter from four to two (with all four yearly issues published on our web site). Besides the newsletter, our other typical expenses are related to FPS-sponsored sessions at the March and April meetings. Currently, our expenses are on the order of $8k less than our income (from membership dues and our share of APS investment and meeting revenue.) During CY '04, we used some of our surplus to give $10k of support to the new Sakharov Prize.
The idea that generated the most interest was to support a fellowship for undergraduate students that perform research of interest to the Forum. Another was to create a summer school for undergraduates on topics of relevance to the Forum. A committee consisting of myself, Bo Hammer, Carol Herzenberg, and Al Saperstein was formed to explore these ideas. Any input from the membership would be appreciated and can be sent to azwicker@pppl.gov.
Andrew Post-Zwicker
Secretary/Treasurer, APS Forum on Physics and Society
PPPL
PO Box 451
Princeton, NJ 08543
609-243-2150 (office)
609-243-3144 (lab)
609-243-2112 (fax)
http://science-education.pppl.gov
