Era 4: Section 1
1991-2002 Ever Broadening Scope and Influence
The previous era had seen a rapid increase in the membership and the activities of the society. It was to be expected that this growth rate would moderate but the activities continued to increase during the next decade. While maintaining its involvement in the technologies required for the semiconductor industry, the society expanded to encompass nanotechnology, manufacturing technology and biological surfaces, which will be the base for industry in the 21st century. Over the years, the vitality of the Society has been continuously sustained by the active involvement of many people in all areas of operations, and by a willingness to bring in new people and the ideas that they so fervently espouse. The creative interaction between the various disciplines provides a potent synergism in the solution of problems, requiring continuous and cooperative interaction.
Governance
Several revisions of the Constitution were made during this era. In these “politically correct” times, “chairman” was changed to “chair” in 1991, although Dorothy Hoffman, the first female President, objected strongly to being a “piece of furniture”. In 1998, the term of a Director was increased from two to three years, with two directors elected each year instead of three, in response to the repeated concern that more time was needed for a person to be fully aware of all the business aspects of the society’s activities. The formation of Technical Groups was also introduced, at the Board’s discretion. In 2002, the Board was also empowered to approve new Divisions; until then, the Division names were listed in the Constitution and membership approval was required to add or disband a Division. The formation of Student Chapters was also approved in 2002.
Another significant change in 2002 was to allow for electronic balloting in the annual elections, in the hope that the ease of electronic balloting will increase future ballot returns, especially from overseas members. The ballot return rates have been in decline, from 26.4% in 1991 to only 14.8% in 2001. Since this occurred when the membership was not increasing, fewer members feel involved in determining the leadership of the society, which is not healthy. The use of e-mail balloting was first investigated in 1999 and tested, using software from Perseus Development Corporation, in a Nanoscale Science & Technology Division election. The expectation was that this would increase the ballot return but the result was disappointing, with a decline from 16% in 1998 to 11% in 1999. However, electronic ballots have been used for all the Division ballots since 2000. Since the American Physical Society switched to electronic balloting, it has experienced a slight increase in the ballot return rate, especially for overseas members. To encourage more member participation in the AVS election, candidates have been permitted, since 1998, to add a “vision statement” to their biographies; this is judged not to be campaigning for election, which is not allowed.
In 1993, the first full revision of the Constitution and By-laws since 1986 was printed in JVST. By the end of the era, the up-to-date version was available on the web site! In 1998, the AVS Policy and Procedures Manual was updated and the last printed version distributed to all those involved in the AVS management. From 2000, only an on-line version has been maintained; it reflects all Society infrastructure changes as they occur and is easily available to everyone.
A continuing issue over the years has been the liability of members while involved in AVS activities. For many years, AVS has carried a liability insurance policy to protect Officers and Board members; the 2002 limit was $5,000,000. However, there was always concern whether this would also cover Chapter officers and executive committee members. In 1997, the US Congress passed the Volunteers Act which protects any volunteers of not-for-profit organizations from being sued for actions taken in the line of duty. AVS also has a $2,000,000 general liability policy covering any bodily injury, death, or property damage sustained by AVS members, while on AVS business, or third parties affected by such an event, and a $1,000,000 travel accident liability policy.
The Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC) and the Past Presidents’ Council were both formed during Era 3 to consider the future directions of the Society. The latter was replaced in 1997 by the Long Range Technical Planning Committee (LRTPC), chaired by Ted Madey, to identify new technical areas for the Society. In 1992, the LRPC discussed the need for a Technical Director position to provide “technical guidance” to AVS, which they noted was a $3,000,000 annual “business’. During 1992, the President appointed Rey Whetten to the position on a part time basis; this was partly prompted by a need for temporary management of the office due to Marion Churchill’s absence on sick leave. Rey continued in this position on her return and for some years afterward until his retirement in 1998.
In 1998, the LRPC listed items of public policy in which AVS was interested; these were the funding of research, manufacturing issues, technical and vocational training. However, it was decided that these were best pursued through the Federation of Materials Societies since direct AVS involvement would require a large core of interested and politically well-connected members. To consider such public policy issues, the Science and Technology Policy Committee was set up in 2001 and absorbed the Inter-Society Interactions Committee. In early 2000, Paula Grunthaner organized a Strategic Planning Workshop which was attended in Chicago by most of the Board and Committee chairs. A number of objectives were determined; one of these was involvement in public policy engagement, with emphasis on US science and technology budgets. This is perhaps surprising at a time when the Board was also emphasizing “internationalization”, since the topic is of interest mainly to members based in the U.S.A. About 20% of AVS members and 20% of Symposium attendees are now “international”; i.e. they are resident outside the USA and Canada.
In 2001, the LRPC and LRTPC were merged into a Long Range Projects Group, with the mandate to both plan and implement new projects, rather than passing the responsibility for implementation to a Standing Committee, which might already be stretched to meet its commitments. The first project, initially planned for 2002, was to establish an office in Singapore to provide services to members in Asia and to organize courses and meetings in the region; the office would be run by a part-time contractor at a cost of about $30,000 per year. However, plans were disrupted by the drastic worldwide decline in the semiconductor industry both before and after the events of September 11, 2001.
The Membership of the Society was just over 5,700 at the end of 1990 and continued to grow, reaching a maximum of 6582 in 1997 before declining quite rapidly to almost the same level in 2000 as in 1990. This decrease was probably at least partly due to the decrease in the number of industrial research laboratories. The results of a membership survey in the March/April 1996 Newsletter showed that AVS had the largest industrial membership of all the AIP member societies; 56% of the members were employed in industry with 23, 15 and 5% employed in academic, government and not-for-profit organizations respectively; materials scientists represented 23% of the membership, engineers 22%, physicists 21% and chemists 14%. Only 20% of the first authors of papers at the 1995 Symposium were in industry and this number was continuing a slow decline. More than 80% of course attendees came from industry, but very few of these were members.
The total membership continued to be the result of a large number of new members and an almost equivalent number of members who did not renew. Between 1969 and 1990, 12,329 new members joined but the total membership only increased by 2700! Almost half the new members each year joined as a result of attending the Symposium but only half of those renewed for a second year. Attendees at the 2001 Symposium were all offered free membership and 464 regular and 333 student members were added as a result, giving a total of 6023 at the end of 2001; by the following April, this decreased to 5081, including 514 students. There were 205 Associate Members in 1990 but this had decreased to 27 by 2002 when the Constitution was amended to delete this membership grade, with all remaining Associate Members transferred to regular membership. In 1990, some of the 474 Student Members had been in the same category for 12 years! Since then, renewals of student membership require a supervisor’s signature for verification! With the increasing number of Student Members, the Student Affairs Committee was formed in 1991, with Angus Rockett and Jacqueline Krim as co-chairs.
By 1996, 20% of the members were resident outside the USA and Canada. The number of these “international” members increased by 20% between 1986 and 1998. The percentage of members who were retired increased from 4% in 1990 to 7.5% in 1998, considerably lower than the average for all AIP member societies, which was 17%. Only 8% of members were female, which was also lower than the AIP average.
The Membership Committee noted that “virtual members” were also an important audience for AVS. These included non-members who attended symposia, took courses, and read JVST through library subscriptions. The number of “virtual members” was estimated at 20,000 in 1996; 2500 of these were course attendees and 2500 attended meetings of the Northern California User Groups.
On-line membership renewal was initiated on September 10, 2001; the first renewal was received within five minutes and there were a hundred within one day but the whole system was out of commission shortly thereafter since the next day was September 11! After that disaster, it took several weeks to recover the files and put the system back on-line.
Membership in AVS has always been a bargain! In 1993, the direct cost per member for receiving JVST, the Newsletter, Physics Today, and the preliminary Symposium program was calculated to be between $70 and $100. To this must be added indirect costs associated with the operation of the Society. However, the annual dues were only $60. Although they were increased to $75 in 1996, these operating costs had also increased while North American members now also received the AIP’s new magazine “The Industrial Physicist”! Over the years, the student membership fee was kept low to encourage student involvement.
A large fraction of the cost of the Newsletter was due to mailing; since 1996, it was mailed third class instead of first class. A large saving would have resulted from only posting it on the web but the Board felt that a printed document was more likely to be read than a web document and that many members would prefer the print version. However, fiscal concerns later overcame these feelings and the Newsletter became a web publication from the beginning of 2003.
In 2001, “e-membership” was initiated; members can access JVST on-line but opt not to receive JVST in either CD or print versions, although these can be added for an additional charge of $5 for the CD and $25 for each of JVST-A and JVST-B. By 2002, 80% of the members opted for JVST-O which reduces the costs but also impacts JVST advertising revenue. The direct cost per “e-member” was about $55.
In 1990, the AVS contracted with SLACK Inc. to handle the membership records, billing, and mailing services, which had previously been carried out by the AIP. In 2002, it was decided to transfer these to Convention Data Services (CDS), which already handled the Symposium registration; CDS took over the membership records on January 1, 2003.
At the end of 2002, corporations and companies were able to become Sustaining Members for the first time. Although the provision had always existed in the Constitution, it had not been activated. Now, a company could purchase a Sustaining, Membership for $500. As well as providing the company with a vote equivalent to regular members, membership provided other benefits, including reduced rates for employees attending a short course and the right to display its membership plaque at their booth in the annual Exhibit.
The Membership Directory was published biennially, in order to reduce the printing and mailing cost, which was $20,000 in 1994. It was proposed then that desk top publishing be used to further reduce costs so that the Directory could be published annually, and that the directory be issued as a CD. The last printed version was issued in 1997 and cost $3.32 per member. Following a survey in 1999, the printed version was discontinued in favor of an on-line version. Since it is updated monthly, it is a more useful source of information than the printed version, although it is more difficult to browse!
Several steps were taken to promote membership. An eleven page brochure was printed in 1992 and a brochure, featuring the Magdeburg Hemispheres on the cover, a number of photographs of the 40th Symposium, and a calendar of AVS events, was published in 1994. In 1998, mini-AVS Membership booths were set up at related conferences, such as the Society for Vacuum Coaters, and a new membership benefits brochure was generated. A second traveling Membership booth was built in 2001 for shipping to Chapter symposia and other meetings. Several attempts were made, through the Newsletter, to get feedback from the membership. A Town Hall meeting was held before the 1994 Symposium but only a few members attended. One member, Jim Garner, did write to the Newsletter suggesting that AVS compile and maintain handbooks for engineers who had no background in vacuum equipment and that the Speakers Bureau should include “how to” talks, in addition to the scientific topics.
Although many new members do not renew for a second year, there is a large membership base of long duration. At the 40th anniversary Symposium, 40-Year Members were recognized in the Awards brochure; these were eleven original members of the Society who had maintained their membership continuously. In subsequent years between two and six members were added annually.
The net worth of AVS had increased by an average of 13% per year since 1985 and, as of January 1, 1991, was $3,497,916, which was almost equivalent to the annual operating budget. The Investment Committee handled about 30% of the assets, mainly in bond funds or non-equity vehicles which were secure and liquid. In 1991, the investment return reached a record high of over 25%; this was a banner year for the market with the Dow-Jones increasing by over 20%. A (501).[c].(3) organization is allowed to earn up to about 30% of its income from investments. In a 1999 Newsletter article, Bruce Sartwell reported that the investment value had increased to $2.1M from the original investments of $300,000 in 1988, which was augmented by $200,000 in 1991. This had helped the total equity holdings to increase from $1M in 1988 to $5.5M.
The financial goal was to have a reserve fund which was twice the annual operating budget; because of the strong growth in investment income it was projected in 1996 that this would occur in 2005. However, the investments were severely affected by the market downturn since 2001 and the financial position has been impacted by the poor economic climate since then.
There were already significant deficits in the annual operating budget during this Era but they were usually offset by investment income; in 1991, for example, the net operating loss was $150,000 but the investment income was $400,000. Rey Whetten noted, at his last Board meeting as Treasurer, that the projected deficit of $150,000 for 1999 was the largest in his fifteen years as Treasurer. Of course, the annual budget when he took office in 1984 was much smaller! The biggest financial “crisis” up to then occurred after the 1991 Symposium when Galaxy, the company which handled the registration, enclosed a cashier’s check for $137,000 in a bubble pack box being shipped to New York, without warning the office to look for it. The box, bubble pack and check all went in the garbage! Fortunately, the bank charge for regenerating the cheque was only 1% of the value and Galaxy agreed to pay half of this cost.
However, the deficit for 2001 was about $470,000, of which $340,000 was attributable to the impact of September 11 on income from the Symposium. While expenses had continued to increase, income had decreased as both membership and course attendance declined due to the economic problems in the microelectronics industry. Taking 1996 as an example, 43% of the income came from JVST, 24% from courses, 20% from the Symposium, and 10% from Membership dues. The Finance Committee normally meets in early December to determine the budget for the succeeding year, which is then approved at the Board meeting the next day. However, the 2002 budget was not approved until February, 2002 after serious trimming by the Committee to reduce the projected deficit. Even so, $149,700 had to be removed from the Investment Fund to meet the cash flow requirements during this difficult period and this contributed a little to the decrease in the value of the investments.
In 1999, John Coburn took over as Treasurer from Rey Whetten. By the end of his tenure as Treasurer, Rey was issuing over 1200 cheques annually but this administrative burden was now transferred to the New York office, with the Treasurer overseeing the operation from California. The AVS auditor for many years was T. M. Byxbee in Albany, N.Y. This was convenient because both Rey and his predecessor, Roger Young, lived in the area, Since the financial administration was now handled by the New York office, it seemed convenient to have an auditor in New York City. However, the cost would have been at least three times greater than in Albany and T.M. Byxbee remains the auditor!
Since maintaining the (501).[c].(3) tax status is vital to the viability of scientific organizations like AVS, it is important to follow the directives of the auditor, even though this may be inconvenient. For example, the practice for many years was to allocate the office expenses against the appropriate budget line; i.e. staff time and associated office expenses devoted to the Short Course program was charged against income from the courses, so that the actual net income from the program was evident. However, in 1999, the auditor required that this be discontinued in the formal budget; the office expenses are considered a Society expense but the true cost of a program is then less evident. In 1997, the auditor raised a concern that the AVS Treasurer and Symposium Treasurer were not the same person; since then the responsibility has been assumed by the AVS Treasurer. Although Chapters manage their own budgets, their financial operations are considered by the IRS as components of AVS finances and must also meet the (501).[c].(3) requirements. Random audits of Chapter and Division accounts were initiated in 2001 and the auditor suggested that the AVS Treasurer assume responsibility for all Chapter finances if that Chapter issued fewer than fifteen cheques per year.
In 1993, an IRS audit determined that the Northern California Chapter had generated income, in 1992 and 1993, from advertisements in their directory and should pay a tax of $5,563. The Chapter pointed out that it did not actually make a profit since the income was offset by the expense of producing the directory. As a result of a 1996 IRS audit, $2,024 of this payment was refunded because the directory was deemed to be of service to members. Although previous audits had been carried out by the IRS office in Albany, where the AVS auditor was located, IRS insisted that this 1996 audit be handled by a New Jersey IRS office to thoroughly investigate the Society’s (501).[c].(3) status, which was again confirmed. The next IRS audit, of the1998 accounts, went smoothly.
The AVS office went through a series of major changes in both personnel and locations during this era, and the administration changed substantially, with a large increase in the number of tasks handled by the staff. And, just when a new stability was reached, New York suffered the events of September 11, 2001.
During the previous Era, the small office staff was housed in the AIP building on East 45th Street in Manhattan but, in the late 1980’s, AIP had decided to move closer to Washington, D.C. However, there was much discussion within AIP and considerable delay before the final location and timing for the move were decided, and this allowed AVS some time to consider how it should react. In 1992, AIP purchased a 24 acre site in College Park, Maryland and let a construction contract; the total cost was $29M. AIP then offered to rent space for $24/sq. ft. in the completed building if AVS took an equity position in the building. However, AVS could not see how the equity could ever be realized and looked for alternative office space in New York.
Fortunately, New York City was concerned about the migration of not-for-profit organizations, like AIP, to other locations and established the Association Center for Not-for-Profit Organization space in 120 Wall St. The 1929 building was being remodeled and was the only building in the city which was exempt from real estate taxes for not-for-profit organizations. The initial rental cost for a fifteen year lease would be $16/sq. ft, which was lower than space in other cities, such as Denver, which were suggested as possible sites for the AVS office. The Board toured the building and decided to place a deposit of $0.60/sq ft to continue discussion, which continued in 1992 through the New York Society for Association Executives.
Although the lease terms were attractive, the Board expressed a preference to purchase the space because of the uncertainty of lease cost at the end of this period. However, the building owner, Silverstein Properties, preferred to retain ownership and the mortgage holder, Bankers Trust, did not want the added expense of converting the building to condominium status. The optimum space for AVS was the whole of the 32nd floor but it was larger than required. However, the Acoustic Society of America (ASA) agreed to sub-lease 38% of the space and to share some office facilities; A. Brenig had informed the Board in December, 1991, that ASA would be interested in sharing space with AVS. By the end of 1992, the lease discussion was in the final stage and it was expected that the lease would be signed in January, 1993 with a moving date of March 31. In fact, the lease was not signed until June 1 and the move to the new office took place on August 25, 1993, although the renovation was still not fully completed. Even by the end of 1993, the office was not fully operational because of problems with New York Telephone, which later became NYNEX, and the internet connection was not operational until 1994. The office overlooks the East River with an excellent view of the Brooklyn Bridge. In 1999 the office layout was rebuilt over a period of about nine months to allow for a more efficient use of the space.
AIP sold the 335 E. 45th Street building, in 1992, to South Korea as a site for their UN delegation, but the sale realized less than expected. Ken Ford, who had been instrumental in the decision to move to Washington, and with whom AVS had a very strained relationship, resigned as Executive Director of AIP in 1992. AIP also leased a small part (6%) of the new AVS space in Wall St! However, this was rarely used and the arrangement ceased after June, 1997. In late 2000, the ASA notified AVS that they planned to dissolve their sub-lease after only eight of the scheduled fifteen years and to re-locate to an AIP site in Melville, NY. They moved out on May 18, 2001. Yvonne Towse negotiated a new lease with the Low Income Housing Fund, a California-based non-profit organization, and they moved into the space in December, 2001.
After the retirement of Nancy Hammond in 1989 and the resignation of Marcia Schlissel in 1990, Marion Churchill assumed the role of Office Manager; Margaret Banks (now Stringer) and Angela Mulligan (now Klink) were the other permanent staff members in New York; Betty Kelly continued as a part time office assistant until she resigned, early in 1993, at the age of 82! In 1993, Keith Mitchell was hired as mail and office services assistant, a function previously provided by AIP. During 1992, Churchill had been ill and Rey Whetten had substituted as the office manager during her absence; he was very familiar with the office operations because of his experience as AVS Treasurer, which required his constant interaction with the office. However, a permanent office manager with computer background was identified as a need. A number of candidates were interviewed and Yvonne Towse started in November, 1993. Yvonne, who has a B.A. in International Marketing, joined AVS after five years at AIP as Supervisor of Career Planning and Placement, in which position she had attended several AVS National Symposia. Marion was Meetings Manager, Margaret was the Short Course Coordinator and Angela dealt with all the membership and awards issues.
The increasing use of computer systems required new skills in the office and Carlos Toro was hired on a two-year contract to fill the newly created Manager of Information Services position, with the objective of establishing computer systems and training the staff. Financial software, credit card payments for all AVS services, e-mail servers and a website were set up. Carlos Toro left in 1996 and Keith Mitchell, who had been taking evening classes in information technology, was promoted to Computer Services Assistant to handle the daily information technology issues. In 1993, Mike Slade described the planned evolution of electronic mail for AVS, called AVSOL; the three phases were Regina, Hoover and Kirby! The first stage was to provide e-mail to the office in “only a few minutes”. The Hoover stage was to provide an e-mail alias for every member, so that it was unnecessary to know a person’s e-mail address, which were not readily available at that time. The final stage was to provide real alias lists, such as for all members of the program committee. The AVS mass e-mail lists were implemented, improving communication between the staff and volunteers.
The new AVS web site was initiated in 1995, following a presentation by Donna Bakale at a meeting of the Long Range Planning Committee in July. Immediately following this event, the AVS contracted with Mary Weaver, based in Minneapolis, to serve as Webmaster and with a group of programmers at the University of Minnesota to provide support. The first official AVS website (http://www.vacuum.org) was operational by the end of the year, and appropriate shirts were available at the 1995 Symposium to commemorate this new activity. In 2001, the url was changed to www.avs.org after it was purchased from the Arbutus Vocational Society in British Columbia, which had changed its name to the Health & Education Society and thus no longer needed the the AVS acronym. In 1997, Tomasz Jaworski was contracted to assist with the transfer of the AVS web server to New York and to upgrade the AVS mail exchange server. The AVS web server was moved in-house with Keith Mitchell taking over all webmaster duties with the assistance of a consultant, In 2000, the web site was redesigned under the direction of the Web Committee. However, there were a number of problems associated with JavaScript and Netscape and Apple computers which took several months to resolve. Even then, there was some difficulty in navigating the site and another redesign was undertaken in 2003 to improve navigation and make it platform independent.
Rey Whetten had been appointed in 1992 by the President, Jim Murday, to a part time position of Technical Director, with the responsibility for developing new technical directions for the society; he held the position till 1998, when it was discontinued and the Long Range Technical Planning Committee took over this responsibility. Of course, Board members and committee chairs also provide continuous input on the future technical areas in which AVS should be involved. Rey described his activities in his annual reports for 1995 and 1996 in the Newsletter. As well as championing new technical areas, he developed contacts with several government agencies to obtain contract support for topical conferences in these new fields.
By the close of 1993, the New York office had been relocated and there were six full-time staff members and one part-time Technical Director. In addition, there were two full-time employees, Marge Rodberg and Becky York, in the JVST Editorial Office in North Carolina. Marge Rodberg retired in 1996 after eleven years, and Mary Hipsher was hired to replace her. In 1997, Charlotte Campbell was hired, on a part-time basis, as a Surface Science Spectra Editorial Assistant, reporting to Becky York, but she left in 1998 and was replaced by Nancy Schultheis, also on a part-time basis. In 2000, Mary Hipsher retired from the JVST Editorial Office and Estella Stansbury was hired to replace her. In 1998, the JVST Editorial office moved from MCNC to new commercial space at 10 Park Plaza in Research Triangle Park. The cost of the 5 year lease was unchanged, but there was significantly more space.
Yvonne Towse rapidly learned all the office activities and, from October 1995, also undertook the task of recording the minutes of the Board meetings, using a lap-top computer. Until then, the AVS Clerk generated the minutes from hand-written notes with an audio tape as back-up. This change reduced the time required to generate the final minutes and the Clerk’s time was now better spent in editing. This was a relief to the Clerk who is, of course, still responsible for the minutes!. In September, 1998 Yvonne Towse was named the Administrative Director to reflect her expanding role in the society. In 1991, the Clerk had instituted an indexing of the Board minutes; P Shapiro, a computer consultant, was responsible for the purchased indexing program. All the the minutes back to 1986 and the attachments were converted to electronic format by optical character recognition and indexed. Shapiro also developed the abstract database software used for the Symposium program.
In 1991, Jack Singleton and Nancy Hammond documented the archival records in the office and made recommendations on what should be added to the archives. As the past Clerk of the society, Jack was responsible for the archives. When Joe Greene took over as Clerk in 1997, Bill Westwood became the archivist. The archives contain both printed and photographic records of the Society and new documents are added annually.
With the larger office staff, it became possible to undertake new activities or to expand existing ones. While the office had organized arrangements for the Symposium since 1982, the staff now began providing other meeting management functions for co-sponsored topical conferences. In 1997, all conference support services were provided for both the Ultra-Shallow Junctions Conference and the ULSI Symposium. By 2000, an increasing number of AVS co-sponsored topical conferences were requesting event support and a services menu, which offers various levels of support on a fee-for service basis, was made available to them. The staff also began to play increased roles in assisting committees, with a staff member being assigned as a liaison with each committee. The office also began to handle the annual election process for Divisions and to assist them with other procedural issues. By 1996, some Chapters were being assisted with their elections. In 1997, funds processing services were provided to the Chapters, allowing them the opportunity to accept credit card payments; in that first year, five Chapters made use of the service. The protocol for e-mail ballots was established in 2000 and software for the electronic balloting was purchased in 2001.
Peter Burke was hired in 1998 as Office Assistant and, in 1999, assumed the responsibility for the routine financial transactions, with the Treasurer maintaining oversight. All financial transactions were now being handled using the QuickBooks Pro database and AVS was now issuing well over 2,000 checks each year! In 2000, Ricky Baldeo was hired as AVS Office Assistant to fill the position previously held by Peter Burke, and E. Schatz was hired on a 6-month contract, while Marion Churchill reduced her work week to 4 days as the first step to her retirement. In April, 2001, Steve Barker was hired as Electronic Services Assistant.
In 1999, Technical Marketing Programs (TMP) informed AVS that they would no longer provide the publicity and marketing functions or publish the Newsletter. The Board approved a plan to develop an AVS West Coast office in Silicon Valley to provide these services as well as additional support for the new spring symposium. It would also be the business office for the Northern California Chapter, for which the Chapter would pay a monthly fee. This arrangement was approved on a two-year trial basis and was confirmed in 2000 as a permanent office. Della Miller was hired as AVS West Marketing Communications Manager/Office Manager, reporting to Yvonne Towse in New York, and the 1250 sq. ft AVS West office opened in Santa Clara, California, on June 1, 1999. Ann Weston, a part-time graphic artist was hired to support Della in all AVS West activities. Since both Della and Ann had previously worked on AVS activities as TMP employees, the new office was off to a running start. Ann resigned from AVS West in 2000 and Heather Korff was hired to replace her. Heather and Della had known each other at high school! When Marion Churchill retired in 2000, after nineteen years of service, Della, who is a certificated event planner, took over all event planning responsibilities.
The office staff have been very productive over the past few years in their personal as well as professional lives! Yvonne, Margaret, Della and Heather all had babies, but Keith did even better with twins! Margaret was fortunately on maternity leave on September 11, 2001; otherwise, she would have been passing through the World Trade Center station on her way to the office about the time the first plane hit. The rest of the New York staff had a much more unpleasant experience because of the proximity of the office to the World Trade Center. They saw the effects of the destruction and had considerable difficulty getting home that day. Yvonne got to Staten Island without the ferry operating and Keith walked over the Brooklyn Bridge despite a bridge phobia. In 2002, Angela was married and became Angela Klink.
In February, 2001 a new back-up server was installed to ensure connectivity in the event of a major disaster. The 2 operating servers, one for the web and one for e-mails, etc. were backed up nightly. However, when the World Trade Center (WTC) was destroyed on September 11, the New York office was severely affected. Located just eight blocks from the WTC, the building was evacuated, all power was cut off and phone and e-mail and internet connectivity was lost for many weeks. Although the office was able to reopen just a week after the event, it took many months before it was fully restored. As a result of the power surges throughout the area, the servers were destroyed beyond repair and most of the recent data was lost, because of the loss of the back-up facility. All the files had to be reconstituted from other places, including AVS West and from committee members’ files. Since that experience, all files are replicated on the AVS West server and a virtual private network, with firewalls, connects the servers in New York and Santa Clara. A Disaster Recovery Policy Manual was prepared and is regularly updated.
In 2000, the establishment of a Web portal in a joint effort with AIP was discussed. In 2002, an outline for a Surface Interface & Vacuum Science & Technology (SIVST) portal was discussed as a means of providing one stop shopping for individual researchers in smaller institutions without an intra-net, vendors of equipment and educational materials and small firms. The Web Portal Team, led by Charlie Duke, discussed various aspects of a business plan. While AVS currently controls the channel for service delivery, they expect that many channels will be available later and AVS can only add value by affixing the AVS brand which would be a guarantee of quality to the consumer.
Awards
The society continued to recognize outstanding accomplishments in the relevant fields of science and technology. In 1999, the values of the major awards were increased to be comparable to the awards of other societies. The Welch, Gaede-Langmuir and Thornton awards were increased from $5,000 to $10,000 and the Peter Mark Award from $3500 to $6500. This was the only increase since 1984. Several new awards were also initiated in this period.
The John L. Vossen Memorial Award was established in 1996 as a memorial to John Vossen, who died suddenly in 1995 after serving AVS in many capacities, including President in 1984. Because of John’s particular interest in education at the high school level, it is awarded to a high school teacher who has developed science demonstration experiments of interest to AVS, as selected by the Education Committee. The first presentation was made by John’s son to Robert A. Shaner at the 1997 Awards ceremony.
The George T. Hanyo Award was established in 1996 by the Kurt J. Lesker Company in memory of a highly skilled, long time employee and is awarded to individuals who demonstrate similar skills in support of research and development programs but who do not usually appear as an author on resulting publications. The first winner, also in 1997, was Mark H. Engelhard and it has been awarded when suitable candidates have been nominated. The 1999 winner, Robert A. Childs, will serve as President in 2004.
In 1991, the Trustees agreed with a recommendation from the Long Range Planning Committee that a Fellow category of membership should be established to recognize scientific and technical contributions made, over the past ten years, by individuals who had been members for at least five years. This decision was in contrast to earlier discussions; as recently as 1988, the Trustees had recommended against a Fellow category because it was only good for enhancing a resume! A change to the Constitution & By-laws was approved in 1992 to allow for election of Fellows. Up to 1% of the membership could be elected to Fellow in the first year, and 0.5% in succeeding years. Only someone who has been a Member for five years can be nominated by a Member and supported by 3 other Members; a new Fellow is recommended to the Board by the Awards & Scholarships Committee. It was expected that there would be a very large number of nominations in 1993 but only twenty-two were received. In 1994, all previous winners of the major awards who had been members of AVS for the past 5 years were made Fellows and this added 28 to the regular election, making a total of 49 Fellows that year. In 1999, this automatic election of the award winners was discontinued.
While winners of all the major awards are known ahead of the annual Awards Assembly, the names of new Honorary Members are revealed only at the ceremony. In 1994, a change to the Constitution allowed for the election of two Honorary Members each year, even if the number of current Honorary Members exceeded the previous limit of 1/2% of membership. This was to ensure that deserving members were not excluded because of the longevity of the existing Honorary members. A total of fourteen members were given this honor in this era.
Awards to graduate students have continued to be an important responsibility of the Awards and Scholarships Committee. The value of the awards was increased from $500 to $1000 in 1992 and the Student Prizes were renamed Graduate Research Awards in 1994. In 1996, the value of the Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award, which is restricted to female students, was increased to $1500, the same value as the Varian Award. In 1997, it was ruled that previous winners of a graduate student award were not eligible for another award in a subsequent year. For example, the Varian Fellowship is restricted to students who will not graduate for more than 18 months; the winner would not be eligible to receive another award open to students, such as a Graduate Research Award. Starting with the Jan/Feb 1995 issue, profiles of past student award winners were published in the Newsletter. The first profile was of Tim Whetten and the second of Anne Testoni; the Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award was named for Tim’s wife and Anne became a Trustee in 1998.
In 2002, the Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Award and the Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Scholarships were established with values of $1500 and $1250 respectively. These are funded, along with the Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Travel Grants, by the interest from a very generous $1,000,000 bequest from Dorothy Hoffman, following her death in December, 1996 soon after attending a Board meeting in New York. Dorothy Hoffman served as Clerk in 1969-71 and was President in 1974, the only woman to hold the office until 2000. She was also a founder and leading member of the Delaware Valley Chapter, and in that role she was deeply concerned that the society provide support to technicians as well as professionals. Her interest in assuring that the Society continue to support and encourage education was evident from her bequest, which is by far the largest received by AVS. She made a similar bequest to the Society for Women Engineers to fund awards for female engineering students. Starting in 1999, the interest from the bequest supported the travel of student authors to the Symposium; these were named Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Scholarships. For 2003, they were re-named Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Travel Grants to differentiate them from the two new student awards which were funded from the same bequest. In 1999, there were 700 student authors of papers accepted for the Symposium and 400 of these were presenters; there were 310 applications for the travel grants and 254 received support on a first come, first served basis. Since 2002, the grants have been assigned randomly to all qualified applicants until the income from the interest has been spent.
Several Divisions had instituted travel grants to encourage student participation in the Symposium. To avoid a student obtaining two travel grants for the same paper, Division travel grants were discontinued when the Hoffman Travel Grants were initiated. Divisions can, however, present merit awards, one of which can have a value of $1000, with additional awards limited to $600. As well as student awards, Divisions also make technical merit awards which, since 1999, have also been limited to $1000; the winners chosen by the divisions are subject to approval by the Awards and Scholarships Committee.
The Surface Science Division actually established, in 1977, the Morton Traum Award for the best student paper award. The name of the winner in each year was engraved on a plaque. In 2002, all twenty-five spaces for names were filled and the plaque was given to Mort’s family; Des Smith, who had been Mort’s supervisor at Bell Labs, accepted the plaque from Galen Fisher during the 2002 Awards Ceremony. The names of all the winners were inscribed on a new plaque with a total of fifty spaces.
In 1998, an Exhibitors Recognition Award was implemented under the direction of the Exhibitors and Manufacturers Committee.. An Exhibitors Award was established in 1997 for continuous participation in the exhibit for 20, 30 or 40 years; the first annual exhibit was held in 1965. In 1998, twelve companies were 30 year exhibitors.
In 1997, the establishment of a lecture program was initiated by Jerry Woodall and the AVS Distinguished Lecturer Series was announced at the 1998 Awards Ceremony. The program provides a list of AVS members who can be called upon by Chapters to present talks at their meetings and conferences. A committee selects the lecturers, who are required to commit to at least two lectures per year. The first lecture in the series was given at a Western Pennsylvania Chapter meeting in November, 1998 by T. Michalske.
The annual Awards ceremony has continued to be very well attended. As well as honoring scientists, members, students and exhibitors, it also provides a forum for the President to welcome attendees and for other acts of celebration and recognition. Board members and the Trustees are recognized as well as the staff members. In 1993, as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations, Presidents of the Society, the Forty Year members and the 30 year exhibitors were recognized. The IUVSTA Council, which held their meeting just before the Orlando symposium was also recognized. In 2001, the IUVSTA Prizes for Science and Technology were awarded during the Awards ceremony.
Symposia
The annual Symposium continued to grow both in size and scope during this era. The sites and other details of these Symposia are given here.
The 1991 Symposium in Seattle had 85 sessions, of which 10 were posters and 22 were joint sessions between divisions, and two topical conferences were held; “Surface Science at the Solid-liquid Interface” was organized by the ASSD, and “Optical and Magneto-optical Recording” was organized by the TFD. There was also a special session on “Buckminsterfullerene”. There were 123 invited and 854 contributed papers. No tickets were required for drinks at the poster sessions, as they had been in Toronto the previous year, but the consumption determined that they should always be used in future! The Awards reception was held in the Museum of Flight, which required transporting over 900 people from the convention center.
The results of a vendor poll after the 1990 symposium in Toronto had shown that the exhibitors felt that they were not consulted on exhibit issues. They were also concerned that the New Products session, which had been a poster session in 1989 and 1990, was poorly attended; they felt it should be actively promoted. In 1991, Ed Greeley sent announcements to the Exhibitors’ mailing lists in order to promote the Exhibit. The Exhibitors breakfast in 1991 drew 100 exhibitors and the Exhibitors and Manufacturers Committee, chaired by Christine Whitman, conducted another survey of exhibitors. To increase Exhibit attendance, they wanted the exhibit hours to be 10am-6pm on Tuesday & Wednesday and 10am-3pm Thursday, with a break from 11am-2pm in the technical sessions on Wednesday, and no plenary or lunchtime lectures while the exhibit was open. They also suggested that lunch should be available in the exhibit and that the poster session, or the refreshments for the poster session, should be located in the exhibit. Most of their requests were implemented where possible in following years since the Exhibit is an integral and important part of the Symposium. A new “Vendors’ Corner” was started in the Nov/Dec, 1991 issue of the Newsletter.
A poll conducted by the Student Affairs Committee at the 1991 Symposium showed that the student registration fee was not a consideration for students since they did not pay it themselves, and an increase to $30 was quite acceptable. The estimated cost to the society per student attendee was about $100, including the program, the student reception and the Awards reception! Clearly, students knew a bargain when they saw it! Over the years, the student fee has been kept low to encourage student attendance; however, the low fee is appreciated by the student’s supervisor rather than the student! For 1992, the student member fee was increased to $20 and the non-member to $30! Although a student housing arrangement in 1991 had a number of problems, it has worked well since then to allow students to arrange to share hotel rooms.
After his experience at the 1991 abstract selection meeting, the Program Chair, Rich Colton, recommended that there should be no more than 45 members of the Program Committee! However, this has been exceeded every year since then; even the 1992 committee had 59 members!
For the 1992 symposium in Chicago, an 100 additional oral presentations were accommodated by lengthening all the sessions and holding more sessions on Monday. Bill Sproul, the LAC Chair, had problems with the Hyatt hotel over space assignment. Phyllis Greene, who was acting as Meetings Manager due to Marion Churchill’s illness, found that there was no contract on record with the Hyatt for any space in the evening, despite an agreement with Bill on the the space at an earlier meeting. Sproul recommended that, in future, the President-Elect should meet with the LAC Chair and the Meetings Manager to verify all aspects of the meeting within thirty days of his or her election. Fortunately, Phyllis and Bill were able to rectify the situation so that the Symposium went smoothly but Bill Sproul recommended that Chicago not be used again as a Symposium site! The plenary lecture was held on Monday to avoid any conflict with the Exhibit and no sessions were held between 11am and 2pm on Wednesday to encourage attendance. The LAC organized a bus service to transport people from local labs to attend the Exhibit, which was successful. However, attendance at the New Products session was again poor. Refreshments were provided in the Exhibit at a cost of $15,000, partly provided by the AIP exhibit management. A summary, in the May/June,1993 issue of the Newsletter, of a vendor questionnaire indicated that the Exhibit was a favorable experience for almost half the vendors. A $15 fee for the Companions’ program was implemented for the first time; this was still a real bargain!
The 1993 Symposium, held in Orlando, had special activities to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Society. There were special sessions on the development of technologies over the 40 years and historical vacuum equipment was displayed in the Exhibit hall. The display was made possible by an arrangement which Paul Holloway made with a museum curator from Gainesville; the cost would otherwise have been prohibitive. The program was the largest ever but it was noted that the ratio of papers to registrants had decreased to 1.76, the lowest ever. The Program Chair, Dennis Manos, reported that the Divisions had been so aggressive that he had been unable to decrease the size of the program, as he had intended! There were 116 invited papers, partly due to the historical sessions to celebrate the anniversary. The Thin Film Division had an invited session on the history and future prospects for thin film technology; the session was video-taped. The final program book was typeset and perfect bound, rather than spiral bound as in previous years; although this was cheaper, it was less convenient during sessions because the book could not be folded open. A new feature was the continuous running, outside the Exhibit, of a video tape of equipment. The Symposium was very well attended with all hotel rooms being reserved. Two topical conferences were included in the Symposium and repeated the following year in Denver; “Biomaterials Interfaces”, which would lead eventually to the formation of a new Division, and “Key to Competitiveness: the Science and Technology of Manufacturing”, which was the basis for the formation of the first Technical Group. For the latter conference, a Primer, which contained abstracts of the talks, was provided to the attendees; the sessions were recorded on video tape, copies of which could be purchased. An “Old Guard Reception” was held for all current AVS members who had joined in 1968 or earlier.
In 1994, the Future Sites Committee recommended that, to obtain reasonable dates, the Symposium sites should be selected and reserved seven years in advance. San Francisco had already been selected in 1993 for the 2001 Symposium because of the offer to IUVSTA to host IVC-15.
In mid 1995, Ed Greeley, who had served since 1965 as the Exhibit Manager took over new responsibilities at AIP and, after the Symposium in Minneapolis, turned over the responsibility for managing the Exhibit to Bob Finnegan, who had been involved with the AVS Exhibit since 1992. Ed’s contribution to the Exhibit was recognized during the Awards Ceremony in Minneapolis with a statement “Ed’s experience and show management ability, bolstered by an able staff, have been key factors in making the AVS SHOW the premium exhibit for manufacturers of vacuum related products. The AVS SHOW, over the years, has successfully overcome inadequate loading docks, power outages, custom difficulties, union “hassles,” plumbing troubles, etc. But, somehow, the show has managed to open on time.” Ed died of cancer on April 15, 1997; his obituary by Jack Singleton appeared in the July/Aug Newsletter.
Since 1980, each Symposium has had its own logo but Denver had two for the 1994 Symposium! The “bucking bronco” logo initially used had to be replaced early in 1994 when the painting on which it was based was sold! There were 250 more papers given in 1994 than in the previous year, partly because the NANO-3 conference was held at the same time. Although the target rejection rate was 20%, the actual value was 13%; the SSD actually rejected 20% of the papers submitted for their program but still held three parallel sessions! To encourage attendance, 15,700 flyers were mailed to non-members who were on Chapter mailing lists; as a result, 31 attended the Symposium, but their registration fees did not cover the mailing cost for the flyers! An Equipment Manufacturers Application Review poster session was held instead of the New Products session; 19 companies gave 21 poster presentations. The Thin Film Division held a Workshop on Sputtering on the Sunday before the symposium and Educational Outreach sessions were held in the Exhibit area during the symposium. A new feature in 1994 was a “mini-tutorial” on “Nanometer-scale Science: Fabrication and Characterization”, which was given on the Sunday afternoon before the Symposium. The Exhibit guide was mounted on the web; four computers were available in the Exhibit area to allow people to search for vendors and equipment. By 1996, the “virtual show” was available on the web twenty-four hours a day. This, of course, means that attendees may not actually attend the show in person, during the busy symposium.
After the 1995 Symposium in Minneapolis, a local newspaper estimated that the Symposium had contributed $2.3M to the Minneapolis economy, and a reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune commented on meeting up with the AVS 5k run early in the morning, in the dark and cold. On learning that several of the 114 participants were in their seventies and one was over eighty, he mused that “maybe vacuum packing really does maintain freshness”! Although attendance was considerably lower than in 1994, the same number of AVS members attended. There was a 30% increase in the number of requests for VCR and video monitors for presentations! The number of Exhibit booths was slightly lower than in 1994 although the number of companies was almost the same; the ratio of booths to companies declined from 1.685 in 1992 to 1.58 in 1995, as larger companies continued to cut back there exhibits. Brede Registration replaced IRIS in handling the registration, but Yvonne Towse supervised the registration operation, as she has done since then.
The timing of the 1996 Symposium in Philadelphia conflicted with Semicon, after Semicon rescheduled their exhibit without regard for the AVS dates. This cause a problem for several small companies who were unable to be at both exhibits, but several informed Bob Finnegan that they would re-appear in 1997. Because the Convention Center had double-booked the exhibit space, AVS received $53,000 in compensation, but the Exhibit was held in a less than ideal space with low ceilings. To “compensate”, special events were held in the Exhibit; a “happy hour’ was held on Tuesday and the Mummers paraded through the Exhibit. Initially, the LAC wanted to keep the exhibit open till 8.30pm on Tuesday and invite people from local industries to attend after work. However, this was not a popular idea with the exhibitors and the normal hours were maintained. An Industrial Outreach program was held but the 75 attendees found the three mini courses to be too advanced. To reduce travel costs, the abstract selection was held at the O’Hare Hilton, in Chicago, rather than at the Symposium site, as had been the practice for many years. Subsequent abstract selection meetings have also been held in Chicago, except for the 2001 IVC-10/AVS Symposium, which was held in Namur, Belgium. To contain the program size, an individual was limited to one presentation, although they might be co-authors on other papers; this limitation had not been imposed since 1981. On the day before the Symposium the TFD held a workshop on “Recent Advances in Sputtering” which was dedicated to the memory of John Vossen; his wife, Joan, graciously attended.
The 1997 Symposium, held in San Jose, had the largest total attendance ever. AVS had contracted the registration to Convention Data Services (CDS) and their system passed a stiff initial test since there were 3076 registrants for the technical sessions with an additional 1132 attending only the Exhibit. The location in the heart of Silicon Valley obviously had a big influence! CDS have handled the registration since 1997. There were 912 oral and 304 poster presentations in 109 oral and 3 large poster sessions. However, the San Jose Convention Center barely had enough space for the technical sessions and the Exhibit, so that the short courses had to be held in nearby hotels. The rental cost for the Center was also very high; $75,000 compared to $35,000 in Philadelphia. Hotel accommodation was also limited near the Center and many attendees had to commute from hotels several miles away.
For 1998, the name of the Symposium was changed, replacing “National” by “International”. This was a recommendation from the LRPC retreat in 1997; they felt that the change was justified by the international appeal of the Symposium, as evidenced by the foreign attendance. In the Jan/Feb, 1998 issue of the Newsletter, the number of papers and attendance at the 1991 to 1996 Symposia were compared; over this period, 14% of the attendance was foreign. The LRPC made the recommendation after deciding against changing the name of the Society; they considered that the change in the Symposium title was “much less controversial”. However, it was severely criticized by many foreign scientists since this designation of a conference implies a truly international program committee whereas the Symposium Program Committee was essentially composed of scientists based in the U.S.A. However, the President encouraged the Divisions to involve more foreign members in the program selection process. This 44th Symposium also coincided with the centenary of the electron’s discovery and several special sessions and events were held. There were 112 oral and 2 very large poster sessions to cope with the 950 oral and 312 poster papers; the rejection rate was 5%. The Chair of each Division and topical conference was asked to select up to three papers as Symposium highlights; these were provided to the press for publicity. The change in presentation technology was quite evident at this Symposium. LCD projectors were becoming standard, although the daily rental cost was about $500, 35mm projectors and VCRs were provided only on request, and video presentations were allowed only by invited speakers. By 2001, the A/V cost was about $100 per attendee! John Weaver’s Welch Award lecture on Tuesday was recorded by Pacific Northwest National Lab in analog format, then digitized and compressed and posted on the web by Thursday morning!
Although 15,000 copies of an Exhibit promotion were mailed to exhibitors and subscribers to trade magazines, the exhibitors reported a significant drop in the business resulting from the 1998 Exhibit and some were considering either downsizing or ceasing to participate altogether. The Exhibitors wanted to see more engineers and technician attend and recommended that more emphasis be placed on vacuum technology in the program. In fact, sessions on “Partial Pressure Measurements” & “Process Control” were very well attended. It had been proposed in 1998 that AVS take over management of the Exhibit from AIP but this was not advantageous, either financially or operationally; AIP actually commits 55% of Bob Finnegan’s time and 70% of an associate to marketing, promoting and organizing the exhibit.
At the 1999 Symposium in Seattle, a session on “Vacuum Contributions to the Semiconductor Industry (1950-1975)” was organized by Bruce Kendall on behalf of both the History Committee and VTD. As the President noted in his final report, the special nature of the session was that the speakers were the actual people who made most of the contributions! After the Symposium, the Program Chair, Luke Hinkle, published in the Nov/Dec issue of the Newsletter a plot of the Symposium attendance between 1991 and 1999; the 1991 Symposium was also in Seattle.
The program for the 2000 Symposium in Boston was organized along topical themes, rather than as Divisional programs, in an attempt to re-establish the unity of the program which had suffered over the years due to the emphasis on Divisional programs and topical conferences. Some Divisions objected to this change because they felt that they had lost control of their program. Of course, 20 years earlier, the Program Chair did control all aspects of the program but this authority had been ceded to the Divisions over the years. There were several special sessions on the future of technology in the new millennium, even if these were one year early! Where possible, poster sessions were held in the Exhibit hall, as requested by the exhibitors.
Since the 2001 Symposium in San Francisco was another joint meeting with the IUVSTA’s IVC-15 and ECOSS-11. the planning process was different from usual because of the international nature of the Program Committee, which met for the first time in Namur, Belgium in March 2000. There were 199 invited papers and 1580 abstracts were submitted. However, the events of September 11 caused 450 papers to be withdrawn and many registrations were cancelled; there were about 60 no-shows at each poster session. Although the Japanese government forbade travel by funded scientists, 26% of the 862 foreign attendees were from Japan. The Program Chair, Roger Stockbauer, worked hard to re-schedule talks and minimize the number of blank spots in the program. The plenary speaker, David King, was unable to give his talk at the scheduled time because his flight to San Francisco was delayed by a bomb threat; he gave it later in the week. The New York staff did an excellent job in maintaining the organizational aspects of the meeting, only a few weeks after they had evacuated the office and lost many of the electronic files. However, the meeting went well and the “Halloween costumes” donned by the LAC, the AVS staff and some attendees at the Awards Reception on October 31 lent a festive touch. Several companies withdrew from the Exhibit due both to the poor economic situation in the technology field and as a result of September 11. As a result of all these effects, the deficit from the symposium was about $350,000. Due to cancellations, AVS paid a penalty of almost $130,000 to the Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel. In addition, AVS was also committed to pay $40,000 to IUVSTA. In addition to the usual AVS events at a Symposium, IUVSTA held its General Meeting and two Executive Council meetings.
Attendance at the 2002 Symposium in Denver was again lower than expected, reflecting the poor state of the semiconductor industry. The number of companies represented in the Exhibit was almost 25% lower than in Boston in 2000; the decrease in the number of booths was even higher, at 30%. This was in spite of an increased marketing effort, which included a direct mailing of 20,000 promotional invitations, and an attractive web site previewing the Exhibit. To encourage attendees to visit the Exhibit, the poster sessions were held in the same area and one poster session was held between 11am and 2pm on Wednesday. The Rocky Mountain Chapter and the Exhibitors & Manufacturers Committee presented a special workshop on “The Entrepreneurial Initiative-A Colorado Perspective’ featuring the challenges facing people who start small businesses.
After the 1991 Symposium, Rich Colton had suggested that electronic submission of abstracts should be tested to reduce the amount of paper which had to be handled. For the 1995 Symposium in Minneapolis, the Call for Papers provided an e-mail address for obtaining a template for an abstract, which was then returned by e-mail and was automatically entered in the database without re-keying, as had been required till then. There were 300 requests for the template and 200 were returned, equally divided between pc and Mac users. There were, difficulties with symbols and Greek letters and all the 200 abstracts required editing. The RTF format required also turned out to be incompatible with the printing of the final program.
For 1996, the Program Chair, Steve Rossnagel worked with Paul Shapiro and Carlos Toro, using MS-Access, to allow for fully-electronic submission and sorting of abstracts, and printing of the program. Authors were encouraged to submit their abstracts either by e-mail or via the web site. The encouragement was by means of a two-week later deadline for electronic versus paper submissions. That year, all but 25 of the nearly 1400 abstracts were submitted electronically! The program committee worked with paper copies for their organization of sessions, but the final program was completely based on the computer database. The Preliminary Program, as well as the Final Program book, containing the abstracts, were printed directly from the computer files. An additional web-based program was developed which allowed potential conference attendees to search the database for abstracts of interest and create a personal program and agenda, as well as to print out the abstracts at their desk months before the conference. In 1997, 98% of the abstracts were submitted by e-mail. For 1999, 1027 of the 1466 abstracts were submitted via the web site while 450 were by e-mail and 11 by fax; the faxed abstracts of course require re-keying. The abstract files were also transmitted electronically to the Program Committee, which resulted in a considerable saving, both in time and cost, as this had previously required the copying, binding, and shipping of 150 books (approximately 75,000 sheets of paper) to the Program Committee. In 2000, the printed Final Program book, with the abstracts, was provided to attendees only on request, rather than being issued to each attendee, as in the past; all the abstracts were available on the web. The Symposium registration and housing reservation forms were also available on-line.
There has been a major attempt over the years to encourage participation by students in the Symposium. The student registration fee has been kept very low, compared to the services provided, and their search for future jobs has been facilitated by a Placement Service or Job Center. AIP ran the operation on a fee basis through 1998 at which time the AVS Board of Directors and Student Issues Committee decided to move the function in-house for financial reasons. Since the 1999 Symposium, the AVS staff has directly managed this event, collecting resumes and job postings in advance of the meeting, as well as on-site. The Center is open all week with interviews scheduled between interested candidates and prospective employers. It is typically a very successful operation with well over 100 resumes, 50-100 job postings, and over 200 participants. This service is provided free-of-charge and all AVS Symposium attendees are welcome to participate. In 1994, the charges of $5 per student and $60 per employer for participation in the Placement Service was discontinued because it raised little revenue and was an annoyance. Possibly due to the removal of the fee, 197 students registered at the 1995 Symposium. However, in 1998, the Student Affairs Committee proposed charging employers $50 for participating, as a way of reducing the cost to AVS!
AIP ran a Career Workshop in both 1994 and 1995, which were attended by about 50 students, but were so heavily oriented to physics careers that it was discontinued. In 1996, a workshop on “Employment Strategies for the 21st Century” was given by Aminta Hawkins of Drexel University, but it was poorly attended and was not repeated; the same information was available on the web. Talks at a Job Information Forum were given by Pat Thiel, Jim Ryan and Jeffrey Y Tsao, representing respectively academia, industry and government. Yvonne Towse, who had previous experience in the AIP Placement Service, suggested that a workshop on interviewing techniques and skills would be useful to students. A workshop on “The Art of Giving Effective Technical Presentations” was scheduled at the 1998 Symposium but was cancelled when only two students registered! The workshop would be useful for a large fraction of speakers at the Symposium! A Job Information Forum in 1999 again had speakers from industry, academia and government, as well as from non-traditional occupations, such as computer science, but it was poorly attended.
A student mixer reception was poorly attended until 1998 when it was held away from the convention centre; 106 students showed up at the Baltimore Brewing Co;! Student responses to a poll in 1999 indicated that the main reason for attending the Symposium was to give a paper, but the intellectual content and the opportunity for networking were also important, as well as visiting a new city! Since 1999, over 200 students per year have received travel support to attend the Symposium through the Dorothy M and Earl S Hoffman Travel Grants. The Student Affairs Committee set up a web site for students to arrange to share accommodation and thus reduce the cost of attending.
In 1994, the Technical Director had suggested that, to supplement the National Symposium in the fall, a spring symposium be held in San Jose in 1996 in combination with the usual short course program and the Northern California Chapter’s annual equipment Exhibit. However, the combination would have required more space than was then available at the LeBaron Hotel, where it had been held for several years. When the short course program and the Exhibit were scheduled for a larger hotel, the idea was revived in 1998 by the Long Range Planning Committee. In 1999, the “International Conference on Advanced Materials and Processes for Microelectronics (ICAMPM)” was held at the Double Tree hotel; J Givens and T Cale were the program chairs.
For 2000, the “1st International Conference on Advanced Materials and Processing for Microelectronics (ICMI-2000)” was organized as a unified program, with David Fraser as Chair, by adding the second ICAMPM to the programs of the five Northern California Chapter Users Groups (Plasma Etch, Thin Films, Ion Implantation, Surface/Interfaces and Chemical Mechanical Polishing). The conference was held in February, 2000 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, along with the short course program and the annual vendor Exhibit. There were 482 attendees, 61 of whom were invited speakers. ICMI-2001 and ICMI-2002 were held in the same location but the attendance was poorer than in 1999, partly due to the poor economy in the area. For ICMI 2001, there were 43 invited and 87 contributed papers over four days but only 130 registrations. Dave Fraser noted that the conference had stiff competition from other conferences on semiconductor topics and that other topics should be considered. For ICMI-2002, there were 41 invited and 51 contributed papers from thirteen countries given over 3 1/2 days but attendance was again poor. Calvin Gabriel, the ICMI 02 chair, noted that the User Groups preferred to hold their own meetings rather than participate in ICMI, and that the original objective of relieving pressure on the International Symposium was not being met. He suggested that the lack of a referenced proceedings might be reducing the number of submissions. In 2000, the organization of the conference was formalized; the AVS President-elect appointed the conference vice-chair for 2001, who became the 2002 Program Chair and then acted as General Chair and advisor in 2003.
Topical Conferences
Topical conferences were held as part of the annual Symposium throughout this Era and separate topical conferences are also organized by divisions. An innovate approach was taken by the Thin Film Division, in 2001, for a conference on “Atomic Layer Deposition” in Monterey, California. All the PowerPoint presentations and the audio of the presentations was given to attendees on a CD. The idea of a “reverse" topical conference was explored in 2001; the logistical planning was done before a “hot” topic was selected. The conference site in Monterey had been reserved for 2002; after Sept 11, the chosen topic was “Understanding and Operating in a Threat Environment” and the conference was supported by NSTD, PNNL, NIST, ONR and NSET. There were two plenary talks and seventeen invited speakers but only 55 attendees. Unfortunately, Monterey was the wrong location for such a topic, which would have drawn a much larger audience in Washington, DC!
AVS also supports other topical conferences, which are not organized by AVS, in various ways. Since 2001, requests from these topical conferences for support were classified as:
i)
Endorsement: when there is no financial involvement. This applies to
self-sustaining meetings such as PCSI
ii) Sponsorship with limited financial commitment
iii) Sponsorship with financial commitment
iv) Fully supported, such as featured topics at the Symposium.
