Era 3: Section 1
1979-1990:
Expansion into
Microelectronics and Energy
There were no major policy challenges during this Era and changes were concerned mainly with the detailed operation of AVS. Changes to the Constitution and By-laws were more administrative than substantive.
For example, in 1983, the approved revisions were to make the wording gender neutral, to reduce the required membership qualification period for Emeritus Member from 20 to 15 years, to require that the Officers, Directors and Trustees be members of the Society, to eliminate the Regional Area Groups (RAG) which had been ineffective, to provide that the result of tie votes in elections be decided by the Board, and to add the Short Course Executive Committee to the list of Standing Committees. It is perhaps surprising that, till then, the AVS President might not have been a member; this possibility had not even occurred to anyone in the past! These changes resulted from the Clerk’s efforts in updating the “Policy and Procedures Manual,” as the earlier “Standard Policy Manual” was renamed in 1981. In the process, he reviewed the minutes of all Board meetings since 1964 and discovered several inconsistencies which were removed by these revisions. The new Manual was sent to all committee chairs.
The Society was, and still is, incorporated in Massachusetts and must have an official address there. In 1981, Mars Hablanian agreed to be the Resident Agent in Massachusetts and continued for over twenty years. In 1986, an application to register AVS in California was initially rejected because the state required a letter from Massachusetts stating that AVS was “in good standing” but Massachusetts would only verify that AVS existed! However, registration was granted after submission of the auditor’s report!
Discussion was renewed on other topics which were not significant for the governance of the Society but took up a lot of Board time. In 1979, the Board forbade any type of lobbying activity with any government agency, at any level. Another proposal to change the name of the Society was raised in 1980 but no alternative was forthcoming. The Vacuum Technology Division strongly opposed a change since vacuum was the common theme of the Society and noted that it would also be unfair to “Vacuum Societies” in other countries which had used the same nomenclature (e.g. Chinese Vacuum Society). The Board again concluded that “a rose by any other name” applied and that any confusion was in the public mind, not in the scientific community. However, the issue was raised once again in a Newsletter article in 1989. Also in 1980, for the third time in twelve years, a proposal was made to establish a Corporate Associates program to increase publicity, but the Board again concluded that it would not produce significant revenue and the publicity aspect was questionable. Despite this decision, in 1981, a questionnaire was sent to 78 companies which were not JVST advertisers enquiring whether they would consider paying up to $500 to become a corporate member. There were a total of five responses, four of which were negative, but one company did send a check, which was returned!
In 1990, the Constitution was revised to include a “charter” for the Society, which read “AVS is a non-profit organization which promotes communication, dissemination of knowledge, recommended practices, research and education in the use of vacuum and other controlled environments to develop new materials, process technology, devices and related understanding of material properties for the betterment of humankind."
At a Board meeting on April 9, 1979, the new logo designed by Ed Sickafus and Kevin Stacey, which incorporated stylized Magdeburg hemispheres and had been used on the cover of the 1978 Symposium program, was approved as the AVS logo. This was announced in the the May, 1979 issue of the Newsletter, when it was first used on the masthead. A tag line “a member society of AIP” was added to the logo in 1987, as shown in the Newsletter banner; it was felt that this verified the scientific standing of AVS. This was at the same time as the “no vacuum cleaner" shirts were implemented by the Publicity Committee. A logo has been used on all AVS stationary since 1984; till then, it had been used only on brochures and other published documents. A new version of the logo was then proposed in 1989 and the members invited to choose from a variety of new designs, both with and without a tag line. Five samples, produced by designers commissioned by the office, were published in the Newsletter; one symbolically retained the shape of the previous Magdeburg hemispheres logo, another featured the globe inside a belljar. The current logo, with the tag line “American Vacuum Society - A Member Society of the American Institute of Physics,” received over 80% of the 700 votes, and was approved at the Board meeting during the 1989 Symposium and was used from January, 1990.
The Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC), was formed in 1980 to survey technical growth areas that might be appropriate for the Society to enter. In the January, 1981 Newsletter, the LRPC published its original objectives; attempt to get universities involved in vacuum education, review administration of courses, and work to expand the scope of the Society. Beginning in 1982, the immediate Past President served as the LRPC Chair. It soon became obvious that, before the Society could aggressively seek new technical areas, it had to ensure an administrative structure that could cope with such growth. The Committee scheduled an intensive, one-day meeting of the Board, with representatives of all the Divisions and several committees, to discuss both the expansion of the National Symposium program and the structure and financing of JVST. This meeting was the forerunner of the “town hall” meetings, which have since been convened to address topics of widespread importance to the Society. In 1982, the LRPC proposed an increase in the term of a Director from two to three years to allow Directors more time to become familiar with the complexities of the Society. However, the Board considered that this was already being handled by renominating some individuals for a second term. The change to a three year term was not made until 1999. A Leadership Committee was formed in 1982 to review several other proposals, including an executive committee of the Board which would meet more frequently and formation of a technical advisory board consisting of the division chairs. No action was taken on either.
In 1988, a proposal was again made to increase the size of the Board by having Directors elected from each Division. The rationale behind such proposals has been to assure better representation of each division’s views, particularly in the case of the smaller divisions. The proposal was rejected in favor of the existing at-large mode of election, arguing that the Directors must represent all the members, and that the attendance of a division (or chapter) representative at a Board meeting provides an effective way of presenting any case. From time to time, other proposals have been made to enlarge the size of the Board to ensure specific representation. However, on examination of the composition of the Board at any time, this seemed unnecessary. Directors have represented industry, government, university, manufacturing, sales and also different countries. In 1980, for example, Don Mattox, Peter Hobson and Howard Patton were from government research laboratories, Bill Spicer was from university, John Thornton was from industry and Vivienne Harwood was self employed, but had previous experience in both university and government labs. Pete Hobson was a Canadian working in Canada and Vivienne was originally from England but was living in the USA after a period in Canada!
The terms of some Directors was already long enough for them to be nominated for President! John Thornton became President-Elect in 1980; the remaining year of his original term as Director was filled by the appointment of Peter Hobson. In 1982, this was repeated with the election of Ed Sickafus as President-Elect; Frank Ura was appointed to complete Ed’s term as Director. In 1986, John Coburn resigned from the Awards and Scholarships Committee on his election to President-Elect and Len Feldman was appointed to replace him. John later served a full term on the Committee and was Chair in 1997. In 1986, nine candidates were placed on the ballot for the election of three Directors; this was a single deviation from the usual slate of six candidates. Another innovation that year was more long-lasting; the addition of photographs to the short biographies of the candidates included with the ballot paper sent to each member.
In 1984, Roger Young ended his eleven years as Treasurer and was succeeded by Rey Whetten, who had already served as President in 1976 and was thus familiar with the details of the finances. This was a very smooth transition since Roger and Rey both lived in Schenectady, NY. Rey went on to serve as Treasurer for a record fifteen years. In 1984, Jack Singleton resigned after thirteen years as Clerk in order to run for President; he served as President in 1986. Bill Westwood succeeded Jack as Clerk in 1985 and served till 1995. Hubert Schleuning, who was a Founding Member and a Past-President, served as Chair of the Tellers Committee for twelve years until 1982 when, operationally, the function was taken over by the Executive Secretary and since then has been carried out by the New York office.
Over the years, there was concern that some financial transactions might endanger the Society’s (501).[c].(3) tax exempt status. The 1977 IRS ruling had emphasized that educational activities, such as short courses, and scholarships, were vital to retaining this status. Interestingly, publication of scientific information in JVST was not an advantage because IRS considered that publication was mostly to advance the reputation of the authors! All AVS actions, at all levels of Society, Division and Chapter operations, must be consistent with IRS requirements; this even included ensuring that AVS letterhead was not used for any activity which did not conform to (501).[c].(3) and that copies of all contracts were forwarded to the New York office. The auditor also indicated that chapter reserves should not exceed 50-100% of the chapter’s annual operating expense. In 1986, there was concern that the Northern California Chapter’s efforts to contact companies to encourage donations to Chabot College could be construed by IRS that AVS was raising the money and letters were sent to the companies to clarify the situation. In 1987, it was determined that interaction with a (501).[c].(6) organization, such as the AVEM, would not compromise the (501).[c].(3) status provided that any financial arrangements were agreed upon first.
The Disclaimer Policy Committee reported in 1979 that the legal opinion was that a disclaimer statement for courses, standards and monographs did not guard the society against litigation. However, the attorney, William A. Boylon, recommended that it be included as a deterrent and such a statement has since been included in all these documents. In 1978, the Association Professional Liability insurance policy had been doubled to $1,000,000 and in 1979 it was extended to cover ‘errors and omissions’ by officers of the Chapters and Divisions as well as the Board of Directors, but the insurance was cancelled by the broker on July 1, 1986, as it was for all organizations, including AIP. A new $1,000,000 Comprehensive Liability Insurance policy was obtained to cover all executive members at all levels while on AVS business, including travel to meetings. However, the coverage for events resulting from providing alcohol was eliminated unless the alcohol was served by a hotel or restaurant; that business was then liable, not AVS. The premium for this insurance increased threefold in 1987 to $5,500 per year.
In 1986, Nancy Hammond was tasked with archiving those AVS records which were legally required. However, the Office Liaison Committee reported in 1987 that a 100 sq. ft. secure storage space would be required and this was not available in the AIP building in New York. As protection against fire in the Manhattan location, a box of copied records was stored in the AIP building in Woodbury on Long Island. Improved arrangements had to await the move of AIP to a new site during Era 4.
In 1990, a photo album of the Symposium and other events during the previous year were presented to the Past-President, Joe Greene, as a memento. A letter of appreciation was sent to the President of the University of Illinois and a plaque commemorating Greene’s presidency was presented to the University. Every year since then, similar tokens of appreciation and recognition have been made. In 1991, the presentation of a plaque to the 1990 President, Dave Hoffman, was made at Ford Research by Ed Sickafus, a previous AVS President and a Ford manager!
One should not forget that there was also a lighter side to the AVS! Ted Madey recounts that, while the President, Past-President and President-Elect were interviewing candidates for meetings manager in 1981, a candidate asked which was which and John Thornton replied that that should be easy; the Past-President (John Vossen) looked relieved, the President (Ted) looked tired and the President-Elect (him) looked apprehensive! For several years, the Board of Directors donned “funny hats” for the Awards Reception, supposedly to make them easy to spot in the crowd! In 1987, in Anaheim, they were issued with very large sombreros. In Seattle, umbrellas were combined with sunglasses fitted with “windshield washers”; the practice died out later. Was it because we became more serious?
During this era, the membership of the Society increased significantly; the number essentially doubled between 1978 and 1989, to over 5,500. This increase reflected growing participation by those involved in developing the science and technologies for microelectronics; plasma deposition, plasma etching, sputtering, and surface analysis matched many of the technical areas areas covered by the AVS. The membership did, however, continue to be very mobile; although 290 members did not renew in 1980, the membership still increased by about 8%! The membership exceeded 5,000 for the first time in 1983 and this triggered an increase in the number of AVS representatives on the AIP Governing Board from two to three. There were about 300 Associate and 300 Student members in this total.
Of course, steps were taken to encourage people in the growing semiconductor fields to become members! Letters were sent to all the non-member authors of papers at the 1980 Symposium; about half were not members, but 25% of these were from overseas and another 25% were students. To better acquaint both members and potential members with the scope of AVS activities, an Activities and Information Booklet was published in 1980, and an updated version was printed in 1982. New Member Information brochures were produced in 1981 and 1988.
Membership application forms at that time required the signature of two current AVS members and were reviewed by the Membership Committee. This procedure was originally introduced to convince AIP that the AVS membership was sufficiently scientific for AVS to be admitted as a member of AIP. After AIP membership was obtained in 1975, its main use was to ensure that libraries did not subscribe to JVST as a member and thus pay the much lower member rate for the journal. It was decided in 1982 that, to save the time of the Membership Committee, the Executive Secretary, Nancy Hammond, could approve the signatures, provided they were clear. However, the paperwork involved with each new application, including the time required to verify signatures, was about 30 minutes and, with up to 900 applications to be processed each year, the time was substantial! In 1984, the requirement for the signatures was relaxed for new applications at the Symposium, which accounted for most applications, and this resulted in considerable savings in Nancy’s time. The requirement for the signatures was abolished from 1988.
A few changes were also made in the membership recruitment. In 1982, the Membership Committee was relieved of any responsibility for recruiting new members; its responsibility was to review new applications, membership categories and services. Till then, there had been a potential conflict between the recruiting and approval functions of the Committee, although two sub-committees had dealt with the two functions. The Publicity Committee now took over responsibility for recruiting activities. In 1987, this Committee’s efforts to raise the public awareness of AVS resulted in the “no vacuum cleaner” shirts, developed by Donna Bakale. A membership form was also printed in JVST once a year to reach readers who were not members.
In 1982, it was decided that anyone who had been an Associate Member for six years should become a full member on completion of a new application. The requirement that a scholarship winner resign their membership was discontinued in 1982. This had been required to abide by IRS rules but was no longer necessary. In fact, prior to 1981, it had been assumed that IRS rules required that a member not receive any monetary awards or prizes from AVS but the restriction was then found to apply only to persons having control of the awards; i.e. Officers, Directors and Trustees. In 1981, following the example of the American Physical Society, the Board voted to provide up to 10 complimentary one year memberships and free symposium registration to immigrant scientists; the only complimentary member was V. Lembersky in 1986. In 1982, another proposal to establish a Fellow category was rejected.
A Membership Dues Committee was set up in 1979 and the membership dues were increased several times in the next decade. They rose from $25 to $60 over this Era but this was comparable with dues of other societies and AVS members received JVST as part of the membership. An additional benefit in 1984 was a copy of the “History of Vacuum Science and Technology,” the special volume commemorating the 30th anniversary of AVS. The Student Member dues also increased from $5 to $20 over the period. to be closer to the incremental run-off cost of JVST, which was $15 in 1981. In 1984, the AVS attorney, John Y. Taggart of Windels, Marx, Davis & Ives, gave an opinion that the student dues only needed to be a “substantial fraction” of the the JVST incremental run-off costs in order to satisfy IRS and Post Office rules. By 1986, the incremental run-off cost had increased to $35 and the question was raised as to whether the $20 student dues were still a “substantial fraction.” In 1979, the annual charge of $2 to the members who elected to belong to a second chapter was replaced by a one time fee of $10 for new members who wished to exercise this option; only 100 members at that time belonged to two chapters.
Of the AVS dues, $1 per member was passed on to AIP to cover the cost of sending Physics Today to each member and for other services. However, this had been unchanged for many years because it required a change in the AIP Constitution. The Board agreed in 1982 to increase the transfer to AIP to $2 per member; half of this was considered a voluntary contribution to AIP. This arrangement was repeated the following year but was rendered unnecessary when AIP increased the dues transfer to $2 in 1984.
The membership records and renewals were handled by AIP during this Era but there were a number of problems as AIP struggled with computer systems. In 1981, the whole Thin Film Division membership was deleted! Although a new computer system was introduced by AIP later that year to improve the timeliness of the membership records, problems continued during 1982. By 1987 their Artec computer system could no longer cope with membership renewals and a new membership renewal system, FAMIS, was developed. Although it was successfully tested in 1989, both APS and OSA decided not to have AIP handle their membership records. Their withdrawal meant that the cost of FAMIS would be spread across fewer members and this would likely increase the cost to AVS. Moreover, AVS had already had to cancel one meeting due to a late mailing to the members by AIP and another meeting had to be cancelled in 1990.
The Office and Computer Automation Committee then estimated that new equipment and additional staff would be required for the AVS office to take over the membership records and dues fulfillment from AIP. A quote from SLACK, Inc. in New Jersey to perform these services was lower than either the AIP or AVS options, as was their estimate for generating the Membership Directory. The Board decided to transfer these services from AIP to SLACK starting with the membership renewals for 1991; the cost was $4.90 per member, which was about 50% of what AIP had charged. SLACK continued to provide this service till it was transferred to CDS in 2003.
In 1979, a special committee was established on Placement Services. It recommended that advertisements for jobs in the Newsletter be replaced by a listing of new job openings, It also arranged for the AIP to provide an Employment Opportunities Centre at the Symposium in New York; there were no travel costs for Beverley Citrynell of AIP to run the Centre there! It provided a confidential “post-office box” method for people interested in job postings. Over 100 attendees and 38 companies took advantage of the centre and another 26 companies posted job openings. Initially it was decided not to use the AIP services at the 1980 Symposium in Detroit, because of the added travel costs, but it was in fact repeated; 48 companies and almost 100 attendees used it.
In 1989, Georgia Fisanick made a presentation to the Board to encourage special travel support for women and minorities to attend AVS, citing the report of a Presidential Task Force on Women and Minorities. She was motivated by her observation that there were few minority attendees at the symposium in Atlanta. Although Caroline Aita noted that women members had played an important part in AVS and continued to be very active, a Women and Minorities Committee was established in 1992.
The Society had a strong financial position at the beginning of Era 3; in 1979, the reserves were just over $270,000, which was about 50% of the annual budget. The objective of the Board was to maintain a total reserve which equaled the annual operating budget. This had been the case at the beginning of Era 2 in 1968. By 1982, the net worth of the Society had increased to over $500,000; and the surplus that year was over $165,000. The Chapters had significant reserves and there was concern that this would exceed the 50% of operating expenses recommended by the auditor. By 1990, the net worth was over $3 million with the Chapters and the Divisions having a total of almost $1 million in their accounts. The average annual growth in the Society’s net worth between 1985 and 1990 was 18%! Separate reserve funds were maintained for the major expense items; publications, the short courses, and the Symposium. By 1990 the sum of these reserves approximated the annual cash flow in each category.
The reserves were in very conservative investment vehicles as compared to other societies, such as AIP, an Investment Policy Committee was established, with the Treasurer as Chair, to determine whether the investment policy should be changed. The committee determined that AIP’s investments required daily intervention in the market, which was impossible for AVS, but it recommended that an Investment Committee be established in 1986 to manage an initial investment of $300,000. By 1987, the amount invested in various mutual funds by the Investment Committee had been increased to $600,000, but there was a market “crash”on “Black Monday”. In the November, 1987 issue of the Newsletter, Dave Hoffman reported on surviving this crash; the investment funds still had a value of $900,000. By October, 1989, the investment value was about $1 million and, in 1990, the goal of realizing a return which was 2% higher than Treasury bills had almost been met despite two market “failures” and 33% of the assets were now invested. However, the investment value decreased by about 5% during 1990.
In 1979, an Accounting Committee was set up to allocate charges against the appropriate cost centers in the budget in order to show the actual cost of providing various functions; e.g. the actual time spent by the AVS office in managing courses was charged as a course expense. In 1989, the allocation of the office expenses was 28.9% for courses, 21.1% for the Symposium and 50% for Membership activities. After 1982, the President’s signature was no longer needed to manage the AVS accounts, as it had been from the founding of the Society. This made for a speedier process in dealing with financial matters. In 1984 the Board instituted a policy of an annual transfer of funds from the AVS general accounts into each of the endowments of the major awards, in order to build up sufficient reserves to sustain the awards indefinitely.
Roger Young terminated his ten years service as Treasurer in 1983; he received a letter of gratitude signed by all the Presidents during this period. Rey Whetten took over as Treasurer and he initiated the use of a computer to maintain the financial records. At the end of 1984, he noted that the electronic transfer of funds from AIP had improved the AVS financial position at any given time because the funds were credited to the AVS accounts in much less time than previously. In 1988, Rey began to issue checks for up to $2,000, resulting in a cost reduction; until then, all checks were issued by AIP and each incurred a service charge of 5/8%. However, issuing a lot of small checks took more of Rey’s time!
In 1985, the IRS audited the 1982 financial records, including the financial statements of all the Chapters and Divisions. Although some chapters had income from advertising, this was too small to raise any problems with IRS. Since 1981, each Chapter and Division made funding requests to the Board when necessary rather than receiving a set annual allocation.
There were significant changes in both personnel and the operation of the AVS during this Era.
In May 1979, Marcia Schlissel was hired to handle the growing course registration, which had previously been done with part-time assistance from AIP. Marcia brought a new character persona to AVS; outside work, she was a singer in a band and she eventually left AVS in 1990 to pursue this second career. Marcia’s every day dress was, however, representative of her other avocation and usually made an impact in the eyes of students registering for courses! Margaret Banks (Stringer) recalls Marcia being taken aside by Canadian customs on a trip to Ottawa to run courses. Marcia just could not understand why they picked her out, even though she was wearing a leopard skin outfit with spikes on her belt and bracelet! She was, however, a very efficient and dedicated member of staff.
In 1980, Anke Junge was presented with a plaque for her long and outstanding service to AVS. Although Anke was not a member of the AVS staff, she was responsible for the production of JVST. She was a dedicated worker and spent long hours at the Symposium to complete manuscripts as they were turned in by the authors, in order to minimize the publication time. Bill Westwood especially remembers her efforts in a basement room at Disneyland Hotel in 1976 after she had partied the night before! Although she was originally from Germany, she loved Manhattan so much that she resigned from AIP when the publishing operations moved to Long Island!
With the growth in the size of the Society and the Symposium, there was an increasing burden on the volunteers. Tony Messina, who had just served as the 1979 Local Arrangements Chair, made a case that this job was now so big that it warranted a permanent organizer. The Board took steps in 1981 to relieve some of this burden. A job description for a Meetings Manager was prepared and a search committee, chaired by John Thornton, was formed. More than a hundred applications were received; the committee interviewed fifteen of these and unanimously chose Marion Churchill for the position. She started just prior to the 1981 National Symposium with the responsibility for the organizational activities associated with the Symposium and other AVS meetings. Until then, the Symposium had been run totally by the Program and Local Arrangements Committees. After a decade with Nancy Hammond as the only full time employee, the AVS staff had tripled in three years!
The 1979 Program Chair, Ray Berg, had suggested that the program book might require an editor to relieve the burden on the Chair. In 1984, the Board authorized the transfer of the routine tasks associated with the program (i.e. handling of the abstracts, acknowledgements, standard correspondence, preparation of the preliminary program for printing, mailing, etc.) to the New York office.
The “computerization” of the office really developed in this Era. A Radio Shack TRS 80, with multiple disc drives and a printer, was purchased for the office in 1980, the first step in the conversion from the electric typewriter to the internet! This machine was replaced in 1982 by a Dictaphone 3000, which used 4 double-sided discs. The rapidly changing world of office electronics had begun, a result of the technological development in which AVS members were increasingly involved! However, this also heralded the age of incompatibility; a Data General terminal was required to access the AIP records! In 1984, AIP was testing GTE telemail for communication between locations but an additional Radio Shack computer would have been required to join the trial. This was not considered worthwhile since the telemail system was not very successful. However, Hugh Garvin suggested that e-mail might prove be useful in maintaining communication with Chapters and he noted that the Optical Society of America were testing a system for abstract submission! The Office Equipment and Personnel Committee was set up in 1984 to investigate what equipment and personnel would be required to process all the Symposium abstracts in the New York office. The software required was transferable with the correct equipment and an IBM pc/AT Model 99 was purchased with a laser printer (IBM 5201 Quietmaster). The Dictaphone was retained for word processing until 1985, when it was replaced by another IBM pc.
The Committee reported that there was little cross-training between the three people in the office (Nancy, Marcia and Marian) and two of them were not computer experts. In fact, Nancy Hammond viewed her word processor as a slightly advanced typewriter, which indeed it was, and Marion Churchill avoided computers fairly successfully until she retired in 2000! Since they could not provide back-up for Marcia, the Committee recommended that another person be hired and trained in the different tasks involving computers since it was apparent that there would be increasing reliance on these in the administration of the Society. Diana Beasley was hired in February, 1985 to provide backup for Nancy and Marcia and to be responsible for the abstract entry for the Symposium. Two IBM pc’s were bought for the purpose, and a consultant started development of an appropriate software package. Many AVS members, including Jerry Woodall, Jim Harper, Roger Stockbauer, and Mike Slade, were deeply involved in the implementation of this D-base II system, which was in full operation by May 14, logging abstracts for the 1985 Symposium in Houston; the entire procedure was introduced without serious problems. However, Diana Beasley suddenly resigned and left at the peak of the abstract processing period. Margaret Banks (now Stringer) was hired in June to replace her but this was not in time to help with the flood of abstracts. The problem was only solved by the dedicated effort of Marcia Schlissel, who worked very long hours to complete the process, thus avoiding what could have been a serious slippage in the timetable.
In 1986, another IBM pc was purchased so that the Program Chair could access the Symposium program data base in “read only" mode. It may seem inconceivable today that anyone serving as Program Chair would not already have a computer on their desk! The abstract database software was improved for the 1986 joint AVS Symposium and IUVSTA Congress in Baltimore by the Program Chair, Roger Stockbauer. He made his corrections to the program on disks which were shipped to New York for updating the data base. He documented the system and recommended that, in future, modems be used for communication and that the Program Chair have access to the system at night when the office was closed. The software was provided to IUVSTA for future use but, since there is a three year interval between Congresses, it was almost out of date by the next Congress!
When Bill Westwood took over from Jack Singleton as Clerk in 1985, the minutes of Board meetings were generated by Nancy on her word processor, the printed copy mailed to Bill, edited and returned by mail to Nancy for correction. By the time Nancy’s draft reached Bill, his recollection of the meeting was not perfect! First, he started to record the Board meeting on audio tape; later, he wrote the draft minutes and his secretary entered them in her AEI word processor and mailed both the the hard copy and the word processor output to Nancy. Marcia Schlissel then converted this electronic version to Nancy’s word processor, because there was, of course, no standardization of word processors! The situation gradually improved. In 1988, the draft minutes were transmitted between the AVS office and Bill electronically and, by 1993, Bill was generating the minutes on his computer and mailing a floppy disk to New York for printing and distribution to the Board. From today’s vantage, where files are sent back and forth almost instantaneously, this may seem a very small advance but it did not seem so at the time!
The expanding office staff and the increased functions for which they were responsible meant that there was a need for more interaction between the Board and the staff to ensure that both the office and the volunteer committees and the Board could operate efficiently. In 1987, a New York Office Liaison Committee recommended that John Vossen interface with the office on a regular, weekly basis; John Coburn was President-Elect and felt that it was too difficult for him to deal with the office from California. Since both Nancy and Marion reported to the President, there was no day to day overall management. However, the weekly visits by John Vossen did not noticeably improve this! A temporary National Office Committee was established to assist interaction with committees and operated until 1989. Mike Slade was a one man committee on Office and Computer Operation during 1987-90 to assist the office in purchasing, installing and using computers.
In 1987, a facsimile machine was installed in the AVS office. Although the Office Automation Committee deplored the fact that the office was using fax rather than BITNET e-mail, the people the office dealt with, including most members, did not use this e-mail system and fax was much more useful!
In 1989, the Program Chair, Fred Dylla, generated the Call for Papers on a MAC, saving both time and money. This was the first use of desk top publishing in AVS and Sam Bader raised the possibility of electronic publication of the JVST. The continued increase in the number of papers submitted for the Symposium, and the short time available for processing the abstracts, was a problem for the office because it was a huge load over a short time. Frank Jansen, who was then at Xerox in Rochester, was Program Chair for the 1990 symposium in Toronto and Lynn Pizzo handled the abstract processing. She has continued to do so, from Rochester, as an independent Conference Secretary, not an AVS employee.
In June 1989, Nancy Hammond retired from the position of Executive Secretary after a long and dedicated service to the Society. A special reception was held at her last Board meeting, in Albuquerque in May, which happened to coincide with the special festivities for the 25th Annual Symposium of the New Mexico Chapter. She was awarded Honorary Member status at the Awards Ceremony during the 1989 symposium in Boston, although the award was made public on her retirement, unlike other Honorary Memberships. She then became a volunteer to assist the New York police in crowd control for special events. During initial training, a policeman told her to hit him as hard as she could; despite her small stature, she broke his jaw! She was a feisty lady! When Nancy retired, Angela Mulligan (now Klink) was hired, with special responsibility for membership activities. Marcia Schlissel resigned in January, 1990 to pursue her other career as a singer. Elaine Gibbard joined the office just before Christmas, 1989 to learn the data processing of abstracts for the 1990 Symposium but she left in 1990. In 1989, the Long Range Planning Committee again considered whether a Technical Director should be hired but it was again decided that it was an important feature of AVS that it may directed by volunteers rather than by a professional employee. In 1981, Ted Madey introduced annual appraisals for the staff by the “three wise men,” the Past-President, President and President-Elect.
The eventual establishment of the AVS office in Wall Street began with a discussion, in 1986, with AIP on future space needs. AVS estimated the need for a 50% increase in office space within ten years and for additional storage space. AIP suggested that this might be accommodated by a move to new headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1987, AIP first stated that it planned to build a twenty story building on the 335 E 45th Street site but later that year decided to relocate their operations from New York to Washington. The Executive Director, Ken Ford, made a presentation to the AVS Board on the reasons for this decision. However, the Board did not consider them convincing and the AVS representatives on the AIP Governing Board voted against the decision. Ford complained that the AVS representatives should act in the best interests of AIP, irrespective of AVS but this was promptly condemned by the AVS Board and it was pointed out that AIP was meant to represent the member societies. In 1988, AIP decided to increase the rent for space in their New York building on 335 E. 45th Street from $22 per sq. ft. to $38, which was claimed to be the going rate in New York. The increase would have substantially increased AVS costs but it was rescinded by the AIP Governing Board later that year.
Ken Ford subsequently informed the Board in October, 1988 that AIP had no plans to relocate and maintained this position in February, 1989. However, in March 1989, AIP issued a fourteen page statement announcing a relocation to Washington! This decision had clearly been made prior to Ford’s statement in February and the Board voted that it had “no confidence in K. Ford as Executive Director.” Later in 1989, AIP issued a report which highlighted Baltimore as a prime location for the relocation of all AIP activities, including the publishing operation in Woodbury on Long Island; the latter move was apparently due to a failure to obtain zoning changes but, by the end of 1989, AIP had decided not to relocate the publishing operation. In April of 1990, AIP voted to sell the building on 335 E. 45th Street and had established that they would relocate to within fifty miles of Washington; both APS and AAPT decided to join AIP. However, AIP decided that almost thirty of its staff, who were involved in publishing, advertising and exhibit management, needed to remain in New York for operational reasons. The 335 E. 45th Street building was sold and AIP selected College Park, Maryland as its new headquarters, which was to be called the American Center for Physics.
The Board felt that AVS might be better separating its operations from those of AIP, as had been suggested in 1987 by John Vossen. A Relocation Committee was established in 1989 to investigate the options for AVS and the related costs. One of the options was to remain in New York and $1,000,000 was set aside as a building reserve. A representative from the New York Mayor’s office of business development not-for-profit sector, Mary McNamara, made a presentation to the Board and offered assistance in locating suitable premises. She noted that the rental cost would likely be $15-20 per sq. ft, which was much lower than AIP had stated. The purchase of equivalent space would be a factor of ten higher. She recommended a condominium arrangement, which had lower costs for tax-exempt organizations. With the planned sale of the AIP building, it became clear that AVS would have to relocate within two years. Although there was some consideration of other sites, such as Denver, it was decided that relocation within New York would provide the staff continuity.
There were still several steps to take before relocation of the AVS office to Wall Street and these are reported in Era 4.
There was also a change in location of the JVST editorial office. Until 1982, the office had been co-located with the JVST Editor. However, in 1983, it was re-located from North Carolina State University, the Editor’s location, to the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina (MCNC) in Research Triangle Park, NC.
All scholarships and prizes became subject to tax in 1987 and all the AVS “Prizes” were changed to Awards, which were not taxable. In the following, “Award" is used even though the term was not introduced till 1987.
The Peter Mark Memorial Award was the third major award to be established, in 1979. Peter Mark was a very active member of the Society who became editor of JVST in 1974 but died in 1979. The Peter Mark Memorial Committee was formed to create a suitable award in his memory and the Award was established to recognize outstanding contributions from young scientists who are 35 or younger. The cash value was originally $2,500 and was funded by contributions from the Mark family, the Electronic Materials and Processing Division and the Greater New York Chapter. In 1985, the Tennessee Valley Chapter donated $5,000 to the Award fund. The first winner in 1980 was C.R. Brundle, who was presented with the Award by Hans Mark, Peter’s brother.
The Albert Nerken Award was established in 1984 by Veeco Instruments Inc. in honor of its founder, Albert Nerken, for his role as a founding member of the AVS, his early work in the field of high vacuum and leak detection, and his contributions to the commercial development of that instrumentation. In 1986, the original protocol was amended to emphasize that the Award was intended for technology rather than science. It is awarded to recognize sustained excellence in the solution of technological problems by the use of vacuum and surface science principles. The first winner in 1985 was John Vossen for his work on thin film processes.
The John A. Thornton Memorial Award and Lecture was established in 1988, in memory of John Thornton, who died suddenly in November 1987, shortly after his return from the National Symposium. John had been a leader in the AVS, serving in many roles, including President in 1982. Joy Thornton provided a $50,000 endowment. The Award recognizes outstanding research or technological innovation, with emphasis on the fields of thin films, plasma processing, and related topics. The first winner was Eric Kay who was presented with the award by Joy Thornton in 1989. An especially appropriate winner in 1994 was Dave Hoffman, who had collaborated with John on determining the effect of sputtering conditions on film stress. It was awarded annually until 1994 and bi-annually from 1997.
In 1980, it was decided to award the Welch and Gaede-Langmuir Awards in alternate years and to provide travel support to the awardees only if requested. These efforts to reduce expense were partly due to the rapid increase in the price of gold and thus in the cost of the Welch Medal. However, Medard Welch died in June, 1980 and, to commemorate his service to AVS, the Board transferred funds to maintain the value of the Award and for the striking of the gold medal to be presented to future winners. The Award was not given in 1980 or 1982 but, in 1984, it was decided that the Welch Award would be given annually, as it has been since 1983. Endowment of the awards was established in 1984 by transferring amounts of of $70,000, $35,000 and $40,000 respectively from the reserves to restricted accounts for the Welch, Gaede-Langmuir and Mark Awards; an additional $9,000 was to be transferred annually to account for inflation. In 1990, the cash value of the Welch and Peter Mark Awards were increased to $5,000 and $3,500, respectively, to make their values similar to awards of other societies.
In 1984, Paul Redhead offered to fund an award, from the honoraria he had received as the JVST editor, for the best paper published in the JVST. However, no award was established because the Trustees could not determine how to judge such an award.
In 1981, Dorothy Hoffman was named as one of three new Honorary Members and the wording of the Honorary Member Certificates was modified to make the wording gender neutral! In 1985, the presentation of an Honorary Membership was made to Kai Siegbahn by the President, Don Mattox, during a tri-state conference in May of that year, instead of at the Symposium. Nancy Hammond, who served as the AVS Executive Secretary for many years, was appointed an Honorary Member on her retirement in 1989.
Until 1984, Student Scholarships were awarded annually. During this Era, ten $1000 scholarships were awarded each year. Four of the recipients in 1981 were repeat winners from 1980 but the rules were changed in 1982 so that a recipient could not receive a second scholarship. In 1984, the Scholarships were renamed Student Prizes, and then Student Awards after 1987, and the value reduced to $500. The rationale was that $1000 was no longer a significant financial contribution to support studies but that the award was a recognition of a student’s accomplishments.
The Russell and Sigurd Varian Fellowship was established in 1982 to recognize excellence in graduate studies in vacuum science. The award consisted of a miniature replica of the first Vac-Ion pump, a certificate and $1500. The winner was selected from the Student Award winners, the three finalists being the best students who still had more than eighteen months left before completing their degree. The Scholarships and Awards Committee selected the winner from the three finalists after hearing their presentations at a special session of the Committee during the Symposium. The award consists of a certificate, a cash award and travel expenses to the symposium. A miniature replica of the first Vac-Ion pump was also presented to the winner. The Fellowship was funded annually by Varian Associates and usually presented by a Varian representative. Although there had been no solicitation of applications for the Fellowship in its first year, the Trustees selected three finalists and the first winner, in 1983, was J. Villarubia of Cornell University. The 1985 winner, Anne Testoni of Northwestern University, later served as a Trustee from 1998 to 2000!
The Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award was established in 1989 as a memorial to a woman who died as the result of an accident at the very beginning of her professional career. The award was endowed by her husband Tim, her family and friends and by the AVS. The award consists of a cash prize, a certificate, and a subsidy of travel expenses to the Symposium, and is open to all women enrolled as graduate students in North American universities. It is gratifying that, following the publicity surrounding the announcement of this award, there was a marked upswing in applications for all student awards, and especially by women. The first winner, in 1990, was Jani Ingram from the University of Arizona. The initial award was for $500, the same value as the Student Award but it was later increased to match the Varian Fellowship.
Since 1982, photographs of the award winners have been displayed at the Symposium. Until 1988, the major awards were presented at the Awards lunch and the winners then gave talks in the afternoon sessions. The Welch Award winner’s lecture was at the beginning of the afternoon session and it was unthinkable to keep the audience waiting. The luncheon was even more nail-biting than usual in 1981 when Harrison Farnsworth appeared at the lunch with a set of lantern slides for his lecture! Somehow, Joe Davis, the Local Arrangements Chair, managed to find a lantern slide projector while the Program Chair tried to eat lunch! In 1984, the Welch and Gaede-Langmuir winners gave their talks in sequence in a plenary session, which left very short technical sessions for the rest of the afternoon. This was not popular and, since 1985, the lectures by award winners have been given in regular sessions.
At the 1988 Symposium in Atlanta, the luncheon was replaced by an Awards Assembly, held in the evening, and followed by a reception for all attendees. There was considerable concern that the Assembly might be poorly attended at the end of a busy day of talks and that it might be difficult to have a dignified ceremony before the reception. However, neither of these concerns were warranted and the combination of the Awards Assembly and the reception was an immediate and continuing success, providing an appropriate setting for attendees to recognize the winners and the opportunity to meet them socially. The ceremony and the reception were held on the Tuesday evening in 1988 and 1989, but were moved to Wednesday at the 1990 Symposium to allow the divisional program committees to meet on the Tuesday evening to prepare for the following year’s program.
Special measures were instituted to make it easier for people at the reception to locate the award winners and the Board members. While the award winners were identified in a dignified way by a flower in the lapel, the Board members were provided with ”appropriate headgear”! Thus began a tradition of special hats which lasted into the 1990s. The hats were generally representative of the region but not necessarily very dignified!
The Surface Science Division introduced, in 1979, travel grants for students to attend the Symposium and, in 1982, an award of $200, along with a certificate and plaque and a small travel allowance for the best paper given by a student. Mort Traum, who was Vice-Chair of the Division at the time was the prime mover in establishing this award and having it approved by the Board. The Division renamed it the Morton Traum Award following his death shortly after the 1982 Symposium. This was the first Divisional award of this kind to be established. In 1985, the Board required that all Chapter or Division awards with a total sum exceeding $2500 must be reported to the Board. The Vacuum Technology Division and several Chapters present awards at local science fairs throughout the country.
