ellie@usenix.ORG (Ellie Young) (07/25/90)
Below is a summary of the Board of Directors meeting held at
Anaheim, California in June. This will also appear in the July/August
issue of ;login: which is being mailed to members now.
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Summary of Board of Directors' Meeting
Anaheim, CA, June 10 and 11, 1990
The regular quarterly meeting of the USENIX Board of Directors was
convened in Anaheim, CA on June 10, 1990.
Attendance: Steve Johnson, Rob Kolstad, Kirk McKusick, Sharon Murrel,
Mike O'Dell, Alan Nemeth, John Quarterman, Deborah Scherrer, Ellie Young, Judy
DesHarnais, John Donnelly, Rick Adams, Eric Allman, Ed Gould, Lori Grob, John
Mashey, Evi Nemeth, Sonya Neufer, Philip Peake, Barry Shein.
Scherrer welcomed the newly elected directors.
Workshop and Conference Status Report
It was pointed out that Large Installation Sys Admin IV would once again
offer a one day tutorial with two parallel tracks by Evi Nemeth and Rob
Kolstad, and C++ was very successful and another one was planned for Spring of
1991.
It was agreed to try and secure San Francisco as a site for the Winter
1994 Conference.
Anaheim Conference
DesHarnais reported that 1850 people had registered, and that
this was a lot less than she had anticipated. Student interest was the
highest ever with 140 registered. Mashey felt that the program committee
needed a clearer report mechanism to give better feedback to authors. The
original review forms were inadequate. We should assign one person for every
paper, where if the paper is not accepted that person will provide written
feedback to the author. The Board formally thanked Mashey for his efforts in
putting together an excellent program.
Nashville '91
Scherrer said that the program would emphasize music-related subjects and
computer-generated music. It was suggested that we encourage people from
multi-media workstation product companies to make presentations.
Executive Director's Report
It was decided that the speaker's bureau and professional development
seminar programs would be put ``on hold'' for the next six months. Nemeth
pointed out that the membership of the committees was decided by the
President. [See list appended to this report.]
Budget
The projected net income at the beginning of this meeting
is $24,000. Most agreed that
a survey would be a good method to gauge the membership's interest in making
the standards material into a separate publication. Young's suggestion to
mail ;login: via second class postage and proposal to increase student
awareness of and involvement in the Association were approved.
Proposal to Raise Conference Fees
McKusick stated the reasons behind the proposal: that conference
services have expanded over the past few years, and it appears that attendance
is stabilizing. Since our marginal cost for D.C. was $110 per, it would be
better to get registration fees to provide more of an income center. It was
noted that the last time fees were raised was in 1987, and comparison with
other organizations showed that USENIX is well below others. After much
discussion it was decided to raise the conference registration fees beginning
with the Winter 1991 conference from $150 to $195 for members and $235 for
non-members. Student fees remain the same at $75 beginning with the Winter
1991 conference.
UUNET Report
Adams reported that a survey showed that 80-90% subscriptions come from
word of mouth. They are adding 65-100 sites per month. UUNET is looking into
commercial areas (problem with nonprofit vs. profit traffic), and he is
waiting for an opinion from the Attorney General of the State of Delaware. There were concerns that
as UUNET gets more involved in commercial activities and in forming a separate
for-profit corporation, this could have an impact on USENIX. Young was
instructed to get advice from our attorney, and Adams would provide a written
statement of the proposed change.
Journal Report
O'Dell said that the first issue for 1990 was finally at the printer, and
the second (music) would follow shortly. He and Salus hoped to be back on
schedule by the Fall.
Scholarships
Scherrer reported that there were ten candidates, and that two graduate
students had been selected: John Heidemann of UCLA and Matthew Blaze at
Princeton as runner-up. The committee would work on recommending an
evaluation criteria and a proposal for an additional scholarship.
Standards Liaison Report
Quarterman summarized his report. At the IEEE 1003 meeting in April they
were successful in slowing down the rate of new PARs by developing a set of
PAR approval criteria. At the next meeting ways to define and apply criteria
for dissolving groups that are either inactive or have inadequate
representation would be discussed. He also reported that he had received only
one response (from AUUG) to the invitation letter regarding an international
standards group.
South Africa Question
Scherrer outlined the following:
1. University of Capetown has requested membership.
2. Legality of their becoming a member is unknown.
3. We can request a determination as to their status as an apartheid-
enforcing agency.
4. Membership is open, but we are allowed to deny an application. Our
attorney's interpretation of the bylaws is that to deny membership we should
have a statement on file or an explicit action in the minutes as to why we are
denying membership.
After a long discussion, it was moved by Johnson, seconded by Kolstad
that the membership application of the University of Capetown be rejected on
the grounds that the Board doesn't wish to spend its energy and resources on
pursuing a determination of whether that University is an exception to the
U.S. embargo of South Africa. Passed: 6 in favor; 1 opposed (Quarterman); 1
abstained (Nemeth). Quarterman explained that he voted negatively because the
legal proof will come back from the University of Capetown. Nemeth's reasons
for abstaining is his concern for the precedent that we set, and there still
exists a fundamental political component in the question.
Other Business
Scherrer commented that she thought the electorate did a good job, and
wished the new directors good luck. McKusick remarked that there was 25 years
of collective service with the four outgoing board members, and expressed his
thanks for all they have done.
Next Board Meeting
The next board meeting will be held in Berkeley, California, beginning
Monday, September 24.
-- EY
USENIX Committees
New Conference Sessions: Lori Grob, Eric Allman, Andrew Hume, Sharon Murrel.
Executive: McKusick, Kolstad, Gould, Murrel.
Online: Scherrer.
Prof. Development Seminars & Speaker's Bureau: Kolstad.
Publications: O'Dell (Chair), Johnson, Murrel, Donner.
Scholarship: Shein, Kolstad.
Standards Liaison Funding: McKusick, A. Nemeth.
Standards Policy: Quarterman, A. Nemeth, McKusick.
Tutorial Review: Gould, Wedel, Taylor.
University Outreach: Kolstad, E. Nemeth, Dan Geer, Sonya Neufer, Dan Klein.
* Young is on all above committees.