Minutes of the 61st Meeting of the Board of Directors,
Meeting of the Fellows, and Open Meeting of the Members
The 2000 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMEC) was held at the Walt Disney Swan and Dolphin Hotel, in Orlando, Florida. In conjunction with IMEC, the 61st Meetings of the Board of Directors, Fellows, and the Members were held in the room Europe 2, Dolphin Hotel, on Thursday, November 9, 2000.
1. A majority quorum being present, President Moon called the meeting to order at 15:30 EST. The following were in attendance: J. Achenbach (achenbach@nwu.edu) B. Balachandran (balab@eng.md.edu), C. Bert (cbert@ou.edu), I. Chasiotis (ichasiot@its.caltech.edu), O. Dillon (odillon@gte.net), H. Espinosa (espinosa@nwu.edu), R. Haythornthwaite (rmh@y.astro.edu), W. Knauss (wgk@caltech.edu), D. Mook (dtmook@vt.edu), F. Moon (fcm3@cornell.edu), S. Mukherjee (sm85@cornell.edu), M. Ostoja-Starzewski (martin.ostoja@ipst.edu) M. Païdoussis (mary@mecheng.mcgill.ca) A. Palazotto (anthony.palazotta@afit.af.mil), K. Ravi-Chandar (kravi@mail.utexas.edu), J. Reddy (jnreddy@shakti.tamu.edu), G. Simitses (george.simitses@aerospace.gatech.edu), C. W. Smith (chsmith@vt.edu), C. Steele (chasst@leland.stanford.edu), C. Taylor (cet@aero.ufl.edu), L. Wheeler (lwheeler@uh.edu).
President Moon appointed C. Bert and W. Knauss to open the envelopes and count the ballots for Fellow.
President Moon noted that the application for membership in AAM is on the web and urged all present to suggest to their recent graduates that they join AAM.
2. J. N. Reddy moved that the Minutes be accepted, C. Steele seconded, and the motion passed by voice vote.
3. D. Mook, AAM Secretary, reported that there are 815 paid members. Of these, 709 paid the full fee and 116 paid the reduced fee for retirees. There are currently 135 Fellows, and of these 40 are retired. The complete roll, which lists all the current and former Members whose identities are still known, contains 1,565 Members. Some have left engineering, some are retired and no longer interested, and some, unknown to us, are deceased.
4. D. Mook, acting for R. Heller, AAM Treasurer, presented the Treasurer's report. O. Dillon moved that the report be accepted, C. W. Smith seconded, and the motion passed by voice vote.
5. The time set aside for the publisher's report was spent discussing how Mechanics should be handled, and the discussion included the report from the editor. It was pointed out that Mechanics is the same as it was before the invention of the worldwide web (although in preparing the issues, the editor and his assistants take the tables of content from the web sites of the various journals, and H. Espinosa, the editor of Mechanics, pointed out that all of the tables of content found in Mechanics are already on the web). Among the suggestions: sort according to topic, reprint more articles such as the report of the workshop on future directions in solid mechanics, and include more information about awards and award- winners. Several suggested that caution be used in making changes. President Moon wants some feedback and new ideas from the Members before making any drastic changes.
6. C. Steele reported that he will set up a permanent web site for the Pan American Congresses of Applied Mechanics (PACAM). The next PACAM will take place in Temuco, Chile in January 2002. The sessions will be held in the classrooms of the Universidad de la Frontera in that city. For the following PACAM, the PACAM Committee is considering invitations from Havana, Cuba and Mexico.
7. Already included in item 5.
8. The Awards Committee reported to President Moon prior to the meeting: C. Taylor was named as the winner of the Outstanding Service Award and V. Gupta was named as the winner of the Junior Achievement Award.
9. R. Haythornthwaite, Chairman of the Adjudication Committee, reported that their choice for the Founder's Prize is Ioannis Chasiotis of the California Institute of Technology. President Moon asked those present to approve the report; the vote was unanimous (with one abstention). Mr. Chasiotis is a student of W. Knauss, a Fellow of AAM. There is a link on the AAM web site giving full details on how to nominate a senior graduate student for this prestigious award.
10. President Moon reported that there will be a Workshop on Future Directions in Solids sponsored by NSF with attendance by invitation only.
11. O. Dillon and C. Bert reported that L. Virgin and M. Païdoussis have agreed to be candidates for the vacant positions of Director in Region Ia (Eastern USA) and Region III (Canada), respectively.
12. No old business.
13. President Moon discussed the problems of having the president serve for only one year and suggested that the Members consider a change in the by-laws that would extend the term of the president to two years. He announced that he would set up a committee to draft such a constitutional change.
R. Haythornthwaite asked that all directors be active in recruiting new members.
14. C. Bert and W. Knauss reported the vote count for the new Fellows, and it was unanimously approved that (in alphabetical order) Adrian, Aref, Kelly and Ravichandar be named Fellows of the American Academy of Mechanics. Heartiest congratulations to all.
15. Meeting adjourned at 17:00 EST.
Comments and Suggestions to mech1@clifton.mech.northwestern.edu