MINUTES OF THE SAV TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEETING

October 15, 1998

A. The SAVTC Meeting was convened by the Chair at 7:30 p.m. in the Cedar
Room of the Marriott Hotel in Norfolk. The minutes of the previous SAVTC
meeting were read and approved. Attendees who were not members of the
SAVTC were informed by the Chair that would be nominated for membership
if they indicated their interest on the attendance sheet.

B. The Chair reported on informational items that arose at the Technical
Council Meeting. These are itemized below:

1. SAV organizers of special technical sessions were reminded that
travel funds up to $500 are available to assist invited speakers to come
to ASA meetings. Authorization for such expenditures will be arranged by
the Chair.

2. At the forthcoming Berlin meeting, the SAVTC will meet separately,
but simultaneously, with its European Acoustical Association counterpart.
After the individual sessions, the groups will merge for a joint session
to discuss common issues

3. Registration fees for meetings are being adjusted, beginning with the
Columbus, Ohio meeting in the Fall of 1999. This is being done in
response to falling income from JASA subscriptions, which necessitates
that the meetings be reasonably self-sufficient. There will be
pre-registration at the present rate of $225. Registration at the door
will be $265. The accompanying persons fee will rise to $45. Student
members of ASA may attend for free, but non-member students will be
charged $45. It has not been decided yet whether any part of latter may
be use to offset the student's first year dues.

C. Committee reports were delivered.

1. Courtney Burroughs - Membership. This committee did not consider any
SAV candidates for Fellow at its meeting in Norfolk, but there are many
individuals who should be nominated. SAV members are encouraged to
examine the ASA Membership list to ascertain whether friends and
colleagues have been overlooked.

2. ASA Committee on Standards (ASACOS) - Lou Herstein

3. Medals and Awards - Allan Pierce

Best Student Paper Prize in Structural Acoustics - Scott Sommerfeldt.
First and Second Prizes were awarded as follows: First Prize ($350):
Dimitar Gueorguiev (Boston U., J. Gregory McDaniel - adviser), Second
Prize ($150): M. J. Vartiainen (Cambridge U., David Crighton - adviser).

D. Courtney Burroughs reported on his activities as one of the JASA
Associate Editors for Structural Acoustics and Vibration. The other
editor is Paul Remington. Approximately 45% of the SAV papers are from
authors outside North America. ARLO is will provide a mechanism for rapid
publication of Letters to the Editor. Some members expressed a desire for
institution of a web-based ASA paper server that would make drafts of
papers available for comment prior to submission to JASA.

E. SAV activities for future ASA meetings were discussed.

1. Columbus, Ohio, November, 1999. The Technical Program Organizing
meeting will be held sometime in July. Courtney Burroughs and Jerry
Ginsberg will participate. Another participant is sought, in order to
permit Jerry Ginsberg to observe all organizing meeting activities in
anticipation of the Atlanta meeting in the Spring, 2000, for which he
will be the Technical Program Chair. Volunteers should contact
Ginsberg as soon as possible. Special SAV sessions planned for
the Columbus meeting and their organizers are:

Bridging FEA and SEA - Coutney Burroughs

Combining active and passive control of vibration and noise - Alain
Berry

Fundamentals of NDE - Joe Dickey, cosponsored by PA and EA Committees,
possibly two sessions.

2. Atlanta, GA, May 29-June 4, 2000. Note that this meeting will be held
from Tuesday to Saturday because of the preceding Memorial Day holiday.
All events will be shifted one day from their usual schedule. Special SAV
sessions planned for the Columbus meeting and their organizers are:

Acoustics of Air-Handling Systems - Sean Wu. This will be coordinated
with the Noise and Engineering Acoustics committees.

Aeroelasticity - Ken Frampton.

F. New business issues were discussed next:

1. The cost of meetings is an on-going issue, as noted previously. Food
service of all types typically amounts to approximately 40% of the total
cost, with the two social receptions typically amounting to 30% of total
cost. The question of alternative arrangements was discussed. The SAVTC
expressed the opinion that it preferred to continue the practice of two
socials. If necessary, the type of food should be changed to lower the
cost, rather than raising the registration fee.

2. There is no current activity creating a web page for SAV activities.
It was decided to continue to request funds to support such activity in
the event that someone wishes to do so.

3. It was reported at the Technical Council meeting preceding the SAV
meeting that attendance at the ASA Tutorials and Short Courses had
decreased recently. The SAVTC discussed reasons for this situation. It
was decided that these activities, particularly Tutorials, be given a
more prominent position in the schedule of activities. It was also
decided to recommend that the topics for both activities be kept broad,
in order to be of maximum interest to the membership. (It subsequently
was reported at the second Technical Council that the observed trend for
attendance was mistaken.)

4. The Chairs of all technical committees were charged with the
responsibility of examining the scope of each committee's interest and
activities. This is intended to assure that members do not leave the
Society because they sense a lack of interest, as well as to attract new
members. The SAVTC discussed this. It was decided that special sessions
on topics in which ASA members are not very active should be organized.
Permission should be sought from the Technical Council to have an Invited
Speaker as part of the special session. Two topics were recommended for
consideration: MEMS (Micro-Mechanical-Electrical Systems) and seismic
response of buildings. The Chair brought this matter to the Technical
Council, which was enthusiastic about the MEMS area. Approval was
given to have an invited speaker make a presentation in MEMS at the
Columbus meeting, subject to identification of the speaker by the time of
the Berlin meeting. Allan Pierce and Sabih Hayek agreed to
perform this task. In addition, as part of the effort to focus
on the scope of committee activities, a subcommittee on Long-Range
Planning in Structural Acoustics and Vibrations was formed. Its members
are Scott Sommerfeldt, Joe Cuchieri, and the Chair. Anyone interested in
SAV activities is encouraged to discuss relevant issues with any of the
subcommittee members.

G. The last activity at the meeting was viewing of a videotape of Manfred
Heckl lecturing and giving computer simulations of wave motion in
structures when he gave a short course at Penn State University. The
committee thanks Gary Koopmann for providing the videotape.

H. The SAVTC meeting adjourned at 9:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Jerry H. Ginsberg, Chair, Structural Acoustics and Vibrations Technical
Committee