Vijay Bhargava, Ezio Biglieri,
Richard Blahut, Aubrey Bush, Robert
Calderbank, Daniel Costello,
Alexandra Duel-Hallen, Anthony Ephremides,
Thomas Ericson, David Forney,
Tom Fuja, Jerry Gibson, Bruce Hajek, Chris
Heegard, Hideki Imai,
James Massey, Jody O'Sullivan, Paul Siegel, Henk van
Tilborg, Sergio Verdu,
Victor Wei.
Others in Attendance:
Ryszard Bobroliski, Witold Holubowicz, Torleiv Maseng, Joel Morris, Bixio Rimoldi, Han Vinck.
1. The meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m.
2. The agenda for the meeting was approved. It was announced that I.S. Reed and G. Solomon have been awarded the Masaru Ibuka Award by the Consumer Products Society.
3. Symposia and Workshops.
Chris Heegard and Torleiv Maseng reported on the 1994 ISIT.
The symposium enjoyed strong support from industry.
Many participants received travel awards.
A source of funding was identified for participants from the former Soviet
Union.
Ways to reduce expenses for future meetings were discussed.
Sergio Verdu reported on the 1994 IT Workshop in Russia. There are 25 registered participants from outside of Russia, and 25 from Russia itself. The program includes three invited sessions. Some participants experienced problems with obtaining visas. Publicity is also a problem.
Tom Fuja reported on the 1994 workshop in Alexandria, Virginia. He said that the the workshop is expensive since several speakers are invited.
Vijay Bhargava reported on the 1995 ISIT in Whistler,
British
Columbia. The call for papers is out.
Since it is very expensive to advertise,
the members are encouraged to distribute the announcement among their
colleagues. The Symposium will take place in a conference center.
The rental fee for the center is $10K. The Budget was sent to the TAB.
Chris Heegard noted that it might be more difficult to obtain travel support
for this and future meetings.
Witold Holubowicz showed slides of the castle
which is going to house the 1995 Workshop in Rydzyna, Poland.
The registration fee for the workshop is going to be about $100.
Transportation to the site from major cities is being arranged.
The workshop will include 7 sessions and a recent
results session.
One objective is to boost participation from Eastern and Central Europe.
Bruce Hajek motioned to give a grant of $5K to the organizers for setting up
travel funds. The vote was passed with one person against and two abstaining.
Sergio Verdu distributed the announcement for the 1996 IT Workshop in
Haifa,
Israel.
Han Vinck proposed to hold the 1997 ISIT in Germany.
He showed slides of the proposed site.
Professional organizers would be needed.
The registration fee is projected to be about $300.
Bruce Hajek motioned to approve the proposal.
The motion was passed unanimously.
Dan Costello asked whether the Board was interested in co-sponsoring the Wireless Communication Workshop in 1995. Four societies are expected to be co-sponsors. Richard Blahut suggested to wait until more details are available about the workshop. David Forney suggested that "technical co-sponsor" is the best affiliation until then.
Bruce Hajek and Bixio Rimoldi distributed the announcement for the 1995 IT Workshop on Information Theory, Multiple Access and Queuing in St. Louis, Missouri. The Board approved a loan for $5K to the organizers of the workshop, should one be needed.
Regarding the 1996 IT Workshop in Santa Clara,
Paul Siegel will obtain additional information and report at future
meetings.
4.
The Board recommended to shorten and correct the minutes of the previous
meeting.
5.
Liaison Reports.
Vijay Bhargava reported an increase in the student and
non-US membership of IEEE.
49% of the IT Society members come from outside USA,
ranking almost at the top among the IEEE Societies.
Vijay also described renewal processing problems at the IEEE.
Membership of the IT Society in the Neural Networks Council (NNC) was discussed. Sergio Verdu made a motion to withdraw from the NNC. It was approved. The membership will discontinue after 1995.
6.The BOG approved the report of the Society Treasurer Tom Fuja. The issue of raising the membership dues was discussed.
7.
Richard Blahut reported on the publication of the IT Transactions.
The following changes within the IEEE Publications Department had an adverse
effect on its relationship with the IT Society:
the move of the IEEE, transition to electronic publishing,
new IEEE management and copyright changes.
Chris proposed to contact the Computer Society which is planning to stop
using the Department's services.
The Board approved the following motion:
in a letter to the IEEE Publications Department,
Chris Heegard will convey the IT Society's concerns.
Vijay Bhargava provided the e-mail address of the IEEE publications manager
Lloyd Morley: l.morley@ieee.org.
Other IEEE contacts are Pat Walker and Phyllis Hall.
Tony Ephremides suggested that the issue be raised at the next TAB meeting
unless it is resolved.
A committee consisting of Richard Blahut, David Forney, Bruce Hajek,
and Joseph O' Sullivan was formed to look into the problem.
Joseph
O' Sullivan and Richard Blahut also stated a need for more
dedicated associate editors.
Transition to a greater number of issues per year was discussed,
but no action was taken.
8. Bruce Hajek stated the Awards Subcommittee's recommendation that the 1994 Best Paper Award be given to C. L. Feng and T. R. N. Rao for their paper "Decoding algebraic-geometric codes up to the designed minimum distance." The recommendation was approved by the BOG. The BOG discussed introducing a new named lecture at the ISIT Symposia.
9. Future BOG meetings will take place in Alexandria, Poland and British Columbia. The meeting adjourned at 12 a.m.
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