Present: Sergio Verdú, Thomas Ericson, Ezio Biglieri, Greg Pottie, Jerry Gibson, Bruce Hajek, Julia Abrahams, Andrew Barron, Joachim Hagenauer, Ramesh Rao, Steven Wicker, Robert Calderbank, Steve McLaughlin, Tony Ephremides, Urbashi Mitra, Vincent Poor, Brian Hughes, Dan Costello, Agnes Chan, Robert Morelos-Zaragoza.
1. The meeting was called to order at 8:15 PM by the President. Introductions were made by those present.
2. The agenda was approved.
3. The minutes of the Victoria BoG meeting were approved.
4. New appointments and announcements: New committees have been formed for the commemoration of the information theory 50th anniversary, for Transactions policy, and to consider the form that the cumulative index will take.
5. Report on five year IEEE TAB review meeting, Denver. Jerry Gibson reported that TAB was in general pleased, as we have a budget surplus and the Transactions is well respected. Concerns were expressed regarding committee work for the board, and whether there were plans for alternative sources of funds (we now rely only on membership and the Transactions). Additionally the recent dip in membership was of concern, as was the publication delay from submission to appearance, which applies to many journals. Sergio Verd\'u indicated that the TAB report is not ready yet. Some discussion ensued on an item from the San Antonio TAB meeting regarding the book broker program, in which they buy proceedings and re-sell to libraries, giving revenue to the conference. Little enthusiasm was expressed for using conference registration fees as a revenue source.
6. The budget was presented by the treasurer without discussion. The net worth as of Dec. 31/96 was 963.61 (thousands of dollars) for a net gain of 128.1. There are outstanding loans for 1997 ISIT Ulm of 15.0, 1997 ITW Longyearbyen 5.0, 1998 ITW San Diego 5.0, and 1998 ITW Ireland of 5.0. The value of long term investments as of Dec. 31 was 587.38, with a net gain of 61 over the year.
7. I.T. Web site. Ramesh Rao encouraged all present to visit the site. Particular need was expressed for contributions of a tutorial nature, as these are the most popular items at the site. Discussion of how to maintain the site for the longer term ensued, with suggestions that distributed maintenance is possible. Rather than hire a professional firm, the possibility of hiring students was raised.
8. Newsletter report. The delay between production and reception the newsletter is roughly three months for Europe, two months in US, largely due to IEEE delays. It was the sense of the Board that the delay in mailing of the Newsletter by the IEEE after being finalized by the Newsletter Editor is excessive and detrimental to the timely nature of this publication. The Board would like the Newsletter Editor to report on the feasibility and cost of producing and mailing the Newsletter without the involvement of the IEEE. Different avenues for publishing the hard copy will be considered, as well as putting it on the web. An issue was raised as to what kind of unpaid publicity will be permitted in the Newsletter, for example information theory related freeware. It was generally agreed that reviews of software would be more desirable than simple publicity, but the effort involved is considerable and volunteers would be required.
9. Robert Calderbank reported on the Transactions. For 1996, 2432 pages were printed, including a 415 page special issue; for 1997 the page budget is 2150 without a special issue. IEEE is strongly encouraging electronic submissions; not having manuscripts in electronic form is quite time-consuming. At present there is no publication backlog, only a production schedule delay at IEEE of three to six months. It was moved that the new associate editor for complexity and cryptography be Doug Stinson; the motion carried. A special 50th anniversary Shannon Commemorative issue will appear in October 1998. Sergio Verd\'u is the Guest Editor, and has invited papers on a wide variety of topics.
A special issue for 1999 was proposed on signal processing and networking, to high-light a number of the information-theoretic issues in these fields. A motion to approve up to 300 pages in a special issue for 1999 was proposed by Bruce Hajek; the motion carried after some discussion of possible topics. Robert Calderbank initiated a discussion of the relation between reviewing delay and the number associate editors. The target is about 35 papers per year per associate editor; smaller loads (more editors) lead to a lack of coordination and thus potential quality control problems while larger loads lead to large delays. There will be readjustments for areas that seem to need more help.
10. Steve McLaughlin reported on electronic publications. Several Societies have collaborated to produce "Jolly" (journals on line). Access to the web site with journals is restricted to IEEE members. I.T. Society membership would entail continuing charges of $12.5K per year. It was suggested we join to gain experience in electronic publishing, even though this particular site is not ideal. Discussion ensued on whether we should be restricting access, and in particular on the desirability of giving access to all students. Additionally it was suggested that the index, and abstracts should be shared with our web site for universal access to all information except the papers themselves. A motion by Steve McLaughlin to join Jolly on a trial basis with re-evaluation next year carried.
11. Ezio Biglieri presented the ad hoc committee report on the 50th anniversary celebrations for information theory. A variety of ideas are being considered. A recommendation will be made at subsequent meetings; broader inputs are solicited now.
12 Steve McLaughlin presented a preliminary report on the cumulative index, with decisions to be made at Ulm. It is felt that a web based tool will be more useful than hard copy, because it can be easily updated and integrated with other bibliographic sites. A suggestion was made to put the whole of the Transactions on CD ROM; estimates of cost will be obtained.
13. Jerry Gibson presented the report of the committee on Transactions policy. Following their recommendation, a motion was made that the IT Transactions have 7 issues per year beginning in 1998. The seventh issue will allow the Editor-in-Chief to publish one special issue per year or to use this extra issue as a backlog clearing issue when necessary. After some discussion, the motion carried.
14. Sergio Verd\'u opened discussion on membership fees. Our subscription prices are low compared to other Society fees. This began a wider discussion on fees, using conferences to make money, whether the Society actually needs more money, or whether the most urgent item is attracting more members, for example by special discounts. Joachim Hagenauer moved that we extensively advertise our special 50th anniversary issue as a means of attracting new members while leaving fees alone; the motion carried.
15. Ezio Biglieri reported on the distinguished speakers program. A little-known fact is that any chapter or student branch can request subsidized talks by any distinguished speaker on a list maintained by the Society. The present policy is however vague and not well- advertised. He moved that the Society should pay up to 50% of travel up to $500 up to once per year for any IEEE entity for distinguished speakers. All board members ex officio over the last 20 years can be on the list of speakers if they so desire. The basic motivation is to stimulate more activity in the chapters. The motion carried.
16. Russian memberships. There was considerable discussion of the issue of continuing to provide twenty IEEE memberships to members of the Russian information theory society. The original idea was to respond to a temporary crisis in scientific funding to a group of researchers who have historically made strong contributions to information theory. However, this funding problem now appears to be chronic. Joachim Hagenauer moved that the Society provide twelve memberships for the next two years, six for the following two years, and none thereafter, and 20 subscriptions to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory for the next four years. The motion carried.
17. The IEEE operation center has requested a contribution to an exhibit, where we identify a major historical figure and provide some artifacts. Ezio Biglieri moved that we assist in creating an exhibit for Shannon, with the contribution earmarked for that exhibit up to a maximum of $1000 and the Society President to make arrangements to gather the artifacts. The motion carried.
18. Workshops and symposia
a. Haifa. At Ulm a presentation will be made requesting retention of the surplus of the workshop by the Israeli information theory society chapter.
b. Winter School, Molle Sweden: Thomas Ericson presented the report; 60 students and 20 research supervisors from 12 countries attended. The preliminary budget was also provided.
c. 1997 ISIT Ulm. Joachim Hagenauer reported. The preliminary program is complete. There were 700 submissions, necessitating an 8th parallel session on four of the days. Part of the problem is multiple submissions by authors; a suggestion was made that perhaps there should be a policy on this for the next symposium. The proceedings and plenary speakers line-up are on track. A motion was made to increase the travel subsidy, for now to be financed by a 20k loan from the IT Society. The grants are to be allocated as $300 per person support, for young people from disadvantaged countries with papers accepted. The motion carried.
d. 1997 ITW Longyearbyen. Roughly 50 people are expected to participate in four days of technical activities.
e. International Symposium on Turbo Codes, Brest, Sept. 1997. Ezio Biglieri reported on the desire of the organizers for technical sponsorship by the Information Theory Society with no financial commitment. A motion to provide this sponsorship carried.
f. 1998 ITW San Diego. Ramesh Rao reported that local arrangements are going well. Rooms at the Radisson Hotel will be available at $100/day, with registration fees of $300 including three days of food.
g. 1998 ITW Killarney. A preliminary budget has been prepared. Information about the workshop is available at http://www.eecs.umich.edu/systems/itw98
h. 1998 ISIT MIT. Vince Poor reported that they now have a professional organizer for $17.5k to run the registration etc. (half the price of MIT). The program committee is finalized, and a call for papers is being mailed. An e-mail discussion of long papers produced the decision that there will not be any at the symposium. Multiple submissions by the same author are to be carefully scrutinized. At present, 7 parallel sessions are planned. A budget has been prepared for basically break even on a conservative number for registrants. Papers will be posted on the web. Bruce Hajek moved approval of the budget and loan of 25k. The motion carried, after some discussion of whether the travel subsidy budget was large enough.
Thomas Ericson moved to adopt the logo in http://www/ee/princeton.edu/ ~verdu/ITLOGO.GIF as the 50th anniversary commemorative logo and all events sponsored by the Society during 1998 are asked to use it in their publications. The motion carried.
i. 1999 ITW Metsovo, Greece. Tony Ephremides reported. The workshop will be back to back with South Africa; the organizers will work to coordinate technical programs. The workshop focus will be networking, with a mixture of long invited talks on frontiers of information theory, and shorter contributed talks, plus panel discussions. There will be poster presentations of recent results on Sunday followed by three full days of regular sessions, with the excursion and banquet towards the end. The estimated cost is $190 for registration, lunches, banquet and day trip; the hotels are small and traditional at $42-84 single to double. There will be a bus from Athens (a six hour trip). Other options are to be explored. Bruce Hajek moved to approve the workshop and to authorize a 10K loan. The motion carried.
j. 1999 ITW Berg-en-Dal, Kruger National Park, South Africa. A full report will be made in Ulm.
k. 2000 ISIT Sorrento, Italy. Ezio Biglieri reported. A web page has been prepared, and a block of 250 rooms has been reserved at fixed price. More details will be presented at Ulm.
19. The UK symposium on communication theory and applications has requested a travel grant for scientists from the former Soviet Union. Discussion was to the effect that this departs from the usual practice of providing a loan which will be repaid. In any case this is not a conference we are sponsoring. A motion was made that the President write a letter explaining past practice and inviting the formation of an IT chapter in the UK, and perhaps an IEEE workshop in that area in the future. The motion carried.
20. Memberships and Chapters. Urbashi Mitra reported. The committee would like to stimulate new chapters and increase chapters' activities, e.g. in several countries which clearly have enough IT members. Regarding membership, retention of students is somewhat low, with only about 50% staying on the first year after graduating, and 17% five years after graduation. IEEE has the "gold program" which reduces the fees, etc. to help keep members, and the Controls Society in particular seems to do a good job in keeping junior members. As many IEEE members belong to several Societies, the suggestion was made that we should write to members of Societies with considerable IT Society membership to ask them to join IT. There were few responses to our web survey, and consequently a new package is being put together, and a method to track responses to different mailings being prepared This may be sent around to conferences with information theory themes. Part of what is required is a mission statement for the Information Theory Society. Once prepared, we need to advertise the Society in sister publications.
To reach non-IEEE members, Julia Abrahams suggested we advertise in non-IEEE publications the option of becoming an affiliate member, as this reduces the IEEE fee. After some discussion, it was moved to affirm that the Information Theory Society support the efforts on the part of IEEE to attract new members. The motion carried.
21. Awards committee. Thomas Ericson reported that nine papers have been nominated, with a report to be done by the end of April. For next year, there is a Jan. 31 deadline for IEEE field awards. It was thus moved that the membership of the awards committee should remain the same to that point, rather than turning over the start of the year as now. The motion carried.
22. Claude E. Shannon Award. Ezio Biglieri reported that the nominations have been received, and a decision will be made before Ulm.
23. Next meeting of Board. The Board decided there will be a lunch meeting on Friday at Ulm. We require an annual meeting to nominate candidates for 1st and 2nd VP and to the board. This is usually done during the last meeting of the year. However, ballots have seldom been counted by the IEEE before January. To do nominations earlier, an amendment to the Bylaws of the Society was adopted by unanimity: Article III Section 1. The President shall designate the last Board Meeting prior to December in the calendar year as the Annual Meeting of the Society. becomes: The President shall designate one of the Board Meetings in the calendar year as the Annual Meeting of the Society.
24. The meeting adjourned at 12:40 AM.