Page 12 - Summer 2006

Recommendation 5: The Vision 2010 Committee rec- ommends that the ASA continue to expand the scope of its publications to provide both general information about acoustics and information on specialized topics. Recommendation 6: The Vision 2010 Committee rec- ommends that the ASA continue to carefully monitor the financial stability of the ASA in the ever-changing climate of electronic publication and open access publi- cation.
Recommendation 7: The Vision 2010 Committee rec- ommends that the ASA significantly revise and update its web site and other internet-based technologies. The goal should be to provide a web site and other tech- nologies that are easy to use and provide important, rel- evant, and timely information to ASA members. The web site and additional technologies should also pro- vide valuable information about the ASA and acoustics to the public.
Recommendation 8: The Vision 2010 Committee rec- ommends that the number of Society meetings per year remain at two, but that the Technical Committees be given as much latitude as possible as to how those meetings may be structured to serve the needs of their constituencies. A greater effort should be made to incorporate exhibits within the ASA meetings, especial- ly as they may relate to individual Technical Committees.
Recommendation 9: The Vision 2010 Committee rec- ommends that ASA develop a marketing program to promote the ASA, its products and services, and acoustics.
Recommendation 10: The Vision 2010 Committee rec- ommends that the ASA continue to support the Standards activities and that it continue to explore ways to finance its operation to make standards more avail- able to the public. The Vision 2010 Committee also rec- ommends that information about the ASA activities in Standards be more widely disseminated and explained to ASA members and those outside of the ASA. Recommendation 11: The Vision 2010 Committee rec- ommends that ASA take a more proactive role in pro- moting, commenting upon, and participating in a time- ly manner in the development of public policy related to acoustics. Further, the ASA should consider other means of providing information to the public about the importance of acoustics to society, economics, and life in general.
Recommendation 12: The Vision 2010 Committee rec- ommends that ASA formulate plans to increase diversi- ty in all dimensions within the Society, including tech- nical, societal, and geographical. This effort will require that the purpose of the Society also be enhanced and broadened (Recommendation 1) so that the pool of potential members is expanded.
Recommendation 13: The Vision 2010 Committee rec- ommends that the ASA hire an external, skilled educa- tional consultant or staff person with knowledge of acoustics to lead the Society’s efforts to promote educa- tion in acoustics in the K-12 grades. Such an effort
needs to be coordinated with the efforts to improve the ASA web site and other internet technologies (Recommendation 7) and to increase its activities related to public policy (Recommendation 11). Recommendation 14: The Vision 2010 Committee rec- ommends that the ASA continue to recognize outstand- ing acousticians in all technical areas and that the crite- ria for such awards and honors be continually reviewed and updated to insure equitable evaluation and to insure that the categories of awards and honors remain current with the activities of the Society. The Society should seek to maintain and enhance the status of its technical-area awards by recognizing excellence in acoustics, broadly interpreted, without necessarily regard for society affilia- tion.
The primary work in implementation of these recom- mendations will rest with the Society’s leadership (Officers, Managers, and Members of the Executive and Technical Councils), but all members of the Society will need to partic- ipate at some level if the vision of the Committee for the future of the ASA is to be realized. Some of the recommen- dations will be quick and easy to accomplish; others may take years to implement. When the time seems right, a new com- mittee should be formed called the Vision 2020 Committee because—plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose. (The more things change, the more they stay the same)
Issues considered by the Vision 2010 Committee in making the recommendations
Issues relative to membership
When the members of the Committee consider issues relative to membership, they must first address the question, “How many different ways can a pie be cut and should each piece be the same size?” One thought is that each piece should be the same size, or if not that, each piece should have the opportunity to be the same size. Listed below are some of the ways that the membership (the pie) can be viewed (and cut up).
• By purpose of the Society
• By geographic location
• By level of professional activity—Students vs. those
acousticians just entering their professional careers vs.
established professionals
• By gender
• By ethnicity
• By technical area
• By ...
The first three items are discussed under membership issues. The next two items are discussed under Products and Services: Outreach
• By purpose of the Society—Increase and diffuse the knowledge of acoustics and promote its practical applications
Over the life of the Society, this single purpose has been split into two purposes—“Increase and diffuse... (i.e. research and education)” and “promote... (i.e. engineering and technology).” There are other ways of
10 Acoustics Today, July 2006