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the Society’s past presidents had prominent roles in the founding of the Internet! While most engineers and scientists in the emerging computer age were philosophizing how man and machine would communicate, past president J.C.R. Licklider (1915-1990) was working on a system in the early 1960s where man was communicating with man via comput- er–the Internet. In 1950 he was awarded the ASA Biennial Award (now the R. Bruce Lindsay Award) and had been laud- ed as “one who enjoys the life of a pioneer who swings his not too precise machete through a jungle of inconsistent and contradictory data,” praising his work in psychoacoustics. Licklider also served as president of the Society (1958-59) when he was working with Leo Beranek at Bolt, Beranek and Newman. Shortly after that he wrote a seminal paper “On- Line Man-Computer Communication” and went on to join DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to work on the first communication systems that sent messages generated by humans between computers. Later, at Licklider’s instigation, DARPA supported university scientists in their work to make computers smaller, cheaper and more available and above all, able to communicate over some sort of elec- tronic nervous system.
However it took the world and the Acoustical Society until the early 1990s to begin extensive use of the Internet. In 1994 the Society began issuing past volumes of JASA on CD ROM so that members could have quick access to JASA and at the same time gain shelf space in their homes and offices. In 1995, then President-Elect Robert Apfel (1943- 2002) led the effort to provide on-line submission of abstracts that was initiated for the fall meeting that year. In 1996 the ASA Executive Council approved his initative to publish the current issues of the Journal on CD ROM and offer members the option to receive it every two months, with students automatically receiving JASA on CD ROM. Robert Apfel also initiated the journal Acoustics Research Letters Online (ARLO) that began online-only publication in 1999. This unique journal had its own electronic manu- script management system. ARLO was recently modified and its name changed to JASA Express Letters. However, ARLO continues to be available only online without charge to anyone with a browser. Bob Apfel carried on the vision- ary approach for the Society that J.C.R. Licklider began thirty years earlier for the world!
Another form of communication with members is to poll the membership about the Society—to determine whether members are satisfied with the products and serv- ices they receive, or more importantly to ask how the Society can improve. In 1992 the Society entered into a survey with 42 other prominent scientific and engineering societies. The result was that the Acoustical Society ranked in the top three in: 1) overall satisfaction, 2) tech- nical publications, and 3) standards activities. However members felt the Society could improve in its outreach to the public by informing them about acoustics and acousti- cians, and careers in acoustics. This was followed by the Re-creation Process—rethinking the ASA—that began in 1994 under the leadership of Richard Lyon and concluded with a summary report in JASA that contained many sug-
gestions for new and modified ASA programs. Another less formal survey was later carried out with a focus group comprised of graduate students in acoustics at the University of Washington. A strong suggestion from them was the need for a student council. The ASA Student Council was appointed in 1999 and now meets semi-annu- ally at Acoustical Society meetings. They have already established a mentoring award, a web page that provides information explicitly for students, and organize special workshops and activities for students who attend ASA meetings.
Based on the 1992 poll the Society took steps to increase dissemination of information to its members and to improve public outreach. In 1995 the Society set up its own web page with the help of ASA volunteers Paul Baxley and Carr Everbach. Paul Baxley developed an idea to post lay papers from ASA meetings on the web for the public and the press to read, naming it the World Wide Press Room. This novel approach, that has been adopted by other societies, has led to many stories in the public press about acoustics. The World Wide Press Room was later incorporated in a separate web page for the general public, acoustics.org.
The need for some sort of publication to supplement JASA was apparent ever since the demise of the ASA maga- zine Sound in 1963. An often heard complaint of members was that they would like something more readable. One of Charles Schmid’s first tasks as executive director was to begin the publication of the ASA newsletter ECHOES with Alice Suter as managing editor. It began in spring 1991, adopting the name of a newsletter once published by the executive director’s previous employer. ECHOES was sent four times a year to all ASA members, the press and Regional Chapter members who are not members of the Society. Tom Rossing assumed the editorship of ECHOES in 1997. ECHOES is now published online and portions are also incorporated into ASA’s magazine, Acoustics Today. They all serve today under ASA’s 6th Editor-in-Chief, Allan Pierce.
The 1990s also saw the membership grow in diversity. As you probably noted in the photo above showing the 40 founding members of the Society—all were men. For that matter the photo of the 25th anniversary had the caption “Council members and Past presidents and their ladies (ital- ics original).” Even earlier notes from the meeting in 1948 in Washington, DC discussed the “Ladies Program” that noted: “On Friday afternoon the ladies were graciously received at the White House by Mrs. Harry S. Truman in an affair including handsome Naval aides in gold braid and a military orchestra in red uniforms.” It was forty years later when Patricia K. Kuhl was elected the Society’s first woman president in 1998. Since that time, two more women have been elected president. And Patricia Kuhl can be seen on the cover of the Summer 1997 ECHOES being greeted at the White House by President Clinton when she was invited by Mrs. Clinton to give a paper on early childhood develop- ment and learning. James E. West was elected the first African-American president in 1997. Although the leader- ship has become more diverse in gender and race, it should
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