Page 45 - Fall 2006

be pointed out that today only 15% of the Society’s mem- bers are women and the number of under represented minorities is still very small. These issues have been addressed by the Committee on Women in Acoustics, that was formed in 1995, and by the establishment of the Minority Fellowship in 1992.
Another aspect of diversity has been an increase in par- ticipation by international members and organizations. The percentage of members who are from outside the US or Canada increased from 16% in 1990 to 26% in 2002. Likewise about half of the manuscripts submitted to JASA originate outside of North America. One approach the Society has taken to recognize this increased representation of non-US members has been to hold meetings in Canada (1968, 1981, 1993 and 2005), and to hold joint meetings with the Acoustical Society of Japan in Honolulu, Hawaii (1978, 1988, 1996, and 2006). In addition, the Acoustical Society has host- ed two joint meetings of the International Congress on Acoustics (ICA) in Cambridge (2nd ICA 1956) and Seattle (16th ICA 1998). In the process of increasing its interaction with the International Commission for Acoustics, the Acoustical Society has become more involved with their activities, including jointly funding international travel grants and technical meetings, and scheduling conferences on acoustics. The first joint meeting with the European Acoustics Association (EAA) was held in Berlin (1999), that was also the first meeting the ASA held in Europe. With 2,263 attending, it had the largest attendance to date of a meeting on acoustics. In 2002 the ASA met in Cancun, Mexico with the Iberoamerican Federation of Acoustics (FIA) and the Mexican Institute of Acoustics (IMA) for the first Pan American/Iberian meeting on Acoustics. Another method to increase international participation with the Society was by offering electronic membership beginning in 2002. A special aspect of this membership catagory is a cor- responding electronic associate that allows acousticians in developing countries to join the Society at a lower member- ship fee. Also the Regional Chapters program was “interna- tionalized” with the establishment of chapters in Madras, India in 1995 and in Mexico City in 2001.
The fact that acoustics is such a diverse topic has led to concerns that specialty fields within acoustics are not addressed at Society meetings to the depth members would like. This problem was referred to above in section 5 (1955- 1990) where it was noted that new journals and new soci- eties were being formed that focused on one aspect of acoustics. Acknowledging this problem the Society decided to organize and cosponsor smaller workshops and symposia that are dedicated to one subject. There have been a number of these, including the Physical Acoustics Summer School (PASS) held every two years beginning in 1992, the International Symposium on Musical Acoustics (1998), a Themed Entertainment Workshop (1999), the first work- shop on Thermoacoustics (2001), and the first International Conference on Acoustic Communication by Animals (2003).
Creating new technical committees was another approach towards providing a platform for acousticians in
special and emerging fields. After the Cold War ended, the Society saw the emergence in the mid-1990s of three new technical committees that represented very diverse techni- cal fields: 1) Acoustical Oceanography, 2) Animal Bioacoustics, and 3) Signal Processing in Acoustics. Also Bioresponse to Vibration added Biomedical Ultrasound to its title to address the important developments in health- related acoustics. In addition to adding three technical committees, the Technical Council took an increasingly active role by polling its membership at meetings in report- ing the needs and desires of the membership to the Executive Council more effectively. Wallace Waterfall would have approved of this action; as mentioned earlier, he felt that the technical committees gave the ASA a “House of Representatives” that could influence the direction of the Society.
Although not noticeable to the average member, finances are a very important responsibility with which the Society’s leadership must concern itself. And although the Society had kept enough reserves to maintain its operations during economic downturns, it became apparent in the early 1990s that the Society needed endowment funds if it wanted to increase its outreach efforts, including support- ing prizes and special fellowships. A Development Committee was appointed in 1990, after which it was decid- ed to form a separate not-for-profit organization that would provide funding to the Acoustical Society of America. Hence in 1996 the Acoustical Society Foundation was incorporated with William W. Lang as General Secretary and Paul B. Ostergaard as its first Chair. Also during this time period the Executive Council established three Administrative Councils consisting of the chairs of ASA’s administrative committees and members of the Executive Council to conduct its business more efficiently: 1) Internal Affairs, 2) External Affairs and 3) Financial Affairs. This new structure was first implemented at the Austin meeting in the fall of 1994. The Executive Council also initiated meetings of Officers and Managers in 1995 to discuss administrative issues between its semi-annual meetings.
Parting Personal Thoughts
Seventy five years is about the average lifetime for human beings. This accounts for the fact that none of the founding members are alive today, and hence the story of how our Society began is now handed down to us. It is interesting to note that a number of the Acoustical Society’s active mem- bers, including past presidents and the editor of ECHOES, were born in 1929, and attended the 75th celebration of the Society. Since we naturally foresee the Society transcending our life spans, the message is clear. In order to retain our his- tory for those who follow, especially for younger acousticians, we need to record the present that will eventually become its history. The founders must have been keenly aware of this when they placed the 25th Anniversary film in Iron Mountain Atomic Storage Corporation. We are confident the founders would be proud to know that we are in turn record- ing important events that have shaped the Society during our lifetimes. In addition to videotaping recollections of past
History of ASA 43