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business on May 8, 2020, the balance in the Fund was $9,453,503 (−5.7% since January 1, 2020). But these results could have been much worse. Thanks to ASA’s Investments Committee led by Dave Adams and with advice from the Society’s investment advisors, the finan- cial impact of the virus has been mitigated. The emphasis on long-term growth has allowed the Fund to weather several storms of the last decades, and we are looking for- ward to continued gains over the next months and years.
Ways to Give
Last, I want to remind you that it has never been easier to donate to the Acoustical Society Foundation Fund. For smaller donations, just go to the Society’s web page at acousticalsociety.org and click Donate at the top of the page. This will take you to the Fund’s page where you can use a credit card (or other means) to donate to the CAECL or to make an unrestricted donation to the Fund (both are tax deductible).
Another way many members donate is via their annual ASA dues bill. Moreover, a very painless way to donate is through the Amazon Smile program (see smile.amazon.com). Amazon will donate 0.5% of your eligible purchases to the Fund. For donors who wish to specify how their gift is to be
used, contacting me by e-mail would be a great place to start.
Another option is a charitable remainder trust. This is a tax-exempt irrevocable trust designed to reduce the taxable income of individuals by first dispersing income to the beneficiaries of the trust for a specified period of time and then donating the remainder of the trust to the designated charity like the Fund. If you are thinking of setting up a charitable remainder trust for the ASA, please reach out to me.
Thanks for taking the time to read Vantage, our annual summary of the Acoustical Society Foundation Fund. Stay healthy and safe.
International Year of Sound Virtual
Speaker Series
As part of the Celebration of the International Year of Sound, ASA hosted a series of experts to talk about how sounds affect everyone in different ways.
“Playing with Sound”
AnnMarie Thomas
What can music look like? How would you build an electric guitar for space?
Can you build a sound system that in- volves conductive play dough? How does the rock band
OK Go approach music making, and what would that look like in a classroom? Thomas shares the answers to these questions as she talks about projects from the University of St. Thomas Playful Learning Lab.
“Making Meaning from Data — From the Acoustics Lab to Machine Learning”
Andrew Morrison
In this talk, Morrison discuss what is known about the physics of the steelpan drum, how
scientists have engaged with the public to help classify the data, and how machine learning algorithms are being used to help process large datasets. He goes on to explain how this study is useful for illustrating some parts of the scientific process.
“It’s in the Tone: The Acoustics of Social Judgments and Linguistic Profiling”
Nicole Holliday
Using her work with parents from
different races and their intonations to construct and perform racial identities, Holliday ex-
pands on how listeners make judgements about gender, age and race, and the assumptions made based on the voice itself instead of the words being spoken. She ex- plains how those assumptions have implications for how marginalized groups and people experience the world, especially in institutions like education and the criminal justice system.
Find these talks and more at
acousticstoday.org/IYSvideos
Contact Information
James H. Miller miller@uri.edu
Chair, Acoustical Society Foundation Board Department of Ocean Engineering University of Rhode Island
Narragansett, Rhode Island 02882, USA
Fall 2020 • Acoustics Today 79