Page 10 - Fall2021

From the President
Maureen Stone
Greetings! Because this is my first column in Acoustics Today as president of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), let me introduce myself to those that don’t know me. I study the
human tongue at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, Baltimore. My focus is on speech motor con- trol and how tongue motion, deformation really, shapes the vocal tract tube during speech. In addition to normal function, I study the effects of tongue cancer surgery on tongue anatomy and motion patterns in order to interpret the resulting speech acoustics and perception outcomes. I have been a member of the ASA since I was a student and have been fascinated and impressed by the remarkably accessible organizational structure. Any member can be active to any extent in this Society.
I am excited about the year ahead. We have a lot of interest- ing work from the past year to continue, and after such a tough year, this is a good time to take stock of our current policies and approaches. I imagine that we all feel as if we are emerging from a Covid cocoon. Covid caused the ASA to significantly modify its meetings and activities, as you have no doubt noticed. So, as the Society begins to return to its previous routines, this is also an ideal time to consider new approaches to meet our potential as a thriving Society.
ASA Finances
Let’s start by considering the finances of the ASA. The main source of operating revenue is from The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (JASA), and the ASA has used this resource to good effect by sponsoring programs that support our mission: to generate, disseminate, and pro- mote the knowledge and practical applications of acoustics. Naturally, many of these programs are not revenue produc- ing, such as outreach and education nor are they expected to be. However, the growth of JASA revenue has not kept pace with our needs, in part because payment structures for journals have changed and in part because our expenses grow yearly. As with all organizations, it is easier to start new endeavors than to end old ones that may no longer be serv- ing the ASA mission. The overall result is that for the past
10 years we have been outspending our revenue.
To address this issue, the ASA Finance Committee, chaired by Anthony Atchley, formed a subcommittee to undertake an in-depth examination of the finances and make recommendations to the Executive Council (EC), which is the ASA governing body. The report concluded that expenses have been growing in every segment of the ASA. There is no one program or operation that we can eliminate that would result in a break-even operating budget; everything must be in our sights. Therefore, to guide the EC’s strategic planning and financial steward- ship, a financial consultant group was engaged in March of this year and has been working with the ASA staff and officers to optimize the financial operations, long-term budget planning, and strategic use of its reserves.
Adding Value and Revenue to the ASA
This effort will take some time, but we have begun, and we are establishing plans to turn the financial ship, so to speak, and adjust our financial model into a fiscally stable position. At present, we are introducing new activities and features that will bring value to our members and also additional revenue.
One new source of revenue is “advertorials,” such as the one by COMSOL in the Summer 2021 issue (pp. 40-41) of Acoustics Today. Advertorials provide information about an organization or product that is more detailed and analytical
than in typical advertisements and may lead to collabora- tionswithindustrythatbenefitbothacademiaandindustry.
Another potential source of revenue is the ASA Academy, which, as a pilot program, is currently in development under the direction of Michael Vorländer and Task Force B: Better Engagement of Industry and Practitioners, with input from several interested Technical Committees (TCs). The long-term goal is to offer various sorts of continuing education programs in acoustics to acoustician and nona- coustician practitioners in education, industry, consulting, and research and development to provide them with useful in-service learning and advancement in their fields.
Our third endeavor is to offer new ASA meeting sponsor- ship opportunities, starting with the next ASA meeting in
10 Acoustics Today • Fall 2021