PROF. FRANCIS B. CROCKER:-I think the idea of having stenographic reports of local meetings paid by the INSTITUTE at the present time, at the beginning of this experimental matter, is injudicious. In the first place it would be very expensive. I have had some little experience with stenographic reports during the last summer. How can you give the man who lives in a place where he is the only member perhaps, how can you give him the same for his money as the man who lives in New York? It is an impossibility. That is his misfortune. When I went to Chicago to the Fair, I was not paid my railroad fare by the citizens of Chicago. It was simply my misfortune that I lived in New York and had to go to Chicago in order to see the Fair. It seems to me that the geographical distribution of cities in the United States is not the fault of the INSTITUTE and cannot be rectified by it. [Laughter.] A thing like that is so self-evident, so palpable even to local members, that I think no one could possibly expect, especially a resident of a small town, that he could have equal advantages. The INSTITUTE now has all it can do to pay the necessary expenses of carrying on the main body. If in any way it can help out of town members, I should be heartily in favor of doing it. But when it comes to paying just as much in every place where they can raise twenty members as the main body pays here, it seems to me entirely unreasonable. MR. PHELPS: We have all of us talked to-night on the assumption that the moment we pass this legislation we shall be surrounded with a swarm of local meetings in all parts of the country and that they are likely to overwhelm us and ride over us and squelch us. As a matter of fact, I think we are talking about a man of straw. I do not think there will be, in a year from now, more than two local meetings, even if there be one, and the purpose of the committee was to offer a tentative scheme which could not be objected to by the people in two or three regions who have been talking of local meetings. This subject was first brought up last spring in respect to California. Every opportunity was given to the people out there to tell us what they wanted. I believe we have heard nothing definite from them since. At Chicago there has been some movement toward local meetings, which is likely to take some active shape after some action of our own. But any apprehension that we have of a multitude of meetings in small towns all over the country is a bugbear. MR. NELSON W. PERRY:-I have been in Chicago about six months, and I think, so far as the feeling there is crystallized, the members out there do not want us to go to any extra expense. They are willing to stand whatever extra expense there may be. It seems to me that it is perfectly absurd for us to pay the local expenses there, because we cannot tell what they may be. We are not asked to do that. I endorse the recommendation of the committee thoroughly from beginning to end. THE PRESIDENT:-The question now is on Section G: "The expense of local meetings shall be borne by the local members and not become a charge upon the funds of the INSTITUTE." Will you take a vote on the section as it stands? Those in favor of passing it as it stands will signify their assent by saying ayecontrary minded, no. [The motion was carried.] THE PRESIDENT [reading "H."]:-The title, name and address of each local honorary secretary shall be printed in the publications of the INSTITUTE. A MEMBER: I move that it be adopted as read. [The motion was carried.] THE PRESIDENT:-Will you now move to adopt the report as a whole? A MEMBER-I move that the report be adopted as a whole. [The motion was carried.] REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LOCAL MEETINGS. TO THE COUNCIL. Your Committee, appointed at the meeting of the Institute of October 18th, to consider the subject of Local Meetings, beg to report as follows: 1st. It is the opinion of the Committee that provision should be made for local meetings of the members at points inconveniently distant from New York for the reading and discussion of papers accepted by the Institute. 2d. The Committee is of opinion that the provision in Section VI. of the Rules of the Institute, authorizing the Secretary to 'call a special meeting on a requisition signed by fifteen or more members" was not intended to and does not cover local meetings of the character contemplated in this report. 3d. The Committee presents the following plan for the holding of local meetings of members : A. When not less than twenty members in any stated locality shall in writing notify the Secretary of the Institute of their desire to hold local meetings, such request shall be presented to the Council at its first meeting thereafter. The Council shall then, upon the recommendation and nomination of the signers of the request for local meetings, appoint a Local Honorary Secretary, who shall be a member, or associate member of the Institute residing in the specified locality. B. The duties of a Local Honorary Secretary shall be in general to serve as a channel of communication between local members and the general body of members through the Secretary and Council, But no member in any locality shall be debarred from direct communication with the Institute. C. In any locality where a Local Honorary Secretary shall have been appointed, local meetings may be held, the local members to elect their own chairman, such meetings to be known as MEETING OF THE ————————— MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, and such meetings shall be for the purpose of reading, by the authors or by proxy, and of discussing, papers accepted by the Institute and such papers only. Such local meetings shall be held simultaneously with the Institute meetings or subsequently; that is to say, no paper before the Institute shall be read or discussed at a local meeting in advance of its reading at the Institute meeting. D. Wherever local meetings shall have been provided for, as in the foregoing section, the Local Honorary Secretary shall be supplied, by the Secretary of the Institute, with a suitable number of advance copies of papers to be read before the Institute, which copies he may distribute to the local members at their local meetings. The Local Honorary Secretary shall transmit to the Secretary of the Institute a report of the discussions at each local meeting, together with any written discussions or comments on papers that he may receive from members in his locality. Any member or associate may introduce a stranger to any meeting, but the latter shall not take part in the proceedings without the consent of the meeting. E. The Local Honorary Secretary shall transmit to the Secretary of the Institute all papers offered by local members, but any member may send papers directly to the Secretary of the Institute. F. The publication of the discussion at local meetings in the Transactions of the Institute shall be subject to the same regulations and restrictions as govern the publication of discussions at the regular meetings of the Institute. No publication of papers or discussions at local meetings in local or other journals or newspapers is to be permitted without the sanction of the Council or the Secretary of the Institute. G. The expense of local meetings shall be borne by the local members and shall not become a charge upon the funds of the Institute. H. The title, name and address of each Local Honorary Secretary shall be printed in the publications of the Institute. In dealing with the subject before it, and in preparing its report, your Committee has carefully considered the documents and correspondence placed in its hands; particularly the paper of the Secretary on "Monthly Meetings" and the plan for the establishment of chapters of the Institute drawn up by Dr. Emery, both of which were read at the October meeting. The scheme for local meetings suggested in this report has been designed with the purpose of affording to members, distant from the headquarters of the Institute, opportunity to participate in its work on substantially the same footing as members whose location permits them to attend the meetings held in New York. The Institute is a national body, having members in every section of the country, but with a large preponderance of membership relatively near headquarters. Its work and its publications have a national significance. Its subdivision into sections or chapters would detract from the unity and strength of its efforts to serve the best interests of electrical science and industry. Your Committee, therefore, is of opinion that it would not be for the welfare of the Institute to create any separate local organizations or any class or classes of members not now provided for in its Rules. It is believed that the plan for Local Honorary Secretaryships and for local meetings herewith submitted would meet fully the desire of members in diverse parts of the country to participate in the work of the Institute and that it would avoid the disadvantage and disintegrating tendency that might arise from the formal establishment of a number of separate and distinct subsocieties. HERBERT LAWS WEBB, A. E. KENNELLY, M. I. PUPIN, WM. J. HAMMER, GEO. M. PHELPS. Committee. New York, November 10, 1893. THE PRESIDENT:-I wish to report, in addition to this, on behalf of the committee appointed on Congress work that the committee has had meetings and has considered the questions involved, and that the following gentlemen have agreed to undertake the work of determining the standard of light and of illumination: Professor Edward L. Nichols, of Cornell University; Prof. Charles R. Cross, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Thomas A. Edison, of the Edison Laboratory; Dr. Frederic A. C. Perrine, of the Leland Stanford Jr. University; Dr. Louis Duncan, of the Johns Hopkins University; Prof. F. B. Crocker, of Columbia College; Prof. Reginald A. Fessenden, of the Western University of Pennsylvania. I think the INSTITUTE is to be congratulated on the very high standing of the gentlemen who have kindly agreed to undertake the work in behalf of the INSTITUTE. It is the intention of the committee as soon as it can do so, to call a conference of the chairmen of the local sub-committees in some central place, probably New York, to discuss and agree on methods and plans. Does Mr. Kennelly wish to submit to the INSTITUTE in this connection the report of the Committee on Units and Standards or does he wish it to be printed and submitted afterwards? MR. KENNELLY:-I think, sir, it would be better to print it first and take it up afterwards. THE PRESIDENT:-Gentlemen, I do not see anything else on the card. THE SECRETARY:-Mr. President, what I was going to ask was in regard to the Committee on Revision of the Rules which was re-appointed at the annual meeting. This is a committee appointed at the annual meeeting 1892 and re-appointed at the annual meeting 1893 to consider a revision of the rules, and I thought it well to call attention to it-the secretary of the committee being present-he could report at some future meeting so that we could have that thoroughly discussed and in shape in the course of two or three months. And Mr. Martin has also suggested that it might be well to have a committee prepare the substance of the report of this committee on local meetings for incorporation in the rules also, and if it will be satisfactory to the meeting, I will suggest that this same committee be given this matter in charge. MR. HAMMER: I would like to ask, as this has been adopted by the INSTITUTE, whether this does not become part and parcel of the Rules of the INSTITUTE pertaining to these meetings. THE PRESIDENT:-Certainly, I suppose so. THE SECRETARY:-I do not understand it so. THE PRESIDENT:-It would not become an amendment to our by-laws since that would require an action of a different character. But as I understand Mr. Hammer's question, it is thiswhether it needs any revision to become a matter of our by-laws. For my own part, I think that the committee on rules could very well put that in shorter phraseology. In other words, I do not suppose that it can possibly become a part of our rules, because that would be an amendment to them, and our rules require a written notice of a proposed amendment to be given at the previous meeting. We have agreed to do a certain thing. We need not make it a part of our by-laws, or we can, just as we choose. If it is the desire of the INSTITUTE then it would be proper to refer it to the committee on revision of rules. Then if they report it, it will be necessary to report it as an amendment of our rules and it would require the regular two months to go through. THE SECRETARY:-I do not wish to insist at all that it should become a part of our established rules, especially as it is well understood to be an experimental matter, and to avoid the further revision of the rules in the future I think it would be well to stand merely as an order of the INSTITUTE Or Council to be carried out. If eventually it proves entirely satisfactory it could be incorporated in the Rules. THE PRESIDENT:-Do you wish to press that motion? Adjourned. |