Technical Activities Committee
TAC Exec Minutes– 9 February 2011
Attending: Laura McGill, Basil Hassan, Kathleen Atkins, Jim Neidhoefer, Neal Pfeiffer, Ashwani Gupta, Trevor
Sorensen, Mark Melanson, Allen Arrington, Tony Gross, Wayne Hurwitz, Jane Hansen, Ben Tutt, Megan Scheidt,
Joanne Zook, Chris Horton, Janice Saylor, Betty Guillie
1. TAC VP Issues – Laura McGill
a. May Meetings – Tentative schedule has been sent to TAC members. Currently, TAC Exec, NIS and
CSPI will be held on Tuesday, TAC meeting on Wednesday, Board of Directors meeting on Thursday.
b. FY12 Budget Planning – Draft KIs are due from staff on 25 February. Directors - be prepared to return
back to staff with comments by 4 March. Most conferences missed key indicator numbers last year.
Numbers should be slightly conservative for FY12.
c. Annual Report – VP report will be in a slightly different format this year. Klaus will be notifying the VPs
with more information shortly on the change in format. Once Laura has received that information, she will
provide templates to the Directors for their reports.
d. Potential Trademarking of Conferences – It was brought to TAC’s attention that another organization
has an event with the same acronym as we do – ICSSC. This brought up the subject of trademarking a
name. Staff is looking into the process/pros/cons of trademarking and will provide information to Laura.
e. Improvement of Event Surveys – Janice Saylor – Staff has been looking at the current surveys from
conferences. They are finding that the questions and use of the surveys are not consistent. Marketing
would like to provide more programmatic questions on the surveys which could possibly provide the
planning committees with information that could be used in setting the program. Surveys are also too long
and the goal is to shorten them. The marketers are planning to meet next week and look at the surveys.
Once a vision is determined Janice will provide information to Laura and Basil on what is needed from
TAC.
f. Space 2011 YP Speaker Travel Support – Chris Horton - An AIAA member has written a book for
students and young engineers about optimizing engineering careers. A session is being organized at
Space 2011 for him to talk to young careerists. Could TAC use TAC Funds for this person’s travel? He is
a member of a TC that will be meeting at this conference. Because of the benefits to YPs, TAC is leaning
towards approving the request with a cap of $1500.00. Chris will complete a TAC Funding request form
officially asking for the funds.
g. Search Committee established to identify new EIC for Journal of Aircraft – Tom Weeks is stepping
down. Search committee has been established.
2. TAC VP-Elect Issues – Basil Hassan
a. ASM Paper Statistics – Megan provided data to Basil on the ASM paper statistics. Basil would like to
see more half sessions if sessions are not fully populated; need to start rejecting papers – develop guidelines and
possibly target rejection rates.
b. AIAA Headquarters Visit – Basil visited HQ on Friday, 28 January 2011. Met with various staff and
provided his goals and philosophy. He wants candid discussions with staff. Staff is the constant, volunteers rotate
– need to listen to each other. There were discussions on collocation, paper statistics, consistent vision of
conference planning, consistent use of complimentary registrations, marketing and communication, and
communicating better with committees on who makes the decision.
c. Strategic Conference Call (25 Feb) – First telecom will be 25 February. Although still working on the
issues, the Aeroacoustics TC is looking with possibly collocating with Fluids et al starting around 2014.
3. Staff Issues – Betty Guillie
a. TAC Funds Status – Allotted $4301.00; Remaining $44,799.00
b. Metrics for Recent Conferences – ASM – Key Indicator 1,660; Actual Full Paid 1,573
Technical Activities Committee
c. Conferences for Approval –
TAC Event Approval Form: AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics 2012, Colorado Springs, CO, 4-6 June 2012, approved by
David Riley. Discussion - Possible collocation would begin in 2014. Conference has not been covering expenses.
What can we do to cut costs? Registration fees have to reflect costs. Registration will need to go up. Staff could
provide some information that would help save on expenses. Dinner is more expensive than lunch for the awards
program.
ACTION ITEM: Mark Melanson will notify Dave Riley concerning the discussion and let him know TAC has
instructed that the registration must cover costs/expenses.
A motion was made to approve the event form. It was seconded and passed. Will be sent to TAC for an e-mail vote.
Cosponsored conference request forms:
2nd International Air Transport and Operations Symposium, Delft, The Netherlands, 28-29 March 2011. Delft
University of Technology, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering is the operating society. The AIAA Product Support
Technical Committee is supporting this event. Adel Ghobbar is listed as the contact person and is a member of
this Technical Committee. Because the request was submitted less than 3 months before the event, the form was
sent to IAC and Neal Pfeiffer simultaneously. Neal said he would contact the Product Support TC chair to get
more information on the event. IAC has approved this event.
Adel Ghobbar would be the person who would provide feedback to AIAA.
Motion to approve, seconded, and passed. Will be sent to TAC for an e-mail vote.
Acoustic Liners and Associated Propagation Techniques, Lausanne, Switzerland, 13-14 October 2011. The
operating society is the Aeroacoustic Specialists’ Committee of the Council of European Aerospace Societies,
with which AIAA has a long-standing collaboration. The AIAA Aeroacoustics Technical Committee is supporting
this event and Jake Yu is a current member on the Technical Committee. AIAA has co-sponsored these
workshops in the past. None of the organizing committee members are AIAA members. Event has been approved
by IAC and David Riley.
ACTION ITEM: Mark Melanson will contact Jake Yu to get a name on who would provide feedback to AIAA.
Motion to approve, seconded and passed (pending confirmation on the name of the person providing feedback).
Will send for e-mail vote once a name is received.
The Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS), Reno, NV, 23-26 January 2012. The operating
society is made up of 10 organizers of which AIAA is one of them. Each operating society provides seed money
and in return gets a share of the surplus after the event. AIAA does maintain an account for this event. Surplus
checks are deposited into the account; seed money is pulled from the account; balance is currently over
$46,000.00. AIAA does have an MOU for this event which was signed by all societies participating in the event.
TAC determined since an MOU is in place for this event, TAC does not need to approve it.
d. ScholarOne update - document available on SharePoint – A new Weekly Actions Item document was
uploaded to the Shared Documents/ScholarOne Issues folder today. The link is
https://info.aiaa.org/SC/TAC/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=%2fSC%2fTA
C%2fShared%20Documents%2fScholarOne%20Issues&FolderCTID=&View=%7bB2E73755%2d375
0%2d4BDB%2d8012%2d454F218450F8%7d
4. NIS Activities – Mark Melanson – Jim Neidhoefer approved the change of Software Systems TC to Software
TC. Will now go out to TCs. LAAA TC has rewritten their charter. Will be submitted to NIS and TAC once
approved by the TC.
Technical Activities Committee
5. Public Policy – Tom Duerr – not attending
CVD Key Issues Update – Laura expressed her appreciation to the Directors/Deputy Directors in regards
to providing POC for the key issues.
6. Liaison Reports – as indicated by the Liaisons
a. Honors and Awards – Sanjay Garg – not attending
b. Publications – Wayne Hurwitz – provided presentation that will be provided with the minutes.
Subjects covered:
- AIAA Principles on the Publication, Preservation, and Dissemination of Scholarly Aerospace Research
- AIAA Journal Posting Policy
- Implications of Open Access Policies
- SHERPA Rating implications for AIAA
- Chinese Translations – providing license agreement so AIAA books can be translated into Chinese.
c. Membership/RSAC – Cathy Downen – not attending
d. Young Professionals – Jeremy Kenny/Ben Tutt – Ben reported that the YPs are helping the Space &
Missiles Group (Tony Williams) by looking at ways to bring technology into the meetings.
e. Education / SAC – Dolores Krausche – not attending
f. STEM K-12 – Jane Hansen – no report
g. Exhibits – John Chawner – not attending
h. Standards – Allen Arrington – no report
i. International – Need to Identify
7. Program Committees – Tony Gross – Brett Anderson is stepping down. Tony will be looking for a replacement.
He will also be working with Mark Melanson on coming up with guidelines on how a PC can transition to a TC and
vice versa. Gossamer Spacecraft PC would like to become a TC. Next-Gen – possible new PC??
8. Directors – Around the Room/Phone
Kathleen Atkins – working on SDM et al – possible workshop at the event –will get back to Megan.
Neal Pfeiffer – no report
Ashwani Gupta – no report
Jim Neidhoefer – Jim brought up a subject concerning chair responsibilities – information is not in the
TC/PC Chair Handbook but it is included on the Health Assessment form.
Trevor Sorensen – Space 2011 – abstracts are down, no extra half day on Monday. Trevor would like the
TCs to meet on Monday during the day or Tuesday and Wednesday nights (avoid meeting during the day
when sessions are going on.)
Allen Arrington – Systems Integration with JPC – 3 plenary sessions – 2 areas targeted on program
management, looking for keynote speakers.
David Riley – not attending
9.
Old Business - none
10. New Business
Basil – Noted the disconnect with how we are organized within TAC, and that we are not hitting Systems
Integration topics. This might be addressed via a Gap analysis during the May meeting.
Next TAC Executive Telecom – 9 March 2011