Committees

AESHC Minutes 111th Convention 2001-12-01

AESHC Minutes 111th Convention 2001-12-01

Minutes of the AES Historical Committee Meeting

at the 111th AES Convention, 2001-12-02, in New York

Chair Jay McKnight called the AES Historical Committee (HC) meeting to order at 12:20. He indicated that the purpose of the meeting was to review the activities of the AES Historical Committee (AES HC) and to learn about the views of member regarding current and future projects.
  1. Introduction of Attendees. Attendees introduced themselves: Irv Joel, Louis Manno, Kees Immink, Howard Sanner, Ken Wilkinson, Chris Muth, John K. Chester, Greg James, Kurt Hulit, Al Grundy, David Baker, Frank Abbey, Steve Sohma, Fred Katz, Dan Gaydos, Bernard Fox, Georgia Anderson, Tom Scott, Wes Bulin, David J. Graham, Marjorie Joel, Robert Auld, Sid Feldman, Bill Pollup, Steve Durr, Michael Christopher, Eric Somers, Paul McManus, Nicholas Bergh, Jay McKnight (chair). Also several visitors attended the meeting part time.
  2. Amendments to and approval of the agenda. The agenda was distributed, and approved as distributed.
  3. Approval of previous minutes. Minutes from the previous meetings in Los Angeles (109th convention, 2000 Sept.) and Amsterdam (110th convention, 2001May) have been available on the AES HC web site. The minutes of the Los Angeles were approved as distributed. Minor editorial changes were made to the Amsterdam minutes, and they were approved.
  4. Discussion of points from the meeting at the 110th convention (2001 May) in Amsterdam. At the AES HC meeting during the Amsterdam convention, Alex Balster raised several questions regarding AES HC programs and practices. McKnight reviewed these concerns as follows.
    1. Concern about communications between North America and Europe: McKnight suggested that the AES HC was considering a request for funds to support one person who would attend all AES HC meeting and thereby provide continuity betwen the Spring and Fall meetings.
    2. Problems with the web site: McKnight reviewed the current arrangements for use of the web site and the reflector, both of which are the official means to distribute information about the AES HC. Many organizations use these same methods. The AES HC is always open to suggestions for improving these methods, and to add other methods where appropriate.
    3. Software usage: It was noted that the AES HC tries to use simple text files and avoid specialized software packages.
    4. Inventory of audio projects: In response to the call for such an inventory, McKnight noted that it already is available in the "Purposes" given in the HC Guidelines that are posted on the web site.
    5. Native language interviews: This request is to conduct interviews for the oral history project in the native language of the interviewee. It was noted that the widest distribution of the content of interviews would be achieved with the use of English, but AES HC policy supports the need for interviews in native languages when the interviewee is more comfortable using his/her native language. In these instances, interviews should be conducted in the language of the interviewee and a translation secured.
    6. Storage and access to historical materials: Funding from the AES is not available now to store the audio interviews of the AES HC. Interviews are being stored by Irv Joel; backups will be made at a later date.
    7. Lost tapes: It is believed that this relates to tapes of the Los Angeles "Afternoon With..." series. Paul McManus is working to add these tapes to the AES HC oral history collection.
  5. Committee report to the Governors. McKnight reviewed the report to be presented to the Board of Governors at this convention. The topics are:
    1. The AES HC is trying to get more suggestions of people to interview for the oral history project. Names of those planned for recording are listed on the web site.
    2. The AES HC is working with Roger Furness to accomodate historical materials at the AES headquarters. Furness is the chair of this effort.
    3. History of AES in Japan: The text of the History of AES in Japan has been received from Steve Sohma, and it now will be loaded on the web site. A translation currently is underway. Those interested in writing histories of the AES in their countries are encouraged to do so and contact the AES HC.
    4. IEEE cooperation: A liaison has been established with the IEEE history center at Rutgers University. Discussions are now underway exploring areas of cooperation.
    5. At the Amsterdam convention, word-of-mouth comments indicate that the Historical Café was a big success.
    6. The Vinyl Ruled 2 exhibit is ongoing at this conference and has drawn a strong attendance.
    7. The AES HC runs a web site, FTP site and reflector. They are accessed through the main AES web page. Contact McKnight if you have problems.
    8. Manfred Krause is continuing work  in Germany on a catalog for classifying the inventions and developments made in audio engineering, based on the work of HK Thiele.
    9. The oral history project is active in the USA and Europe. Interviews are being transcribed and will be placed on the web site.
    10. Members were encouraged to send ideas and materials to McKnight to further the projects of the AES HC. New projects are welcome, and the AES HC will use its web site to distribute the results of historical projects.
  6. Munich conference: The local arrangement people are preparing displays, papers on historical subject, and exhibits. Some historical films may be included in the program.
  7. Committee membership list: The membership list of the AES HC was started some years ago, but has not been kept up to date. Secretary Ted Sheldon will be contacting members listed there asking for confirmation of contact information (name, mailing address, email address, telephone number). How would the membership list be used? Most persons do not want their information listed on a public list. One possibility is to list it on a list available to members of the AES HC only. Another possibility is to have the listing several pages down in the web site. It was suggested to post only names and email addresses. This last was the concensus of those present.
  8. New Business:
    1. Many of those present indicated that they were on the AES HC reflector. For those not on the reflector, the preferred methods is that people follow the instructions on the website.  If all else fails, email Howard Sanner who will acknowledge and make arrangements.
    2. Ampex had a museum of artifacts that was stored several years ago. Stanford University Libraries have acquired that collection. They are organizing it now and they hope that it will be publicly available in two years.
    3. Kristina Schwarz was introduced. She will be making oral history interviews in Europe starting at the Munich convention. She intends to start at the IRT in Munich.
    4. Thanks to Irv Joel, John Chester and all those involved for putting together the exhibition here at the New York convention. Irv Joel described the process of bringing the exhibit to life with the interruption of the World Trade Center attacks. The exhibit is totally a volunteer effort except for required union work. The Javits Center staff has been wonderful. Joel also reviewed the historical programs presented in recent years, commenting on how the programs were assembled.
  9. Discussion from the floor.
    1. It was announced that SoundWave, the international museum of recorded sound and entertainment, will be opening in Camden, New Jersey, USA. Tom Corcoran was the creator of this center. Members of the AES HC are invited to become involved. SoundWave now needs support from the audio industry.
    2. Michael Christopher announced that he is working on a project involving Edison cylinders. He aims to release a cylinder recording on CD of a recording of Thomas Edison's voice.
    3. Nicholas Bergh talked about transcribing oral interviews to text.
    4. Howard Sanner noted the last living acoustic recording engineer should be interviewed for the oral history project. Cyril Francis worked for Parlophone in London and is the father of David Francis, former head of the Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Irv Joel is working on this.
    5. Irv Joel demonstrated the exhibition being presented at this convention.
  10. The next meeting will take place in 2002 May, in Munich, Germany.
  11. The meeting was adjourned at 13:50.
Respectfully submitted,
Ted Sheldon, Secretary
AES Historical Committee
2002-03-04

Rev e: jm 2002-04-22; rev f: hcs 2002-09-05

AES - Audio Engineering Society