Minutes of the AES Historical Committee Meeting

at the 109th AES Convention, 2000-09-24, in Los Angeles

The AES Historical Committee (HC) meeting was called to order by Chair Jay McKnight at 13:10 in Room 301B of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

1. Introduction of attendees.
 Persons in attendance introduced themselves, adding comment about their affiliation and interests: Peter Swarte (Netherlands), Louis Manno, John Woodgate (England), Paul McManus, Susan Schmidt Horning, Irina Aldoshina (Russia), Albert Grundy, Donald Plunkett, Yoshizo (Steve) Sohma (Japan), Jim Hunter, Rick Minne, M. David Read, John French, Chris Herles, A. Douglas Moncrieff, John K. Chester, Ted Sheldon, Irv Joel.

2. Amendments to and approval of the agenda.
 The printed agenda was distributed.  McKnight asked for permission to alter the order of consideration of agenda items.  There was no objection.

3. Approval of previous report from AES 108th convention, Paris, France.
 The minutes of the Historical Committee meeting from 2000 February in Paris were approved as distributed.

4. Project report
 The -Project Report, 2000-09-19" document was distributed and reviewed. [The complete report  is now available online at http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/projrepts/aeshcprojrept20000909.html .]

• The -Historical Café-: This project is proposed for the 110th Convention (2001 May, in Amsterdam)  with a budget of 8,000 US$.  This proposal will be made to the AES Board of Governors.  Arrangements also may be made to visit a nearby museum.
• Through the efforts of Art Shifrin and Irv Joel of the Historical Committee, an Ampex Model 200A stored at the AES headquarters was returned to its owner.
• The -library- of technical journals and books at AES headquarters has been donated to the Library of Congress.
• Histories of the AES.  The history of the Japan Chapter of AES has been written; now it is proposed to request 5,000 US$ to translate it into English.
• The -When Vinyl Ruled- exhibition presented at this conventiont has been a big success.  Thanks go to Paul McManus, Irv Joel, David Baker, John Chester, Shelly Herman, Jim Webb, and others for the exhibition demonstrating recording technology from the 1950s - 1970s.
• Email reflectors. The Steering Committee email reflector is available for administrative matters.
• The AES website has a historical element including links to related sites.
• Under the heading of -catalog for classifying the inventions and developments made in audio engineering-, Prof. Manfred Krause (Germany) and colleagues plan a database of the Heinz K. Thiele Archive.  A description of the archive, and a slide show of the proposal for this database was presented.
• Historical resources.  AES is publishing the memoirs of Semi Joseph Begun (to be available in 2000 November).  Also, historical data on 3M magnetic tapes is now available on the Historical Committee web site.
• Oral histories.  Irv Joel, John Eargle, and  Susan Schmidt Horning have conducted numerous video interviews at the 107th and 109th conventions.  Thus far, 32 interviews have been completed as of the end of the 109th convention [and 10 more were done in the SF Bay Area during the next week thanks to Ross Snyder and Peter Hammar].  The list of interviewees on the HC web site will be updated soon.  Irv Joel asked for ideas about how to use the interviews.  Streaming video is still problematic if one does not have broadband service.  Also, the video interviews would have to be edited  - Who will do that?  What about an audio interview of the month?  Several examples of the video interviews recorded by Joel were played.  The need to make backup copies of the tapes was noted.  A discussion of how to make preservation copies occurred.   Irv Joel asked if this project was heading in the right direction?  It is.  What about working with the AES Education Committee to get the content of interviews into educational packages for K-12 schools?  Joel encouraged members to use the -Oral History Interview Recommendation Form- on the HC  web site to suggest individuals who should be interviewed.
• McKnight noted that -An Afternoon with Jack Mullin,- and -A Chronology of American Tape Recording- are available on video tape from AES.
• Al Grundy announced that he is working on a presentation for the New York convention in September 2001; the working title is -When Vinyl Ruled, the Second Pressing.-
• Chris Herles of the Museum Of Sound Recording announced that they have signed a contract to plan, design, and construct a museum and theme park called -SoundWave -- the International Museum of Recorded Sound and Entertainment Center- on the waterfront in Camden, NJ. [Further details are now in JAES 48:12, 2000 December, p 1267.]

5. New projects.

•  A -Historical Café- for the 109th Convention in Amsterdam in 2001 (A. Balster)

Alex Balster presented the plan for an -Historical Café- for the Amsterdam convention in 2001 May.  He indicated his pleasure at being able to see the exhibition of the committee here in Los Angeles.  Plans call for the establishment of a planning committee.  They wanted to have an exhibit of hardware, but such is very expensive, so they plan to display a collection of photographs.

•  Translation of -History of the AES Japan Chapter" (T. Yamamoto)

It is proposed to translate the recent history of the Japan Chapter.  Plans will need to be made to find someone to do the translation.

6. New business
 The current organization of the Historical Committee is based on regions.  Several officers have recently resigned.  It seems better to restructure the committee officers to parallel those of other AES Committees, namely, to have a chair and a vice chair.  Then have project chairs who serve for a specific time and purpose.  McKnight asked for comment.  The only comment made supported the proposed restructuring.

 Currently, AESHC operates in accord with the directives of the AES Board of Governors.  They require guidelines for the operation of the committee.  Chair McKnight will rewrite the guidelines to accommodate the changes, and submit this to the Committee for review and approval.

7. Date of next meeting
 Next meeting will be at the 110th convention in Amsterdam in 2001 May.

8. Adjournment.
 The meeting was adjourned at 14:45.
 

First draft, Ted Sheldon, 2000-10-17
Second draft, J McKnight, 2001-01-25, corrected 2001-02-08