Plymouth Meeting (June 29-July 1)-Page 379 Notices of the American Mathematical Society e.K 's:: ~ June 1984, Issue 234 Volume 31, Number 4, Pages 361 - 432 Providence, Rhode Island USA ~ ISSN 0002-9920 Calendar of AMS Meetings THIS CALENDAR lists all meetings which have been approved by the Council prior to the date this issue of the Notices was sent to press. The summer and annual meetings are joint meetings of the Mathematical Association of America and the Ameri· can Mathematical Society. The meeting dates which fall rather far in the future are subject to change; this is particularly true of meetings to which no numbers have yet been assigned. Programs of the meetings will appear in the issues indicated below. First and second announcements of the meetings will have appeared in earlier issues. ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS presented at a meeting of the Society are published in the journal Abstracts of papers presented to the American Mathematical Society in the issue corresponding to that of the Notices which contains the program of the meet· ing. Abstracts should be submitted on special forms which are available in many departments of mathematics and from the office of the Society in Providence. Abstracts of papers to be presented at the meeting must be received at the headquarters of the Society in Providence, Rhode Island, on or before the deadline given below for the meeting. Note that the deadline for ab· stracts submitted for consideration for presentation at special sessions is usually three weeks earlier than that specified below. For additional information consult the meeting announcement and the list of organizers of special sessions. MEETING# DATE PLACE ABSTRACT DEADLINE ISSUE 812 june 29-july 1, 1984 Plymouth, New Hampshire EXPIRED June 813 August 16-19, 1984 Eugene, Oregon JUNE 5, 1984 August (88th Summer Meeting) 814 November 2-3, 1984 Minneapolis, Minnesota AUGUST 28, 1984 October 815 November 9-10, 1984 San Diego, California AUGUST 31, 1984 October 816 January 9-13, 1985 Anaheim, California OCTOBER 17, 1984 January (91 st Annual Meeting) March 22-23, 1985 Chicago, Illinois April 12-13, 1985 Tucson, Arizona january 7-11, 1986 New Orleans, Louisiana (92nd Annual Meeting) January 21-25, 1987 San Antonio, Texas (93rd Annual Meeting) January 6-1 0, 1988 Atlanta, Georgia (94th Annual Meeting) August 8-12, 1988 Providence, Rhode Island (AMS Centennial Celebration) DEADLINES: Advertising (August 1984 Issue) june 20, 1984 (October 1984 Issue) September 13, 1984 News/Special Meetings (August 1984 Issue) june 4, 1984 (October 1984 Issue) August 27, 1984 Other Events Sponsored by the Society June 1 0-August 18, 1984, Joint Summer Research Conferences in the Mathematical Sciences, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine. july 22-August 4, 1984, AMS-SIAM Summer Seminar on Nonlinear Systems of POE in Applied Mathe­ matics, College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Please note change of dates.) july 16-August 3, 1984, AMS Summer Research Institute on Geometric Measure Theory and the Calculus of Variations, Arcata, California. August 14-15, 1984, AMS Short Course: Environmental and Natural Resource Mathematics, Eugene, Oregon. Subscribers' changes of address should be reported well in advance to avoid disruption of service: address labels are prepared four to six weeks in advance of the date of mailing. Requests for a change of address should a/ways include the member or subscriber code and preferably a copy of the entire mailing label. Members are reminded that U. S. Postal Service change-of­ address forms are not adequate for this purpose, since they make no provision for several important items of information which are essential for the AMS records. Suitable forms are published from time to time in the Notices (e.g. June 1984, page 427). Send change. of address notices to the Society at Post Office Box 6248, Providence, RI 02940. [Notices is published eight times a year (January, February, April, June, August, October, November, December) by the American Mathematical Society at 201 Charles Street, Providence, RI 02904. Second class postage paid at Providence, RI and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address change notices to Membership and Sales Department, American Mathematical Society, Post Office Box 6248, Providence, Rl 02940.] Publication here of the Society's street address, and the other information in brackets above, is a technical requirement of the U. S. Postal Service. The street address should never be used by correspondents, unless they plan to deliver their messages by hand. Members are strongly urged to notify the Society themselves of address changes (in the manner described above), since (as explained above) reliance on the postal service change-of-address forms is liable to cause delays in processing such requests in the AMS office. Notices of the American Mathematical Society Volume 31, Number 4, June 1984 EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Paul F. Baum, Ralph P. Boas Raymond L. Johnson, Mary Ellen Rudin Bertram Walsh, Daniel Zelinsky 362 Report to the Members of the Society Everett Pitcher (Chairman) MANAGING EDITOR 364 News and Announcements Lincoln K. Durst ASSOCIATE EDITORS 370 NSF News & Reports Hans Samelson, Queries 374 Letters to the Editor Ronald L. Graham, Special Articles SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION 376 Queries Subscription prices for Volume 31 (1984) are $50 list; $25 member. (The subscrip­ 377 1984 AMS Elections tion price for members is included in the annual dues.) A late charge of 10% of the 378 New Rules Concerning Abstracts subscription price will be imposed upon orders received from nonmembers after 379 Future Meetings of the Society January 1 of the subscription year. Sub­ scribers outside the United States and Plymouth, june 29-ju/y 7, 379; Eugene, India must pay a postage surcharge of August 74-79, 384; Minneapolis, Novem­ $5; subscribers in India must pay a postage surcharge of $15. Subscrip- ber 2-3, 386; San Diego, November 9-70, tions and orders for AMS publications Call for Topics, Invited Speakers should be addressed to the American 387; 389, Mathematical Society, P.O. Box 1571, and Special Sessions, 392 Annex Station, Providence, Rl 02901. All orders must be prepaid. 394 Special Meetings ORDERS FOR AMS BOOKS AND 399 New AMS Publications INQUIRIES ABOUT SALES, SUBSCRIP­ TIONS, AND DUES may be made by 402 Miscellaneous calling Carol-Ann Blackwood at 800-556-7774 (toll free in U.S.) between Personal I terns, 402; Deaths, 402; Visiting 8:00a.m. and 4:15p.m. eastern time, Mathematicians, 403 Monday through Friday. 406 Acknowledgement of Contributions INFORMATION ABOUT ADVERTISING in the Notices may be obtained from 411 AMS Reports and Communications Wahlene Siconio at 401-272-9500. Report of the Treasurer, 411; Recent Appoint­ CORRESPONDENCE, including changes of address should be sent to American ments, 413; Reports of Past Meetings: Notre Mathematical Society, P.O. Box 6248, Dame, 413; South Bend Council Meeting, 413 Providence, Rl 02940. Second class postage paid at 415 Advertisements Providence, Rl, and additional mailing offices. Copyright © 1984 by the 428 Registration Forms American Mathematical Society. Printed in the United States of America. Plymouth Preregistration and Housing Form, The paper used in this journal is acid-free 425, Summer List of Applicants, 428, 429; and falls within the guidelines established Eugene Preregistration and Housing Form, to ensure permanence and durability. 431,432 Report to the Members of the Society Society Prices to Increase in 1985 The King instructed the White Rabbit to and in plant and equipment, for the purpose of "Begin at the beginning and go on until you come lowering future operating costs. Examples of to the end; then stop". I prefer a different order: relevant data: from 1978 to 1981 the increase first the bad news, then the good news, then how in the cost of living was almost 40%, while the we got from one to the other and what the future total of AMS journal prices other than of MR and holds. CMP rose slightly more than 3.6%. The prices The bad news is that the Society experienced a of the latter journals rose by about 30%, but deficit in each of the four years 1980-1983, and their sizes increased as well. As to expenditures not of small amounts: the total loss in this period for the future, substantial amounts were spent on has been about $2,725,000. computers and software (it was only because of The good news is that we (the Trustees and computerization that the seven-year Mathematical staft) expect to nearly break even in 1984, and to Reviews index was feasible at all), and on a have a reasonable surplus in 1985 and (we hope) warehouse and printing plant to provide more thereafter. efficient handling of Society publications. As a The rest of this report is devoted to explaining result, the value of property and equipment owned the reasons for the deficit, what has been and is by the Society increased more (namely, by about being done to correct it, and what the implications $1.8 million) between 1979 and 1982 than between of all this are for you, the members. 1970 and 1979. Unfortunately, as mentioned, the period 1979- Brief Finaneial History 1982 was one during which all costs rose rapidly, not only for the Society but for libraries, and the It is useful to remove from this discussion latter began to cut back on purchases. Book sales the permanent investment funds (from which no and subscription lists declined, and the combined capital has been withdrawn, of course), and to effect of underpricing and slippage in sales helped talk only of the 'operating funds'. In 1970 the to bring us to the present state of affairs. Society had a little over $600,000 in operating funds; this amount shrank to a low of about The Next Phase $100,000 in 1974, rose more or less linearly to a high of $2,550,000 in 1979, and fell to a negative During the past couple of years, vigorous $175,000 in 1983.