Providing Value
As my year as President reaches its midpoint I am amazed at how fast time flies. A lot has been going on recently. At the end of March I attended the Assembly of Society Officers, which was organized by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) for its member society officers. The meeting was quite interesting with presentations focused on key issues faced by professional societies today. In particular, the business model of societies has changed. 

Twenty-five years ago before the advent of the internet, societies could operate based on their publications, which were distributed in paper form to their members. A scientist or engineer who wanted to read that journal had to either get a physical copy from their library, most of which did not circulate so they had to be used at the library, or they had to join the society. Now that model driving membership has changed. Journals are available online and competition has increased, making it even more difficult to stay ahead in the publication of quality journals. 

The advent of open-access publications also threatens to remove the motivation of libraries to subscribe to journals. Combined with budget constraints this is putting pressure on libraries to drop subscriptions. Now societies need to have a value proposition that goes beyond publishing a great journal.

We think AVS provides many values to you ranging from little things such as Physics Today, to larger things like local meetings in your area. (If there are none in your area then it is time for you to get involved in organizing them; please contact me about that.)

AVS provides opportunities for leadership (see previous parenthetical comment), access to JVST and the other AVS journals, the AVS Buyer's Guide to vacuum-related products, and more. We have been working to add to the list. For example, we have recently decided to provide free access to Surface Science Spectra to all of our members. We hope you enjoy your membership in . . .

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