00100	Dear Colleagues:
00200	
00300		At 3IJCAI I was asked to prepare a plan for converting
00400	the committee into an international AI organization for consider?tion
00500	at the next meeting which will be held in Tblisi.  There was no
00600	solid commitment to formalize an organization, but it seems to
00700	me that the consensus included the following points:
00800	
00900		1. It would be an organization of individuals and not
01000	representatives of societies or governments.
01100	
01200		2. If formed it would take over the IJCAIs and probably
01300	the AI journal assuming the editorial board was agreeable.
01400	
01500		3. It do what else it could to advance the field, but
01600	there were no strongly expressed proposals of what this might
01700	be.
01800	
01900		It seems to me that the following additional considerations
02000	apply:
02100	
02200		1. An organization of this kind could probably have an
02300	income of about $10,000 per year from membership dues and
02400	leftovers from conferences.  This is not enough for even one
02500	employee, and there is no present reason why it would be desirable
02600	to have a headquarters and an employee.
02700	
02800		2. International expenditures on AI may be about $10,000,000
02900	per year depending on definitions, so the AI Society's money should
03000	not be spent on research.  It might be spent on prizes or fellowships,
03100	but there has not recently been any single piece of research that
03200	merits a large prize, and we shouldn't do it just to get publicity,
03300	because publicity \F1per se\F0 is not of obvious value.  I would
03400	favor giving a prize on an \F1ad hoc\F0 basis if something sufficiently
03500	admirable came up before a meeting and there was no conflict of
03600	interest situation.  Therefore, I think the governing committee should
03700	have advance authorization to award a prize but no commitment to
03800	do so and no stipulation as to the amount.
03900	
04000		3. An obviously good function of the organization would be
04100	to maintain a mailing list.  This could be used both as a reference
04200	for finding individuals and by organizations with something to sell.
04300	(I don't think we will be flooded with insurance brochures, but there
04400	might be useful book ads.)
04500	
04600		4. A journal publishing submitted abstracts of reports
04700	and publications might be maintained preferably in co-operation
04800	with an institution with a computer suitable for maintaining
04900	the necessary files and allowing on-line access.  It might also
05000	take orders for reports, although for U.S. users of U.S. reports,
05100	the National Technical Information Service does the job well
05200	enough.
05300	
05400		5. The organization might publish a bulletin, but it
05500	seems more reasonable to encourage international membership
05600	in SIGART at present.
05700	
05800		6. If an organization is formed, it should meet rarely,
05900	and no-one should be trapped into making it his main professional
06000	activity.  Still worse would be having several people whose
06100	main activity was jockeying for power in it.