SECRETARY'S
OPFIC.E
Simplicity Becomes Complexity
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How to File a Card in...25 Places at Once
For the busy scientist, engineer, teacher, business man or student who has to keep basic information on file for use in a variety of categories, the Geniac P M U (Portable Memory Unit) is specially de signed. Information retrieval systems for personal use or small card files (from 1000-10,000) with abstracts, original articles or information are usually cumber some, expensive and out of the question for small budgets. B u t our P M U is low cost information retrieval system t h a t is as fast or faster than much more expensive units. Low initial cost, only S19.95 for the basic kit with two hundred cards, notcher, sorting rods and cod ing instructions, low maintenance with new cards costing S4.00 per 100 or S30.00 per 1000, are com bined with ready access to thousands of categories. No electrical vibrators or mechanical shakers are needed. No parts to go out of operation. Sorting is by rod and is remarkably rapid. Sorting rates are conservatively 400 per minute and this is for simultaneous sorting of a t least 25 categories, using extra rods. Information is coded into the cards by notching prepunched holes around the edge of the card. T h e user need have no previous knowledge of coding and mav choose as many categories as is necessary. To use you prepare an abstract on the card or actually paste on small articles, microprints, etc. Once coded the card is filed at random and will automatically appear during sorts for the cate gories it contains. The possibilities of the P M U information retrieval system are unlimited and enable the small to medium size information file to compete in flexibility with extremely expensive electronic sorting devices. I t serves as a useful adjunct to company integrate information systems. The Geniac Portable Memory Unit and informa tion retrieval system is a quality products design for long use. The basic P M U contains a notching hand punch, sorting rods. 200 cards and is only S19.95. Add 60£ postage and handling in the United States, SI.60 abroad. I n N Y C add 3 % City Sales Tax. Additional cards are S4.00/100, S30.00/1.000. File cabinet S8.00. Send check or money order t o Dept. C62B or telephone OR-4-3720
OLIVER GARFIELD CO., INC. 17 St. Marks Place
74
C&EN
JUNE
New York 3, Ν . Υ.
11,
1962
Many simple ideas prove to be com plex in implementation. Let's look at a few. Case No. 1. The Committee on Membership Affairs felt that a change in membership requirements and ter Its ideas minology was desirable. were widely discussed and endorsed. The Council subsequently voted the amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws that were neecssary for imple mentation. When the matter was in the stage of philosophical discussion, it was clear that complete rewriting of ACS Bylaw I, Sec. 3 was necessary. How ever, few foresaw that this would necessitate changes in 24 sections of the ACS Constitution and in 49 sec tions and subsections of the ACS By laws, and, if these amendments were confirmed, an unknown number of changes in the bylaws of 163 local sections and 22 divisions. And we are not sure that all have been found. Probably a year will be required to clean up implementation of this simple idea. Case No. 2. In September 1961, after careful consideration by Council Standing 'Committees and staff, the Council decided to change the time for the official count of membership in local sections. The proposal removed this time-consuming task from a pe riod of peak load in headquarters—the billing of members and subscribers and the processing of remittances for dues and subscriptions. It also pro vided information early enough so that most local sections would know their councilor representation before elec tions. What could be simpler? But, when the decision was made, no one realized that this decision re quired amendment of three provisions in the ACS Constitution and five in the Bylaws. Not all of these changes referred to the mechanics of the opera tion. In some cases alteration was re quired to drop the word "paid" from the term "paid membership." To spot all phraseology influenced by the basic changes in Cases 1 and 2 required meticulous reading of the Constitution and Bylaws, all 48 pages, because the use of old terminology oc curs throughout. Enactment of changes of this kind necessitates re
printing of Bulletin 5, "ACS Constitu tion, Bylaws, and Regulations," a work ing tool used regularly by hundreds of persons. Case No. 3 . In March of 1961, the Council approved a program which involved trial of a third national meeting. It seems doubtful that the sponsors realized the number of things which the Constitution, Bylaws, and Regulations required to occur at each national meeting. These were speci fied for traditional two national meet ings annually. The Board of Directors promptly amended Regulation III (3) to pro vide that the Board shall meet only at each "spring and fall" national meet ing. No other changes were voted because legal counsel ruled that Con stitutional and Bylaw provisions could be ignored briefly during trial of a new procedure. The Council and the Council Policy Committee voted not to meet during either of the two experimental January national meetings. But, if the experi ment is successful and the practice be comes permanent, many amendments to ACS governing documents will be necessary. Case No. 4. Establishment of a new journal seems simple, but this ap plies only to authorization. Obtaining a qualified editor seldom is easy. De termining exact scope, setting produc tion schedules, fixing cover design and type style and layout are complicated. Book dealers all over the world must be notified because they are the mid dlemen on many subscriptions, espe cially from abroad. Getting enough subscribers through circulation promo tion to meet a substantial part of the expense is not easy. Finally, a pro duction department must vary its standard operations to meet the differ ent and exacting demands of each edi tor. A simple decision has become extremely complex. General. We have confined this statement to four relatively recent matters. It is important that in *an or ganization as democratic as ACS, the members realize that many simple de cisions involve great complexities.
