OR/MS Today - February 1999 - President's Desk

February 1999

Ringing in the New

By Thomas Magnanti
magnanti@mit.edu

I sit writing this article on Jan. 1, my first day as president of INFORMS, and the fourth anniversary of the official merging of ORSA and TIMS to create INFORMS. Looking back, I can imagine that many of our members view the Society much as they did four years ago, with its traditional array of products and activities (publications, meetings). Then again, I suspect that most of us think that New Year's Day is synonymous with Jan. 1. However, until 1751 and the passing of the British Calendar Act, people in most English-speaking countries wished each other Happy New Year on March 25, to coincide, approximately, with the beginning of spring, and not on Jan. 1.

Please don't misinterpret this analogy as suggesting that INFORMS moves as slowly as changes in the calendar or the dates when we celebrate holidays. Indeed, the events since INFORMS' founding present quite a different picture.

Since New Year's Day provides an opportunity to reflect upon the past and the future, I'd like to summarize some, but not all, of the changes to INFORMS in the past four years and a few changes in the wings. As the following list will attest, INFORMS has not only continued to deliver its impressive array of top-flight journals, meetings and member services, but has made considerable progress in defining itself and its overall structure, in adding new products and services, and in improving communications both within the OR/MS community and beyond.

INFORMS Online: IOL, which has become a major repository of knowledge concerning the profession, provides many immediate benefits to our members (e.g., the online directory) and has become a lens through which individuals from outside of INFORMS learn about the profession. Currently, IOL has about 250,000 page hits per month. Impressive to say the least!

Subdivisions: We have created five Societies (Applied Probability Society, Computing Society, Decision Analysis Society, Military Applications Society, Omega Rho Society) within INFORMS and have 27 sections. Over 60 percent of the INFORMS members belong to at least one of these subdivisions. In addition, we have 30 regional groups, 40 student chapters and three fora. These subunits nicely serve targeted membership needs. The range of methodologies and practical considerations they address provides healthy evidence of our members' varied interests.

Education: Through the vibrant subdivision INFORMED, we now have initiated many educational activities, including many (well-attended) education sessions at our national meetings. Last year, we held our first workshop on teaching (covering spreadsheet modeling). At the Cincinnati meeting, we are holding a major colloquium on teaching effectiveness. We have created an exciting and informative student union as part of IOL. We are developing a program of continuing education to serve some of the ongoing educational needs of the membership. Education has increasingly become a major part of our portfolio of activities.

Prizes: In addition to our long-standing traditional prizes for research and other contributions to the profession, we have introduced an expository prize award, a prize for the teaching of OR/MS practice, and the Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice. These prizes permit us to better recognize our many member contributions to the profession and to society at large.

Publications: Our traditional journals continue to be highly regarded within and outside the profession. We have introduced our first electronic publication, Interactive Transactions of ORMS (ITORMS), and we are launching a new journal, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, as well as a new Web-based publication on education. We are about to publish two of our journals electronically and are investigating a broader electronic publishing strategy.

Outreach: Through IOL, the INFORMS business office and varied volunteer efforts, we have added considerably to our public relations and outreach efforts. We now routinely have press coverage of member activities. We have created a new video tape for elementary school students and have developed a new video on the profession that is scheduled to be aired on public television this year.

Meetings: We are moving to a new meeting structure with a single annual meeting with added member benefits and we are introducing a new practice meeting to better meet the needs of both practitioners and academics with an interest in practice.

The range and extent of the activities represented on this list is striking. We are a professional society on the move. As we ring in the new year, we should pause to celebrate these accomplishments. We should also look to the future. In this spirit, over the next couple of months the INFORMS Board will be undertaking a strategic planning exercise so that as we look back on the next four years, we will be able to point to a similar set of achievements. As always, the Board welcomes your input into these deliberations.

On behalf of the membership at large, I'd like to thank the members of our business office and the many volunteers who have helped to make these accomplishments a reality. I am particularly grateful to the past INFORMS Boards for their foresight and commitment in establishing INFORMS and in stimulating and supporting these activities. It has been a particular pleasure to have served on the INFORMS Executive Committee with my two immediate predecessors as president, Arthur Geoffrion and Karla Hoffman, who have both served the Society with considerable distinction. Thanks Art and Karla for all you have contributed.

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