Save the JACC!

J.C. Lozier, the Guest Editor, is a Supervisor in guidance and control systems analysis at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., Whippany, N.J., USA. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a former Chairman of the G-AC, a former President of the AACC, and now a Fice President of the IFAC. He is also Chairman of the long-range planning committee of the AACC. This editorial is taken from a letter he wrote to the other members of the committee to stimulate discussion and to generate ideas for improving the JACC. Some of the points raised are also applicable to this Transactions and to other technical meetings. The editorial is presented in the hope that it will elicit ideas and comment from the G-AC membership. He notes that one way to improve meetings - such as JACC - from the customers´ standpoint lies in clamping down on the authors. One suggestion for doing this is the following: make the author confine his scope to a brief statement of the problem tackled and the results claimed - at most five to seven minutes - followed by discussion which is started by an invited discussor whose name is included in the advanced program. The five to seven minute restriction is aimed at making it impossible for the author to try to give a condensed version of his paper.