Committee on Regional Chapters (CRC) Membership Study

ASA Membership Primary Field Distribution By State

This table has been sorted in descending order of total ASA membership for states with more than twenty members. Each column represents a field of acoustics and each row is a state.

Acoustics Fields

A - Architectural Acoustics

B - Engineering Acoustics

C - Musical Acoustics

D - Noise Control

E - Physical Acoustics

F - Psychological and Physiological Acoustics

G - Structural Acoustics and Vibration

H - Speech Communication

J - Underwater Acoustics

K - Biomedical Ultrasound/Bioresponse to Vibration

L - Animal Bioacoustics

M - Acoustical Oceanography

N - Signal Processing in Acoustics

 

The rows represent all the states with more than twenty members. Some cells of this table have been color coded red to represent the dominant fields of each state, blue to represent the fields of least interest, and yellow to represent secondary fields of interest having more than 10% of the total state population. These values are a snapshot of the ASA membership as of September 2005. Note that each state is unique in terms of their preferences. The primary field of interest in California is noise control, while Massachusetts is dominated by psychological and physiological acoustics, New York focuses on speech communication, Maryland on underwater acoustics, and Pennsylvania is equally dominated by physical acoustics and noise control. Illinois dominates in architectural acoustics but has no interest in ultrasound. Hawaii is mainly interested in animal bioacoustics. Also note that a whopping 63% of Mississippi's members (concentrated in Oxford) are mainly interested in physical acoustics. It is also worth observing that Texas has the most diverse interests starting from underwater acoustics followed by physical acoustics, architectural acoustics, speech communication, noise control, and psychological and physiological acoustics. Speech communication is the only field that is of interest to at least one member in every state in the table and acoustical oceanography is not of primary or secondary interest in any state.

To better visualize the preference distribution, the plots below were sorted by state in alphabetical order.

Identifying Potential Chapters

The figure below illustrates the ASA member population distribution as of September 2005 in the Northeastern United States. Each red dot represents the zip code of the mailing address of each member. Note that the largest population distribution runs along the northeastern corridor from Boston, MA, to Washington, DC. The labels indicate regions with a recognized ASA regional chapter. Note that most chapters are located in regions with a very high member population size and density. There are other regions, such as spots in Connecticut, Norfolk VA, and New York State, that may support regional chapters.

 

Population size and density are not the only factors in determining if a region can support a chapter. North Carolina has a very active chapter but the number (75) and density of ASA members are not large as indicated in the figure below. Why? Most chapters encourage non-ASA members including students that greatly increase attendance and outreach. The Norfolk area has a similar population size but does not have a chapter.

Oxford, MS, does not have a chapter but it has a very tight population size of 35 members. In Florida, the Gainesville area has a chapter that just re-started. It has a very tight population density that benefits the chapter since members will have a shorter trip to and from the meeting location. In the past, however, this chapter covered most of the state by holding meetings in various locations. Texas has ASA members mainly in the Austin, Dallas, and Houston areas. Dallas has an active chapter (North Texas Chapter), which supports science fairs.

There are Chapters in Cincinnati, Columbus, Madison, and in the Chicago area. The chapter in Minneapolis is very active (Upper Midwest Chapter). Detroit, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Champaign, St. Louis, and Buffalo could also support regional chapters but do not have one. Lincoln, Nebraska, has 31 ASA members and students have recently formed the University of Nebraska Student Chapter. The most recently formed regional chapter is the Student Chapter at the University of Kansas.

Among the western states (see figure below), Denver has about 84 members but lacks a regional chapter. Salt Lake City, with 63 members, has a recently activated student chapter at Brigham Young University (BYU). The San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles chapters are somewhat active in southern California, but this figure shows that the chapter-less San Francisco/San Jose area has the potential for chapter activities.

Notes:

  • Additional information may be found in the CRC article of Acoustics Today.
  • Similar data focused on the Washington DC region may be found at:

http://www.ASAchapterDC.org/study/index.htm

  • You're invited to join the newsgroup of the Washington DC regional chapter of the Acoustical Society of America:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASAchapterDC/

  • Feel free to visit our web site for future meetings:

http://www.ASAchapterDC.org/

Juan Arvelo - (August 9th, 2006)