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%% COVER 1 already done (10 MAY 91; via R. Girouard, AMS):
 
%% COVER 2 (editorial information):
 
\pagestyle{empty}
 
\begin{center}
{\Sectionfont\TeX{} and TUG NEWS}
\end{center}
 
\vspace{.5pc}
 
\noindent \TTN\ is a newsletter for \TeX\ and \LaTeX\ users alike: {\em a forum
for exchanging information, tips and suggestions\/}; {\em a regular means of
communicating news items to one another\/}; {\em a place where information
about \TeX{} and TUG can be quickly disseminated}.  Throughout the newsletter
``\TeX'' is understood to mean \TeX, \LaTeX, \AmSTeX, and other related
programs and macros.
 
\vspace{.25pc}
 
{\bf This is a prototype issue of the newsletter.  If the TUG Board of
Directors decides to continue this publication, all the following will apply.}
 
\vspace{.25pc}
 
\TTN\ is produced with the standard \LaTeX{} distribution, and is to
be as portable a document as possible.  This is done on purpose, in order to
look at eventual electronic distribution of the source file.  To test this, the
source file of this issue will be placed in the {\tt aston}, {\tt clarkson},
{\tt heidelberg}, and {\tt labrea} archives initially.
 
\vspace{.25pc}
 
The entire contents of this newsletter are being placed in the public domain.
Copying and reprinting are encouraged; however, an acknowledgement specifiying
\TTN\ as the source would be appreciated.
 
\vspace{.25pc}
 
As a newsletter for and by \TeX{} users, extensive participation and
comment will be solicited.  Submissions to \TTN\ will be encouraged.
They should be short, the macros must work, and the files {\bf must} run
without special font or graphics requirements: this is to be a {\em
portable\/} newsletter (the new font naming scheme has not yet been
implemented).  Correspondence may be sent directly via e-mail to: {\tt
tug@math.ams.com}, with the subject line {\tt NEWSLETTER}. Regular
mail should be addressed to the Publications Committee, \careof\
TUG Office at the address below.
 
\vspace{.25pc}
 
Kind acknowledgement is made to Lance Carnes of Personal \TeX{} Inc.
and Peter Abbott of Aston University for providing complimentary
camera copies of this issue of \TTN.
 
 
\vspace{1pc}
 
\begin{center}
{\bf \TUG}\\
P.O.~Box 9506\\
Providence, RI 02940-9506 USA
 
\vspace{.25pc}
 
Phone: 401-751-7760\\
FAX: 401-751-1071\\
E-mail: {\tt tug@math.ams.com}
 
\vspace{1pc}
 
\TeX{} is a trademark of the American Mathematical Society
\end{center}
 
\newpage
 
%% Editorial (2 pages):
 
\pagestyle{myheadings}
\markboth{Vol.~0, No.~0, May 1991\qquad{\TTN}}%
          {{\TTN}\qquad Vol.~0, No.~0, May 1991}
 
\setcounter{page}{1}
\Section{Editorial}
 
Welcome to \TTN!
 
\vspace{.5pc}
 
\TTN\ is a \TUG\ newsletter to supplement and extend TUG's services to
its members.  After 12 years of TUG, it's time to expand and change, a
recurring theme in the past year, as evidenced in the board's own
composition, in the changes introduced into the annual meeting, and in
the production of this prototype newsletter.
 
\TTN\ is for \TeX{} users to communicate with one another, and for the
\TUG\ to communicate with its members. It is intended to be a pragmatic
source of information: an exchange of news items, columns and comments,
letters to the editor, hints and tricks and ideas, the latest comings
and goings in the community, books and articles of interest, and so
on. As a ``proto-Mission Statement,'' this list is of course provisional.
 
The \TTN\ prototype has two purposes: (a) to see what is involved in
producing a newsletter; and (b) to get some important board
communications/business
out to the membership.  This issue is atypical as it has a fair amount
of category (b) material; these pages will be replaced by regular
newsletter columns and articles starting with the first regular issue.
 
The TUG board has recognized the need for a newsletter for years and,
if this prototype issue shows that a newsletter can be fiscally
feasible, the board will approve the continuation of the project.
 
If that approval is given, lots of help will be needed.  This is intended
to be a {\bf users'} newsletter.  {\bf You} will be needed to contribute
as much as you can, as often as you can, to get this newsletter onto a
regular footing. {\bf Constructive} criticism is always necessary and
is invited; find fault and offer an improvement or an alternative.
Style and format can only improve over time.
 
This publication is a prototype in format and in content --- even its
name may change.  Potential items for future regular issues of the
newsletter (a bi-monthly publication of 32 pages if we can get sufficient
material from the thousands of \TeX{} users out there \ldots) might
include: news items of course, regular and/or rotating columns,
information exchange, help and advice, etc.
 
\vspace{.5pc}
 
Submissions which have already found a place in this issue include an
outline of a handy little \LaTeX\ add-on macro file, {\tt jeep}, pulled
together by Peter Stewart. There's a teaser news item from Theo Jurriens
on \TeX{} in the Soviet Union --- with more to come at the Euro\TeX{}
meeting in September; and an announcement on a new Greek \TeX{} discussion
group started up by Yannis Haralambous (Yannis will also be a discussion
leader on this topic at the July 1991 TUG Meeting in Dedham).
 
\newpage
 
There is a general report on the overall changes which have been effected in
the organization (pp.~7--10), and summaries of board actions taken at the last
two special board meetings (pp.~11--19).  These provide a context for the
letters which follow, published at the authors' request.
 
The most important change affecting the membership is the change from an
appointed Board of Directors to an elected board of 15 starting this year.  The
elections will be open to the entire membership, not just to those attending
the Business Meeting at the Annual Meeting. The election procedures and a
nomination form are to be found on pp.~25--26 (note that this supersedes
information which appeared in {\sl TUGboat\/} 12, no.~1).
 
Regular column editors are being sought, and I've written up a few
potential columns as suggestions --- one on {\tt TeXhax} and another
with some little tricks using \verb|\llap|.
 
And there's an {\sl Update\/} on the 12th Annual TUG Meeting: be sure
to read it (pp.~28--29), and make plans to join us in July. Other
meetings and conferences which might also be of interest to the
\TeX-using community are listed in the {\sl Upcoming Events\/} section.
 
So, please read on! Make notes in the margins.  Volunteers, comments,
suggestions, submissions will all be needed if we are to have a successful
newsletter. Send all correspondence regarding \TTN\ to {\tt
tug@math.ams.com}, with subject line {\tt NEWSLETTER}. Participate!
Bring comments and marked up copies to the July meeting.  We'll try to
set up some kind of forum for talking about the newsletter --- I don't
know how, as the schedule is very tight, but we'll figure something out.
 
And if you haven't renewed your TUG membership, or know someone who hasn't
joined or renewed: the back cover gives you eight great reasons to do
so! Circulate the information --- and help get more members!
 
\vspace{.5pc}
 
This issue contains contributions from: Barbara Beeton, Regina
Girouard, Yannis Haralambous, Doug Henderson, Theo Jurriens,
Peter Stewart, and myself. Jackie Damrau and Will Ward receive my
thanks for having provided the initial code for the \verb|\Section|
command. And I would like to express heartfelt thanks to Ron Whitney
and the TUG office staff for providing material, advice, and
reminders on various production aspects I was about to overlook.
The prototype is the result of a truly collective effort.
 
\vspace{1pc}
 
\begin{flushright}
Christina Thiele \\
Editor, Prototype \TTN \\
May 1991 \\
\end{flushright}
 
\newpage
 
%% JEEP article (2 pages):
 
\Section{{\Large\tt jeep}: A General Purpose Style File}
 
\subsection*{Introduction}
{\tt Jeep} is a \LaTeX\ style file written to supplement the standard
{\tt article} and {\tt report} styles.  The name {\tt jeep} is a
continuation of Leslie Lamport's analogy, in which he compares \TeX\ to
a racing car and \LaTeX\ to a family sedan.  The modifications here
convert the sedan to a general purpose vehicle --- a jeep.  The
modifications, like the original jeep, are not pretty, but the casual
\LaTeX er can cover a lot of territory with them.
 
It is important to keep in mind that {\tt jeep} was not planned;
rather it evolved as I expanded my use of \LaTeX.  It has not changed
much recently, and it has served me in a variety of applications.
But being tailored to my needs, {\tt jeep} will not necessarily meet
all the needs of others.
 
Nor is {\tt jeep} an original creation.  I am no \TeX pert, and my
guiding principle has been: never create when you can adapt, and never
adapt when you can copy.  Thus, {\tt jeep} is indebted to a number of
people who took the trouble to write useful macros and distribute them
to the community.  Needless to say, the greatest debt is owed to Leslie
Lamport for creating \LaTeX\ in the first place.
 
\subsection*{Features}
Full descriptions and explanations on what {\tt jeep} can do are
contained in the file {\tt jeep.tex} (see end of this article for
details).  A brief listing is provided here, so that readers can
decide whether {\tt jeep} is for them.
 
\begin{enumerate}
\item
   The default page size is changed to take full advantage of the default
   North American paper size of $8\frac{1}{2}\times 11$ in. The dimensions
   are satisfactory with eleven- and twelve-point type, not so pleasing
   with ten-point type.
\item
   Commands are provided to allow the user to change the formats of
   chapter, section, and theorem heads.  The default section and
   subsection heads are made somewhat smaller than in the standard
   styles, and section numbers are followed by a period.
\item
   At the user's option, equations and theorems may be numbered
   within sections or subsections.
\item
   The default page style is Lance Berc's three-part header style.
   It provides for left, right, and center headers and footers, which
   may be changed at will by the user.  The style has been extended
   to make it useful in creating headers for books.
\item
   There is a command to alter the page style to put a rule under
   the headers.  The rule may be suppressed on individual pages
   (usually the first).
\item
   The default numbering of the \verb|enumerate| environment has been
   changed to Arabic at all levels.
\item
   The \verb|outline| environment, a variation of the
   \verb|enumerate| environment, puts less space between its items.
   It is especially suitable for long, nested lists of short items,
   such as a course outline.
\item
   The \verb|\tighttoc| command produces a compact table of contents,
   useful for long journal articles.
\item
   A \verb|\symbolnote| command produces footnotes marked by the
   conventional symbols rather than numbers (see {\it \LaTeX\ Manual\/},
   \S C.7.4). These footnotes are independent of the usual sequence of
   numbered footnotes, and are especially useful in creating title pages.
\item
   A \verb|symboleqn| environment creates a displayed equation with
   ``equation number'' specified by the user.  These equations are
   independent of the usual sequence of numbered equations.  They are
   useful for referencing local equations in problem sets.
\item
   Modifications by John Hobby make the \TeX\ commands
   \verb|\bigl|, \verb|\bigr|, etc. compatible with \LaTeX.
\item
   A \verb|literatim| environment, a variation of Lamport's
   \verb|alltt| environment, allows commands in a verbatim-like
   environment.
\end{enumerate}
 
\subsection*{Availability}
{\tt jeep} consists of two files: \verb|jeep.tex| (the documentation) and
\verb|jeep.sty| (the style file).  They are available by anonymous ftp
from:
 
\begin{itemize}
\item
   \verb|sun.soe.clarkson.edu|  in the directory \verb|pub/tex/latex-style|
\item
   \verb|thales.cs.umd.edu| in the directory \verb|pub/jeep|
\end{itemize}
 
\vspace{1pc}
\begin{flushright}
{\it P.W.~Stewart}\\
University of Maryland
\end{flushright}
 
\newpage
 
%% News items (2 pages):
 
\Section{News from Around \ldots}
 
\vspace{.5pc}
 
\subsection*{\TeX{} in the Soviet Union\hfill
          \it Theo Jurriens}
 
\begin{flushright}
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
\end{flushright}
 
\noindent Since 1983 I have visited the USSR eleven times. Such visits
always give rise to a boom in contacts. One long-standing contact is
Dr.~Anatoli Urvantsev, former Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and
Computer Science of Novosibirsk University, currently working at the
Computing Center; the University is twinned with Stanford University.
In November, he spent two weeks in the Netherlands and also attended an
NTG meeting in Utrecht.  At that meeting he opened his \TeX{} horizons.
Thanks to e-mail our contacts have increased and I volunteered to go to
Siberia to give a course.
 
Urvantsev selected 13 students (11 female, 2 male) from the University
Computing Center and from a scientific publisher, ranging in age from 20
to 50 (!).  Although he promised a good level of English, the reality
was a bit different.  But thanks to my Dutch friend and translator I
survived.
 
In 6 three-hour sessions I presented the basics of \LaTeX{}, based on
the {\em principle of teaching by example\/}.  In total, my students
worked on 40 exercises.  And to my own surprise we succeeded in doing
everything.
 
In groups of two or three students we used ATs to do our job.  ArborText
was kind enough to supply a full version of $\mu$TeX.  This version
stayed behind and I also left behind a {\sc Unix} tape with the latest
versions of \TeX{} and \MF.  This tape is now touring the Soviet Union.
 
So, to stimulate \TeX{} it's necessary to first have an organisation,
like CyrTug.  In the Soviet Union having enthusiastic people is not
enough --- you have to organise.  Just before the deadline for this
newsletter I heard the good news that CyrTug will be meeting May 22--25,
in Moscow.
 
After my return I helped my Siberian friends solve their \TeX{} problems
via e-mail.  By the end of the year I hope to return, to give seminars
in Leningrad, Krasnojarsk and Yakutsk.  But before then, I will be
giving a more detailed report on my Siberian trip at Euro\TeX{} in
Paris (Sept.~23--25, 1991).
 
\vspace{1pc}
 
\subsection*{New {\tt LISTSERV} for Greek \TeX{} Users\hfill
         \it Yannis Haralambous}
 
\begin{flushright}
Universit\'e de Lille
\end{flushright}
 
\noindent A new e-mail discussion list {\tt ELLHNIKA} has been opened
at {\tt DHDURZ1} on Bitnet, thanks to DANTE e.V.~and especially
Joachim Lammarsch. This list is intended to cover the following topics:
 
\begin{enumerate}
   \item Until the fall of 1991, discussion on a standardization of Greek
         \TeX{}. The two main areas of concern are transliteration of
         Greek to the Latin alphabet and establishment of a standard
         Greek font table for \TeX{}.
   \item General discussion on the relationship between \TeX{}, Modern
         Greek Language and/or Greece.
   \item General discussion on the use of \TeX{} in the world of scholars
         interested in Ancient Greek.
\end{enumerate}
 
The languages used in the list are English and (Modern) Greek.  A
biweekly information bulletin will among other things make an inventory
of proposed transliterations which can then be used for messages sent in
Greek.
 
The final goal is to make a complete Greek \TeX{}, both for Ancient and
Modern Greek {\em with\/} the corresponding \LaTeX{} styles, hyphenation
patterns and font families.  Since discussions on the standardization are
open from now until the fall of 1991, every \TeX{} user is encouraged to
state his/her ideas and opinions by joining our list!
 
$\Sigma\tilde\alpha\varsigma$
$\pi\varepsilon\rho\iota\mu\acute\varepsilon\nu
o\upsilon\mu\varepsilon!$
 
To subscribe send {\tt SUB ELLHNIKA} to {\tt LISTSERV@DHDURZ1.BITNET}.
 
\vspace{1pc}
 
\subsection*{The Truth about \TeX{} \hfill
             \it Christina Thiele}
 
\begin{flushright}
Carleton University
\end{flushright}
 
\noindent Have you ever run across articles or descriptions of \TeX{}
and/or its related programs, and thought the text wasn't quite right?
It happens. And TUG would like to do something about it, by providing
the author or publisher with more accurate information. So if you
do find such items, please send full details to the TUG office,
\careof\ the Publications Committee, or to {\tt tug@math.ams.com},
subject line {\tt Publications Committee}. Provide the {\em correct\/}
title of the item and where it was found (a photocopy of the
item would be ideal), along with a brief description of the context in
which it appeared (an article on word processing, comparison of page
makeup programs on PCs, etc.).
 
\newpage
 
%% Report from the Board (4 pages):
 
\Section{A Message from the Board of Directors}
 
The intent of this note is to help bring into focus the board's actions to
provide new leadership and direction for the
\TUG.\footnote{This report was written by Doug Henderson, in
consultation with other members of the Board of Directors.}
 
In the past, very little has been reported to the membership about the
officers and board of directors, what they do, and how they serve the
Users Group. This letter is intended as a start to changing this
practice, and relates some specific changes that have occurred recently.
 
\medskip
 
At present the board of directors is composed of the following individuals:
 
\begin{center}{\tabcolsep2pt
\begin{tabular}{llll}
Nelson Beebe   &amp; David Fuchs     &amp; Doug Henderson  &amp; Joachim Lammarsch \\
Barbara Beeton &amp; Richard Furuta  &amp; Alan Hoenig     &amp; Pierre MacKay  \\
Lance Carnes   &amp; Bernard Gaulle  &amp; Patrick Ion     &amp; David Ness     \\
Bart Childs    &amp; Regina Girouard &amp; Cal Jackson     &amp; Craig Platt    \\
Malcolm Clark  &amp; Roswitha Graham &amp; David Kellerman &amp; Christina Thiele  \\
John Crawford  &amp; Dean Guenther   &amp; Donald Knuth    &amp; Kees v.d.~Laan \\
Allen Dyer     &amp; Hope Hamilton   &amp; David Kratzer   &amp; Hermann Zapf   \\
\end{tabular}
}
\end{center}
 
\medskip
 
The \TUG\ articles of incorporation and the bylaws are the foundation
of the organization; they form the essence of the Users Group, in both
a legal and organizational sense. They include the descriptions of the
various groups that make up the Board of Directors, including the
Executive and Finance Committees, and some detail as to the specific
charges to committees. Since their adoption, significant changes have
been made to the bylaws so that they reflect actual practices of TUG
or address its future goals.
 
\Subsection{New focus}
 
As a piece of software, \TeX{} is one of the most ambitious and exciting
large-scale projects for typesetting known. It is used actively
worldwide. It offers users unprecedented sophistication and quality in
typesetting.  In its initial form it was outstanding, and in 1989, its creator,
Donald E.~Knuth, decided to enhance it, to allow it to be used as a multilingual
vehicle, extending the range of the input character set to double the size.
This work is largely due to the vision of one man, Knuth, who saw fit to
improve on the already excellent typesetting software.  This vision of \TeX{}
being used throughout the world was already in place before the changes were
made, and the changes ensure that the software environment known as \TeX{} will
remain solid in its abilities to give consistent and undeniably excellent
typesetting well into the future.
 
It is interesting to note the parallel between taking something that was good
and making it better with respect to our Users Group.  The board of directors
feels that with the growth in the use and uses of \TeX{} it is time to change
from a user group that is good to one that is better.  To accomplish this we
need a clear vision of what it is that the Users Group is to do.  The board has
one disadvantage when trying to define the role of TUG, because the size of the
board means there is a lack of clarity that results from a single viewpoint.
Instead there are roughly a dozen or more viewpoints (not all of the 26 board
members are actively participating) struggling to find worthy, obtainable
goals. However, this disadvantage can also be considered an advantage because
with a large board, representing many different types of users and many
different types of systems, we can be sure we are considering goals that should
benefit the entire \TeX{} community.
 
In recent years the \TUG\ has not been adequately prepared to respond
to new user needs resulting from continually expanding uses of \TeX{}
throughout the world. The level of participation from our officers and board
of directors had declined, and as a result, some stagnation had occurred.
To help us focus, as a group, on relevant issues both now and in the
future we need to embody our ideas in the form of a Mission Statement.
This will allow us to focus on issues that will be supportive of such
an overall set of goals, with a better understanding of how to accomplish
them.
 
The summaries of the Cork meeting in 1990 and the special Dedham board
meeting in March of 1991 show that the board's work is not easy (see
next article). They also show some of the good ideas for making our
Users Group better. Some of the ideas that have evolved include
selecting an individual who can work as an evangelist for \TeX{}
throughout the world as our next executive director. We will begin the
search for this person as soon as possible. It will be an open selection
process inviting all who feel qualified to step forward and claim that their
goals of leadership are the same as the needs of the organization. Spreading
the word about \TeX{} to others and working with the world community to
further expand the use of \TeX{} are just two such goals.
 
\Subsection{Some changes}
 
One positive step taken by the board was the formation of a Planning
Committee. It is anticipated that this group will come up with a
number of suggestions to help our organization keep pace with the promotion of
\TeX{} and the \TUG\ while remaining true to the ideas put forth in our
mission statement.
 
Another significant advance for our Users Group was the restructuring of the
election procedure to a more democratic process.  In the near future, the board
of directors will be smaller and it will be an elected body.  The voting will
take place by a standard mailing to the entire membership.  The board felt it
was time to move away from voting for officials only at the annual meetings
(where at most 5 to 10 percent of the members could participate), to a more
open format where all TUG members will be encouraged to vote.  In light of this
new revitalization of elections, members should keep in mind the significant
amount of work that will be required to serve on the board in the future.
 
Changes have occurred over the last five years that have moved \TeX{} out of the
exclusive domain of academia to being accessible to any person with a personal
computer.  As such, we need to explore ways to reach a very large group of
people (roughly 10,000 to 15,000 personal computer users) to encourage them to
join our Users Group, which currently totals about 4,000.  One way to do this is
by offering them advantages that are of interest to \TeX{} users, rather than
just to implementors or computer programmers.  The quote from Gerald Oster in
{\sl Optical Art 1965\/} is relevant. ``Computer technology has far to go
to duplicate the spirit and excitement of art. When such a day is reached,
however, it will require an artist to do the programming.'' This quote
was reproduced in {\sl TUGboat\/} in 1987 (Vol.~8, no.~1), but is
pertinent today for our Users Group. We have the stage set for artists,
publishers, and a host of others to start using this incredible
typesetting technology. We need to find a way to bring it to them in
digestible, less technical terms.
 
A second information forum, in the form of this newsletter, aims to help bridge
the gap between the highly technical and the pragmatic needs of \TeX{} users.
{\sl TUGboat\/} is something we can all be proud of as a scholarly publication
for \TeX{} programming and development. Its excellence is  due in no
small part to the vision and energy of Barbara Beeton and a host of
authors and editors. But making \TeX{} usable to a larger segment of
the world is also a worthy goal.
 
We also need to encourage macro development projects such as Frank Mittel\-bach's
reworking of \LaTeX, which removes much of the difficulty of using
\TeX-in-the-rough, so to speak.  It is also clear that software developers on
personal computer platforms can have a lot to do with the acceptance of \TeX{}
by making \TeX{} faster, easier to use, and less complicated to install, and by
integrating the different elements of the typical \TeX{} processing
cycle---encode, \TeX, preview, print---in one package.
 
It is also time to find the energy to promote the public domain versions
of \TeX{} as well as the commercial flavors. With this in mind, the board has
recently appointed Jon Radel as our Public Domain Software Coordinator.
Jon has been working in an unofficial capacity for some time now, and
we appreciate the work he has done and will continue to do for us in
the future. Recently, Jon was given a disk duplication machine to help
him with his public domain distribution.
 
Originally, our Users Group was a place for developers to present and exchange
ideas about implementing \TeX{} on different machines. Without the past
foundation of solid research and development, we would not be at the point we
are today, poised for carrying the work further to present \TeX{} to the rest of
the world --- those who are not computer programmers. We are, after all, the
\TeX{} {\bf Users} Group. This is not to say that development work should
stop, or be given a diminished role in our Users Group. Instead, we should
explore good uses of all the various talents within our group for their
particular skills. For instance, one thing that would ensure the continued
growth of \TeX{} in the near to distant future is to encourage our
academic colleagues to become involved with standards committees. We have
identified the need for TUG to be involved with font-naming conventions,
understanding of and synergism with markup languages such as SGML, and
interaction with ODA (Open Document Architecture) and ODIF (Open
Document Interchange Format) standards committees. This activity would
ensure that \TeX{} is fairly represented in these areas and does not
become obsolete by isolation from evolving standards. We should take
this to heart and get involved now.
 
Although there are a few dissenting voices among the board of directors, as
evidenced by the resignation of three members who no longer wished to continue
on the board, the spirit for the future of \TeX{} and TUG is very good now. With
the changes already mentioned, as well as ideas from you, the membership, we
can all enjoy the new structures put in place recently, and begin
spreading the word. It's also time we started interacting more with
other user groups such as UK \TeX{} Users Group, {\sc Dante}, and {\sc
Gut}enberg in a cooperative spirit.
 
The word is \TeX, and the various world Users Groups are the vehicles.
 
 
\newpage
 
%% Summaries of Cork and Dedham board meetings (9 pages):
 
\Section{Summary of TUG Board of Directors Meetings}
 
In recognition of the amount of work that must be done as TUG enters its
second decade, the TUG Board of Directors held two special sessions
after its regular meeting at the June 1990 meeting in Texas. The first
special board meeting was held in Cork, Ireland, in September in
conjunction with \TeX 90; the second meeting was held in March 1991 in
Dedham, Massachusetts. The meetings reflected the feeling that as \TeX{}
and TUG have grown, the needs of the Users Group are changing and the
role that TUG plays must also change. Many of the motions passed at
these meetings show the Board's responses to those changes. What
follows is a summary of the actions taken at those two
meetings.\footnote{The following summaries were written by Regina
Girouard, in consultation with other members of the Board of
Directors.}
 
\vspace{-1pc}
 
\Subsection{Board of Directors Meeting, Sept.~1990}
 
This meeting was held on September 8 and 12, 1990, at University
College, Cork, Ireland. Directors in attendance were Nelson Beebe,
Barbara Beeton, Malcolm Clark, Allen Dyer, Bernard Gaulle, Regina
Girouard, Raymond Goucher, Roswitha Graham, Dean Guenther, Doug
Henderson, Alan Hoenig, David Kellerman, Joachim Lammarsch, Kees van der
Laan and Christina Thiele. The directors who could not attend this
meeting were: Lance Carnes, Bart Childs, John Crawford, David Fuchs,
Rick Furuta, Hope Hamilton, Patrick Ion, Cal Jackson, David Kratzer,
Pierre MacKay, David Ness and Craig Platt.
 
\subsubsection{TUG's Organizational Structure}
At the Cork meeting the board voted on several changes to TUG's
operating structure to allow for full board participation in TUG's
affairs and to provide members with information about board and TUG
activities.
 
First, it was agreed that it would not be appropriate to have a TUG
staff member be a member of the Executive committee (EC) and Board of
Directors. These bodies could certainly not function effectively
without the presence of the Executive Director (ED), but it was agreed
that the ED should not be a voting member of either body. Two motions
were made by Allen Dyer. The first would remove the ED from membership
on the EC (and by default from the Board of Directors) and the second
would amend the bylaws to make it clear that the EC works in the place
of the board and that it should be responsible to and report to the
board. The first was seconded by Christina Thiele and passed on a 9 --
4 vote (9 votes in favor, 4 votes against). The second motion was
seconded by Regina Girouard and passed on a 13 -- 0 vote.
 
According to the TUG bylaws, members of the Executive Committee (EC)
should be members of the board. However, because the members of the EC
are all officers, they are {\em ex officio\/} board members. The same is
not true for the Finance Committee (FC), however. Two members of the FC
are appointed by the board and are, therefore, not {\em ex officio\/}
members of the board. To rectify this situation Allen Dyer made a
motion to make all members of the Executive and Finance committees
members of the board. The motion was seconded by Christina Thiele and
passed unanimously (with two members abstaining).
 
A great deal of time was spent discussing the structure of the board of
directors and how the board can best operate effectively. One of the
problems the board addressed was how to allow the board ample time to
discuss and act on the many matters it should be involved in. With TUG
having an international board and with there normally being only one
board meeting per year, it is difficult to accomplish all the work that
is necessary. To make board work easier Allen Dyer made a motion that
would allow the board to conduct its business by mail, either e-mail or
regular mail. Motions can be proposed and voted on by mail. Mail
business would require a two-thirds vote of the board for approval
rather than the usual simple majority. This process would normally be
used for routine matters and will allow the in-person board meetings to
concentrate on the more important items. The motion was seconded by
Barbara Beeton and passed unanimously. It was agreed to postpone the
discussion about the size of the board until the next board meeting.
 
The TUG board often establishes ad hoc committees, in addition to those
which are permanent and outlined in the bylaws. To provide some
guidance and structure to the ad hoc committees, Christina Thiele
proposed a motion on basic procedures: the committees should report
the names of their members, their chair, provide a statement of purpose,
and establish a reporting schedule. The motion was seconded by Doug
Henderson, and passed by a 12 -- 0 vote (two members abstaining).
 
The board was concerned that the work of the board and staff not appear
to be secret. To provide an open atmosphere, Allen Dyer proposed that
the records of the TUG office (except for those protected by federal or
state law) be open to all TUG members. The motion was seconded by Doug
Henderson and passed on an 8 -- 2 vote (3 members abstained.) As well,
David Kellerman made a motion that TUG publish the minutes of its Board
of Directors meetings so the membership will be aware of the work being
done by TUG and the problems they encounter. His motion also called for
the minutes to be made available electronically once they have been
approved. The motion passed unanimously.
 
Allen Dyer proposed that TUG adopt a ``Minutes and Procedures'' book, in
both paper and electronic form, to help provide for better management
and training, and to provide an accurate record of TUG policies and
decisions. The motion was seconded by Regina Girouard and passed
unanimously.
 
There had been much discussion at the Texas meeting about the role TUG
should be playing in the \TeX{} community and whether the interaction
between the various components of the current TUG structure (the staff,
the officers, the board, the Executive and Finance Committees) was the
best way to meet the growing needs of TUG and \TeX. There was a great
deal of concern among board members (and the membership) about the
future of \TeX. However, it was felt that before these concerns could
be adequately addressed, the board must first address its ideas of the
goals of TUG and how to be sure the various components of TUG are
working towards those goals.
 
Many of the motions passed at Cork reflected the feeling of many of the
board members that, perhaps because of the growth of \TeX{} and TUG, the
operating structure that had worked for TUG in the past was no longer
the best method. Until this year the Board of Directors met only once a
year. Annual meetings could not, however, provide the ED with the
advice and consent that is essential to operating an organization. For
this reason TUG had two smaller groups (the Executive and Finance
Committees), which would meet with the ED on a more regular basis.
According to the bylaws, the board is responsible for the operation of
TUG\@. However, since the ED worked primarily with the Executive and
Finance Committees, the current structure left the board unaware of many
of the problems facing TUG and of some of the decisions made for TUG\@.
Attempts had been made in the past to try to ensure that the board would
be fully involved in these problems and decisions, but these attempts
had not been successful.
 
After a very lengthy discussion it appeared that there was a basic
disagreement about how TUG should operate and what direction it should
be going in. The ED was satisfied with the way TUG had always operated,
i.e., he worked primarily with and for the Executive and Finance
Committees, and the board should not be concerned with all the business
details of TUG\@. In fact, the board was not to be allowed access to
some of the information about the operation of TUG even though they were
legally responsible for all of the actions of TUG\@. In addition the
board wanted TUG to start moving in new directions, becoming more
involved in \LaTeX{} and \TeX{} on personal computers, and taking more
of a leadership role in the \TeX{} community by means of standards or
reviews of new \TeX{} software. However, the ED believed in maintaining
the {\it status quo\/}. After hours of discussion the board decided that
the contract of the Executive Director would not be renewed when it
expired at the end of 1990. The board charged the Executive Committee
to develop an appropriate job description for the ED position, and to
prepare a plan for the initiation of an open selection process. A
motion to that effect was made by Allen Dyer, seconded by Regina
Girouard, and passed on 9 -- 3 vote (with one member abstaining).
 
The board was very appreciative of the work the ED had done for TUG\@.
They acknowledged that TUG would not have been able to grow (in both
size and services offered) without his efforts. In addition to a
generous compensation package, the board voted to make him an Honorary
Member of the board as the Founding Executive Director of the \TUG\@.
 
The board regrets that this action was necessary but feels that it is
essential to the future of TUG that the chief executive officer work in
conjunction with the board to move TUG forward into the 90's.
 
\subsubsection{TUG as a Service Organization}
Some of the other motions passed reflected TUG's goal to be as much of a
service as possible to the entire \TeX{} community.
 
Barbara Beeton proposed that TUG remove the postal surcharge imposed on
members outside of North America for their subscriptions to {\sl
TUGboat\/}. While it does actually cost more to mail copies outside of
North America it was felt that charging non-North Americans more did not
agree with TUG's statement that it is an international organization
trying to meet the needs of users throughout the world. The motion was
seconded by Doug Henderson and passed unanimously (with one director
abstaining).
 
Malcolm Clark moved that TUG's Scholarship Committee be composed of
two \TeX perts and the previous scholarship winner. This motion was
seconded by Dean Guenther and passed unanimously.
 
There was a lengthy discussion of the roles of User Groups, the
different needs of the user groups in various countries and/or
language-based user groups, and whether TUG could become an
International User Group that could respond to all these varying needs.
Dean Guenther proposed that the President establish an International TUG
committee; the committee should report to the board with recommendations
for identifying and remedying the problems in serving the international
community. The motion was seconded by Bernard Gaulle and passed
unanimously (with two directors abstaining).
 
There was agreement that TUG should be doing all it can to help spread
the word about \TeX. Nelson discussed his new \TeX{} lists: {\tt
texbook}$n$. These are lists of publications about the use of \TeX{}
and publications produced with \TeX. The board is considering a public
relations campaign that could include producing a catalog of available
\TeX{} products and mailings to universities to describe the advantages
of \TeX. Allen Dyer made a motion that TUG purchase a disk duplicator
to help provide a low cost distribution method for public domain
software. This motion was seconded by Doug and passed 12 -- 1. Allen
and Doug also suggested that the board authorize up to \$5,000 to
advertise \TeX{} and TUG in a microcomputer journal such as {\em Byte}.
Since the return from such advertising was unclear, the board felt that,
for the time being, there were more effective uses for the money, and
the motion was defeated on a 4 -- 8 -- 1 vote. The board considered
some objectives for TUG in 1991--92 but since there was not sufficient
time to go into great detail, this subject will be considered via e-mail
discussions and during the next board meeting.
 
There was a lengthy discussion about the need for certification of
\TeX-related software. One suggestion was that software developers be
given a certification form stating that their products have passed the
{\tt trip} and/or {\tt trap} tests. They would have to sign, notarize
and publish this certification. If it turns out that their product does
not pass these tests, purchasers would have the invalid certification to
use against the developer.
 
The meeting ended two very long days of discussions and decisions regarding
TUG's operation, and its role in the larger \TeX{} community.
 
\Subsection{Board of Directors Meeting, March 1991}
 
This meeting was held on March 2--3, 1991 at the Hilton hotel in Dedham,
Massachusetts. Directors in attendance were: Barbara Beeton, Lance
Carnes, John Crawford, Allen Dyer, Bernard Gaulle, Regina Girouard, Doug
Henderson, Hope Hamilton and Christina Thiele. Also present at this
meeting were TUG staff members Ron Whitney and Cliff Alper. The
directors who could not attend this meeting were: Nelson Beebe, Bart
Childs, Malcolm Clark, David Fuchs, Rick Furuta, Roswitha Graham, Dean
Guenther, Alan Hoenig, Patrick Ion, David Kellerman, David Kratzer, Kees
van der Laan, Joachim Lammarasch, Pierre MacKay, David Ness and Craig
Platt.
 
\subsubsection{Organizational Matters}
With nine board members present there was a quorum so this was an
official board meeting. Normally the President presides at board
meetings; however, since Nelson Beebe could not attend, it was agreed
that Hope Hamilton would chair the meeting. As chair, Hope did not vote
on any of the motions but she was an active participant in the discussions.
 
In recognition of the fact that many board members could not attend, one
of the motions passed at this meeting was to delay for 30 days the
implementation of any motion passed. The draft minutes of this meeting
were to be distributed to the full board immediately after the meeting.
The 30-day delay allowed time for all board members to review the
actions taken at the March meeting and, with a simple majority vote by
e-mail, nullify any of those actions. The 30-day period passed with no
dissenting votes being cast so all the motions approved at this meeting
are now valid.
 
Several motions were passed that dealt with the TUG office. First was a
motion by Allen Dyer (seconded by Regina Girouard) to initiate work on a
written set of ``TUG Operating Procedures.'' These Operating Procedures,
which were authorized at the Cork meeting, will provide for better
management of TUG by (1) supplying guidelines and formal statements of
TUG policy; (2) providing for continuity of operations regardless of
personnel changes; (3) providing for more rapid training of personnel or
volunteers; (4) helping to maintain consistent decision making; and (5)
giving the membership of TUG an opportunity to see how the affairs of
the corporation are conducted. The motion passed unanimously.
 
An old idea that was on the agenda for the Texas board meeting but never
discussed was revived by Regina Girouard. This was a motion that TUG
waive the meeting registration fee for any board member attending a
board meeting, which is being held in conjunction with a TUG conference,
in a location outside their own continent. It is hoped that this waiver
of a meeting registration fee might make it more financially feasible
for more board members to attend distant meetings. The motion was
seconded by Bernard Gaulle and passed unanimously.
 
Allen Dyer made a motion that up to \$6,000 of the budgeted amount for
committee expenses be authorised for reimbursement of expenses incurred
for this board meeting. The motion was seconded by Bernard Gaulle and
passed unanimously.
 
A subcommittee of board members met on Saturday night with Ron Whitney,
TUG's Acting Business Manager, to discuss some personnel matters that
had been pending for some time. On Sunday the board heard the report of
the subcommittee and, on a motion made by Regina Girouard and seconded
by Doug Henderson, voted unanimously to approve a few overdue and
promised salary increases and/or benefit changes for the TUG staff. The
board also appointed a subcommittee of Hope Hamilton (chair), Lance
Carnes and Allen Dyer, to negotiate a contract for a TUG Business
Manager. This contract will be for approximately one year and will be
approved by the full board at the July annual meeting. The board must
have someone in authority pending the establishment of procedures for
defining and selecting an Executive Director. This action will allow
the board sufficient time to accomplish the task.
 
A great deal of time was spent discussing the structure of the board of
directors and how the board can best operate effectively. E-mail
voting, instituted at the Cork meeting, required refinements. Doug
Henderson proposed that, for the board or any committee, e-mail motions
would be formally made and seconded. Once seconded, there would be a
two-week discussion period, followed by a two-week voting period, after
which the votes would be tallied. The total number of votes cast
(either Aye, Nay or Abstain) have to equal at least 50\% of the total
number of members eligible to vote, otherwise the motion fails. If the
motion passes the 50\% participation requirement it requires two-thirds
of the votes cast in order to pass. The motion was seconded by Bernard
Gaulle and passed unanimously.
 
There was one multi-part motion made by Allen Dyer (seconded by John
Crawford), that dealt with TUG officers and the Board of Directors.
the purpose of the motion was to make the TUG board more effective and
more representative of the entire membership.
 
Some of the sections of the motion dealt with how people become members
of the TUG Board of Directors. Currently, all members are on the board
either as {\it ex officio\/} members or they have been appointed by the
board. Some members have been appointed because of their role (site
coordinators, TUG officers), and others were appointed because of their
knowledge or \TeX pertise. The board felt that this situation results
in a board that is too large to function efficiently. In addition,
since there is no term of membership, it is not clear whether an {\it ex
officio\/} board member should (or does) remain a member of the board when
he or she no longer holds that office.
 
To solve these problems it was decided to amend the bylaws so that
future boards will consist of the TUG President, some number of elected
board members, honorary members and non-elected Vice Presidents (usually
heads of large language-based User Groups). The honorary members will
be advisory; they will not be voting members of the board.
 
The election process for board members will be by a written mail ballot of the
entire membership. TUG members may have theirs name placed in nomination by
submitting a petition signed by two (2) other members, or any member may be
nominated at the annual TUG business meeting [see elsewhere in this
newsletter for information on procedures and the nominations form --Ed.].
 
Another section of the Dyer/Crawford motion dealt with the officers of
TUG\@. The motion amends the bylaws to provide that the President of
TUG will be elected by written mail ballot of the entire membership.
The nomination process will be the same as that described above for
election to the board. The other officers of TUG (Vice-President,
Secretary and Treasurer) will be members of the board and will be
appointed by the board. The board may still continue to appoint special
Vice-Presidents or assistant officers if it deems that necessary.
 
The final TUG structural questions addressed by the Dyer/Crawford motion
dealt with the TUG committees (Executive and Finance), that had worked
as a `small board'. The bylaws were amended so that the Finance
Committee has been dissolved and the Executive Committee will consist of
the President and three other board members. The Executive Committee
will be responsible for adopting interim procedures and policies
(subject to approval by the full board), on behalf of the full board.
 
The motion also established a Technical Council which will consist of
Site Coordinators, Wizards and other active \TeX{} contributors. After
the initial crea\-tion of the Technical Council by the board, the
Council itself shall determine its composition and operating procedures,
and its own purposes and goals; however, these should be consistent with
the purposes and goals of TUG\@. The Technical Council shall designate
a representative to attend meetings of the TUG board in an advisory
capacity.
 
The implementation of these motions will not take place immediately.
The next President of TUG will be appointed by the board at the 1991
annual meeting; after that future Presidents will be elected by the
membership. The election of board members will take place after the
1991 annual meeting. The current Board of Directors will continue until
that election takes place.
 
After long discussions, the entire Dyer/Crawford motion passed unanimously.
 
An Elections Procedures Committee was established, to develop procedures for
TUG elections for Board Members and the TUG President, and to develop a plan
for implementing elections in 1991. Those who have accepted an appointment
to this committee are: Barbara Beeton, Dean Guenther, Alan Hoenig, David
Kratzer, Pierre MacKay and Craig Platt. The motion was proposed by Allen
Dyer, seconded by Christina Thiele, and was passed unanimously.
 
Allen Dyer also made a motion (seconded by Regina Girouard) which sets the
number of elected board members at 15. That motion also passed unanimously.
 
\subsubsection{TUG and the Future of \TeX}
Some motions were passed that dealt with the role of TUG in the future of
\TeX. First was a motion by Doug Henderson (seconded by Allen Dyer), that
TUG should have a written Mission Statement so everyone in TUG will know
exactly where TUG is going and what its role in the \TeX{} world is. The
motion charged a committee composed of John Crawford, Hope Hamilton and
Christina Thiele, to seek input from the full board and to have a draft of a
TUG Mission Statement ready for approval at the board's meeting in July. The
motion passed unanimously.
 
Next the board considered the formation of some new TUG committees. However,
they first reviewed how TUG committees are formed, how they are charged, and
how they operate. They agreed that in the future possible committee members
will first be advised of their nomination to the committee along with what
the committee is charged to do. A nominee's appointment to a committee will
not be official until the committee member has agreed to the appointment.
Each committee will be charged with some form of regular reporting with the
minimum reporting procedure to be a report presented at the annual meeting.
Committee members will serve until (1) they resign from the committee; (2)
they are removed from the committee by a vote of the Board of Directors; or
(3) until the 1991 TUG meeting. In the future, to ensure active committees,
the membership of all TUG committees will be reviewed at each annual meeting.
 
After these committee procedural matters were settled, the board discussed
two new committees. On a motion made by Allen Dyer and seconded by Regina
Girouard, the board created a TUG Publications Committee. The charge to the
committee is: (1) to determine the goals of TUG with respect to publications;
(2) to review the {\sl TUGboat\/} goals, policies and content to determine
whether it satisfies the audience and what improvements might be made; (3) to
examine the records of publications now offered for sale by TUG to determine
what members and customers find useful; (4) to review available records to
see what kinds of publications have been requested; (5) to compile a list of
topics that are appropriate and useful and to undertake a search for authors
and solicit manuscripts on those topics; (6) to develop a pricing policy
consistent with agreed-upon goals that will make publications both affordable
and self-supporting; (7) to develop a policy on what kinds of publications
should be made available electronically; and (8) to develop a plan for
establishing a newsletter. It was agreed that the newsletter should have the
following characteristics: (1) it should be the root newsletter of the
worldwide \TeX{} community; (2) it should contain news, minutes,
announcements and the like; and (3) it should adhere to portability so that
it can be modified by a LUG into a local edition with respect to either
contents or language. The motion passed on a 7 -- 1 vote.
 
Those who have accepted an appointment to the Publications Committee are:
Barbara Beeton, Malcolm Clark, Allen Dyer, Regina Girouard, Kees van der
Laan, and Ron Whitney.
 
Christina Thiele made a motion to set up a temporary team of board
members to produce a prototype issue of a TUG newsletter. Christina will be
the editor of the prototype and will have it ready for distribution before
the annual meeting. The board authorized the expenditure of up to \$5,000 for
printing and mailing the prototype. The motion was seconded by Barbara Beeton
and passed unanimously.
 
Next, on a motion made by Allen Dyer and seconded by Barbara Beeton, the board
created a TUG Planning Committee. The charge to the committee is to develop
recommendations for TUG strategic goals and to develop a plan for
implementing those goals. Those who have accepted an appointment to the
Planning Committee are: Malcolm Clark, David Kellerman, Kees van der Laan,
Pierre MacKay and Sam Whidden. The motion passed on a 7 -- 1 vote.
 
A motion by Allen Dyer (seconded by Lance Carnes and passed unanimously)
established a Scholarship Committee to continue the Donald E.~Knuth
scholarship award, and budgeted \$2,000 for the award. Those who have
accepted an appointment to the Scholarship Committee are Barbara Beeton,
and Kees van der Laan.
 
Allen Dyer made a motion that TUG appoint Jon Radel the TUG PC Public Domain
Software Coordinator. The PC Public Domain Software Coordinator is charged
with accumulating and organizing \TeX-related software in a format that can
be widely distributed among PC users. He will also provide master copies of
the accumulated software to the TUG Office on a regular basis. TUG will
partially reimburse the Coordinator for expenses incurred in this work. This
motion, along with the board's decision to purchase a disk duplicator for the
TUG office, will enable the TUG office to distribute Public Domain software to
\TeX{} users at minimum cost.
 
The meeting adjourned, having attending to all but a few items on the agenda,
and set the next board meeting to begin July 13th, 1991, before the 12th
Annual Meeting of the \TUG\@.
 
\newpage
%% Letters (5 pages):
 
{\small
\twocolumn \columnsep1pt
 
\hrule\vskip.5pc
{\Sectionfont Communications }
\vskip.5pc\hrule
 
%% Ness letters:
 
\begin{flushleft}
Re: Resignation as TUG Treasurer\\
26 December, 1990\\
To Nelson Beebe\\
Dear Nelson\\
\end{flushleft}
 
\noindent I resign as Treasurer of TUG, effective as soon as you can
appoint a replacement.  I have sent copies of this letter to Barbara
Beeton, with a request to publish it in a forthcoming {\sl TUGboat\/},
and Ron Whitney, for deposit in the TUG `Archives' in Providence.  I
enclose a letter to the membership setting forth the reasons for my
resig\-nation.
 
\begin{flushleft}
Regards\\
David Ness\\
803 Mill Creek Road\\
Gladwyne PA 19035\\
\end{flushleft}
 
\vspace{1mm}
\hrule
\vspace{1mm}
 
\begin{flushleft}
Dear TUG Members\\
Re: Resignation as Treasurer of TUG
\end{flushleft}
 
\noindent The actions taken in the name of the Board of Directors of
the \TeX\ Users Group since June [1990] have, in my opinion, been both
irresponsible and unconscionable.  My deep disagreement with the actions
taken by a dissonant plurality of this group necessitates my resignation
from the Board of Directors and as Treasurer of TUG.  I have resigned in
a letter sent today to both the Executive and Finance Committees of TUG
and to the TUG membership {\em via\/} the office in Providence.  I have
requested that this letter be published in {\sl TUGboat\/}, along with a
copy of my official resignation.
 
\smallskip
\noindent {\bf Some Background}
 
\noindent
{\em First}, I should note that other than the officers, members of
the Board have never been elected to their jobs.  Indeed, many of the
dissonant plurality are relatively recent appointments to the Board.
While this does not disqualify these few members from concern for the
organization and its well being, neither does it particularly qualify
them to speak on behalf of the organization as a whole.  However, in my
reading of the current bylaws of TUG there is little question that they
can `legally' proceed in the direction that they currently appear to
wish to pursue.  As a duly elected officer, my only recourse is to
decline to join them on this journey by resigning my office.
 
{\em Second}, if there were problems with the administration of TUG,
then in all good conscience they were problems of the Executive and
Finance Committees.  To the best of my knowledge and belief, at no time
did the TUG Office in Providence act in any manner contrary to that
which had been specified---nay, encouraged---by those of us on the
Executive and Finance Committees.  If the membership did not like the
way that TUG was managed, and expressed that fact to the Executive and
Finance Committees, then it was truly {\em our\/} fault that we did not
communicate this to the Providence staff.  If the membership did not
like the way that TUG was managed, and did not express that fact to us,
then blaming the Providence staff is unfair.  I am proud, pleased, and
honored by my association with the Executive and Finance Committees, so
I concede no fault---intentional or unintentional---here on our
behalf.
 
{\em Third}, the dissonant members of the Board are responsible for a
number of actions. It is my belief that their actions have already cost
TUG substantially more than \$50,000.\ts Indeed, I think that \$100,000
would be a closer estimate. This is money TUG can ill afford and is, I
believe, a poor choice of expenditure on the part of an organization
which I expect may be under increasing financial pressure in the
immediate future.  As Treasurer, I refuse to collaborate with this
egregious disregard for the financial well-being of our organization.
However, since I believe that that Board does have the legal power to
make these mistakes, I have no recourse other than to resign.
 
{\em Fourth}, I believe that the actions by the Board have succeeded
in making TUG ungovernable.  I do not think it likely that a useful
consensus of more than 25 people can effect day-to-day management of an
organization, particularly {\em via\/} electronic mail.  It does not
seem sensible to me to expect an office staff, including an Executive
Director, to be expected to respond to demands made by a group of this
kind.
 
In addition to these unfortunate actions, the communications by some of
the members of this dissonant group have been in extremely poor taste
and certainly not in the spirit of the organization that I was pleased
to join many years ago.  For example, I find the arid remarks written in
`answer' to a letter by some past officers---all of whom spent many
years working for this organization---to be in bizarrely poor taste.
 
{\em Fifth}, I would suggest that the other members of the Board of
Directors and the membership at-large be very wary of this small
dissonant Cabal.  I remember the last time I successfully engineered a
{\em coup d'\'etat\/} (it was in junior high school).  We were quite
successful---as this Cabal has apparently been---in taking over an
organization.  However, the {\em coup d'\'etat\/} proved to be a {\em
coup de gr\^ace\/}, and the organization in question did not survive the
year of our takeover.  We won a battle, not a war.
 
I hope that the non-dissonant members of the Board, including those
members of the Executive and Finance Committees who have the courage and
the interest to see beyond this battle will re-assert their strength and
intelligence---and thus win this war.  Otherwise, I suspect that this
Cabal will insure a similar fate for TUG to the one I saw so long ago.
Indeed, this may already have been anticipated by Lance Carnes who, as a
leader of the Cabal, said of TUG (after the June Board meeting in
College Station, and perhaps in the heat of winning a battle there)
``Let's change it or kill it!'' I thought it a presumptuous remark then,
but I now fear that he and his associates have managed to accomplish
both of these objectives.  No credit to them.  And no help to TUG.
 
\smallskip
\noindent {\bf Some Thanks}
 
\noindent
I have neither the energy nor the interest to fight this battle.  It has
drained my vol\-un\-teer spirit.\ts I withdraw from TUG with pro\-found
thanks to many people.\break {\em First}, I owe gratitude to my colleagues
and former colleagues on the Executive and Finance Committees.  In my
experience with boards of commercial organizations and ac\-ademic
institutions, I have not known a more intelligent, hard-working and
dedicated group of people.  I have learned a great deal from them
in my years of service, and I thank them for this education.
 
{\em Second}, I owe deep thanks to the TUG office and our former
Executive Director.  I believe that he and the rest of this well
qualified group of people devoted many cumulative decades of effort to
move \TeX\ forward in times when progress may have been much more
difficult than it is today.  I think that some of these people have
neen treated in an unconscionable fashion, and I deeply regret that.
These friendly and competent people were a considerable source of joy
in my life, and I will miss them.
 
{\em Third}, I owe thanks to the TUG mem\-ber\-ship---including, of
course, the non-dis\-son\-ant members of the Board---for having had the
opportunity to work with them over these past several years.  Serving
TUG has been an honor and a privilege.  I have deeply valued the
contributions to my understanding of \TeX\ by many of these people,
both TUG old-timers and some new-timers as well.
 
\smallskip
\noindent {\bf \ldots and Some Not}
 
\noindent
I owe no thanks, however, to the dissonant members of the Board. I find
their actions ill considered, unfortunate and reprehensible, and will
take at least some pleasure in the fact that I need not read their
logorrheaic, self-satisfied diatribes any further.  This will free hours
and days of my life and---hopefully---rid me of the anger that their
poor taste, narrow-mindedness and lack of consideration have cost me
over the past several months.
 
\begin{flushleft}
Very Truly Yours\\
David Ness\\
26 December 1990\\
\end{flushleft}
 
\vspace{1mm}
\hrule
\vspace{1mm}
 
%% Furuta letter:
 
{\parindent=-2pt \tabcolsep1pt
\begin{tabular}{lp{5cm}}
To:   &amp; Nelson Beebe                              \\ [-1pt]
      &amp; President, \TeX{} Users Group             \\
Date: &amp; January 16, 1991                          \\
Cc:   &amp; Executive and Finance Committees          \\ [-1pt]
      &amp; TUG Board of Directors                    \\ [-1pt]
      &amp; Barbara Beeton                            \\ [-1pt]
      &amp; Ron Whitney                               \\
Re:   &amp; Resignation as TUG Vice President         \\
\end{tabular}
\par}
\medskip
\noindent Dear Nelson,
 
\noindent I wish to submit my resignation as TUG Vice President,
effective as soon as you appoint a replacement.  As you know, I have
been contemplating this action since the Board's actions at Cork, but
decided to delay acting until I felt TUG was in a stable enough position
to avoid immediate collapse. I believe that I now have done all that I
can to help achieve this goal and that it is now time for me to leave.
 
I agree with the points David Ness has made in his letter of resignation
from the position of Treasurer. The Board's actions at Cork concerning
the Executive Director violated my sense of fairness and decency. The
manner in which these actions were carried out has changed my view of
the TUG governing body from one of a group working cooperatively
together to build a strong organization to one dominated by factions and
hidden agendas. I was disturbed by the total refusal on the part of the
Board to consider the position of its Executive and Finance Committees
and by the Board's total rejection of the counsel of its past
Presidents. I am tired of the amount of verbal and electronic mail
sniping that has become a common response to all actions taken by the
elected officials. I am distressed by the apparent abandonment of
broad-based problem solving in the ``new'' TUG and its replacement with
confrontation.  I find the current climate of blame-casting and
micromanagement destructive.  As I cannot possibly take the additional
energy away from my other duties that TUG now requires, I feel it best
to step aside with the hope that someone else will be willing to take
up the commitment.
 
In the opening paragraph of this letter, I said that I felt my
responsibility was to remain in my position until the threat of
immediate collapse had passed.  I believe that this has now occurred,
and that this is in large part due to the actions of the Executive and
Finance Committees.  The TUG office staff is talented, dedicated, and
motivated.  They are taking the steps necessary to preserve TUG and to
forward its goals.  They deserve and require the strong support of the
Board.  I would strongly urge the members of the Board to keep the
stability of the organization uppermost in mind, and to avoid the
always attractive temptation to change for change's sake.
 
The Board has a major job upcoming in the summer meeting---that of
restoring the sense of cooperation it trampled over in the Texas and
Cork meetings.  I urge the board to be moderate in its decisions.  TUG
retains a great deal of strength, which should be used as a basis for
building and not discarded.
 
Like David, I would also like to request that this letter be printed in
a forthcoming {\sl TUGboat\/}.  In part, I want to do so, to try and
provide my perspective to the membership of TUG.  One's view of TUG
varies dramatically, depending on what one's connection is with the
organization. I feel it important to separate in one's mind the view of
those interested in TUG for \TeX-related reasons and the view of those
interested for organizational reasons.  Although the organizational
structure is rather unstable, I believe that the technical functions
have been unimpeded---{\sl TUGboat} and {\tt TeXHaX} continue
publication, the preparations for the annual meeting are ongoing, and
the TUG office is functioning and continuing to provide day-to-day
services to the membership.
 
I would like to crib another of David's thoughts, and express my thanks
to the present and former members of the Executive and Finance
Committees, to the former Executive Director, and to the TUG office
staff.  I only wish that the rest of the Board and the membership as a
whole could have witnessed the effort and attention that they have paid
to TUG.
 
In closing, I would like to say that there is no doubt in my mind that
every member of the board has the best interests of \TeX\ and TUG in
mind and believes that the actions they are taking are to further \TeX\
and TUG.  It is tragic that actions taken with such good intentions are
resulting in so much upheaval and distrust.
 
\vspace{1mm}
\hrule
\vspace{1mm}
 
%% Jackson letter:
 
\begin{flushleft}
February 13, 1991\\
Nelson Beebe\\
President, TUG\\
\end{flushleft}
 
\noindent Dear Nelson,
 
\noindent This letter is to advise you of my resignation as Secretary of
TUG. Since I have not discussed this decision with you, the choice of
effective date is left to you. My prefer\-ence is that the resignation be
accepted im\-me\-di\-ate\-ly, but if you desire that I retain the office for a
brief period, this is acceptable to me. Considering the events that TUG
management has experienced since the Texas 1990 meeting, and the other
re\-sig\-nations,\ts I think it important to advise you of the reason for my
decision.\ts Of course, this correspondence may be distributed to the Board
and to the membership. If distributed, I ask that the entire contents be used.
 
\noindent\enspace I believe that the Board desires to change the composition of the
Executive and Finance Committees. First, I am confident that the Board,
as a body, feels that a change is essential to the future of TUG. I do
not want to impede anything that will enhance the future of TUG. Over
the years, I have always encouraged individual members to speak out and
promote changes that they believed to be important to TUG's growth and
management. I still encourage {\em constructive\/} comment and action.
Second, the Board's approach to enhancing the future of TUG has been
unacceptable to my standards of fairness, decency, and courtesy. This
perspective is solely based on the manner the Board used to remove the
past Executive Director. In my opinion, the person was removed for
simply following the directions and guidance of the Executive and
Finance Committees. Additionally, it appears to me that the Board was
influenced by innuendo and was appealed to on the basis of personal
prejudice. The embarassing realization is that I could have behaved as
the majority of the Board; that is, the actions that have occurred lie
within my concept of ``ordinary'' human behavior. I do not think that my
not behaving in concert with the Board was extraordinary; it was more
likely due to a difference in values and/or priorities. It is important
that governing bodies have value and priority differences; when present
in a community of respect, it is an effective way to provide
representative government. As I do not feel there is a ``community of
respect,'' my presence is an impediment rather than an aid. Finally, I
want the best for TUG. And, I believe that all the Board members want
the best for TUG. To my, my presence---considering my values and
judg\-ments---does not afford me the opportunity to contribute in {\em my
way\/} toward the best for TUG. I am confident that Board activities
will be more effective without me than with me.
 
The editor of {\em TUGboat\/}, Barbara Beeton, solicited commentary to
David Ness' letter of resignation. David's comments are both elegant and
are, I think to the point of some of TUG's problems. The elegance is in his
requirement to retain and assert {\em his\/} values. David and I do not
agree on many things, but I know he respects my being and expression and
I cherish the experiences we have shared. I hope each Board member and
each TUG member will reflect on David's comments, not in terms of just
his position, but also his philosophy. In fact, the experience of
working with the Executive Committee has been very rewarding to me and I
think their efforts have been rewarding to TUG members.
 
I cannot end this correspondence without expressing my appreciation to
the per\-son\-nel at the TUG office, appreciation for tol\-er\-at\-ing\ts and\ts
surviving\ts this\ts burst\ts of\ts growth by their employers. A fine group. And I
hope the Board will be humane to Ron Whitney, a person who accepted a
role to help TUG---it still confuses me why a person would enter this
war zone.
 
Nelson, your interest in the future and potential of TUG has been
pretty exciting to me. I am truly sorry that when the zeal and position
connected, there was another problem that took priority.
\medskip
\noindent Yours truly,
 
\noindent Calvin Jackson
}   %% end of \small font
 
\vspace{1mm}
\hrule
\vspace{1mm}
 
\newpage
 
\begin{flushleft}
\rule{.5pt}{17.3cm}
\end{flushleft}
 
\newpage
 
\onecolumn
 
%% Elections procedures (1 page):
 
\Section{1991 \TeX{} Users Group Election}
 
After lengthy discussions over several years, the Board of Directors
decided at a meeting held on March 2--3, 1991, that TUG would be best
served by a Board whose members are elected by the full membership. To
that end, an Election Procedures Committee was appointed to devise
procedures which will result, this fall, in the election of an entire
new Board.  The committee has now completed its draft. At press time,
the draft procedures await final approval by the Board.
 
The size of the Board will change; under the new rules there will be a
maximum of 15 elected Directors. Several non-elected vice
presidents---elected officers of major \TeX{} user associations outside
the U.S.---will also remain on the Board. Of the regular officers, only
the President will be elected by the full membership; the other
three---Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer---will be chosen by
the Board from among the elected Directors, to ensure that that these
new officers are familiar with the amount of work expected of them.
For this transitional period, the current Board will select the next
President at their July meeting in Dedham.
 
Candidates for any open office may be nominated either by petition or
from the floor at the annual business meeting.  A petition must be
signed by the candidate (to signify acceptance) and by two other TUG
members. (A petition form follows.) The deadline for receipt of
petitions for this year is September~1. A member nominated from the
floor at the annual meeting must notify the TUG office in writing
within seven days to accept the nomination.
 
A short biography of the candidate (not to exceed 300 words) and a
candidate's statement of purpose (about 100 words) should accompany
the petition or acceptance letter.  These statements will accompany
the ballot sent to members, and may in some cases provide all the
information that a member knows about a candidate.
 
Ballots will be mailed to all members about 30 days after the close
of nominations.  Marked ballots must be received no more than 5 weeks
following the mailing; the exact date will be noted on the ballots.
 
Ballots will be counted by a disinterested party not part of the TUG
organization. The results of the election should be available by the
end of November.
 
All 15 regular positions on the Board will be up for election this
yesr. This will make for a rather lengthy ballot. It is the Board's
hope that all members of TUG will participate actively, either as
candidates or by supporting the candidacy of others, and certainly as
thoughtful voters.
 
\begin{flushright}
Barbara Beeton\\
for the Election Procedures Committee
\end{flushright}
 
\newpage
 
%% Nomination form (1 page):
 
\newcommand{\SigRule}{\rule{4.5cm}{.5pt}}
\newcommand{\DateRule}{\rule{2.3cm}{.5pt}}
 
\Section{Nomination for 1991 TUG Board of Directors Election}
 
Only current (1991) TUG members are eligible to have their names
appear on this petition. The signatures of two (2) members are
required in addition to that of the nominee.  {\bf Type or print}
names clearly, exactly as they appear in the most recent TUG
membership list or on a TUG mailing label; new members should enter
the name which they used on their membership application form. Names
that do not exactly match the TUG records will not be accepted as
valid.
 
\vspace{2pc}
 
\noindent The undersigned TUG members propose the nomination of:
 
\vspace{1pc}
 
\begin{flushleft}
\begin{tabular}{@{}ccc@{}}
\SigRule            &amp; \SigRule        &amp; \DateRule   \\
\bf Name of nominee &amp; (signature)     &amp; (date)      \\
\end{tabular}
\end{flushleft}
 
\vspace{1pc}
 
\noindent for the position of {\bf Member of the TUG Board of
Directors}, for a term beginning {\bf January 1, 1992}.
 
\vspace{2pc}
 
\begin{flushleft}
\begin{tabular}{@{}ccc@{}}
\multicolumn{3}{c}{\large \bf Members supporting this nomination} \\
\noalign{\vskip1pc}
\bf Nominated by &amp; \bf Signature  &amp; \bf Date    \\
(please print)   &amp;                &amp;             \\
\noalign{\vskip1pc}
\SigRule         &amp; \SigRule       &amp; \DateRule   \\
\noalign{\vskip1pc}
\SigRule         &amp; \SigRule       &amp; \DateRule   \\
\end{tabular}
\end{flushleft}
 
\vspace{1pc}
 
\noindent Return this petition to the TUG office (FAXed submissions
will also be accepted).
Petitions must be received in the TUG office no later than
{\bf September 1, 1991}.
 
\vspace{2pc}
 
{\parfillskip=\parindent
\TeX\ Users Group \hfil {\bf FAX: } 401-751-1071\endgraf}
 
{\bf Nominations for 1991 Election}
 
P.O.~Box 9506
 
Providence, RI 02940-9506
 
U.S.A.
 
 
\newpage
 
%% TeXhax column (1 page):
 
\Section{\TeX hax Tidbits}
 
{\footnotesize
\begin{verbatim}
TeXhax Digest       Sunday,  March 17, 1991      Volume 91: Issue 013
 
Moderators: Tiina Modisett and Pierre MacKay
 
%%% The TeXhax digest is brought to you as a service of the TeX Users Group %%%
%%%       in cooperation with the UnixTeX distribution service at the       %%%
%%%                      University of Washington                           %%%
 
Today's Topics:
 
                help for importing postscript files in latex
                          Wanted: Armenian in TeX
                                 font names
                                    detex
                   TUG Conference Proceedings Summaries
                    AT&amp;T patent =&gt; X will not be free.
            Standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts.
          Re: Standardization of TeX names for Adobe PostScript fonts.
 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
\end{verbatim}
} %% end of \footnotesize
 
\noindent Look familiar? To the thousands of \TeX\ users who have
network mail access, reading \TeX hax is a part of their daily or
weekly (well, ok, monthly) ritual. \TeX hax is an electronic newsletter
moderated by Tiina Modisett and Pierre Mackay at the University of
Washington/Seattle.  However, many TUG members do not have access to
\TeX hax; and many \TeX hax users are not TUG members.  And many users
of \TeX hax are not aware of the fact that TUG is in large part
responsible for the continued availability of \TeX hax: TUG contributes
some \$10,000 per annum to maintaining this vital open news forum.
 
A regular column in this newsletter, summarising the main items of
interest in recent issues, would allow the entire TUG membership to
benefit from the tremendous amount of information which flows
electronically via \TeX hax.  It would bring back to TUG members some of
their investment in supporting TUG, and would also bring a better
appreciation of TUG's involvement in providing services to the
\TeX-using community, regardless of their membership in the user group.
 
A volunteer or volunteers for this work would certainly be welcome.
Send an outline of what you would do, what you would like to see in this
space, to {\tt tug@math.ams.com}, and mark the Subject line {\tt
TeXhax column}. Suggestions for names for the column are also invited.
 
Past volumes of \TeX hax are available on floppy diskette in Jon Radel's
collection of \TeX- and \MF-ware for Microcomputers.  This collection
is now being distributed by the TUG office in Providence. Contact the
TUG office at {\tt tug@math.ams.com} for a full catalogue or further
details.
 
\newpage
 
%% Update on TUG '91 conference (2 pages):
 
\Section{Update:\ 12th TUG Annual Meeting\\ July 15--18, 1991}
 
The 1991 Annual Meeting of the \TUG\ is shaping up well,
and the promotional brochure should have reached you all by
now. Here are some updates on the program:
 
\begin{enumerate}
   \item There will be a {\bf Hospitality Suite} this year (an
         oft-made suggestion in the past). Look for the signs at the
         Dedham Hilton when you arrive on Saturday or Sunday,
         July 13--14, 1991 (8 a.m.~to 10 p.m.).
   \item Alan Hoenig will present a 30-minute {\bf Introductory Talk}
         to \TeX, which will be of particular interest to newcomers to
         \TeX{} to TUG. The talk will take place Monday, July 15th,
         8:30 a.m.~in the main ballroom.
   \item There will be a {\bf Keynote Speaker} (to be announced) on
         Monday, July 15th, 9:15--10:00.
   \item There will be {\bf two} Networking Lunches, one on Monday
         (as announced) and a second one for Thursday. Return
         your form to the TUG office as soon as possible. Sign up
         early and be counted!
   \item There will be three {\bf workshops} on each of the first
         three days. Sign up at the registration desk. {\bf
         Correction:} The workshop ``Modifying {\tt manmac} to Suit
         the Publisher'' will be led by Dan Olson, not Mimi Lafrenz;
         both are from {\it Electronic Technical Publishing\/}, not
         the firm indicated.
   \item On Wednesday, July 17th, have {\bf Lunch with the Board}.
         Members of the board of directors will be making themselves
         available so you can talk to them. Talk about TUG as an
         organisation, make suggestions for the various committees to
         consider, volunteer your time and/or expertise, find out what
         it takes to be a board member.
   \item On Thursday, July 18th, to close off the four days, we will
         have an {\bf Historical Round Table}. Come meet some of the
         ``names'' in the \TeX{} community; listen to reminiscences
         anecdotes and stories about the development of \TeX, early
         early implementations on various systems, and how some of us
         became involved with \TeX{} --- not everyone was from the
         Math or Systems Engineering departments! Some come from
         English, linguistics, office management, and so on.
   \item A {\tt LISTSERV} address has been established at Texas A\&amp;M
         (thanks to Tom Reid) for posting queries to be used in the
         annual {\bf Questions and Answers} session at the meeting.
         Send queries to: {\tt tug-q@tamvm1.tamu.edu} or {\tt
         tug-q@tamvm1.bitnet}. Remember: you won't get an answer to
         your posting --- this is just a place to send queries for use
         at the July meeting.
   \item There will be a PC and a Mac set up for a {\bf software
         exchange}, with lots of software available for copying. If
         you have macros you'd like to share, bring them and add them
         to the collection. Bring your own disks.
   \item And here's another way to share your ideas --- I'm calling
         it {\bf Admin.TeX}. Bring samples (hardcopy of input/output)
         of office-related documents, such as letterheads, memos,
         forms (FAXes, invoices, whatever), anything that you use
         in an administrative/office context, produced with \TeX{} or
         \LaTeX{}. We'll post it, and you can show off what {\bf you}
         do with \TeX{}. Share your expertise with colleagues; find
         something that you've always needed. Try to keep the
         input/output to a page or two; bring the macros too if you
         want, and put them on the software exchange machines.
   \item New this year --- an on-site {\bf\TeX pert}! A variety of
         people will be donating their time to sit at a machine, and
         try to help you solve your problems. Sometimes all it takes
         is a fresh set of eyes to look at your code; remember though
         that there's only so much you can ask of someone who's got
         a lot of questions lined up \ldots
   \item {\bf Program Changes:} ``The Realities of \TeX{} as a College
         Textbook Publishing Program'' (Mona Zeftel) has been replaced
         by ``The Five C's: A Guide to Successful Publication Using
         \TeX{}'' (Colleen Brosnan, {\it Prentice-Hall\/}); ``\TeX's
         Role in a Computer Integrated Administration (CIA)
         Environment'' (H.~Petersen) has been withdrawn.
\end{enumerate}
 
\vspace{2pc}
 
So! Make sure you send in your registration form now for this
year's Annual Meeting! Pass the brochures around, make copies of
the form, and come and join us for a truly dynamic meeting.
Don't forget: everything takes place at the Dedham Hilton, July
15--18, 1991. Plan to arrive on the weekend and take in some of
the sights in and around Boston; pop into the Hospitality Suite
and see who's there; take a swim in the pool or a walk around the
park-like grounds of the hotel. Make this an enjoyable conference ---
relax and talk \TeX{}!
 
\vspace{1pc}
 
\begin{flushright}
Christina Thiele \\
TUG '91 Program Coordinator\\
May 1991 \\
\end{flushright}
 
\newpage
 
%% ``Hey --- it works!'' column (2 pages):
 
\Section{``Hey --- it works!''}
 
Are there little tricks you use that you don't even think about?
Tricks that you figure are too trivial, or too inelegant to be of
interest to other \TeX{} users? A lot of \TeX{} and \LaTeX{} users
are just looking for a quick fix now and then; and a lot of us who've
been using the programs for a while have our favourite little tricks.
 
Send in some of your best samples of sleight of hand \ldots\ or code.
Consider this a forum for sharing and exchanging helpful hints ---
but they'd better work! This isn't a test site for your almost-ok
ideas --- test the thing and make sure it's bug-free. And one more
thing: items show in this column do {\bf not} pretend to be the best
or all-purpose solution to little problems. They show {\bf one} way to
deal with a {\bf specific} problem in a {\bf specific} context. Don't
attack a hack --- send in a better one!
 
Here are a few of my own offerings, which may be howlers to some,
but ``Hey --- they work!''.
 
\Subsection{Some applications for {\tt \char'134llap}}
 
The following would work with either plain \TeX{} or \LaTeX{}; I use
macro packages which are refinements and variations on the basic
{\tt manmac} file.
 
\subsubsection{Blank Boxes}
Some might view this as a throw-back to the typewriter era \ldots\ but
the \TeX{} control sequences \verb|\llap| (and \verb|\rlap|) can come
in awfully handy (see the {\it\TeX book\/}, pp.~82--83; see also
pp.~189, 340--341 for some more suggestions). And if you add
\verb|\raise| and \verb|\lower|, then there are quite a few things
you can do, along with \verb|\kern| to do the fine tuning.
 
Essentially, these are commands to ``back up'' or ``go forward'',
to ``go up'' or ``down'', and then move a shade to the left or right.
 
One item I once needed was a small box (in a semiotics paper, for
some reason).
\LaTeX{} users have \verb|$\Box$|, which yields $\Box$ ;
but plain \TeX{} users have to build them from scratch. One way to get
a box is to lap a math mode \verb|\sqcup| back over a math mode
\verb|\sqcap|, like this:
\begin{verbatim}
   \def\blankbox{$\sqcup$\llap{$\sqcap$}}
\end{verbatim}
\def\blankbox{$\sqcup$\llap{$\sqcap$}}
and you get this: \blankbox\ . Note that it's a bit different from
the \LaTeX{} box.
 
\subsubsection{Thorns: upper and lower case, roman and italic}
My background is linguistics, phonetics in particular. Sometimes
when you need a character only once or twice, a quick solution is
called for. Here's one for a lowercase ``thorn'' (thorn appears in
Scandinavian texts and in Old English, for example). For the lowercase
thorn, print a {\bf p} on top of a {\bf b}, using \verb|\llap| and you
get:\ b\llap{p} (this also works if you're in an italic group:
{\it b\llap{p}\/} . Yes, there's that little serif from the
{\bf p}, but if your alternative is to hand-draw the character,
consider using this rough replacement:
\begin{verbatim}
   \def\thorn{b\llap{p}}
\end{verbatim}
 
\font\bigl=cmr10 scaled\magstep2%       %% for a large roman stem
 
\def\Thorn{{\lower.47ex\hbox{\bigl l}}\kern.46em{\llap{O}}}
 
\noindent If you need a capital thorn, it gets a bit strange: define a
very large font to get a big ``el'' to serve as the ``stem'' of the
letter\ {\bigl l}; then back a capital {\bf O} onto it:
\begin{verbatim}
   \font\bigl=cmr10 scaled\magstep2%    %% for a large roman stem
 
   %% UPPER CASE Thorn:
   \def\Thorn{{\lower.47ex\hbox{\bigl l}}\kern.46em{\llap{O}}}
\end{verbatim}
 
\noindent So here's a capital Thorn (roman style): \Thorn is is it.
 
\subsubsection{And some more \ldots}
\verb|h\llap{\lower2ex\hbox{\u{}}| is for an {\bf h} with a breve
sign underneath (I think it was for some kind of a voiceless velar
fricative), which an author needed: h\llap{\lower2ex\hbox{\u{}}} .
 
Another paper needed some very, very small equals signs between
characters. Using \verb|cmr5|, the equals are still too large
\font\micro=cmr5 {\micro=} \ and would need to be raised. So, looking
for something that's even shorter, you come to the hyphen. Backing up
with \verb|\llap| isn't enough, because that would just overprint, so
you have to raise one of the hyphens:
\begin{verbatim}
   \def\qq{-\llap{\raise.3ex\hbox{-}}}
\end{verbatim}
\def\qq{-\llap{\raise.3ex\hbox{-}}}
and\qq then\qq use\qq it \ldots\ well, it's got a very restricted usage.
 
But the point is, you {\em can\/} create all sorts of make-do
characters by combining existing ones and controlling their position,
relative to one another. And in a pinch, they'll do the job.
 
 
\begin{center}
\blankbox \qquad \blankbox \qquad \blankbox
\end{center}
 
Perhaps this playing around with some fairly simple commands will
be an incentive to the hundreds and thousands of \TeX{} and \LaTeX{}
users out there. Send in your own favourites. Explain the context
(e.g., mainly in text, mainly in math, something specific to a
particular \LaTeX{} environment). Let's make this an exchange forum
for all users of all programs.
 
See the inside front cover for information on submissions.
 
\newpage
 
%% Upcoming events (1 page):
 
\Section{Upcoming Events}
 
\begin{center}
{\tabcolsep3pt
\begin{tabular}{p{2cm}p{4.7cm}p{4.5cm}}
\hline
\bf June 13     &amp; Stockage de documents
                  (last in a lecture series ``Les documents
                  \'electroniques'')\nl
                  Paris, France
                       &amp; Contact: Mme Tourteau,\nl
                         EDF--GDF/STI,\nl
                         21, rue Joseph Bara,\nl
                         F--92132 {\sc Issy-les-\nl
                            moulineaux}\nl
                         +33 1 44 26 87 32                      \\
\hline \hline
\bf July 15--18 &amp; TUG '91:\nl
                  ``\TeX{} Inroads into Publishing''\nl
                  Dedham, Mass. (suburban\nl Boston)
                       &amp; TUG Office\nl
                         401-751-7760\nl
                         Fax: 401-751-1071\nl
                         \tt tug@math.ams.com                   \\
\hline \hline
\bf Sept.23--25 &amp; Euro\TeX{} 91:\nl
                  6th European \TeX{} Conference\nl
                  Paris, France
                       &amp; Contact GUTenberg,\nl
                         B.P.~21,\nl
                         F--78350 {\sc Jouy en josas}\nl
                         +33 1 34 65 22 32\nl
                         Fax: +33 1 34 65 20 51\nl
                         \tt gut@irisa.irisa.fr                 \\
\hline
\bf Sept.~26    &amp; GUTenberg '91 Conference:\nl
                  ``Technical and Scientific\nl Publishing''\enspace
                  Paris, France
                       &amp; Contact: GUTenberg\nl
                         (see address above)                    \\
\hline
\bf Sept.~30--\nl\indent Oct.~3
                &amp; Computer Publishing\nl Conference\nl
                  San~Jose, California
                       &amp; Contact:\nl Seybold Publications\nl
                         213-457-5850                           \\
\hline
\bf Oct.~1--3   &amp; Desktop Publishing in\nl
                 Astronomy and Space Sciences\nl
                  Strasbourg, France
                       &amp; Contact: Andr\'e Heck,\nl
                         Observatoire Astronomique,\nl
                         11, rue de l'Universit\'e,\nl
                         F--67000 Strasbourg\nl
                         +33 88 35 82 22\nl
                         Fax: +33 88 25 01 60\nl
                         \tt heck@frccsc21.bitnet               \\
\hline
\bf Oct.~15--16 &amp; RIDT 91:\nl
                  The 2nd International\nl Workshop on
                  Raster Imaging\nl and Digital Typography\nl
                  Boston, Mass.
                       &amp; Contact: Robert A.~Morris\nl
                         617-287-6466\nl
                         \tt ridt91-request@cs.umb.edu          \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
}
\end{center}
 
\vspace{.25pc}
 
\noindent {\bf Note:} Course information will appear in {\sl
TUGboat\/} 12, no.~2. For more infor\-mation on conferences or
courses, contact the TUG office (address on inside front
cover).
 
\newpage
 
%% COVER 3 (Table of Contents):
\pagestyle{empty}
 
\begin{center}
   {\Sectionfont \TeX{} and TUG NEWS\\
\medskip
                  Table of Contents}
\end{center}
 
\vspace{.5pc}
 
\contentsline {section}{{\it Editorial}}{1}
\medskip
\contentsline {section}{{\tt jeep}: A General Purpose Style File\\
                        \indent {\it Peter Stewart}}{3}
\medskip
\contentsline {section}{News from Around \ldots}{5}
\smallskip
\contentsline {subsection}{\TeX{} in the Soviet Union\\
                           \indent {\it Theo Jurriens}}{5}
\smallskip
\contentsline {subsection}{New {\tt LISTSERV} for Greek \TeX{} Users\\
                           \indent {\it Yannis Haralambous}}{6}
\smallskip
\contentsline {subsection}{The Truth about \TeX{}\\
                           \indent {\it Christina Thiele}}{6}
\medskip
\contentsline {section}{A Message from the Board of Directors}{7}
\smallskip
\contentsline {subsection}{New Focus}{7}
\smallskip
\contentsline {subsection}{Some Changes}{8}
\medskip
\contentsline {section}{Summary of TUG Board of Directors Meetings}{11}
\smallskip
\contentsline {subsection}{September 1990}{11}
\smallskip
\contentsline {subsection}{March 1991}{15}
\medskip
\contentsline {section}{Communications}{20}
\medskip
\contentsline {section}{1991 \TeX{} Users Group Election}{25}
\medskip
\contentsline {section}{Nomination for 1991 TUG Board of Directors
                        Election}{26}
\medskip
\contentsline {section}{\TeX hax Tidbits}{27}
\medskip
\contentsline {section}{Update: 12th TUG Annual Meeting}{28}
\medskip
\contentsline {section}{``Hey --- it works!''}{30}
\smallskip
\contentsline {subsection}{Some applications for {\tt\char'134llap}\\
                        {\it Christina Thiele}}{30}
\medskip
\contentsline {section}{Upcoming Events}{32}
 
\newpage
 
%% COVER 4 (TUG information):
 
\begin{center}
   {\Sectionfont Eight Great Reasons to\\
\smallskip
     Join the \TUG}
\end{center}
 
{\small
\begin{enumerate}
   \item {\bsl TUGboat\/}\quad
         All members receive a subscription to {\sl TUGboat\/}, The
         Communications of the \TeX{} Users Group.  Published four times
         a year and averaging 150 pages per issue, {\sl TUGboat\/}
         contains solutions to typesetting problems, bug fixes, and
         information on new developments in \TeX{}, \LaTeX, \AmSTeX{} and
         other macro packages.  Each issue has a calendar of coming events
         and various resource lists to help readers find information about
         existing macros, drivers, and \TeX{} publications.
   \item {\bsl Books and Software\/}\quad
         A ``one-stop shop,'' TUG carries most \TeX{} macro packages as
         well as \TeX{} publications and products.  The Radel collection
         of public domain \TeX{} software for microcomputers is now
         available through TUG, too.
   \item {\bsl Membership Networks\/}\quad
         TUG maintains and distributes a complete membership list
         annually.  Members are listed alphabetically, geographically and
         by institution, as well as by the computers and printers they use.
         These lists facilitate easy member-to-member communication within
         TUG's worldwide network.
   \item {\bsl Information Referrals\/}\quad
         TUG can connect you with site coordinators --- specialists in
         implementations of \TeX{} on various computer architectures ---
         as well as other resource volunteers.  These experts are available
         to answer your questions about \TeX{}, \TeX-related software and
         other technical matters.
   \item {\bsl Annual Meetings\/}\quad
         TUG's Annual Meetings bring \TeX{} users together to learn the
         latest in \TeX{} applications and innovations through seminars,
         talks and informal gatherings.  They offer an opportunity to
         connect with other \TeX{} users at every level.  Each conference
         is informative, but always informal and friendly --- the perfect
         forum for valuable interaction and exchange of ideas on \TeX{}.
   \item {\bsl \TeX{} Worldwide\/}\quad
         When you belong to TUG you connect with other \TeX{} user
         associations around the world.  Information about their activities
         is published regularly in {\sl TUGboat\/} and reciprocal membership
         arrangements are available with some of the European groups.
   \item {\bsl \TeX{} Training\/}\quad
         Each year TUG offers seminars and classes for beginner, intermediate
         and advanced \TeX{} users throughout North America and Europe.
         TUG will custom design and conduct on-site courses to meet your
         company's specific needs.
   \item {\bsl Discounts}\\
         $\triangleright$\ Discounted Annual Meeting fees\\
         $\triangleright$\ Student rates for membership and courses\\
         $\triangleright$\ Discounts on the purchase of selected TUG
                        publications\\
         $\triangleright$\ {\bsl NEW!} Discounts for all members on
                        TUG-sponsored courses in \TeX{} and
                        \TeX-related subjects\\
\end{enumerate}
}
 
\end{document}
 
%% END OF FILE (end of Prototype issue Vol. 0, no. 0, 1991  --Ch.)
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