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Division of Polymer Chemistry, Inc.
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Advancing the world through polymer chemistry
2013 Committee Reports:
2013 Fall ACS National Meeting in Indianapolis, IN
September 8-12, 2013
Treasurer's Report
INTERSOCIETY POLYMER EDUCATION COUNCIL (IPEC)
Polymer Preprint / Circulation Report
Mark Dadmun
The table outlines the summary and status of the 2013 budget with respect to the current income and expenditures through July 2013 and is compared to the end-of-year figures for 2012 and planned 2013 budget. We continue to balance the budget and ensure that the expenditures are within the allocated figures agreed upon at the last 2013 Ex-Com meeting. Any questions may be directed to Mark Dadmun, POLY Division Treasurer, dad@utk.edu
POLY – Councilor’s Report Indianapolis, 2013
F. Blum, M.A. Meador, W. Daly, J. Pochan
At the Indianapolis National Meeting (September 8-12, 2013), all four POLY Councilors attended the ACS Council meeting. The following account summarizes some selected activities in the Council and in committees and task forces that POLY Councilors are involved in.
General Topics: The Indianapolis national meeting attracted 10,840 registrants, including 6,630 regular attendees and 2,585 students. The meeting accepted 7,123 papers for presentation.
The Committee on Nominations and Elections (N&E) announced the following nominees as candidates for President-Elect, 2014: G. Bryan Balazs, Charles E. Kolb, Jr and Diane Grob Schmidt.
The Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs reported that employment is up and unemployment is down for ACS chemists. The complete review of the Comprehensive Salary Survey will appear in the September 23 issue of C&EN.
After much debate, a proposed name change for the Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry to the Division of Colloids, Surfaces, and Nanomaterials was defeated by the Council in a close vote.
The Board confirmed the recommendation of the ACS Executive Director/CEO of the new President of Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS). He is Manuel (Manny) Guzman, most recently Executive Vice President of Learning and Research Solutions of Cengage Learning. On the recommendation of the Committee on Budget and Finance (B&F), the Board voted to approve an advance member registration fee of $380 for national meetings held in 2014.
Despite the sluggish economy, ACS is projecting favorable operating results in 2013. Total revenue should be $491.8 million, which is $7.5 million or 1.5% less than the approved budget. Fortunately the total expenses are projected to be 477.2 million or 1.8% favorable to budget. Unrestricted Net Assets increases $84.9 million to $186 million. Finally, ACS ended the year in compliance with four of the five Board-established financial guidelines.
Council Policy Committee (CPC) and POLYED Initiative– Frank Blum:
A joint task force of the CPC and the Committee and Nominations (N&E) is trying to shorten the time lines for Presidential elections. The CPC is also reviewing its Councilor reimbursement policy. The CPC ensures (or at least tries to ensure) that the ACS Council Meeting runs smoothly. At a meeting of the Committee on Professional Training (CPT) a number of POLY members spoke on behalf incorporating the teaching of polymers into foundation courses in chemistry. This activity was in support of an effort by POLYED (the joint polymer education committee). POLYED, and, we believe, most POLY members feel that some knowledge of polymers must be included in the ACS certified chemistry curriculum.
Division Activities Committee (DAC)-Mary Ann Meador:
Magnet Mail, a bulk email service, will be launched to divisions in January. The service can be used to replace current methods that divisions use to communicate with division members or subgroups of members. The service will also allow members to unsubscribe from the service. DAC surveyed divisions last year to capture international interactions and best practices. These will be shared soon through the DAC newsletter and website. The Divisional Enhancement subcommittee approved 12 new Innovative Project Grants (IPG) to divisions at the Indianapolis Meeting. For future grants, the IPG would like to see fewer projects with travel funding requests. One IPG was highlighted as particularly innovative: survey of marketing techniques to attract members. A proposal was made to allow IPG to fund strategic planning every five years for an amount up to $2,000 (which would count toward the $12K/year that divisions are able to receive but would not count as one of the two grants allowed).
A proposal was also made to bring back separate training for new program chairs (P2C2) instead of including program chair training in the leadership conference. This will probably be tried next fall coinciding with the roll out of ScholarOne as the PACS replacement.
Meetings and Expositions (M & E) – Bill Daly:
Board Chairman Bill Carroll has formed a task force to review all aspects of national meeting operations. Recent meetings have not met the financial expectations currently defined by the Board regulations. The committee reviewed the status of ACS-POD. The charge for viewing the presentations from Philadelphia will be abandoned and the program will be available without charge to ACS members. The editor, Jerry Skolnicki, has appointed three associate editors, Emilio Esposito (Computation, Biology); Debbie Krans (Inorganic, Catalysis) and Matt Crowe (Analytical). The appointment of two more associate editors is pending.
The Archive recordings for the Philadelphia and New Orleans meetings are available at: http://presentations.acs.org.
In 2015, the abstract entry system (PACS) must be replaced. A Volunteer Advisory Group representing M&E, DAC, PACS Advisory Board and Program Chairs reviewed four vendors – evaluating ability to meet ACS’ requirements, ease of submission, program navigation and offline processes. ScholarOne was selected as the new vendor. A select group of Program Chairs/Session Organizers and staff will be asked to participate in mock meetings in early 2014. Division volunteer training will be initiated in Spring 2014 with an anticipated roll out of the new system in time to handle the abstract submissions for the Spring 2015 meeting. ACS is increasing staff levels to give Divisions the ability to have a designated staff person to assist with organizing the program in the
abstract system so volunteers can focus more on content and less on organizational and administrative duties.
The committee voted to deny access to Wi-Fi in technical meeting rooms. Electronic access to meeting programming can be achieved using cell phones and a new meeting application being tested in a ?-version at this meeting.
The deadline for submission of abstracts for National Meetings is too early. In the case of the Fall meetings, the deadline falls prior to the Spring meetings. A subcommittee was appointed to investigate the opportunities created by the technology changes and staff support associated with the PACS replacement. One goal of the study will be to assure that the abstract submission deadlines for Fallmeetings do not fall prior to the Spring meeting dates.
Business Office Report
Lesia Linkous, and Kathy Mitchem
The Division is excited to introduce our new staff member, Ashley Ritter. She joined the Business Office in May 2013. Ashley is a Virginia Tech graduate in hospitality and Tourism Management which will be very useful as we work on workshop activities and other planning events. She brings with her a youthful outlook which will help POLY reach out to its membership with updated technology including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other media outlets. Ashley will also provide support to POLY’s very active awards program among other tasks. Please join our officers and welcome Ashley to our outstanding polymer community.
Ashley Ritter
ardaltn@vt.edu
540-231-3029
K. Cavicchi and M. Meador
Here is the latest news from the Membership Committee:
• POLY will be launching a Membership Drive before the end of the calendar year and we need your help. POLY members and POLY/PMSE student chapters that get the most new members will be recognized at the Spring ACS National Meeting in Dallas. Stay tuned for more details.
• The second student networking reception was held at the Indianapolis Colts Grille on Monday evening at the Indianapolis ACS meeting. As was the case in New Orleans, attendance was very good. We had a full room with students from a number of different Universities attending along with a number of POLY and PMSE executive board members. Thanks to the University of Akron’s POLY/PMSE Student Chapter for organizing this event and to PMSE for their shared support of the student chapters, particularly the past reception in Indianapolis. Please look for this event in the spring as we establish this as a regular event for student members.
• During the ACS National Meeting, POLY sent out a daily e-mail, “What’s Happening at the ACS National Meeting Today’, which gave a brief overview of technical symposia and other POLY sponsored events being held each day. This is an attempt to provide a greater awareness of POLY sponsored daily events at ACS National Meetings for both members who are attending the meeting and those who cannot. The Membership Committee welcomes your feedback on how we can improve this e-mail in the future as well as ways that we can better engage the membership in POLY events at National Meetings. Please send any comments to
Mike Meador at Michael.A.Meador@nasa.gov
