POLY - Council and Committee Reports

2015 Committee Reports:
2015 Spring ACS National Meeting in Denver, CO, March 22-26, 2015

Treasurer's Report

POLY Treasurer's Report

We continue to balance the budget and ensure that the expenditures are within the allocated figures agreed upon at the last 2015 Ex-Com meeting. Any questions may be directed to Derek Patton, POLY Division Treasurer, derek.patton@usm.edu

POLY – Councilor’s Report Denver

F. Blum, M.A. Meador, W. Daly, J. Pochan

At the Spring ACS National Meeting in Denver, CO (March 22-26, 2015), all four councilors attended the ACS Council Meeting. The following account summarizes some selected activities in the Council and in committees and task forces in which POLY Councilors are involved.

General Topics. The Dever National Meeting attracted a total of 13,940 registrants, including 7,307 regular attendees and 5,141 students.

The Committee on Nominations and Elections presented to the Council the following nominees for selection as candidates for President-Elect, 2016: G. Bryan Balazs, Allison A. Campbell, David J. Lohse, and Christopher J. Welch. By electronic ballot, the Council selected G. Bryan Balazs and Allison A. Campbell as candidates for 2016 President-Elect. These two candidates, along with any candidates selected via petitions, will stand for election in the Fall National Election.

The ACS Council Policy Committee (CPC), based on Society’s Bylaws, total paid membership in the Society and membership in each division, has reallocated the number of councilors per division. On the basis of these determinations, one division – Catalysis, Science & Technology – will gain three Councilors for 2016-2019, and two divisions – Cellulose and Renewable Materials and Chemical Information – will each gain one Councilor for 2016-2019. Six divisions – Business Development & Management, Carbohydrate Chemistry, Colloid & Surface Chemistry, Computers in Chemistry, History of Chemistry, and Professional Relations – will each lose a Councilor for 2016-2019. There will be no change in the number of Councilors for any other division.

Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs reported the 2014 New Graduate Survey Results which show the unemployment rate for new graduate chemists has dropped from 14.9 percent in the 2013 survey to 12.4 percent as of 2014. The drop is principally due to more new bachelor’s degree chemists finding employment. ACS members experienced three successive years of lowered unemployment, which could hint at a positive outlook for chemists in coming years.

Following a discussion on the revenue supporting National Meetings, the ACS Council requested that the Board of Directors delay the implementation of the technical meeting additional fee to the meeting registration fee, until the Board presents an analysis (preferably at the Boston national meeting) of the projected break even fee, including and excluding the net revenue from the National Meeting Exposition.

Council Policy Committee (CPC) (Frank Blum):
CPC is working developing new procedures for expulsion of members and Councilors for good cause. They also reset the divisors for Council representation based on membership. AS a result, some divisions lost and some gained Councilors. CPC is also exploring making Council more green through electronic agendas.

Division Activities Committee (DAC) (Mary Ann Meador): The DAC voted to fund ten Innovative Project Grants (IPG) totaling $54,000. The committee will consider another set of IPG proposals during the Boston National Meeting in August, 2015; the deadline for that round of submissions in July 1, 2015.

A new Communications and Technology Subcommittee was formed in DAC to work on ways to help divisions communicate with their members and among divisions.

National meeting attendees were recently surveyed for their views on the Society’s policy governing the use of devices to capture and/or disseminate content delivered at our meetings. While expressing support for the policy, the respondents also expressed interest in amending the current policy to permit presenters – at their discretion – to authorize audience members to capture and disseminate content.

Meetings and Expositions (M&E) (John Pochan): M&E recommended that the Early Member Registration Fee for 2016 national meetings be $415, per the National Meeting Long-Range Financial Plan.

As part of the continuing ACS sustainability effort and to encourage the use of the ACS mobile app and online program, M&E has decided to discontinue free distribution of the hard copy program book starting in 2016.

Those who pre-register for the meeting may purchase a copy of the program book for $10 (pick up on site), and copies will be available at the meeting for $20. The PDF version of the national meeting program will be more prominently displayed on the ACS website for those who would like to print portions for themselves.

Membership Report Denver

Membership is the heart of the POLY Division. Yet it has been in slow decline for a few years. As such, the Membership Committee is holding a membership drive during 2015 offering a one-year FREE POLY MEMBERSHIP to new members. The goal is to give individuals an opportunity to sample POLY. Through this one year experience we hope polymer scientists will come to desire an ongoing membership in POLY. Approximately 50 individuals took advantage of this opportunity during the recent ACS National Meeting. We call out to all POLY members to discuss the benefits of POLY with colleagues who may not already be a member and encourage them to take advantage of this membership drive. This one-year membership will give individuals the opportunity to gain access to POLY graphical abstracts, receive newsletters about upcoming activities, receive reduced POLY Workshop registrations, and access to award opportunities, just to name a few of the many benefits.

Over twenty percent of the membership responded to the membership survey conducted in Fall 2104 carried out in concert with last year’s elections. The survey asked questions about member benefits, engagement in POLY activities, attendance at meetings and what members would like to see in POLY programming and workshops among other things. Results of the survey show that members are enthusiastic about the monthly e-mail newsletter and reports from the national meeting and are more engaged then previous years with social media. Members attending the national meetings also enjoy networking events like the plenary lecture and awards reception on Wednesday nights, the IAB reception and the student reception. Member retention and engagement are still in need of improvement. The results of this survey provide helpful information to the Executive Committee as they look to the future. Thanks to all who took the time to complete the survey.

POLY is wrapping up a successful Innovative Project Grant (IPG) that was funded by the ACS Council Committee on Divisional Activities. The IPG on badge scanning that we conducted at the ACS San Francisco meeting in Fall 2014 helped us to identify who from outside POLY attended our technical sessions and poster session. During the meeting, 704 badges were scanned (with 400 energy bars and 200 bottles of water handed out with POLY contact information on them). 69% of the badges scanned were not POLY members. 50% of the scanned badges were from academia (non-students), 28% of the badges were from students, and 15% of the badges were from industry with 6% government. 20% of those scanned had interests in polymers, 18% with interests in inorganic, 16% materials, and 11% Colloid & Surfaces. We made contact with a lot of non-members and scientists and engineers that do not have their primary affiliation with the field of polymers. Clearly POLY’s programming is proving a draw to people outside of our immediate field and POLY is making a valuable contribution to ACS National Meetings and the chemistry community at large. A free one-year membership was offered to all non-POLY members as part of this program. Mike Hickner (Penn State) would like to thank the POLY Executive Committee for facilitating the IPG process with ACS, the division office for helping with badge scanning during the meeting, and students Doug Kushner (Penn State), Katrina Knauer (U. S. Miss.), Kaushik Mishra (U. Akron), and Kelli Stockmal (Clark U.) for doing badge scanning during the conference. We had a great time and helped POLY with some critical data collection which will pay off as we move forward recruiting POLY members from outside our field.

The Membership Committee awarded the University of Southern Mississippi the POLY/PMSE Student Chapter award at the ACS National Meeting in Denver, CO. The Chapter plans to use the award to support their chapter activities including bringing in outside speakers from industry, academia and government, running a science café on polymer science and the role of polymers in technology, and participating in Recylcethon 2015 to promote better recycling practices.

See presentation with more details