POLY - Council and Committee Reports

2016 Committee Reports:
2016 Spring ACS National Meeting in San Diego, March 13-17, 2016

POLY – Councilor’s Report San Diego

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

John Pochan – M&E. The Committee on Meetings and Expositions (M&E) accepted more than 12,000 papers for the National Meeting in San Diego, CA. The total attendance for this meeting was 16,398. The Exposition had 415 booths with 274 exhibiting companies.

ACS continues to lead the meeting industry in green chemistry efforts and has been named 1 of 5 finalists for the 2016 UFI Sustainable Development Award from the premier organization representing the exhibition industry, a significant accomplishment for our program.

As part of M&E’s comprehensive sustainability plan, print copies of the program book for San Diego were significantly reduced and a limited number were available for sale. 2,138 program books were sold as most members are choosing to use the online program or the download the Mobile App, which received 7,684 downloads.

In compliance with the National Meeting Long Range Financial Plan and the recommendations of the 2015 Task Force on Implementing National Meeting Financial Targets, M&E recommends the Early Member Registration Fee for the 2017 national meetings will be $440.

Frank Blum, Council Policy Committee (CPC). CPC continues to work to ensure that the ACS Council runs smoothly. One of the items CPC is looking at the representation in Council by Divisions and Local Sections. Most of Council is represented by Local Section Councilors (360) with a minority of Division Councilors (90) as determined by the ACS Bylaws.

Mary Ann Meador and Robert Moore, Divisional Activities Committee (DAC). DAC is working on ways to help divisions by putting together a compilation of “Best Practices”. As a starting place, Innovative Program Grant (IPG) reports will be made available to divisions on the DAC website and as a poster at upcoming national meetings. Also, DAC is working with ACS membership and publicity staff on a number of initiatives to help divisions recruit new members.

Membership Committee Report

See presentation

The Division continues to offer free POLY membership to new members or if you have not been a member for three years. Sign-up on-line at http://polyacs.net/Membership/memberapp.htm

While Division officers and the membership committee strive to recruit new members at the national meetings, there are plenty of other opportunities to recruit including regional and local section meetings or by holding a membership drive at your place of work. Anyone interested in running a membership drive for POLY, please contact Kevin Cavicchi (cavicchi@uakron.edu ) or Kathy Mitchem (kathyl@vt.edu ) to recieve a simple, easy to use, recruiting packet.

In Student Chapter news, the University of Florida’s POLY/PMSE Student Chapter recieved the Best POLY Chapter for their activities in 2015. In addition to community outreach and social events, two activities set them above the rest. The Chapter established a polymer symposium at the ACS Florida Annual Meeting and Exposition (FAME) and organizing the Soft Matter Applied Research and Technology Symposium (UF SMARTS) at the University of Florida. At the FAME symposium there were five faculty and six student presentations, and 26 student posters. The UF SMARTS symposia brought together approximatly 50 people from eight different divisions from across campus.

Special thanks to Sarah Orski (NIST) for organizing and reviewing annual student chapter reports and for taking the lead to oversee student chapters in 2016. If you have further questions about POLY/PMSE Student Chapters, please contact Sara at sara.orski@nist.gov .

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 2016 Ex-Com meeting. Any questions may be directed to Derek Patton, POLY Division Treasurer, derek.patton@usm.edu

POLY Finances Derek Patton, Treasurer
Treasurer report Derek Patton

2015 budget
Approved budget = $181,500, actual = $178,590
ACS National/Regional Meetings Approved = 140,500, Actual = 107,071
POLY Workshops
Publications Approved = 26,500 income, 20,600 expenses Actual = 28,570 income, 14,667 expenses

2016 Approved Budget
Membership allocations = $180,500
National Meeting = Income 64,500, expenses 166,000
Workshops = income 326,000, expenses 246,000
Administrative = 169,900
Publication/advertising = 20,500 income, 10,600 expenses
Committee Activities = 31,800 income, 50,600 expenses
Total budget—projected income: $624,300, expenses: $639,100
Shortfall this year of $14,800

Industrial Advisory Board Report

The Polymer Division Industrial Advisory Board (POLY IAB) remains focused on its core mission in 2016 aiming to further extend the industrial voice within the Division through activities focused on enhancing industrial programming and continuing support of various awards and educational initiatives.

2016 is a year of change for the IAB, starting off with a farewell to an important leader and visionary for the IAB in the past 5 years. After a successful campaign in 2015, Diana Gerbi (3M) was elected as the Vice Chair of POLY for 2016, and, hence, was released from her duties as IAB Co-chair to become fully integrated into the POLY leadership and the multi-year POLY Chair progression. On behalf of the entire IAB, we congratulate Diana and wish her great success in the near and distant future! In light of this election, Travis Baughman (DSM Engineering Plastics) has been appointed Chairman of the IAB, and Michael Hunt (Polymaterials) has been appointed as Vice Chairman of the IAB.

In recent years, the IAB has been very focused on growing programming activities and continuing support of industrial speakers and organizers, while maintaining our support of running educational and award initiatives. With the well-established Industrial Innovations in Polymer Chemistry (IIPC), now in planning for the sixth iteration, we have our signature symposium well-rooted in the POLY Programming slate. Additionally, we continue to seek out crossdivisional co-sponsorships to bring multidisciplinary research talks to the forefront while furthering our impact in the overall ACS. With a well-established link to the ACS Inorganic Division (INOR) via Nora Radu (DuPont) and Laura Stratton (Polymer Chemistry Innovations), we will continue to explore the interface of inorganic and polymer chemistry with two symposia in Philadelphia, while we continue cultivating new relationships with other divisions for future symposia. Keep an eye out for new collaborations in the POLY programming for San Francisco and beyond!

Finally, we would like to close our contribution with a big congratulations to some of our recent award winners. Joel Oxman (3M) has been awarded the 2016 Industrial Polymer Scientist Award for his outstanding contributions in the field of photopolymerizations and photopolymers. This award will be recognized in Philadelphia with a symposium to be concluded with a contribution from Dr. Oxman. We are looking forward to a great symposium! Additionally, the IAB has continually supported graduate student travel to national meetings, and we would like to congratulate Mr. Baraka Lwoya (Tulane University) and Mr. Jeff Lopez (Stanford University) for winning support to San Diego. The deadline for future Travel Awards are spring and fall prior to each ACS meeting. For specific dates and information visit:

http//www.polyacs.org/649.html/

We are always interested in new ways to serve the POLY industrial community and welcome your suggestions and attendance during the ACS meetings at our Monday evening networking event or Tuesday morning board meeting. For more information regarding this thriving program, contact Chair: Travis Baughman (DSM Engineering Plastics, travis.baughman@dsm.com ) or Vice-Chair, Michael Hunt (Polymaterials, m.hunt@polymaterials.de ).