POLY - Council and Committee Reports

2016 Committee Reports:
2016 Fall ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia, August 21-25, 2016

POLY – Councilor’s Report

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

The ACS Council in its August Meeting in Philadelphia took the following actions: elected representatives to the Council Policy Committee (CPC), Nominations and Elections (N&E), and Committee on Committees (ConC). Council voted to continue two other Committees and change two Local Section Territories. Unemployed dues waivers extended to three years and an update on the Chemists Code of Conduct was made. A special discussion on US employment of chemists occurred. All four POLY Councilors attended and their participation in committees is noted below. Budget and Finance projected a net for 2016 for operations of $17.3 million and a total of about 12,800 people attended the Philadelphia meeting.

Frank Blum, Council Policy Committee (CPC). CPC presented Bylaws changes for consideration to remove Councilors and Division Officers for cause. A Task Force was formed to examine how to streamline ACS governance and I have been appointed to it. Of particular concern is the underrepresentation of Division Councilors in the ACS Council. (fblum@okstate.edu)

John Pochan, Meetings and Exposition (M&E). ACS was awarded the 2016 UFI (The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry) Sustainable Development Award for the “Best actions to engage participants around sustainability”. ACS was recognized internationally through our attendee initiatives that spread knowledge, enhance attendee experience, and education and inspire participants on sustainability both at the event and beyond.

After comparing the financial implications between Philadelphia and Denver for the 2024 Fall National Meeting, the Committee on M&E has selected Denver to host the 268th ACS National Meeting on August 18 – 22, 2024. M&E asked the ACS Board of Directors for approval.

I am on a study group (along with the DAC chair and members of M&E and DAC) tasked with looking at ways to enhance the National meeting. One of the many topics we are addressing is: ‘Should Thursday program be eliminated?’. If you have any thoughts on this topic, please contact me (JohnPochan@hotmail.com).

Mary Ann Meador, Divisional Activities Committee (DAC). Diane Grob-Schmidt presented POLY with a certificate thanking us for participation in Presidential Programming during her term. The Awards committee is asking for help from divisions and members to increase the number of nominations of women and industrial members for ACS Awards. Both of these groups make up a large portion of ACS members but are under-represented as ACS Award recipients (or even nominees!)

DAC received proposals for two new divisions: Materials Chemistry Division and Space Chemistry Division. Surveys will be sent out to divisions for their input on this topic. If accepted, the divisions will be in probationary status until reaching certain membership and other milestones. Opinions concerning these proposed divisions can be sent to maryann.meador@nasa.gov.

Robert Moore, Divisional Activities Committee (DAC). The new ACS website now includes a top center box directing visitors to the technical divisions. Marketing of divisions and divisional activities has new leadership with Tessa Kyriakopoulos. The ACS database of membership records is now available to divisions, including the demographics of those not renewing their annual memberships. (rbmoore3@vt.edu)

Membership Committee Report

Membership in the division is central to the well-being of POLY. The August 2016 membership numbers increased (5%) compared to the previous year for the first time since 2011. This can be attributed to a number of factors including robust programming at the National Meetings, vibrant offering of POLY workshops, and the new membership drive offering free POLY membership to new or returning members with a three or more year lapse in membership. To expand our membership drive we are initiating a new program to reach to ACS local sections through an innovative projects grant sponsored by the ACS. The goal of this grant is to recruit new members to the POLY division by sponsoring local sections and running a recruitment drive. Any POLY members active in local sections with interest in this activity should contact Kevin Cavicchi (cavicchi@uakron.edu).

In student chapter news, POLY is happy to welcome Virgina Tech as the newest POLY/PMSE student chapter. With the long connection to the University, we look forward to great things from this new chapter. Once again, student chapter funding will be conducted through the submission of annual student chapter reports, which will be due on February 6th, 2017. More information will be announced on the POLY and PMSE web-pages and sent to the student chapter presidents and faculty advisors. Any questions about the POLY/PMSE student chapter program should be directed to Sara Orski at sara.orski@nist.gov

View presentation from the Fall 2016 meeting

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.

The table below is a summary of 2015 activity, 2016 approved budget, and the 2016 income and expenditure as of July 31, 2016. POLY is a non-profit organization. In review of the past 10 years, POLY’s cumulative revenues have exceeded expenses by $1,000, showing ExComm.’s commitment to membership programs and benefits. As of January 1, 2016, POLY had $936,021 in investments. Investment funding continues to support unfunded awards, workshops, and other programs as need arises. The POLY Executive Committee continues to strive to conservatively utilize investment funding while maintaining a secure division.

Any questions or requests for funding may be directed to the POLY Division Treasurer, Derek Patton, derek.patton@usm.edu . All annual requests for funding from committees chairs and organizers should be submitted to the Treasurer by December 1, 2016 and will be reviewed for consideration at the winter POLY Executive Committee Meeting on January 21, 2017.

Report 2016FL Treasurer

Industrial Advisory Board Report

The Polymer Division Industrial Advisory Board (POLY IAB) remains focused on its core mission 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.

Just after the Spring ACS meeting in San Diego, CA the IAB leadership and selected members met to finalize a 3 year strategic plan that has since been approved by membership and accepted by the POLY ExComm. The strategic plan outlined the focus of the IAB for the coming three years including maintenance of all currently supported initiatives and how we plan to engage the community at the coming three years of ACS meetings and other activities. Additionally, this group was able to finalize the structure and process for the inaugural Young Industrial Polymer Scientist (YIPS) Award to be presented at the Fall 2017 ACS meeting in Washington, D.C. We are excited to announce the nomination process for the inaugural YIPS award with a deadline of October 31, 2016 (even years).

Recently, the IAB has been focused on expanding the impact of our signature symposium series, the Industrial Innovation in Polymer Chemistry (IIPC), by engaging related technical divisions to co-program, thereby, engaging larger, more fringe polymer audiences, while focusing on synergistic technological advancements between the two areas of interest. Recently, the Division of Inorganic Chemistry has collaborated with us by successfully executing three co-programmed symposia with one symposium in San Diego in the spring and, most recently, two half-day symposia in Philadelphia, PA. We plan to continue this effort by collaborating with PMSE for the “Industrial Innovations in Polymer Science: Advanced Materials, Processes & Technologies” symposium in San Francisco, CA next spring. As we look forward to the upcoming meetings, we will continue to seek links to other technical divisions that also align well with the ACS meeting themes.

During the fall ACS Meeting, POLY IAB supported the 2016 Industrial Polymer Scientist Award presented to Joel Oxman (3M), for his outstanding contributions in the field of photopolymerizations and photopolymers and the Graduate Student Travel Awards. Congratulations to Azadeh Farahanchi (University of Massachusetts Lowell) and Joey Kim (Caltech). The deadline for future Travel Awards are spring and fall prior to each ACS meeting.

Finally, we would like to report that our Innovative Project Grant (IPG) activities have been completed as of this August. Proposed as a way to link our POLY IAB initiatives to the greater ACS and local sections, we feel we succeeded in both of these objectives by co-hosting two networking events at the San Diego and Philadelphia ACS meetings. The ACS level collaboration was hosted in San Diego during our traditional Monday evening networking slot. This event was nicely attended and included a visit from Diane Grob Schmidt, current President of the ACS. For Philadelphia, we hosted a Sunday networking event focused on bringing POLY IAB members together with local ACS section members and local chemical industry representatives. This was a more informal event aimed at making personal connections between organizations while lending a hand to colleagues affected by recent changes in local industry.

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 ).