POLY Councilors' Report – ACS New Orleans Meeting, April 2008

 

Three POLY councilors attended the ACS National Meeting in New Orleans (Bill Daly, H. N. Cheng, and John Pochan).  In addition, Greg Tew (alternate councilor) attended the meeting in place of Theresa Reineke who could not attend.   The following account provides information of specific interest to the Polymer Division.

 

1.  Selected Council Actions (Other actions have been published in C&EN, 4/14/08, p.8)

1. The Council selected Joseph S. Francisco and Josef Michl as candidates for 2009 President-Elect. 
2. The Council voted to set the member dues for 2009 at the fully escalated rate of $140. This rate is established pursuant to an inflation-adjustment formula in the ACS Constitution and Bylaws.
3. At the close of 2007, Society membership totaled 160,052, despite a net loss of 439 members at the end of the year. 
4. The Council voted to approve the Academic Professional Guidelines as submitted by the Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs.  These guidelines apply to those members of the academic community whose job function impacts directly or indirectly on scientists practicing the profession of chemistry.

 

2.  Meeting of the Division Activities Committee (DAC) - John Pochan

1. DAC considered a petition for division status by the Catalyst Secretariat. This petition will be voted on in Council if certain objections by other divisions are overcome. 
2. The Multidisciplinary Programming Planning Group (MPPG) elected John Pochan as the group chair for 2008 and Mike Morello the group chair for 2009.  Thematic programs for 2010 National Meetings were proposed and sent to ACS Divisions for comment. The proposed themes are:

San Francisco – Green Chemistry for a Sustainable World

Boston – Chemistry of Mediation and Prevention of Disease.

3. MPPG accepted a further charter from the ACS to develop creative methods for improving the quality and effectiveness of national meetings, through enhancing the exchange of technical information between participants and enabling more effective networking opportunities. This charter could lead to unique programming opportunities such as combined oral/poster sessions, intersocietal meetings, etc.   If you have ideas, please get them to Pochan (johnpochan@hotmail.com) or Morello (mike_morello@quakeroats.com).

 

3.  Meeting of the Committee on Committees (ConC) – H.N. Cheng

a.  ConC monitors the activities of ACS committees and provides recommendations on committee assignments.  HN is now serving as ConC liaison to the Committee on Meetings and Expositions (M&E) and the Committee on Nomenclature, Terminology, and Symbols (NOM).

b.  At this meeting ConC met with the Board of Directors to discuss the overall enhancement of ACS committees and also possibly to reclassify all Board committees as either Standing or Special Committees.

 

4.  Meeting of the Committee on Meetings and Expositions (M&E) – Bill Daly and H.N. Cheng

a.  To facilitate communication and feedback, M&E has decided to conduct a survey on a statistical sample of attendees after every national meeting to assess satisfaction and uncover possible problems. 

b.  M&E is making an effort to make the meetings more "green."   It is working with ENVR, and a subcommittee has been asked to spearhead the efforts in this area. 

c.  M&E and technical divisions have all noticed a disturbing trend of decreasing attendance on Thursday.  A proposal has been made to exempt Thursday afternoon from even programming.

d.   M&E continues to be concerned with the number of "no-shows" at both oral and poster sessions.  The instruction to authors on OASys has been altered to emphasize the consequences of failing to present the paper.  Authors who violate the guidelines repeatedly will be subject to penalties including possible rejection of future submissions.

 

5.  Meeting of the Committee on Nomenclature, Terminology and Symbols (NOM) – H.N.Cheng

a.  This committee provides advice and consulting to ACS publications on nomenclature, serves as liaisons to other organizations related to nomenclature, and coordinates activities of divisions dealing with these issues.  Many activities are given in their web site:  http://membership.acs.org/N/NOME/

b.  NOM organized a symposium in New Orleans on the possible redefinition of Avogadro's number.   Another symposium will be organized in 2009 on the use of Wiki for nanotech.