2012 Committee Reports:
2012 Fall ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia, PA, August 19-23, 2012

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Councilor's Report

Treasurer's Report

POLY Councilors’ Report – ACS Philadelphia Meeting, August 2012

Frank Blum, H. N. Cheng, Bill Daly, John Pochan

At the Philadelphia National Meeting (August 19-23, 2012), 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: 

1.  The Philadelphia national meeting attracted 13,320 registrants, including 7,817 regular attendees and 3,177 students. 

2.  ACS membership exceeds 164,000 members.  The number of domestic regular members has declined somewhat but is more than offset by the increase in international regular members, and the addition of undergraduate student members.  

 
3.  The Council voted not to pass two amendments (petitions) to the ACS Constitution and Bylaws for action: The Petition on Candidate Comment in C&EN and the Petition on International Chemical Sciences Chapters Funds.   The first petition sought to restrict candidates for election to the Board of Directors from publishing comments in C&EN from May through the balloting period. The second petition sought to ascertain that the Board of Directors may grant funds to international chapters for specific purposes. 

4. The ACS Board of Directors approved an advance member registration fee of $370 for national meetings held in 2013. 

5.  As always, the Council recognized councilors with service anniversaries.  The councilors recognized included Frank Blum (25 years). 

Council Policy Committee (CPC) – Frank Blum

For the 2013-15 term, Blum was elected to the Council Policy Committee.  The CPC is responsible for the smooth operation of the ACS Council. 

Committee on Committees (ConC) – H. N. Cheng

The main purpose of ConC is to maintain a healthy committee system for all Council-related committees.  Cheng serves as an elected member.  In Philadelphia, potential appointments to committee were made.  In addition, ConC recommended the continuation of the Committees on Chemists with Disabilities and on Professional Training, and the Council concurred.
 
Division Activities Committee (DAC)  - John Pochan

The company that owned the application used by divisions and regional meetings to organize technical programs, which is known as PACS, was acquired by another company. The purchasing company, called Coe-Truman, alerted ACS staff that as of December 2014, it will no longer support PACS technology. ACS staff is working with DAC, M&E, and other governance entities to select a replacement system. DAC has reviewed staff’s preliminary plans, and is satisfied that ACS is leaving ample time to find and implement a new system. DAC will closely monitor this process to ensure the new system meets the needs of its many users.

Starting with the 2013 New Orleans National Meeting, ACS and the Kavli Foundation will launch a new lecture series recognizing outstanding young scientists. These new presentations – the second ACS lecture series sponsored by the Kavli Foundation – will acknowledge exceptional scientists under the age of 40. ACS has asked DAC to work with our divisions to nominate qualified candidates, and to have the Multidisciplinary Program Planning Group evaluate the nominations and select the scientist to deliver the lecture.  A call for nominations will be issued to the divisions in the very near future.

Meetings and Expositions (M & E) – Bill Daly

1. The committee is reviewing the status of meeting sites five years ahead of the event.  As a result of this review, the Fall 2017 ACS meeting originally scheduled for St. Louis has been moved to Washington DC.  The 2013 Fall meeting in Indianapolis is in an excellent venue; members are strongly encouraged to attend.

2. John Pochan and Bill Daly served on a working group to develop a policy to allow divisions to implement electronic programming to supplement the ongoing national ACS project on electronic distribution of meeting content (EDMC), which has been renamed ACS Programming on Demand (ACS-POD). Both DAC and M & E approved the proposed policy and it is under review by M & PR.  Allowing divisions to independently stream and/or record technical sessions presents a new opportunity to provide addition benefits to our members.

3. Program chairs will now be trained by a PACS webinar scheduled prior to program submission deadlines instead of at the leadership conference.

4. M & E will consider the feasibility of eliminating the printing of a hard copy meeting program.  Publication of an electronic program would allow the staff to move up the abstract submission deadlines to dates closer to the start of an ACS national meeting, significantly reduce the printing costs of the meeting, and enable the meeting to support the ACS sustainability initiative.

Budget and Finance (B&F) – Frank Blum

The ACS finances continue to be strong.  The year-end balance is expected to add to our reserves and be favorable to budget.  Several programs were reviewed for financial effectiveness.  The Leadscope lawsuit is yet to be resolved and currently sits with the Ohio Supreme Court. 

Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs (CEPA) – H. N. Cheng

Cheng serves as the ConC liaison to CEPA.  CEPA is the committee that deals with job search, career development, and workplace issues.  In view of high unemployment, CEPA is doing a lot trying to help.  The virtual career fair is an addition to the regular career fair that matches employers with potential employees.  The new ACS Career Pathways workshops are designed to make new graduates and displaced workers more aware of the variety of employment opportunities available.  At Philadelphia, CEPA unveiled six new four-hour Career Pathways workshops.  CEPA has trained more than 40 volunteer facilitators and the workshops are now available for regional meetings and local sections. 

Younger Chemists Committee (YCC) – Frank Blum

Blum serves as a consultant to YCC.  The YCC continues to be enthusiastic, diverse and hard working.  Networking is one of their strengths.  There are opportunities for YCC members, especially for those who are moving off of the Committee to become more involved with other parts of the Society, including divisions. 

Senior Chemists Task Force – H. N. Cheng, Bill Daly

For the past three years a Senior Chemists Task Force has been operating under ConC.  Cheng and Daly are among its members.  In Philadelphia, ConC recommended to the Council to establish a Joint Board-Council Committee on Senior Chemists.  The mission of the proposed Senior Chemists Committee is to encourage and enhance the participation of senior chemists in ACS and community activities, such as grades K-12 education, mentoring, and cultural exchange at home and abroad, to satisfy the needs of this growing segment of membership, and to recommend policies that address issues of interest to senior chemists.  The council voted to approve the committee formation.  The Board of Directors must vote next on whether to establish the committee.  

Presidential Task Force on Vision 2025 – H. N. Cheng

ACS President-Elect Marinda Wu established this task force with the goal of identifying challenges and opportunities related to the global chemistry enterprise, and providing recommendations to help members with jobs to thrive in the future.  Cheng serves as co-chair.  The task force has been working hard in collaboration with a number of committees and divisions.  A number of action items have been identified and will be implemented in 2013.

Treasurer's Report

Mark Dadmun

The table below outlines the summary and status of the 2012 budget with respect to the current income and expenditures through July 2012 and is compared to the end-of-year figures for 2011 and planned 2012 budget. We continue to balance the budget and ensure that the expenditures are within the allocated figures agreed upon at the last 2012 Ex-Com meeting. Any questions may be directed to Mark Dadmun, POLY Division Treasurer, dad@utk.edu.