POLY Councilors' Report of the Salt Lake City Meeting

At the Salt Lake City National Meeting (March 21-26, 2009), POLY was represented at the ACS Council by Bill Daly, H. N. Cheng, and John Pochan. The following account summarizes some selected activities in the committees and groups that POLY Councilors are involved in.

Division Activities Committee (DAC) - John Pochan

DAC discussed electronic dissemination of national meeting programs with a representative of Content Management Corporation, the company that is disseminating some of the SLC meeting (see below). Questions concerning costs, fees, clearance, publication rules and a general roll-out of a plan to cover an entire national meeting were discussed. DAC has formed a committee (Pochan being a member) to produce a white paper and a proposed business model for the endeavor. Once DAC has vetted the proposal it will be distributed to the Divisions for approval or change. DAC also discussed augmenting the Division allocation formula to provide allocation additions for participation in regional meetings.

Multidisciplinary Program Planning Group (MPPG) - John Pochan

Future themes have been vetted for the 2011 national meeting and confirmed. These are: Chemistry of Natural Resources for Anaheim (spring 2011) and Chemistry of Air, Space and Water for Denver (fall 2001). The themes for the remainder of 2009 and 2010 are as follows: Washington (fall 2009) - Chemistry and Global Security: Challenges and Opportunities, Sadiq Shah, thematic chair; San Francisco (spring 2010) - Chemistry for a Sustainable World, Laura Pence, thematic chair; Boston (Fall 2010) - Chemistry for Preventing and Combating Disease, John Finley, thematic co-chair. The organization structure of MPPG has been changed in order to facilitate division input and operations - see the MPPG website under the DAC banner.

Committee on Meetings & Expositions (M&E) - Bill Daly and H. N. Cheng

The Meetings and Exposition Committee held a successful pilot program to open the 2009 expositions on Sunday evening between 6:30-8:30 PM with a welcome reception and open show hours. The show seemed to be well attended. Many people shuttled back and forth between the exhibits and the Sunday poster session, which took place at the other end of the Convention Center. The Salt Lake City meeting attracted 10,668 attendees. The exhibits continued to do well. Throughout the years, the exhibits have steadily increased in booth sales and in revenue. In Salt Lake City, the booth sales was lower, perhaps a result of the location and poor national economy. The overall meeting finances are a concern as the last two meetings have not contributed to the Society revenue.

The first experiment with electronic dissemination of programming makes the plenary lecture of the Nanoscience Symposium available to members on-line. Check the ACS web page for Angela Belcher's keynote address as well the lectures presented in the Plenary Session on Nanoscience, Challenges for the Future. The impact of electronic dissemination of presentations both as a benefit to the members as well as the change in meeting attendance was discussed extensively.

The meeting in Philadelphia received very favorable reviews. In the post-conference survey, 89% of the respondents recommended Philadelphia for future ACS National Meetings. This positive response was tempered by the high labor cost at Philadelphia. We are scheduled to return to Philadelphia in Fall 2016.

M&E is continuing is its efforts to bolster the regional meetings. There are currently 10 regions. The attendance at each regional meeting is typically 600-800. At POLY, Warren Ford is in charge of liaison with the regional meetings on polymer-related programming.

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

At this meeting, ConC carried out a mini-review of committees. A joint Board-ConC Action Enablement Team has completed its task to examine the reporting alignment of ACS Council-related committees and recommend changes in their categorization. At Salt Lake City, ConC has initiated the formation of a Task Force on Senior Chemists. The purpose is to serve as a focal point for senior members, to organize talks, events and activities targeted for their interests, and to give these members a greater sense of inclusion in the ACS. Several members of POLY are involved, e.g., Eli Pearce as Task Force Chair, Bill Daly and Bob (Kodak) Moore as members, and H. N. Cheng as ConC liaison.

Committee on Nomenclature, Terminology, and Symbols (NTS) - H. N. Cheng

This committee strives to provide leadership in nomenclature and coordinate its work with other national and international organizations on nomenclature, particularly with respect to ACS publications. The new committee chair, Peter Rusch, is interested in interfacing with appropriate divisions and in organizing meaningful activities. For more information, visit their website at Poly councilors' report of the salt lake city meeting at the salt lake city national meeting (march 21-26, 2009), poly was represented at the acs council by bill daly, h. n. cheng, and john pochan. the following account summarizes some selected activit>http://membershierp.acs.org/N/NOME