POLY – Councilor’s Report Denver 2011
Frank Blum, H. N. Cheng, Bill Daly, John Pochan
At the Denver National Meeting (August 28-September 1, 2011), POLY was represented at the ACS Council by Bill Daly, H. N. Cheng, John Pochan, and Frank Blum. The following account summarizes some selected activities in the committees and groups that POLY Councilors are involved in.
General Topics:
1. Despite the challenging economy and continued high unemployment, the Society’s overall membership number remains stable at near 163,000. The number of new undergraduate student members is growing rapidly, and as of July 31 the total stands at 15,702.
2. The special discussion topic during the Council meeting was chemical safety, particularly in US universities and colleges. Many suggestions were made by councilors.
3. The Council voted to grant full division status to the previously probationary Division of Catalysis Science and Technology, and to approve the proposed bylaws of this division. The Council voted 53% - 47% to dissolve the Division of Petroleum Chemistry and to combine its assets and members with those of the Division of Fuel Chemistry under the new name of the Division of Energy and Fuels, effective December 31, 2011.
4. The Council voted to approve the Petition on Position Statements, which specifies that the ACS Board of Directors has sole authority in issuing position statements that establish policy for the full Society. An ACS body other than the Board may issue statements on issues that fall solely in its jurisdiction so long as it does not impair other Society bodies’ ability to do the same.
Committee on Committees (H. N. Cheng)
The Committee on Committees (ConC) is responsible for the effective and efficient operation of Council-related committees. In addition to regular reviews of committees, ConC handles several specific tasks in Denver, e.g.,
1. A reimbursement policy for non-councilors participating in committees was presented to the Committee on Budget and Finance and later approved by the Board. Starting in 2012, non-councilors serving in committees will be reimbursed at the rate of 50% of the Councilor travel reimbursement.
2. ConC gave its support, in principle, to convert the Senior Chemists Task Force to a committee; a number of documents are needed to move forward on this issue. The Tuesday Senior Chemists breakfast meeting (with Bassam Shakhashiri as speaker) was sold out.
Meetings and Expositions Committee (M&E) (Bill Daly)
Attendance in Denver was 10019 and only 7295 papers and posters were presented. Over 90 % of the technical sessions were held in the convention center; POLY and PMSE were co-located in a hotel. In contrast, the Anaheim meeting was more successful from the point of view of attendance (over 14,151) and programming (9411 papers and posters). The reviews on the Anaheim meeting were excellent: the site has clearly become more acceptable to the attendees.
The negative revenue from National meeting is a critical issue; ACS lost money on both the Anaheim and Denver meetings. A task force charged with reevaluating the method for calculating meeting registration fees has been formed. The early registration fees for 2012 have already been set at $355.
An on-line digital program was available for the first time in Denver
(see http://denver2011onsite.acs.org/issue/39507). A PDF version of the program or selected sections could be downloaded easily. The existence of an electronic program should reduce the need for printed programs at National meetings.
Divisional Activities Committee (DAC) (John Pochan)
DAC approved 10 Innovative Project Grant (IPG) proposals totaling $69,475. DAC will alert all divisions that submitted a proposal as to their outcomes shortly after this national meeting concludes. The committee will consider another set of IPG proposals at the 2012 San Diego Spring National Meeting.
To have your division’s proposal considered by DAC in San Diego, please be sure to submit it no later than February 1, 2012.
Operating as a DAC subcommittee, the Multidisciplinary Program Planning Group, in concert with ACS divisions, has selected the following themes for upcoming national meetings:
For the Spring 2012 meeting in San Diego: Chemistry of Life.
For the Fall 2012 meeting in Philadelphia: Materials for Health and Medicine.
For the Spring 2013 meeting in New Orleans: Chemistry of Energy and Food.
For the Fall 2013 meeting in Indianapolis: Chemistry in Motion.
DAC was updated by staff on the new software program, known as FORMS, that divisions are required to use to submit their annual administration and financial reports. DAC was pleased to learn that a number of improvements to the program have already been made, and those still to be implemented before year-end are on schedule.
Electronic Distribution of Meeting Content Task Force (EDMC) (Bill Daly)
At the Denver meeting approximately 550 presentations were recorded. Authors of about 65% of the papers designated for recording agreed to allow their talks to be posted. In addition to the thematic programming sessions, 32 divisions and committees provided content for recordings. The recorded talks including those from Anaheim are currently available at www.acs.org/meetingcontent [the content for the Denver meeting will only be available to non-conference attendees as of October 3, 2011]. The search for an editor to supervise the EDMC project is underway.
Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs (CEPA) (H. N. Cheng)
Cheng serves as ConC liaison to this committee. CEPA deals with employment, career development, salary surveys, and public policy involving workforce issues.
1. At Denver the first ever fully integrated onsite and virtual career fair took place. It offered job seekers and virtual participants via webcam the opportunity to interact with each other and to connect with prospective employers and programs to sharpen their career skills.
2. CEPA and Corporation Associates co-sponsored a new program funding request to establish an entrepreneurial initiative, which would implement two of the four recommendations made by the ACS Presidential Task Force on Innovation and Job Creation. They relate to an educational program for beginning entrepreneurs and access to resources that are useful in the formation of new chemical companies.
3. Because networking is especially important in a down economy, CEPA and ACS Career Services co-sponsored the largest networking event in ACS history. The ACS Global Networking Reception allowed Denver attendees and others to attend a seminar entitled “Networking 101 – Making Your Contacts Count” and then practice networking with local sections, student chapters, and individuals.
4. In the “Paying It Forward” campaign ACS members are encouraged to help unemployed members. More information has been given in President Nancy Jackson’s Comments in the August 8 issue of C&EN.
Oversight Committee for ACS Fellows (Frank D. Blum)
Blum serves as a member of the Oversight Committee for the ACS Fellows Program. This year 213 ACS Members were named as Fellows who were honored at a ceremony at the Denver ACS Meeting. To date there are 568 ACS Fellows.
Nominations can be submitted by ACS National Committees, Technical Divisions, Local Sections and individual members. The window for submitting nominations for 2012 ACS Fellows will open towards the end of the first quarter of 2012. | 
