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The following Committees submitted a written report.

Awards - T. J. Pacansky

Mark Polymer Chemistry Award (Fall 2005)
The Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award recognizes outstanding research and leadership in polymer science. The winner is Professor Donald R. Paul (University of Texas, Austin). The award will be presented at the 2005 Fall ACS Meeting. Previous recipients of this award include Paul J. Flory, Carl S. Marvel, Maurice L. Huggins, Herman F. Mark, John D. Ferry, Charles G. Overberger, Walter H. Stockmayer, Michael Swarc, E. J. Vandenberg, Harry R. Allcock, James E. McGrath, James Economy, Murray Goodman, Robert Grubbs, Henry K. Hall, Jr., Robert W. Lenz, Leo Mandelkern, Otto Vogl and William J. MacKnight. POLY sponsors the award.

Flory Education Award (Spring 2006)
The Paul J. Flory Polymer Education Award recognizes outstanding achievements by an individual or team in promoting undergraduate and/or graduate polymer education. The winner is Professor William J. MacKnight (University of Massachusetts, Amherst). The award will be presented at the 2006 Spring ACS meeting. Previous recipients of this award include Herman F. Mark, Carl S. Marvel, Paul J. Flory, Maurice Morton, Charles G. Overberger, George B. Butler, Eli M. Pearce, Leo Mandelkern, Eric Baer, Roger Porter, James E. Mark, U. W. Suter and the team of James E. McGrath, Thomas C. Ward and Garth L. Wilkes. POLY sponsors the award.

Actively Seeking Nominations for the Industrial Polymer Scientist Award for Fall 2006 and the Carl S. Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award for Spriing 2007

Industrial Polymer Scientist Award
The Industrial Polymer Scientist Award recognizes outstanding industrial innovation and creativity in the application of Polymer Science, conducted by individual scientists or research teams. The next award will be presented at the 2006 Fall ACS meeting. The deadline for nominations is November 1, 2005. Please refer to the Division website or a recent newsletter for the nomination requirements. Previous awardees have included W. H. Mandeville, S. R. Holmes-Farley, A. D. English, L. M. Robeson, Bill M. Culbertson and Craig J. Hawker. The Industrial Sponsors Group sponsors the award.

Carl S. Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award
The Carl S. Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award recognizes and encourages accomplishments and/or innovation of unusual merit in the field of basic or applied polymer science by younger scientists. The next award will be presented at the 2007 Spring ACS meeting. The deadline for nominations is July 1, 2006. Please refer to the Division website or a recent newsletter for the nomination requirements. Previous recipients of this award include Louis J. Fetters, Wayne L. Mattice, Edward L. Thomas, Garth L. Wilkes, Robert S. Langer, David A. Tirrell, Sukant Tripathy, Krizysztof Matyjaszewski, Bruce Novak, Joseph M. DeSimone, Craig J. Hawker and James L. Hedrick. POLY sponsors the award.

Business Office - N. Byerly

The Business Office assisted with five meetings and workshops during 2004 with another five scheduled in 2005. The total overhead received for 2004 was +$79K. A total overhead of $65K is anticipated for workshops in 2005.

The 2005 Spring issue of the Polymer Newsletter was mailed out to the membership in June. The next Newsletter is drafted and will be mailed out in October. Suggestions for changes and additional articles for the Fall issue can be accepted through September 6, 2005. Nine companies continue to advertise in the POLY Newsletter contributing +$9K to assist in defraying Newsletter costs. The election ballots will also be distributed to the membership with the Newsletter.

A total of 29 new members joined the Polymer Chemistry Division at the ACS meeting in San Diego, CA. The POLY membership booth will be set up near the POLY sessions in the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC.

The Business Office staff works closely with several committees of the Polymer Chemistry Division. Financial records are maintained on the Industrial Sponsors activities including invoicing companies as appropriate. Various mailings are sent out to these Sponsors throughout the year. An up-to-date mailing list is maintained on all libraries that subscribe to the Polymer Preprints. The Business Office continues to work with the membership with various mailings.

Circulation - F. Dammont

Vol. 46-2, Fall 2005

Upon publication, we have shipped the total of 240 copies of the PREPRINTS to all fully paid up and complimentary subscribers. This number indicated the loss of 106 subscriptions from the previous subscription year (346 in 2004,) co-inciding with the conversion from the print format.

We have no access to lists of individual libraries subscribing through wholesale agents to be able to establish a trend, except that the number of orders were significantly lower this year, but non renewals from direct subscribers indicated that we have lost most of our university library accounts. We have also lost foreign accounts from subscribers who, possibly, have limited access to scanning equipment, all despite the cheaper elimination of the $50.00 surcharge for foreign delivery. We have also, at the same time, vastly improved our delivery method: at a much lower cost for the Division, we now service all domestic addresses via USPS FIRST CLASS MAIL (many with the added Delivery Confirmation requests,) and all foreign addresses, by AIR MAIL delivery, assuring prompt delivery, before the scheduled meeting. Formerly, depending upon the destination, the books arrived 3 to 8 weeks after publication, missing the intended purpose of "preprints."

With the new format, we were also able to pack and expedite shipments to all library subscribers from the circulation office in Newark, thus eliminating all handling charges by the printers, improving efficiency and reducing costs.

Please be reminded, that to the best of our information, we are again behind in the registration of past and present issues at the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress. The circulation office expedites the materials and settles the fees of registration, but the accompanying required SE Forms must be completed and signed by either the editors or the Secretary of the Division.

Also, please be advised that with every delay, the need for both, scientific information and legal purposes, to convert all the rapidly deteriorating past issues, Vols. 1 through 40, to a durable format, becomes more and more urgent.

History - W. Val Metanomski

A COUPLE OF PAGES FROM POLY HISTORY

MEMBERSHIP SURVEY IN 1969

In light of the vastly expanded usage and understanding of polymers, the Executive Committee wanted to reexamine POLY's role and goals to ensure that POLY was responsive to the needs of present and future members. A specific question was raised about POLY's goal as stated in the Bylaws: "promote basic research". Some members questioned whether the charter on "basic" research should be expanded to include "applied" research. Another survey among the membership was authorized in 1968, and in 1969 the Membership Committee chair, Bill Culbertson, conducted the survey by using the earlier person-to-person approach via regional directors and their representatives. Altogether 695 members and 584 nonmembers responded.

Culbertson reported the following findings. On the question of direction and objectives, the respondents were divided. Of 695 members surveyed (ca. 20% of the total membership), 59% favored broadening the scope of POLY to include both basic and applied areas. Of the nonmembers, a higher proportion of respondents (ca. 65%) also favored a broadened scope. Many of the nonmembers were potential members of POLY.

The Executive Committee carefully considered the findings but did not change the wording of the charter. In subsequent years, as the sheer volume and depth of POLY technical programs expanded, the need to differentiate between basic and applied research disappeared.

CIRCULATION

Polymer Preprints was available not only to members but also to corporations and libraries. The price for institutional subscriptions was higher than that for members, and therefore, subscriptions represented a good revenue for POLY. Handling the subscription accounts was an important responsibility. Bill Cass, while serving as secretary, used to put the names of subscribers on addressograph plates, and with a home-made device, he hand cranked each addressograph plate to get the address of the subscriber. He also handled all the billing and mailing of Polymer Preprints to over 300 accounts. Managing the library subscriptions and circulation was another task that was taken off the secretary and delegated to someone else.

The position of circulation manager was advertised in the Newsletter, and Bob Saxon of American Cyanamid in Stamford, among others, applied and got the job. The fact that he lived nearby went in his favor. The selection of Saxon turned out to be a fortunate decision for POLY. Saxon held the position continuously for 10 years from 1970 to 1979. He faithfully expanded the circulation of Polymer Preprints, and year after year, good income poured into the POLY treasury. Interestingly, with exception of Hwa, who hired Saxon, practically no one knew him, because during the 10 years, he came to an ACS meeting only once. A frequent question asked at POLY board meeting was, "Who is this man Saxon?"

Upon the retirement of Bob Saxon, Fred Dammont assumed the position of circulation chair, a position his holds to this day. He is another mystery man, constantly moving ahead with quiet efficiency to maintain and increase library subscriptions. In 1984, Fred received the division Distinguished Service Award for his work.

Editor's Note: Fred is still at it, for 26 years and counting! In 1995, he received another well-deserved POLY Special Service Award as a recognition of outstanding contributions to the Division.

INTERSOCIETY POLYMER EDUCATION COUNCIL (IPEC) - F. Jones

IPEC (www.uwsp.edu/chemistry/ipec/home.htm) promotes and supports teaching about polymers and polymeric materials in the K-12 curricula. IPEC's programs have proven to be an excellent way to interest students at all grade and ability levels in polymers and, more broadly, in science and technology. Students' interest can be sparked because they are familiar with polymeric materials.

Most of IPEC's activity involves the Polymer Ambassadors. The Ambassadors (www.polymerambassadors.org) are about 18 talented and dedicated K-12 classroom teachers, located coast-to-coast. The Ambassadors conduct workshops at regional and national teachers' conventions, where they teach other teachers to use polymers in classroom instruction. Over 100 such workshops are presented to 3500 - 7500 teachers each year. Students also attend some workshops. These workshops are popular with teachers, who obtain practical and effective materials for use in their classes. Since the start of the program in 1992, well over 50,000 teachers attended these workshops. Snapshots from many of the workshops can be found at the Polymer Ambassadors website.

Polymer Ambassadors teach other teachers in workshops that range from one hour to two weeks. During 2004-05 over 140 workshops were presented; a few examples:
o "Science, literature and children," NSTA National Convention, Dallas, March, 2005.
o "Designer sneakers," 4-6 hour workshops presented to students and teachers in several WI schools, 2004-05.
o "Polymers: The neglected state of chemistry," Conference for Advancement of Science Teaching, Dallas, January, 2005.
o "Cars, polymers, and science labs," NSTA National Convention, Dallas, March, 2005.

Polymer Ambassadors have received numerous major awards including five Presidential Awards for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. They often serve as consultants and advisors (often without pay) for other organizations and companies who are mounting educational efforts.

The Polymer Ambassadors are extending their reach by using electronic media. About 50 practical lessons for Kindergarten through High School are now freely available to anyone on the World Wide Web. The Ambassadors website also has other examples of teaching materials developed by the Ambassadors.

Akron Partnership. In 2002, IPEC and the Polymer Ambassadors formed a partnership with the Akron Global Polymer Academy (AGPA), whose mission is to use synchronous and asynchronous distance learning to support K-12 science instruction. Ambassadors have played an important role in establishing the program, participating in teacher training workshops and developing new lessons, some with film clips. The popular "Designer Sneakers" workshop was developed by three Ambassadors, Mary Harris, Sandra Van Natta, and Suzanne Hall in four versions: short and long for teachers and for students. It can be found at www.polymerambassadors.org.

Chemical Laboratories with Video Enhancement (CLVE). Working with the Akron Global Polymer Academy in 2004 - 2005, four Ambassadors created web based laboratory experiments and movies for first year high school students. The movies generate interest, show procedure, and address safety issues but do not provide the results. The first three laboratories are "Density of Compact Disks," Making a Density Gradient Column," and "Making Charity Bracelets" (with thermoplastic elastomers). The movies can be viewed on the PA website (See above.). This project was partly funded by a grant from the SPE Foundation. More funds are needed to make more laboratories and movies.

"Polymer Science of Everyday Things" (PSOET) Workshop and Symposium, Philadelphia, August 21-22, 2004. As reported in March, the second PSOET workshop and symposium was highly successful. The workshops from PSOET-1 and PSOET-2 were video recorded, and plans are underway to distribute them as compact disks.

The Polymer Ambassadors have a new Chairperson. Sandra Van Natta accepted this responsibility in March, 2005. We thank the outgoing Chairperson, Joyce Brumberger, for her highly productive service. Joyce and previous Chairperson Lynn Higgins remain very active as Polymer Ambassadors, and their remarkable work is greatly appreciated.

IPEC also sponsors other workshops for teachers. For example, the fifth "DISCOVERY in Plastics Processing" was organized and taught by Prof. Eric Lokensgard at Eastern Michigan University July 24-29, 2005. Two Polymer Ambassadors, Lynn Higgins and Ron Case, attended to gain knowledge and to participate in the presentations. The course received highly positive reviews from all the teachers who attended, and Dr. Lokensgard was lauded for his dedication and masterful teaching. Financial support came from The University, IPEC, and two units of the Society of Plastics Engineers. IPEC was a prime mover in getting this successful series of workshops started and remains closely involved.

IPEC is a 501(c) not-for-profit corporation. IPEC supporting organizations are the American Chemistry Council/American Plastics Council and the American Chemical Society Divisions of Polymer Chemistry, Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering, and Rubber. Its Board of Directors comprises two voting representatives from each member organization. Organizations are encouraged to appoint additional Board representatives. IPEC runs on volunteer energy. Board members are not paid.

IPEC's core activities are constrained by a shortage of funds. The original idea was to pay expenses for Polymer Ambassadors for one training year and three active years. Now there is a growing pool of Emeritus Ambassadors have completed their three years but want to continue doing workshops and other IPEC activities. These master teachers are recognized to be among the finest in their profession. A priority goal for IPEC is to find sufficient funds to keep the Emeritus Ambassadors active.

Retaining member organizations is essential, and recruiting new member organizations is vitally important. Member funding is the flywheel that drives IPEC's ongoing core activities. Support of Polymer Ambassador travel expenses accounted for about 85% of IPEC's 2003 and 2004 budgets. The 2005 budget is similar. With more dues-paying members, the corps of Ambassadors could be enlarged and activity could be expanded. In addition, more member organizations would add more members to the IPEC board, increasing its capacity for new initiatives and fund-raising.

IPEC member organizations can be proud of what IPEC accomplishes and can look forward to more high-impact activities.

The next meeting of the IPEC Board of Directors will be at Washington in conjunction with the fall national meeting of the American Chemical Society. It will be Tuesday, August 30 from 9:30 AM to 3:00 p.m. at the Independence B Room of the Washington Grand Hyatt. As always, the meeting is open to all; representatives of member organizations are especially encouraged to attend.

IPEC Mission Statement

To significantly increase student interest and participation in science and technology subjects by incorporating the teaching of polymers and polymeric materials into K-12 curricula by utilizing the combined resources and infrastructures of the participating scientific societies.

Membership - A. Hopkins

The Membership Committee currently consists of the following members:

1. Andrew B. Donnalley (Exxon Mobil)
2. Alan R. Hopkins (The Aerospace Corporation)
3. Erica Martin (Rohm and Haas Co) - Member-at-Large
4. HN Cheng (Hercules) - Counselor
5. Janelle Ulik () - POLY secretary
6. Deanna L. Pickel, (Eastman Chemical)_Membership committee
7. Joe Pickel, (ORNL)_Membership committee
8. Frank Blum (UMR)_POLY web editor

Noteworthy events for the DC meeting:

1. POLY/PMSE hospitality suite - Tuesday night immediately following the poster session.

2. Board member recruitment at the POLY table - - please sign up to volunteer time with new potential members at the table

Introduction

We continue to make inroads on how to get new members involved with POLY. Progress has been made in continuing the 3R's in the Polymer Division's activities, particularly focusing on how POLY can engage more graduate and post-docs into the membership. This will be accomplished by actively recruiting new members at national meetings, retaining them by maximizing their benefits and finally recognizing their service and contributions to the division. Our current efforts under the three R's are:

1. Recruitment of new members:

a. Continue the "POLY/PMSE Hospitality Suite" as an approach to recruit new ACS members, especially graduate and post-docs. Also this is an opportunity to reach out to current members of the division.

b. With new display rack, we are able to get free ad space in polymer journals to recruit new POLY members.

c. We have successfully completed the polymer preprints cover for Spring and Fall 2005 (San Diego & DC meetings). We look forward to possible contributions to designing future POLY preprint covers.

d. Web membership: As of May 2005, the student job page was redone to include announcements pertinent to students such as deadlines, opportunities and award program announcements as well as messages highlighting the benefits of membership in the polymer division. In addition, the jobs page was modified so that membership in the polymer division is now a prerequisite to viewing the job opportunities. The jobs page has also been rearranged to separate academic and industrial jobs, while a new section for internships has been added. The jobs page is setup to utilize the login page of chemistry.org so that all members of the division may access the page. Although there have been a few complaints by person who are not members of the division, anecdotal evidence suggests that we have gained a few members by restricting the page. The student page and job portal is maintained by Deanna Pickel and questions or comments concerning its use are directed to her via a link at the bottom of each page.

In addition to the website we have looked to enhance exposure to graduate students of polymer science at the beginning of the graduate education. With the assistance of the business office, packets describing the purpose and benefits of the division were sent to major polymer schools to be distributed during their respective orientation sessions.

In the future we hope to increase the division's relevance with all current and prospective students of polymer science. Several ideas have been proposed to that end:

- Student page: Continue to update with relevant information that concern student activities. Include opportunity for feedback from students, in order to improve page contents. Follow up on idea to provide career related advice to students via "ask the scientist" section

- Jobs Page: Actively solicit job announcements from polymer industries so that page is of continuous benefit to members. Improve resume presentation to highlight potential member-candidates. Advertise benefit of posting resume on jobs site. Solicit advertisements for summer internship positions.

- Graduate student orientation packet: Solicit feedback from students and program administrators with regards to value of initial orientation packet. Improve content and distribution of packet for next year.

- Polymer student showcase: It has been proposed that a new benefit to POLY members who are looking for a job could be a Showcase program. The basic idea is that job candidates (POLY members) who are presenting at an ACS or POLY meeting could have their resumes and presentation times available to prospective employers as coordinated by the POLY membership division. We are currently looking into the feasibility of this program as well as interest of the various parties involved.

e. Sci-Mix poster session -POLY posters will be present at Sci-Mix. We are promoting networking among graduate/undergraduates.

f. POLY graduate welcoming package for new incoming students for fall 2005:

Schools on board with this program:

Case Western, Akron, UMASS, Virginia Tech, University of Southern Mississippi, University of Florida, University of Michigan

2. Retention of current members:

a. Letters to 1st, 2nd yr members each fall encouraging renewal of membership letters to 1st, 2nd yr members each fall encouraging renewal of their membership. The recent e-mail by Andrew B. Donnalley was noticed by Denise Creech, Director of ACS Membership Division, who forwarded it to John C. Katz, Assistant Director, Dept. of Technical Division Advancement. After receiving permission from the POLY Division, he distributed the e-mail to all 33 technical divisions as a best practice for membership retention efforts with his comments as to why the letter should be very successful.

b. Graduate Student focus: continue with Erica's travel award initiative. For Spring 2005 there will be two $500 awards to be awarded for travel to Atlanta to present a paper in a POLY symposium. Membership committee sent letters to key polymer faculty to promote this award.

3. Recognition of members:

1. Letters/web page listing/ recognition event/ POLY pins for 5, 10, 20, 30 anniversary members every spring - positive response.

2. There has been an extr

Poly List and WWW Pages - F. Blum

POLY LIST

There are about 1200 members on the POLY list. The volume of mail continues to be moderate and the number of complaints is low, almost negligible. I approve postings to the list. In the last year, we have not had any worms or true spam pass thought our filter.

World Wide Web (www)

The total number of hits on the old and new POLY pages is 303,000. We have had 2.5 years experience with the web pages at www.polyacs.org. It seems to have gone pretty well with this site. In August, we are averaging 775 (up by 100 over last year) visitors per day with 2100 page views.

The number of members who join the Division via the www and register for workshops continues to increase.

POLY LIST
There are about 1200 members on the POLY list. The volume of mail continues to be moderate and the number of complaints is low, almost negligible. I approve postings to the list. Things have gone pretty smoothly.

World Wide Web (www)
The total number of hits on the old and new POLY pages is 279,000. We have had 2 years experience with the web pages at www.polyacs.org. It seems to have gone pretty well with this site. In March, we are averaging 900 (up by 300 over last year) visitors per day with 2600 page views (up from 1800). It might be interesting to note that 48% of the traffic is direct, 15% from Google, 3% from polyacs.org, 3% from Yahoo, and 1% from ACS.

Since August 2004
Top 30

/index.html 33,723 /main/jobs.shtml 22,859 /main/preprintsonline.shtml 7,915 /main/polyspon.shtml 6,305 /main/natlmeet.shtml 5,586 /arcmeetings/ppfix.1205.shtml 4,824 /arcmeetings/fuelcell.205.shtml 4,709 /students/JobsHome.shtml 4,493 /arcmeetings/neworleans.899.html 4,155 /arcmeetings/boston.802.html 3,378 /nomcl/pmse.gpc.html 2,939

/main/othermeet.shtml 2,759 /arcmeetings/sanfrancisco.497.html 2,716 /addr/Garcia.shtml 2,711 /main/awards.shtml 2,588 /index.shtml 2,546 /arcmeetings/boston.898.html 2,458 /arcmeetings/polyolefins.902.shtml 2,433 /arcmeetings/sandiego305.shtml 2,369 /arcmeetings/polymedbio.605.shtml 2,328 /arcmeetings/photonics.605.shtml 2,218 /arcmeetings/chicago.801.html 2,200 /arcmeetings/dallas.398.html 2,054

I solicit your help. Please send me things electronically by e-mail for inclusion on the web pages.

I also request help in soliciting advertising for the web page. Now that the pages are on a commercial site, we have no restrictions as far as they are concerned. It seems logical to do this for the web pages, newsletter and Polymer Preprints, with a coordinated effort.

Figure - Visitors by month (note August 05 is an incomplete month).

Some casual information (over the last year)
o 151,000 came in directly to the site
o 38,219 came from google (many of these are googlebots)
o 9,304 came from yahoo

Polymer Preprints - R. Venumbaka

The DC issue of Polymer Preprints [46(2), 2005] is the end of the first year of publishing only a CD version in addition to posting the Preprints on the web. This issue contains the preprints from 8 Symposia plus General Papers for a total of 713 papers published on 1317 pages. It continues to be the goal of the editorial staff to elevate the stature of Preprints in the world of scientific publishing. The CD continues to evolve, incorporating new functionalities as technology advances including the ability to print all papers under a chosen symposium. We are continuing to add additional information of interest for POLY members to the CD version. The Division recognizes the importance of advertising to the future finances of the Preprints. It is our request that the division appoints a member to this role or negotiates additional resources to handle this essential task. Currently no one has volunteered or been assigned to coordinate this critical function resulting in the loss of potential income to the Division.

Texas State University-San Marcos will continue to sustain the in-kind support of the Polymer Preprints editorial functions. The Polymer Division's financial support of $ 20,000/yr for the editorial operation of preprints has remained consistent up to the fall 2004 issue. Due to the elimination of the print copy, the editorial costs (mailing and proofing) were reduced approximately $1,000 a year. Thus, we would like to request funding at the level of $19,000/year. The following table outlines the publication costs for Preprints:

                  New Orleans       New York        Anaheim     Philadelphia      San Diego   Washington       Atlanta

                                                                                                             (Estimate)       (Projected)

# of CDs                7,500             7,000             7,100                7,200             8,000             7,800          8,000

# of Books                750                700                700                   675                   0                   0                0

Preprints                   670                523                625                   452                480                713             500

Pages                      1304                990              1220                   899                868             1,317          1,000

Cost

Total for CDs     $35,327          $32,988          $31,010             $30,478          $32,409          $29,862       $30,000

Cost per CD           $4.71             $4.71             $4.37                $4.23             $4.05             $3.53          $3.58

Total for Books $30,590          $22,840          $26,451             $14,107                  $0                  $0               $0

Total Publishing $65,917          $55,828          $57,461             $44,585          $32,409          $29,862       $30,000

Cost

Editorial Cost     $10,000          $10,000          $10,000             $10,000            $9,500            $9,500         $9,500

TOTAL COST   $75,917          $65,828          $67,461             $54,585          $41,909          $39,362       $39,500

Public Relations - D. A. Schorzman

For the year 2005, the public relations committee consisted of Pete Broske (Agilent Technologies), Anil Mahapatro (Diagnostic Systems Laboratories), and myself (Bausch & Lomb) as Public Relations Chair.

Action items since the last meeting:

o The POLY discussion list was utilized for publicizing the following occurrences:
o Continued monthly announcements of upcoming POLY sponsored workshops and meetings
o Announcement of the selection of Prof. Edward Samulski as a Jefferson Science fellow
o Posters were provided for the Washington, DC national meeting publicizing the following:
o Atlanta 2006 graduate student travel awards
o Washington 2005 POLY Awards reception
o POLY member employment services advertisement (membership)
o Announcements were submitted to C&EN News to publicize the following:
o 2005 Herman F. Mark polymer chemistry award winner Prof. Donald Paul
o Announcement of the selection of Prof. Edward Samulski as a Jefferson science fellow
o Handout cards publicizing the POLY/PMSE hospitality suite were provided for Washington
o Slide show presentation was provided for the Washington POLY awards reception

The relatively inactive publicity committee of late is anxious to take a more prominent role in the POLY division. The team has the capability of taking on more responsibilities including new publicity methods as well as actions previously handled by individual committees within POLY. All POLY board members are encouraged to utilize the publicity team to the fullest extent.

As always, team Pub is anxious to explore and utilize new publicity mechanisms to increase POLY visibility. New ideas and/or suggestions will always be graciously accepted.

Regional Meetings - W. T. Ford

The Division of Polymer Chemistry (POLY) will provide up to $500 to support a well-planned regional meeting symposium. In turn POLY would like the opportunity to advertise its programs and recruit members at a table next to the room where the polymer chemistry sessions are held.

The criteria for POLY support are
1) There must be a full day symposium devoted to polymer chemistry.
2) The program should include one or more invited speakers.
3) To apply for support, the Program Chair or symposium organizer must send (a) a copy of the technical program to the POLY Committee on Polymer Programs at ACS Regional Meetings and (b) a budget showing how the funds will be used to defray registration fees and travel costs of invited speakers.

A reminder notice of the opportunity for POLY support was sent March 1, 2005 to the Program Chair and/or the General Chair of all 2005 and 2006 ACS regional meetings. The 2005 Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting (MARM) had an extensive polymer program. The 2005 Midwest Regional Meeting will have a one-day polymer symposium. The Midland Local Section has also requested support for a one-day meeting. Other regional meetings either did not request support or were not held in 2005. For 2006 the Middle Atlantic, Western, Great Lakes, Central, and Southeast regional meetings are planning polymer symposia.

Treasurer - R. B. Moore

The POLY Chair-Elect, Kathleen Havelka, has audited the accounting records of the Division of Polymer Chemistry and certified that the records are accurate and that expenses are in accord with the needs and goals of the Division. This report presented on this date at the Annual Business Meeting outlines the current status of the Division finances.

The table below outlines the status of the 2005 budget with respect to the current income and expenditures through July 2005 and is compared to the end-of-year figures for 2004.

*Total Budget reflects the balance for the entire budget (see attached) and not the sum of the highlighted categories in this report.

To date, the POLY finances are solidly in the black, and we look to be on track to have another very healthy year. Through the mid-year, our income has exceeded expenses by almost $122,000; however a significant number of expenses are anticipated through year's end. In comparison to this same time last year, our budget delta was almost $62,000. Given the variability with income cycles, the 2005 budget is right on track with that of the 2004 budget. Moreover, based on projected expenditures and income through the end of the year (and assuming all remaining workshops break even), a surplus exceeding that of FY2004 (i.e., $17,069) is anticipated. Based on these positive figures, we have recently transferred $15,000 from our operating account to our investments account; this completes the goal set in 2003 to transfer a total of $100,000 back to our reserves by the end of FY2005.

Following the success of FY2003 and FY 2004, we have continued to work under a tight and balanced operating budget for 2005. With the implementation of strict budgeting procedures for Workshops and outstanding efforts from our Workshop organizers, our Workshops have become very successful for the Division. This trend was significant in FY2004 and is continuing through 2004. A better than break-even mark for our remaining workshops in 2005 is expected, and this will further strengthen the financial stability of the Division.

Long Range Planning

Even in this variable economic environment, our conservative investments are yielding a modest growth rate of return. With the completed goal of repayment back to the Division reserves and the continued careful monitoring of our portfolio, our investment reserves are expected to remain healthy with a strong potential for growth. The treasurer's office will continue to analyze the operating budgets and procedures associated with the POLY Business Office and Polymer Preprints with the goal of minimizing expenditures and refining the operations while maintaining the efficiency and benefit of these extremely valuable activities. Plans are continuing for expansion in advertising and library subscriptions, and as such, the Preprints activities will move closer to a self-supporting operation. In addition, with the successful and accurate budgeting of our Workshops overhead costs, the Business Office is also moving closer to a self-supporting operation.

Beginning back in January of 2004, the Division has greatly benefited from an increase in ACS allotments. Additional increases are expected in each of the next few years. With these new financial parameters and careful attention to the divisional budget, the Division is poised for period of continued growth and the opportunity to convert these resources into new and valuable areas of benefit to our members.