POLY Councilors' Report - ACS Chicago Meeting, March 2007
Bill Daly, H.N. Cheng, John Pochan, Greg Tew
All four POLY councilors attended the ACS National Meeting in Chicago. The following account provides information of specific interest to the Polymer Division.
1. Highlight of Council Actions
Some selected items related to POLY are listed below. Additional information has been reported in Chem. & Eng. News, April 2, 2007, Volume 85, Number 14, p. 10.
a. The two candidates for ACS President-Elect in 2008 are Howard Peters and Tom Lane.
b. ACS closed 2006 with 160,491 members, the highest year-end membership since 2002.
c. The Council voted to continue the Committee on Science, the WCC and the YCC.
d. The Council voted to accept the petition on multiyear dues. Thus, a member can pay 2 or 3 years of dues at one time if they wish. Some logistics need to be worked out before this mode of payment becomes effective.
e. The Council voted to set the member dues for 2008 at $136. The dues will actually remain unchanged for the coming year because the $4 increased was balanced by the expiration of a $4 surcharge imposed in 2003 to cover the costs of the higher division allotments
2. Meeting of the Division Activities Committee (DAC) - John Pochan
a. DAC Innovation Award - these awards are, at present, undersubscribed. We should consider all possibilities (meetings, websites, and new activities) and apply. The deadline will be 7/1/07. Bill Daly noted at the ExCom meeting that we need to let them know what has happened with the first award.
b. National Programming Committee/Thematic programming meeting. The meeting was attended by ~20 divisions and representatives from DAC and other ACS committees. There were two objectives; i). Determine what the new committee should be and how it would operate and ii) Determine some possible themes for the Philadelphia meeting. There were many ideas provided for item i during a brainstorming session. No definitive decisions were made for the organization of the committee. It was decide to have a meeting in Boston with all division representatives to discuss probable structures and operational guidelines and formalize a working 'test' structure.
Many themes were suggested for Philadelphia. Pharmaceutical industry and chemistry history and evolution were two that sounded promising. The DAC will work on the Philadelphia theme with the formed committee expected to work on future thematic activities.
c. Posters on-line. All poster presenters are being asked to download their posters so that all attendees at the meeting will be able to log on to www.posters2view.com/chem and observe them for the next three months. You will also be able to send queries to the presenter during this period. Note: You will need the number off of your registration badge for this meeting as the way to log in. DO not throw it away, or keep a record of the number.
d. DAC and M&E are looking for people to organize all or parts of the "Energy and the Environment" theme at New Orleans. If you know of anyone who could help, or might be willing to help, please let John know.
3. Meeting of the Committee on Committees (ConC) - H.N. Cheng
a. ConC monitors the activities of committees and provides recommendations on committee assignments.
b. 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).
c. ConC is interested in increasing the participation of industrial scientists in ACS governance. If you know of industrial colleagues who are interested in getting involved, please send HN an email, indicating names, areas of interest, and contact information (phone numbers and email addresses).
4. Meeting of the Committee on Meetings and Expositions (M&E) - Bill Daly and H.N. Cheng
a. The issue of no-shows at poster sessions at national meetings is becoming a problem. M&E will be taking names of these no-shows and forward them to the Divisions. We agreed in the ExCom meeting to send each first-time offender a warning letter, and then exclude future poster submissions for repeat offenders.
b. The possibility of removing no-show papers from the CAS database is under serious consideration.
c. Joint ACS/AIChE programming is being planned for the New Orleans meeting (April 6-10, 2008). We can take advantage of this joint meeting to organize symposia or other events that are of interest to polymer engineers. Registration at either meeting will allow registrants to attend all the sessions at either meeting. One joint "showcase" session with plenary level speakers is being planned.
d. A proposal was made to divide cosponsorship of symposium into two categories: Level 1 for nominal cosponsorship without financial or organizational involvement, and Level 2 for collaborative efforts (with financial commitment). The level of cosponsorship will determine the session attendance credit each division will receive and ultimately the extent of division funding for their programming efforts.
e. M&E is also looking at the possibility on the OASys for one division to view the programs of other divisions in order to facilitate thematic programming.
f. A project entitled "Greening ACS meetings" is underway. Participants will be encouraged to maintain an attitude of sustainability both in the planning and execution of meeting events.
g. The site selection subcommittee has added St. Louis to the list of cities suitable for one of our meetings. The Council voted to hold our Fall 2017 meeting in St. Louis.
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.
b. POLY has a nomenclature committee, which is currently inactive. (In the past Val Metanomski and Ted Wilks were involved.) If there is interest, NOM will be glad to interact with the POLY nomenclature committee.
6. Other Items of Interest
a. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Chemical Abstracts Service and the 80th anniversary of WCC.
b. The Membership Affairs Committee (MAC) proposes a new categorization of ACS membership. They propose three types only: regular member, student member, and society affiliate. This proposal will be voted on in the Boston meeting.
