Orlando Committee Reports

I am pleased to be writing my first secretaries report. With Mary Baker in Cairo, I had to hit the ground running for the Winter ExComm and Spring National meetings. It was exciting, but Mary was able to provide long distance assistance and things ran quite smoothly. I am also pleased to welcome Valerie Sheares of Iowa State University as the Assistant Secretary. Valerie will also act as Arrangements Chair, assisting the Secretary in setting up for POLY functions at future ACS National meetings. Among other transitions, I have moved from Howard University to the Naval Research Laboratory. I can be reached there at (202)-404-6034 or Steven.Pollack@nrl.navy.mil. I am hoping to revamp the look of the newsletter for next year, so your input as to what you want to see, layout and other editorial issues is most welcome.

The Orlando issue of Polymer Preprints marked the beginning of our second year of publishing both a CD and Print version in addition to posting the Preprints on the WWW. The Orlando Polymer Preprints contained preprints from 5 Symposia, 3 Award Symposia and General Papers for a total of 464 papers presented with 412 Preprints published. (ACS Award Symposia do not require preprints.)

Boston Overview: The deadline for submission of Preprints for the Boston Meeting was April 17th. The Boston Polymer Preprints will contain preprints from 6 Symposia, 1 Award Symposium and General Papers. To date, we have received over 700 preprints and it is anticipated that the Boston Preprints will set a record for the number of Preprints published. This means we will be pushing the capacity limits of the CD Rom, and with this in mind, it was necessary to set a file size limit of 1 MB for all Preprints. The editors want to thank all the authors for diligently preparing their preprints and keeping within the size and editorial guidelines.

Financial Status: As can be seen from the Table below, the overall cost of delivering Preprints continues to fall. We are experiencing significant savings in the cost of delivering the CD version due to the fact that we continue to streamline the process and move some of the production steps from Mira to the Preprints editorial staff. We continue to invest in improvements to the functionality of the CD and some of these costs have been/are "one-time" expenses. The Print Version of Polymer Preprints remains very expensive and is expected to rise. Printing and postage are the major cost items and these are generally not under our control. The per book charge for the spring issue was approximately $19.00 and it is anticipated that the Fall issue will approach $25.00. These costs are less than the corresponding 2001 issues. Currently fewer than 250 members subscribe to the Print version and approximately 50 more purchase or order with new membership the Print version at the Division booth. At $50.00 per year we are covering the direct costs of producing and mailing the Print Copy.

Southwest Texas State University has increased its commitment to provide office and infrastructure support at no cost to the Division. In 2002 SWT has agreed to staff the Preprints office with one full and one part-time senior editorial administrator; the editors serve at no salary.

It is a goal of the Editors to elevate the stature of Preprints in the world of scientific publishing. Pursuant to this goal we are striving for a uniform look and consistent formatting (Macromolecules format) of each and every preprint. We endeavor to make Polymer Preprints the benchmark for scientific publications of its type. We can improve only with your help. Your input and suggestions for improvements to both the CD and Print copies is earnestly solicited.

At the beginning of 2002, the Division is trying new things and at the same time trying to get the budget in line. POLY ran a deficit last in 2001 due to many factors, preprints and workshops being the largest. In the past, our investment income would have been sufficient to offset the over-ride. On the budget side, POLY is working to reduce the cost of electronic preprints, increase income from workshops, and increase advertising income. In these uncertain times, to get our finances back on track, significant belt tightening is recommended. My recommended changes include:

Reduce the cost to publish Polymer Preprints

Eliminate matching funds trial for symposia

Reduce Executive Committee and other committee subsidies

Reduce extra-curricular expenses - solicit for funding from other places

Increase dues from $20 to $30

Increase advertising in Polymer Preprints

Increase funding from Industrial Sponsors

Web-casting and video conferencing of current topics, e.g.,

nanos, fuel cells, ...

Increase symposia information at booth, e.g., sell symposium

preprints, or symposium presentations (Power-Point slides).

The number of ACS Symposium series books that have been contracted and published based upon POLY Division symposia in the past twelve months has decreased significantly over past years. The following are lists of Division of Polymer Chemistry symposium-based books that have been published or that are being developed under contract with ACS Books in partnership with Oxford University Press during April 2001 to April 2002.

The Committee on Divisional Activities has formed a Task Force to Explore Future Mechanisms for Dissemination of Material Presented at Symposia. Information and results from the activities of this task force are forthcoming.

Workshops are scheduled through 2003. We would like to add one more to 2004, possibly at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, CA. Please contact Judy Riffle (judyriffle@aol.com) or Neta Byerly (nbyerly@vt.edu) if you are interested in hosting a workshop.

July 14-18, 2002

University of California, San Diego, California

Co-Chairs: Warren Ford & Spiro Alexandratos

September 29 - October 2, 2002

Loews Annapolis Hotel, Annapolis, Maryland

Chair: James E. McGrath and Garth Wilkes

October 13-16, 2002

Savannah Marriott Waterfront, Savannah, Georgia

Chair: Dennis Smith

November 13-16, 2002

Sonoma DoubleTree Hotel, Rohnert Park, California

Chair: Buddy Ratner

November 17-20, 2002

Sonoma DoubleTree Hotel, Rohnert Park, California

Co-Chairs: Alan English, Barry Farmer, and Richard A. Vaia

February 23-26, 2003

Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California

Co-Chairs: James E. McGrath and Tom Zawodzinski

September 21-24, 2003

Radisson Bahia Mar, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Co-Chairs: Robson F. Storey and Robert B. Moore

October, 2003

Sonoma County Doubletree, Rohnert Park, California

Chair: Jim McGrath

Fall 2004

Annapolis, Maryland

Co-Chairs: Jim McGrath and Ed Paschke

Spring 2004

Williamsburg, VA

Chair: Tim Long

The Division of Polymer Chemistry (POLY) of the ACS wants to promote polymer chemistry at regional meetings and is willing to provide help if the general chair or the program chair requests it. From experience at ACS national meetings, the division has a network of people who know how to organize good symposia. POLY will help identify people in the host or nearby local sections to organize polymer sessions and 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

John Sophos of the ACS Meetings Department provides lists of the general chairs and program chairs of the regional meetings, and we send an offer to support polymer programs by email. During 2002 only the Great Lakes and Central regional meetings have polymer programs that qualify for support. The other five regional meetings either decided early not to have a polymer program or could not find a volunteer to organize a symposium.

The Industrial Sponsors Group of the Division of Polymer Chemistry consists of the members listed below. In the past each member contributed $1,000 per year to support polymer education and other polymer development activities. Thanks to the substantial efforts of H.N. Cheng the list has now been updated, and has been expanded to include small companies with less than 500 employees, which contribute $500. Cheng has also led the effort to provide each Sponsor with a reference book of detailed information on the Industrial Sponsors Group. Through the efforts of Lesia Robertson in the POLY Division Office these books have now been printed and distributed to the Members and to the Coordinating Committee.

Industrial Sponsors Coordinating Committee: This committee, which consists of members of the Industrial Sponsors Group and the Division of Polymer Chemistry, coordinates the activities of the Industrial Sponsors Group. Current members are: R.S. Moore, H.N. Cheng, W. Daly, J. DiBattista, A. English, K. Havelka, R. Ikeda, M. Jaffe, I. Khan, R. Ottenbrite, T.J. Pacansky, C. Smith, and R. Stackman. This Committee met on Monday, April 8th, from 11 a.m. until 12 noon in the Rosen Plaza, Hospitality Suite 1.

A special luncheon was held on Monday, April 8th, 2002 at the Orlando ACS Meeting in order to review present and future plans, and to enable current and prospective members to become better acquainted. Members of the POLY Executive Committee have also been invited to attend.

The Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the Industrial Sponsors Group is being planned for the Boston ACS Meeting. As an alternative to the usual Industrial Sponsors Symposium, a special luncheon is being planned as a ticketed event on an ACS-wide basis, hosted by the Industrial Sponsors Group and co-sponsored by the Women Chemists Committee. SEE PAGE 31 OF THIS NEWSLETTER FOR MORE DETAILS! In addition, a half-day symposium will be held honoring Dr. Lloyd M. Robeson, the recipient of this year’s Industrial Polymer Scientist Award. This symposium will be followed by a reception honoring Dr. Robeson. Final details of these events will appear in the Fall 2002 ACS program.

The major activities which are currently supported by the Industrial Sponsors Group, many in cooperation with PMSE via POLYED, include the Polymer Education Newsletter (PEN), workshops at schools to help to introduce polymer education, the Undergraduate Summer Scholarship Program, the Curriculum Development Award, tutorials, and free short courses on polymer science at national and regional meetings. Funding is also provided to the Intersociety Polymers and Plastics Education Committee. The competitive grant program initiated in 1991, "Improving the Public Perception of Polymers" is described below.

IMPROVING THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF POLYMERS - I. KAHN: This grant consists of up to $10,000 distributed over three years for an innovative program directed toward improving the public perception of polymers. The proposals received in a competitive process are evaluated by the award committee based on feasibility, impact and originality. To date over $52,000 has been allocated to this program. Under the leadership of Ishrat Kahn, the proposals received this year have been evaluated. The proposal selected for this year will be approved at this Orlando ACS Meeting. Further details can be obtained from Dr. Kahn. (Tel. 404-880-6847).

INDUSTRIAL POLYMER SCIENTIST AWARD - ALAN D. ENGLISH: This award was initiated in 1998 to recognize outstanding industrial innovation and creativity in the application of Polymer Science, conducted by individual scientists and research teams. The award consists of a plaque and an honorarium in the amount of $2000. The award is usually presented at the Industrial Sponsors program during the Fall National ACS Meeting. The recipient is expected to present an address at a symposium organized in his/her honor. Travel expenses to the symposium are paid in addition to the honorarium. Commencing with this year’s award, the award will be given every two years. Further details can be obtained from Dr. Alan D. English, Chairman of the POLY Awards Committee (Tel. 302- 695-4851).

The Paul J. Flory Polymer Education Award recognizes, encourages, and stimulates outstanding achievements by an individual in promoting undergraduate and/or graduate polymer education. The winner of the 2002 Paul J. Flory Polymer Education Award is Professor U. W. Suter of the ETH-Zürich. The award was presented in Orlando. 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, and James E. Mark. The DuPont Company currently sponsors the award.

A Distinguished Service Award was presented to Professor Frank D. Blum and an Award in Recognition for his Contributions as Chair of POLY was presented to Professor William J. Brittain. The awards were presented at the 2002 Spring ACS Meeting, in Orlando, FL.

The Industrial Polymer Science Award recognizes outstanding industrial innovation and creativity in the application of Polymer Science, conducted by individual scientists or research teams. The winner of the 2002 Industrial Polymer Science Award is Dr. Lloyd M. Robeson of Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. The award will be presented this Fall in Boston. Previous awardees include W. H. Mandeville, S. R. Holmes-Farley and A. D. English. The POLY Industrial Sponsors support this award.

The Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award recognizes outstanding research and leadership in polymer science. The winner of the 2002 Herman F. Mark Polymer Chemistry Award is Professor William J. MacKnight of UMass. The award will be presented this Fall at the 2002 Biennial in Sonoma, CA. 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, and Otto Vogl. The Dow Chemical Company Foundation currently sponsors the 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. Nominees must be a member or affiliate POLY at the time of nomination, must have accomplished outstanding work in basic or applied polymer science, and shall not have reached his/her 45th birthday on January 1, 2003. The award will be presented in New Orleans in March, 2003. 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, and Craig J. Hawker. The nomination and accompanying material for the 2003 award must be postmarked no later than July 1, 2002. Address nominating material to: Alan D. English, DuPont Experimental Station, Wilmington, DE 19880-0356. The Dow Chemical Company Foundation currently sponsors the award.

The Division of Polymer Chemistry 2002 Biennial Meeting will focus on Polymeric Nanomaterials. The meeting has been organized by A.D. English, B.L. Farmer, and R. A. Vaia. The 2002 Biennial will be held at the Sonoma Doubletree Hotel over the period of November 17-20, 2002. The early registration fee for POLY members is $750. The technical and social program as well as registration were available at the POLY membership booth in Orlando FL and at
http://www.chem.umr.edu/~poly/poly_link/meetings/biennial.1102.html.

The Division of Polymer Chemistry, Inc. will hold the 5th National Graduate Research Polymer Conference on June 22-25, 2003, at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. The ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry established the Graduate Research Polymer Conference to address the needs of graduate students in all branches of polymer science and engineering. All graduate students working with some aspect of polymers are invited to submit abstracts for oral presentations or posters. Abstracts should be submitted online through the website by April 1, 2003, to receive full consideration. Notification of status will be sent by May 1, 2003. For abstract submission and additional information contact James E. Roberts, Program Chair, c/o Leanne Adamcik, Center for Polymer Science and Engineering, Lehigh University, 111 Research Dr., Bethlehem, PA 18015, Phone: 610-758-3590, Fax: 610-758-5880. Registration fees: $95 (estimated) including breakfast (3), lunches (3), and dinners (2). Accommodations: $28 per night (estimated) in Lehigh University Residence Hall.

For the year 2001, Team Pub consisted of Hiep Ly (Kodak), Amanda Lattam (Clemson University), Aaron Forster (Clemson University) and myself (Rohm and Haas). As of this meeting, Hiep Ly will be taking over as Pubic Relations Chair and I will continue to participate on the committee while I serve as Membership Committee Chair.

Action items since the last meeting:

As always, Team Pub is here to serve the needs of the different committees within POLY. Please continue to utilize our resources to help promote the Division’s programming and events!

The Division of Polymer Chemistry had approximately 464 technical papers on the program of the National Meeting in Orlando, April 7-11, 2002. These technical papers may be divided into several categories: 135 oral and 57 poster presentations in topical symposia; 53 oral presentations in special award or anniversary symposia; and 48 oral and 171 poster presentations from general contributions. Highlights included:

Other symposia covered a wide range of timely topics of fundamental and applied interest: "Self-assembled Photonic Band Gap Materials" started with tutorial lectures, and then emphasize interaction of these types of colloidal crystals with light. "Recent Advances in Polymer Synthesis: Review and Progress in Methodology and Self-Assembly" is a special one-session symposium organized by Craig Hawker reviewing a wide range of current approaches for preparing polymeric materials. "Chromogenic Phenomena in Polymers: Tunable Optical Properties" covered a broad range of topics related to electrochromic polymers/devices, photochromic/stimuli responsive polymers, electroluminescence/tunable emission, polymers for chemical- and bio-sensors, tunable reflection and optically switchable materials, imaging, storage, patterning, and new polymers. "Polymer Diffraction Methods" covered recent academic and technological developments behind this type of characterization technology, including methods, biopolymer structure, evolution of structures and blend analysis. "Chemistry and Engineering of Polyolefins," cosponsored by PMSE and SPIE focused on emerging frontiers in the field, ethylene/alpha-olefin copolymers, polypropylene: old monomer-new polymers and general materials science issues in this field.

All POLY abstracts and all Polymer Preprints for the Orlando meeting were collected by the ACS Online Abstract System (OASys). We continue to suggest improvements to ACS who now have a preprint help-line for authors to call. The system is working quite well for abstracts, but Polymer Preprints still suffer some problems, primarily in uptime and reliability of servers utilized by ACS (this meeting appeared better than past). Our turnaround is now quicker as a result of authors’ realization of expectations, so our deadline for authors has been pushed back to about one month before the ACS deadline for program chairs. For Orlando, the timing was as follows: Author deadline was November 18, 2001; symposium organizer deadline was December 2, 2001 and program chair deadline for completion of program and delivery to ACS was December 18, 2001. This is about as tight as we can achieve under the current system in terms of author deadlines.

For the Fall 2002 meeting, the deadline for submission of Polymer Preprints and ACS abstracts at OASys is April 15, 2002.

Symposium plans for meetings through Boston Fall 2002 are complete. Symposia at the meetings in New Orleans Spring 2003, New York Fall 2003 and Anaheim Spring 2004 are partly scheduled to allow for programming of more timely topics as needed (see http://www.chem.umr.edu/~poly/natl.meet.html).

The committee aims to insure that symposia cover fundamental subjects in polymer synthesis, characterization and properties on a regular basis, and topics of industrial importance. The schedule of symposia at future ACS national meetings is on the POLY web site. Suggestions for symposia are welcome at any time. A form is available at the POLY web site showing the information the committee needs to consider a symposium suggestion (http://www.chem.umr.edu/~poly/poly_link/reports/sympprop.html). Call, fax, mail, or e-mail suggestions to one of the program co-chairs, Christopher Bowman or Carrington Smith.

Personnel: Robert Olfoli, COLL (olfoli@egr.msu.edu) - general secretary 2002. A representative from CELL will be the general secretary elect for 2003 — this person is to be determined. Don Schulz, PMSE (dnschul@erenj.com) - past general secretary 2001. Marc Hillmyer (hillmyer@chem.umn.edu) and Gary Wnek (gewnek@saturn.vcu.edu) are POLY’s representatives to the Macromolecular Secretariat.

Symposia: The next MACR symposium will be in Boston (Fall 2002).

Biomacromolecules (to be organized by Graham Swift). All member divisions have approved this symposium.

Proposed symposia that need to be approved by POLY: Spring 2003 (New Orleans), Intelligent Macromolecules, Chair to be determined.

Fall 2004 (Philadelphia), Networks and Gels, Jay Dias (anthony.j.dias@exxon.com), tentative.

Meeting: The MACR secretariat met on Tuesday morning @ 7:30 am April 9, 2002 in room 306B of the Orange County Convention Center.

Please see Marc Hillmyer or Gary Wnek if you have symposia ideas.

Web site: For more information on MACR see: membership.acs.org/m/macsec/

One year ago, the Materials Secretariat concluded that it should at present only program for Fall meetings. However, this Fall, renewed interest has led to plans to begin programming both Spring and Fall beginning in 2003. At the Fall meeting we will be sponsoring a symposium entitled: "Photonic Multiscale Materials and Devices". Dr. Ghassan Jabbour of University of Arizona will be the organizer. This will be coupled with the Polymer Division, which has 8 sessions in a Photonics area.

The following symposia were suggested and approved by the committee. Organizers will prepare proposals to be submitted to the committee.

Fall 2003Hybrid Materials organized by Pat Mathers (contacted and agreed).

Spring 2004 - Combinatorial Chemistry II organized by Andy Gilicinski.

Fall 2004Composite Materials for use in Transportation (tentative) organized by Martin Rogers.

Spring 2005 - Hybrid Materials (tentative) organized by Rick Laine.

The Materials Secretariat has established a website that should be up and running sometime this May.

I will be stepping down as Secretary General at this meeting. Andy Gilicinski of Gillette [Andy_Gilicinski@gillette.com] will be taking over.

The symposium series agreement between the ACS (POLY and PMSE Divisions) and the Optical Society of America (OSA) on "Polymeric and Organic Thin Films for Photonic Applications" was extended to include the 2004 PMSE-hosted session in Washington, DC. At the 2001 October OSA annual meeting in Long Beach, CA, attendance was light – more than likely due to the 9-11 event. However, the joint ACS/OSA symposium was fairly well attended (over 50). Papers will be published from that symposium in the OSA Trends in Optics and Photonics Series (TOPS). At the 2002 ACS meeting in Boston, the Polymer Chemistry Division is host to the joint meeting. The program organizers are: Allan Guymon (POLY), Department of Polymer Science, University of Southern Mississippi; Randy Heflin (OSA), Virginia Tech; Bob Norwood (OSA), Photon-X, Inc.; Paul Armistead (POLY), Office of Naval Research; Alex Jen, University of Washington; Timothy Bunning , AFRL/MLPJ; Dick Broer, Philips Research Laboratories / Eindhoven University of Technology. Papers were solicited in the following areas: light emitting polymers; photovoltaic materials and devices; flat panel display materials; polymer/liquid crystal composites; electrochromic polymers /sensors; electro-optic materials; photorefractive materials; two-photon and multi-photon processes; photonic bandgap materials; self-assembled molecular and supramolecular materials; and non-lithographic fabrication techniques.

IPEC develops and supports the introduction of polymers into the K-12 curricula. Its programs have proven to be an excellent way to interest students in polymers and, more broadly, in science and technology. Students at all levels can relate to polymers.

IPEC’s biggest activity is the Polymer Ambassadors. The Ambassadors are a group of about fifteen talented and dedicated classroom teachers, located coast-to-coast. After a training year, Ambassadors conduct workshops at regional and national teachers conventions, where they teach other teachers to use polymers in classroom instruction. Between July 2001 and July 2002, thirty workshops were or will be conducted. The workshops are well attended and well received by the teachers, who, in turn, use the materials in their classes. It is estimated that IPEC has reached over 500,000 students through face-to-face workshops. In addition, materials developed by the Ambassadors are now freely available on the www (See below.). Several Ambassadors have received major awards, including National Teacher of the Year Awards. They receive an expense allowance of $3000/year, but Ambassadors work as a labor of love.

IPEC also sponsors other workshops for high school teachers, such as "Discovery in Plastics Processing" taught annually at Eastern Michigan University and "PAW for Polymers," being taught for the first time at Clemson July 15-17, 2002. The EMU program has been highly successful for years, and similar success is anticipated at Clemson.

For the future, IPEC is working on three major initiatives:

IPEC is seeking $10,000 seed money from the SPE Foundation to help with initiatives (2) and (3). Within the next year it plans to submit major proposals to NSF and possibly other funding sources.

IPEC’s budget is in good shape. On January 1, 2002 cash reserves were $96,018. For 2002 projected income from member dues, grants for special projects, and interest is $51,500. Projected expense is $51,700.

IPEC member organizations can be proud of what IPEC accomplished. Past financial support is greatly appreciated, and we hope it will continue at historic levels. Equally important, more volunteer workers from the member organizations are needed. IPEC would like to add a third board member from each sponsor. With more people involved, more could be accomplished.

The IPEC Board of Directors met at 10:30 A.M. Tuesday, April 9 at Hospitality Suite #1 of the Rosen Hotel in Orlando. It is an important meeting, as plans and assignments for future initiatives were set.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: IPEC: www.uwsp.edu/chemistry/ipec/home.htm; Polymer Ambassadors: http://www.polymerambassadors.org/ (New site; includes instructional material); IPEC Newsletter: E-mailed to sponsor officers and executives.

IPEC supporting members includes: Society of Plastics Engineers, American Chemistry Council, and American Chemical Society Divisions of Polymer Chemistry, Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering, and Rubber.

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.

The Biotechnology Secretariat (BTEC) represents 18 ACS Divisions with interest in biotechnology. POLY has had strong participation in BTECH activities in recent years.

BTEC is in reasonably good financial health with roughly $7100 in the bank.

Separates abstract booklets, paid for by BTEC and distributed at BTEC meetings, will be continued. These bring recognition to BTEC and serve a valuable function for attendees.

The fall meeting in Boston will have a BTEC symposium titled "Biotechnology for a Sustainable Environment." David Kaplan, the lead organizer, was not in attendance (other organizers are Graham Swift, Steve Goodwin and Allan Russell.) Programming is now closed for this meeting. The description of the meeting from the BTEC WEB site is:

The conference scope will be broadly Biomacromolecules with an interdisciplinary focus exploring the interactions of macromolecules with biological systems and their environments, as well as biological approaches to the design of polymeric materials. Topics will include:

- monomers and polymers from natural, renewable resources

- metabolism of polymers - polymer conjugates

- biocatalysis - biomacromolecular self-assembly

- biomimetics - biomineralization

- bioprocessing - biorecycling

Jim DiBattista attended the BTEC meeting to enlist support for a proposed Biotechnology Fair at the Boston Meeting, sponsored by The Division of Business Development and Management (BMGT). This will be a one-day program open to all ACS attendees. There will be a charge for presenters of technology seeking capital to support for their enterprises. The intention is to make this program a major event at future ACS Meetings. The locality will define the focus of the fair. The Secretariat committee members voted to lend support and to publicize the event.

The BTEC meeting for New Orleans, titled "Biotechnology in the Service of Health," will be organized by Sharon Vercellotti. Sharon has tentative support from AGFD, BIOT, CELL, CINF, MEDI, and SCHB. This program is expected to have wide divisional participation. A call for POLY members to step forth and organize components of this BTEC meeting was made at the POLY Programming Committee Meeting. Interested POLY members are encouraged to contact POLY programming officials or me about getting involved.

A program on Genomics and Proteomics for the Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Food Industries. (John Kozarich, program chair) will be organized. BIOL, is leading this program.

The tentative subject: ‘"Biological Chemistry in Extreme Environments" is planned. At this time there is no defined organizer. It was suggested that GEOC be contacted as a potential cosponsor.

Two ideas proposed for SF were Sensing for Biological Materials and Agricultural Biotechnology.

There are about 1500 members of the POLY list. The volume of mail is still moderate and the number of complaints is low, almost negligible. I have instituted a policy where either Ken Carter or I approve postings to the list. This has the effect of removing most nuisance e-mails from the list.

The www project continues to grow. Counters on the popular POLY pages in terms of the number of accesses are listed below. Not all of the pages started at the same time. There is increased activity relative to workshops on the web pages. The main page gets over 100 hits per day. It is now out-distancing the jobs page.

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

On the surface the council meeting at Orlando was ho-hum. We selected Profs. Charles P. Casey, University of Wisconsin, Madison and Alvin L. Kwiram, University of Washington, Seattle as candidates for 2003 President-Elect. The election will be held this fall.

The Council approved a recommendation from the Committee on Committees (ConC) to continue the Committee on Science. The status of the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) was changed from "Other" Committee of the Council to a Joint Board-Council Committee by voice vote of the Council. WCC will now report to both Council and the Board. A petition to increase the size of Council committees was withdrawn to allow further deliberations.

Committee on Budget and Finances reported that Society finished fiscal year 2001 with a net deficit. The budget for fiscal 2002 is projected with revenues of $345 M and expenses of $347 M, resulting in a net deficit of $2 M. After this report, the full dues escalator was approved for 2003, raising the annual dues from $112 to $116, without any discussion from the floor. The good news is the deficit is a wake-up call. A task force charged with reviewing all the expenses of the Society has been appointed.

Those were the only action items brought before Council. The real action was behind the scenes in the Committee meetings and Caucuses prior to the Council Meeting. The main item for discussion was a petition to change Local Section and Division Support developed by a Presidential Taskforce on Local Section/Division Finances. The petition proposed to make the primary support of both local sections and divisions come from dues revenue by allotting 20% of the individual dues to a local section/division pool. The allotments to Local Sections would be distributed in accordance with procedures developed LSAC and approved by Council. In an exactly analogous fashion, the Division allotments would be distributed in accordance with procedures developed DAC and approved by Council. The distributions would be contingent upon receipt of the annual report prior to a forfeiture date as specified by either LSAC or DAC and would include a base allotment, an allotment tied to total membership and may include distributions based on other factors such as programming.

The most controversial portion of the petition was the method for dividing the funds. The petition proposed " These funds shall be divided between Local Sections and Divisions according to the fraction of total memberships using the second preceding year membership figures. Total memberships shall be defined as the sum of the number of members and National Affiliate of each Local Section and according to the number of members and National Affiliate of each Division. Total memberships shall not include Local Section Affiliates or Division Affiliates." Although new members are automatically assigned to local sections, membership in divisions is elected and voluntary. However, a Society member can be a member of several divisions and thus be counted more than once in the division membership pool. Effective recruitment by divisions could distort the membership distribution between local sections and divisions and influence the funds distribution.

The objective of the petition was to enhance funding to both Local Sections and Divisions based upon dues driven, membership based funding formula. After trying to sell the idea to various council committees and caucuses, at the Orlando Council meeting, almost all of the petitioners who signed the original petition signed a sheet withdrawing the petition. The petition, as submitted, would have never passed in Boston. Thus, it has been withdrawn and a new petition planned.

Frank Blum, Chair of DAC and a leader of the task force sponsoring the petition summarized the major issues to be addressed as follows:

Councilors were not given enough time or information to digest before, or during, the Orlando meeting. By the Boston meeting, we must use every means within our disposal, including a web site, to inform the Local Section and Division councilors. Ask your Local Section councilor about it. If the members of the local sections express an interest, their councilors must take the time to become informed.

a. The proposed formula put divisions and local sections in competition for a fixed pool of money (20 % of dues). Many felt this could lead to competition, not collaboration and cooperation.

b. The formula was cumbersome and complicated.

c. The formula could be manipulated by divisions through low dues to get the allocation monies (this is actually not a likely scenario, but is certainly perceived as a problem).

d. The support to local sections could drop below the current levels (based on the formula), violating one of the recommendations of the first task force–that increased support for divisions should not come at the expense of local sections.

Proposed Solution: Fix the percentage of dues allocated to divisions at 45% and local sections at 55% of the total (20% of dues). This was passed upon by the task force. It was not unanimous, but it may be passable by Council. It will be a large increase for Divisions and a smaller one for Local Sections. The percentage is based on recent membership numbers (143,000 Local Section memberships and 116,000 Division memberships). In principle, the relationship used to set the percentages is only related to memberships for the above year. After that, the membership numbers will change, but the percentage for funding will stay fixed until such time as it is changed again.

Based on these numbers, the split would be roughly $1,431,000 for Local Sections and $1,171,000 for Divisions. For comparison, the 2002 allocation for Local Sections was $1,317,000 and for Divisions was $378,000. The increase in total allocation would be $907,000.

a. The amount of money is large (current estimate is an increase of about $900,000).

b. The Society is currently dipping into its reserves to fund current programs.

c. What are we going to cut to fund it?

Proposed Solution:

The amount of money is large. But the volunteer base is critical to the Society. Ultimately the Board of Directors and the Committee on Budget and Finance have the Society-wide view to prioritize the spending of the Society. The Society’s budget is on the order of $390 million or so. This increase is about 0.25% of its budget. Councilors need to identify support for the two main volunteer groups of the Society as a priority. Surely we can find 0.25% or so in lesser priorities. Also, the changes should they be approved would take place Jan. 1, 2004. The economic picture and the budget may

look much different by then if our investment pool picks back up.

Allocations support for meeting programming seems to have disappeared?

Proposed Solution:

The current approach to supporting meeting programming by direct allocation from the Society is under scrutiny by the IRS. In some cases this approach could put the nonprofit public corporation status of some divisions in jeopardy. We must use member derived funds to cover meeting expenses to avoid this problem. However, when the funds become available from an appropriate source, it is the intention of DAC to increase meeting allocations.

a. Will the Society dues automatically go up to fund this initiative?

b. How much would dues have to go up to cover it?

Proposed Answer:

No, there is no provision for that to occur in the proposed changes. Dues would need to increase about $9 if it were to be paid for this way, but it would take an additional bylaws change to do this.

The proposed changes in Local Section and Division funding are probably the most significant issue to come before council in recent years. It will impact all of you, but it is most critical for division members. Last year five of the thirty three divisions (including POLY) operated in the red and nine of them are holding reserves equivalent to less than one year’s annual expenditures. Our current sources of income associated with programming are diminishing, while our obligation to program remains one of the primary responsibilities of the division. To meet our obligations, it is essential that the Divisions receive a stable source of funding at a level that enables them to program effectively. The task force believes that the concepts described above will provide that funding in a fair an equable manner.

We hope this extensive recitation of the dues petition details and the arguments anticipated during subsequent debates will enable you to conduct informed dialogs with colleagues, who are only members of local sections. Grassroots support will definitely enhance the possibility of enacting the proposed changes. We will keep you informed of any new developments associated with the petition. The next round will take place in Boston. Stay tuned.