This position is responsible for updating the Bylaws and the Operations Manual and is responsible for Long-Range Planning. Frank Blum has placed the Operations Manual on the POLY website - available at polyacs.org - and most of it is updated. However, there is a need for a few more updates. The following current committee chairs are asked to send me their updates: Polymer Preprints editor(s), Councilor, Alternate Councilor, International Activities and Graduate Student Symposium. They can find the current job descriptions on the Gen. POLY Info. page of the website.

The past-chairs are invited to attend the Long Range Planning meeting at the Fall ACS meeting in Chicago. Please send me your ideas for topics for our strategic discussion.

The Secretary has continued to manage her part of the POLY business, although from a distance, with the help of her assistant Secretary, Dennis Smith, Neta Byerly in the Business Office and the Officers. She thanks them all. Contact information for the Secretary (some has changed): for mail, use the address in the back of the newsletter (it is sent weekly from Chemonics to Egypt); for fax, use 011-20-2-527-4700. Email (mtbaker@zdnetonebox.com) is still the best way to get me, but you can also call directly (011-20-2-380-5807) - best times are 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. East Coast Time. Large packages should be sent to my actual address: 24, Road 20; Maadi, Cairo EGYPT. Visits from POLY members passing through are always welcome.

This conversion will save the division and its members a significant amount of money while moving forward with available technology. The cost effectiveness of moving to CD Rom is evident by the savings indicated below (just half the cost of the printed version).

The cost of creating and shipping Polymer Preprints, Vol 42(1),San Diego meeting, is shown below compared to a few previous printed versions:

42(1) 10,000 $47,258 $4.73 CD

41(1) 8,859 $84,220 $9.51 Book

39(1) 8,349 $64,202 $7.70 Book

In addition to the CD Rom version, which is included with dues, a printed book version of Polymer Preprints is available for an additional cost of $20.00 per year. This charge is higher than previous book costs due to the smaller volume of books printed (only 700). The charge for the print version is proposed to increase to $30.00 next year to cover costs of printing and mailing. Only 252 members of the 9,000 Polymer Division membership have ordered print versions, with libraries purchasing the remaining at a higher cost. With lower production numbers, price increases for the printed version are inevitable in the future to meet production costs.

A significant number of symposium organizers and participants continue to publish the symposium proceedings in the form of ACS Symposium Series books. 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 2000 to April 2001. Also included are the publication dates and the price for each book.

1. Stimuli-responsive Water-soluble and Amphiphilic Polymers, Ed. McCormick, ACS Symposium Series No. 780 (New Orleans ACS Meeting, August 1999), Publication Date: November 29, 2000, $135.00

2. Historic Textiles, Papers, and Polymers in Museums (cosponsored with CELL), Ed. Cardmore and Baker, ACS Symposium Series No. 779, Publication Date: December 1, 2000, $110.00

3. Controlled/Living Radical Polymerization: Progress in ATRP, NMR, and RAFT, Ed. Matyjaszewski, ACS Symposium Series No. 768, Publication Date: June 19, 2000, $150.00

4. Polymers from Renewable Resources: Biopolyesters and Biocatalysis (cosponsored with BEDPS), Ed. Scholz and Gross, ACS Symposium Series No. 764, Publication Date: August 4, 2000, $135.00

5. Transition Metal Catalysis in Macromolecular Design (cosponsored with PMSE), Ed. Boffa, ACS Symposium Series No. 760, Publication Date: June 23, 2000, $110.00

1. Enviro-compatible Synthesis and Processes: Targeting Sustainability Ed. Gross and Cheng (Washington, D. C. ACS Meeting, August 2000)

2. Electroactive Polymers for Corrosion Control/Prevention, Ed. Zarras, Stenger-Smith, and Wei (Washington, D. C. ACS Meeting, August 2000)

9th International Symposium on Macromolecular-Metal Complexes, August 19-23, 2001 at the Herman F. Mark Polymer Research Institute, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, NY. Chair: Prof. Kalle Levon, Polymer Research Institute, Polytechnic University, 6 Metrotech Center Brooklyn, NY 11201. Co-chair: Prof. Yoshi Okamoto, Polymer Research Institute. Polytechnic University, 6 Metrotech Center, Brooklyn, NY 11201. The scientific program includes: Biorelated Macromolecule-Metal Complexes, Metal Ion Conductive Polymers, Lanthanide Metal Ion Containing Polymeric Systems, Electronic, Magnetic and Optical Properties of Macromolecule-Metal Complexes, and Macromolecular-Metal Complexes in Green Chemistry. Registration is $450 for members/$500 for Non-members/$150 for student members/$200 for student non-members.

Polyolefins III, October 7-10, 2001, at the Sonoma Doubletree Hotel, Sonoma, CA. Co-organizers: Prof. Jim McGrath, Dept. of Chemistry, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, Dr. Pal Arjunan, Exxon-Mobil Chemical Corp., and Dr. Tom Hanlon, Albemarle Corp. A full program is available which includes olefin catalysis, characterization, processing, mechanical behavior and new and expanding applications for polyolefins. Registration is $600 for members/$650 for non-members/$225 for students/$275 for student non-members.

Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Materials, November 14-17, 2001 at the Sonoma Doubletree Hotel, Sonoma, CA. Co-organizers: Prof. Frank Blum, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Missouri-Rolla, Rolla, MO 65409-0010, and Prof. Rick Laine, Depts. of Materials Engineering and Chemistry, University of Michigan, 2300 Hayward St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2136. The scientific program includes, Sol-gel Processing of Multifunctional Hybrid Materials with Novel electroactive, Composite, Acoustic, Insulating, and Mechanical Properties, Synthesis and Processing of Organometallic and Inorganic Polymers for Optical, Structural, Biological and High Temperature Applications, Synthesis and Processing of Macro-Composite Materials Using Novel Techniques and Inexpensive Starting Materials, and Commercial Aspects of Aybrid Organic/Inorganic Polymers. Registration price is pending treasurer’s approval.

Polymers and Organic Chemistry 2002, July 14-18, 2002 at the University of California at San Diego. Co-chairs: Warren Ford and Spiro Alexandratos. This has been approved by the POLY Exec. Committee but the registration fee is pending site visit by Neta Byerly.

Biomedical Polymers III, November, 2002 tentatively at the Sonoma Doubletree Hotel. Chair: Buddy Ratner (he will name a co-chair). This has been approved by the POLY Exec. Committee.

Polyurethanes II, October, 2002 in Annapolis, MD. Chair: Jim McGrath (need co-chair). Request approval by the executive committee at this meeting.

Fluoropolymers II, Fall, 2002. We are exploring sites such as Charleston, SC, Savannah, GA, and Hilton Head. Chair: Dennis Smith. Request approval by the executive committee at this meeting.

Fuel Cell Materials and Processes, February, 2003 at Asilomar. Chair: Jim McGrath. Request approval by executive committee at this meeting.

Planning for the 2002 Graduate Student Polymer Research Conference at Lehigh University is well under way. The conference dates will be June 16 - 19, 2002. Facilities are already reserved for inexpensive student housing (including meal options) and meeting venues. The leadership team is being formulated, and will be led by Professor James E. Roberts of the Department of Chemistry at Lehigh University. A Scientific Advisory Committee will be drawn primarily from the faculty and research scientists associated with the Center for Polymer Science at Lehigh, with a few non-Lehigh scientists added for balance. Most of the conference symposia will be led by members of the Scientific Advisory Committee. Ms. Debra Nyby of Lehigh University will be the lead administrative associate for the conference, and will help with all logistical arrangements.

The bulk of the planning will be done over the next six months. Specific plans include the following: 1) development of a specific time line; 2) designation of scientific areas and titles for individual symposia; 3) identification of a variety of invited speakers, covering a wide range of topics of interest to the graduate students, both scientific and career related; 4) building the conference web site for both conference registration and abstract submission; 5) develop an effective advertising plan to begin in Fall of 2001; 6) begin solicitation of contributions to both support the conference and offer limited financial assistance, if possible; 7) design the special conference social events; and 8) set up a job clearing house / interview service if there is sufficient response.

Additional ideas are always welcome. Please address comments, suggestions, and/or questions to Jim Roberts at james.roberts@lehigh.edu , or 610-758-4841.

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.

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 (currently Warren Ford and Tom Pacansky) and (b) a budget showing how the funds will be used to defray registration fees and travel costs of invited speakers.

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 2001 the Great Lakes, Northeast, and Southeast regional meetings have polymer programs that qualify for support.

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 is also leading an effort to provide each Sponsor with a reference book of detailed information on the Industrial Sponsors Group.

The Industrial Sponsors Coordinating Committee includes: R.S. Moore, H.N. Cheng, N. Byerly, W. Daly, J. DiBattista, A. English, K. Havelka, R. Ikeda, M. Jaffe, I. Khan, R. Ottenbrite, T.J. Pacansky, C. Smith, and R. Stackman.

A special luncheon was held on Monday, April 2, 2001 at the San Diego ACS Meeting in order to discuss present and future plans, and to enable current and prospective members to become better acquainted. Bill Brittain, POLY Chair, attended and presented a brief overview of the Division’s activities.
The Twenty-second Annual Meeting of the Industrial Sponsors Group will be held on Tuesday, August 28, 2001 at the Chicago ACS Meeting. The morning will feature a symposium honoring the recipient of the Industrial Polymer Scientist Award. The afternoon will feature a symposium on "Career Development in the Polymer Industry - Fact vs. Fiction" organized by R.S. Moore, and Co-sponsored by the Younger Chemists Committee. This program will be followed by a reception honoring the recipient of the Industrial Polymer Scientist Award. Final details will appear in the Fall 2001 ACS program.

The Twenty-first Annual Meeting of the Industrial Sponsors was held on Tuesday, August 22, 2000 at the Washington, DC ACS Meeting. The highly successful morning symposium honoring Dr. Harry Mandeville and Dr. S. Randall Holmes-Farley, of Geltex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the recipients of the first Industrial Polymer Scientist Award, was well attended. The afternoon session was also very successful, and featured a mini-symposium co-organized by Mike Jaffe and Ray Ottenbrite on "Polymer Materials for the 21st Century." This was followed by a well attended reception for the recipients of the Industrial Polymer Scientist Award.

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, proposals have been received this year and are being evaluated. Further details can be obtained from Dr. Kahn. (Tel. 404-880-6847).

"INDUSTRIAL POLYMER SCIENTIST AWARD" - R. Ikeda

This award was initiated in 1998 to recognize outstanding industrial innovation and creativity by individual scientists and research teams. The award consists of a $2,000 honorarium, a plaque, and travel expenses to the ACS Meeting at which the recipient will be honored in a special award symposium. Further details can be obtained from Dr. R. Ikeda, Chairman of this activity. (Tel. 610-388-6125)

As his successor, it is an honor for me to acknowledge the many years of great service provided by Ed Vandenberg in his leadership of the Industrial Sponsors Group.

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. Craig J. Hawker was honored at the Spring, 2001, National ACS Meeting in San Diego, California. The Dow Chemical Company Foundation sponsors this award.

Distinguished Service Awards was presented to William H. Daly, Robson F. Story, and Robert B. Moore and an Award in Recognition for his Contributions as Chair of POLY was presented to Thomas J. Pacansky.

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 nomination and accompanying material for the 2002 award must be postmarked no later than July 1, 2001. Address nominating material to: Alan D. English, DuPont Experimental Station, Wilmington, DE 19880-0356. The DuPont Company currently sponsors the award.

Nomenclature Committee membership changes since last year:

· Ed Savitski resigned for personal reasons

· We greatly miss the late Kurt Loening’s wisdom and experience

Four Committee members (Fox, Metanomski, Wilks, and Work) continue to be involved in the IUPAC Commission on Macromolecular Nomenclature, although Fox and Metanomski are enjoying "semi-retirement" in that they now act mainly as consultants. Topics in various stages of development to which members have contributed are:

The documents for Projects 33/99 and 35/2000 were again shortened and simplified; suggestions for further changes made by working party members will be implemented in the next revisions.

Leadership of the macrocycles document (Project 29/97) has passed from Fox and Wilks to Prof. Ernest Maréchal, IUPAC Commission IV.1 member.

Further developments toward promulgation of MNN18 are as follows:

· Published in English in Macromol. Chem. Phys., 2000, 201, 2615-2620, by courtesy of Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, through Dr. Ingrid Meisel, a IUPAC Commission IV.1 member.

· Published in Hungarian in Müanyag és Gumi (Rubber and Plastics), by courtesy of Prof. Geza Bódor.

· Accepted for publication in Chinese by the Polymer Bulletin editorial staff. It will be published in the second or third issue of this bimonthly journal in 2001. A web version will then be made available on the POLY website.

· The Spanish-language version is available on the POLY website, by courtesy of Prof. Javier Macossay.

· Work is still in progress on translations into:

Plans for Japanese- and Turkish-language versions were abandoned; publishers’ replies were discouraging.

Web availability for the various MNN 18 versions continues to be provided by Dr. Frank Blum (University of Missouri - Rolla), who runs the POLY website; for MNN 1 through 19 and a list of publications containing valid recommendations on macromolecular terminology and nomenclature, see http://www.chem.umr.edu/~poly/nomenclature.html.

· The Spanish-language version of MNN17 is now available on the POLY website. Our thanks go to Prof. Javier Macossay for his translation.

· MNN19, by Prof. Béla Iván, was published in Macromol. Chem. Phys., 2000, 201, 2621-2628, by courtesy of Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, through Dr. Ingrid Meisel, a IUPAC Commission IV.1 member; it is now available also on the POLY website.

Past copies of the "Back Pages" PMSE Notes, reprinted with permission of Prof. C. Ober, PMSE, are now available on POLY website. Our thanks go to Dr. Frank Blum for adding them.

At the invitation of Dr. David Lide, and based on the previous article on polymer nomenclature written by Bob Fox, Ted Wilks revised, expanded, and updated the article for the next edition of the Handbook, which is expected this year.

This four-volume work on the fundamentals of polymerization with a special focus on the industrial aspect of synthetic polymers was published in January, 2001 by Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany; it includes a 39-page chapter on polymer nomenclature by Ted Wilks, who was also overall editor for the book.

The Nomenclature Committee continues to promote polymer-nomenclature recommendations, especially those of the IUPAC Commission on Macromolecular Nomenclature (Commission IV.1). The Committee monitors how the macromolecular nomenclature matters are explained and discussed in various textbooks and handbooks, and offers suggestions for improvements. Individual questions from POLY members and requests to help in the naming of polymers are answered promptly.

The function of the industrial advisors is to help POLY in better serving their industrial members. Goals include: influencing programming to provide more symposia topics of interest to industry, attracting more industrial members, and increasing industrial participation at national meetings (attendance, technical presentations, symposia co-organizing, and participation in POLY governance and committees). Angela Bowen-Jones has replaced Roger Clough on the Industrial Advisors team.

At the Fall (Washington, D.C.) ACS meeting, we attended the ACS Corporation Associates Committee Meeting, and participated in their subcommittee discussions on programming. They have the same interests that we do except from a broader perspective; i.e. they also want to increase industrial participation in the ACS. We presented to the subcommittee a proposed survey letter to be circulated within the member companies of Corporation Associates soliciting ideas for future symposia topics along with names of volunteers to help organize the symposia. A person on the staff (Theresa Laranang-Mutlu) of ACS was present. She suggested that it would be a good idea to place a general symposia topic solicitation survey on the ACS website. The information that came in from the survey would then be forwarded on to the appropriate divisions.

At the Washington, D.C. meeting last August, Team Pub held a strong presence along with the membership committee at the POLY poster session on Sunday evening. In fact, we were successful in surpassing the 2000 x 2000 goal in recruiting members! Both committees will be present again in San Diego at the POLY poster session.

Since the last meeting, Team Pub has distributed announcements for awards and workshops, and maintained event updates to the electrinic distribution list and web site. E-advertising, web updates, and posters were provided for the POLY Millennial and Herman Mark Awards. Posters for the 50th Anniversary symposia and POLY award reception were supplied for this meeting.

Team Pub currently consists of Jerrold Miller (Bridgestone-Firestone) and Dennis Smith (Assistant Secretary). We are looking for more members, so please refer any individuals whom you think would like to participate in spreading the word about POLY.

The following are goals of Team Pub for the year 2001:

Finally, I would just like to remind you that Team Pub is here to serve POLY. Do not hesitate to allow us to assist you in advertising your workshops, symposia, awards, etc! We are YOUR committee!

The Division of Polymer Chemistry had 409 technical papers on the program of the National Meeting in San Diego, April 1-5, 2001. These 409 technical papers may be divided into several categories: 168 oral and 76 poster presentations in topical symposia; 38 oral presentations in special award or anniversary symposia; and 30 oral and 97 poster presentations from general contributions. Highlights included:

Other symposia covered a wide range of topics of fundamental and applied interest: "Durability of Plastics and Rubbers" started with a full session of tutorial lectures, and then emphasized commercial aspects of polymer aging and reliability, including both practical and fundamental aspects. "Opportunities and Needs in Polymer Science for Measurement Techniques, Standards, and Future Technologies" celebrated the NIST centennial and included primarily NIST or NIST alumni speakers. "In-Situ Spectroscopy in Monomer and Polymer Synthesis" primarily focused on utilizing real-time analytical techniques to probe both novel synthetic processes and polymer processing. "Silicones and Silicone-Modified Materials" covered recent academic and technological developments behind these specialized multi-application materials. "High Resolution NMR Spectroscopy of Polymers" also began with a full session of tutorial speakers, and then focused on solution, solid state, biopolymer, polymer separations and dynamics applications. POLY is fortunate to have enthusiastic members who organize these outstanding programs for the entire polymer community.

POLY policy now is to provide review or tutorial material at the beginning of all symposia so that beginners can gain background needed to understand the current research presented later. All but two of the topical symposia at the San Diego meeting had from one long lecture to one half-day session of tutorial material.

All POLY abstracts and all Polymer Preprints for the San Francisco, Washington and San Diego meetings were collected by the ACS Online Abstract System (OASys) and this will continue into the future. We continue to suggest improvements to ACS. 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. An improved version of preprint submission should be considered.

For the Fall 2001 meeting, the deadline for submission of Polymer Preprints and ACS abstracts at OASys is April 13, 2001.

Symposium plans for the Chicago meeting in Fall 2001 are complete while those for Orlando in Spring 2002 and Boston in Fall 2002 are nearly complete. Future national meeting is currently open and plans are underway to begin filling some future slots.

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 are 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 suggestion. Call, fax, mail, or e-mail suggestions to one of the program co-chairs, Christopher Bowman or Carrington Smith.

At the Fall meeting the reorganization within the Materials Secretariat was completed. The new Secretary General is Rick Laine (talsdad@umich.edu) and the new Secretary/Treasurer is Alan Sellinger of Cannon Research America (aselli@cra.canon.com).

Two items are currently on the Materials Secretariat agenda that are potentially of interest to POLY members. The Secretariat is looking for help and ideas for new, cross-divisional symposia.

1. Three-Dimensional Silicon-Oxygen Cages (polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes, POSS): Materials for the 21st Century–Proposed by M. Gordon of Phys., Pat Mather from POLY and R. Laine

Proposed New Symposia:

The San Diego Materials Chemistry Secretariat meeting was held on Monday April 2, 7-8:30 am at the Hyatt Regency, Oxford Room. Anyone with any ideas for a symposium were welcome to attend.

POLY and PMSE Divisions of ACS have been holding joint meetings with the Optical Society of America (OSA) on polymeric and organic thin films for photonic applications for over 4 years. The meeting alternates between ACS and OSA Fall Annual meetings. This year OSA will be hosting the symposium they call "Organic Thin Films" at the OSA Annual Meeting to be held Monday - Wednesday, October 15-17, 2001 at the Hyatt Long Beach Hotel, Long Beach, California. Abstract Deadline for electronic submission was April 20, 2001. See http://www.osa.org/MTG_CONF/Annual/ for more details. I have requested that OSA add to their website the fact that the meeting is joint with ACS POLY and PMSE Divisions, however, I have had no response. POLY is scheduled to be the host for the 2002 ACS meeting in Orlando. The steering committee is currently open to suggestions of POLY members who would be interested in organizing the 2002 meeting.

General topic is "Biotechnology Information:  Bioinformatics, Receptors, and Combinatorial Chemistry".

Program Chair (BTEC) - Guenther Grethe

Session Organizer - Joachim Kohn

Future BTEC symposia are described below, each with opportunities for co-sponsorship with POLY.

General topic is "Biotechnology for a Sustainable Environment".

Program Chairs (BTEC) are David Kaplan, Graham Swift, Steve Goodwin, and Alan Russell

** POLY - Session Organizers need to be proposed by POLY division if they wish to participate (which I think they should).

General topic is "Biotechnolgoy in the Service of Health".

Program Chair - Sharon Vercellotti

** POLY - Session Organizers need to be proposed by POLY division if they wish to participate.

** POLY - is there a preference for either meeting location?

General topic proposed as "Genomic and Proteonomics for the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry", but other topics being considered include pharmaceuticals, bioinformatics, and marine biotechnology.

** POLY - is there a preference for the above topics?

There are two anniversaries in 2001, which are being commemorated by the publication of appropriate historical material and by events such as special symposia and social events:

1. At the POLY Millennial 2000 in December 2000 in Hawaii, a large poster entitled "50 Years of Action - Historical Milestones" was displayed next to the registration desk. Its left-hand side highlighted the POLY Awards, POLY publications, the growth of membership, the 2000 x 2000 campaign, the POLYED activities, and the entrance of POLY into electronic age (e-mail communication, Web pages, and "Polymer Preprints" on CD). Its right-hand side had some 90 specific milestones (POLY "firsts") listed for the whole period of POLY existence, such as organizational changes, symposia, meetings, conferences, publications, and educational initiatives.

I provided the historical material, and Erica Martin and Kathy Linkous created the poster.

The poster is being revised by Erica and Bill Brittain. It was displayed at the San Diego meeting.

2. At the 221st ACS National Meeting in San Diego in April 2001, a commemorative 47-page booklet, "History Update - 1991-2001", will be distributed. It contains:

a. an update of the POLY history for the period 1991-2000 (Jesse Hwa’s excellent history published for the POLY 40th anniversary in 1991 covered already the first 40 years), organized into 10 sections:

b. five appendices with many details covering the whole 50-year period, not just the last decade, such as

A. Historical Milestones (Timeline), 1946-2001

B. Officers, 1951-2001

C. Councilors and Alternate Councilors, 1952-2001

D. Symposia at the ACS National Meetings, 1950-2001

E. Awards

I provided the historical material and Kathy Linkous added a selection of photographs, designed and formatted the booklet, and carried out the project to completion. Members of the POLY Executive Committee and some "old-timers" had reviewed the manuscript and provided most valuable comments and corrections, all of which were incorporated into the published version.

1. POLY has received an invitation from the ACS through Frank E. Walworth, Special Assistant, 125th Anniversary, Office of Secretary, to contribute an update to the 1976 ACS history, "A Century of Chemistry" (edited by Herman Skolnik), for the years 1976-2000 for a new edition of the ACS history to be published for the ACS 125th anniversary in 2001.

In response to that, following the precedent of the 1976 history, I submitted on behalf of POLY, a two-part contribution on "Polymer Chemistry":

The contribution, reviewed and approved by the POLY Executive Committee, was submitted on 20 June 2000, prior to the deadline on 30 June 2000.

2. I have been informed by Frank Walworth that the current plan is to publish the "History" in time to be available at the Fall 2001 ACS National Meeting in Chicago.

There are some doubts about this date. Most likely, it will be published in the final quarter of 2001.

There are over 1500 members of the POLY list. The volume of mail is moderate and the number of complaints is low, but increasing due to increasing traffic. I have added a form on the www pages to add, delete and update addresses on the form. After a round of viruses in December, I have started approving postings to the list. This seems to have limited erroneous postings.

The www project continues to grow. I have installed some counters on popular POLY pages in terms of the number of accesses. Not all of the pages started at the same time. There is increased activity relative to workshops and the Millennial on the web pages.

Main Page 22426 101835

Meetings

Natl. 3387 34247

P-Spon./workshops 4578 15639

Other Meetings 2042 10642

Past 598 4067

Secretariats 260 1018

Polymer Preprints (on-line, new) 3912

Membership Activities 596 2503

Join 1085 4481

What’s New 934 6398

POLYED UWSP

IPEC 253 1515

General Info 552 4051

Org. Chart 1403 5949

Org List 580 3041

Election Info 405 2163

Officers Hist #1 322 1649

Officers Hist #2 198 1045

Org Info 211 831

Operations Man. 427 799

Awards 877 4466

Jobs 17054 86652

Nomenclature 983 3256

Industrial Sponsors 405 1941

Other Servers 956 7053

Publicity 22 903

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

The Membership Committee has been active in the past several months. Current members of the committee are: H.-N. Cheng (Hercules, Co-Chair), Steve Pollack (Howard, Co-Chair), Erica Martin (Rohm and Haas), Dan Knauss (Colorado School of Mines), Pal Arjunan (Exxon), Nozar Sachinvala (USDA), Garrett Poe (Univ. of Southern Mississippi), and Ken Carter (IBM, Member-At-Large). The committee members coordinate their activities through monthly teleconferences and email messages. We also meet in person at National ACS meetings.

With the successful completion of the 2000 X 2000 campaign, we have formulated a "Beyond 2000" program. The plan consists of an equal emphasis on member recruitment and retention. Additional action items are designed to provide member recognition and enhanced communication.

The year-end membership statistics from the ACS are given below.

POLY 97 Year-end 7549

POLY 98 Year-end 8069

POLY 99 Year-end 8158

POLY 00 Year-end 8573

The 2000 statistic includes 7808 members, 712 division affiliates, and 53 national affiliates.

4. Member Retention. Since October last year, Steve has been able to access and mine the POLY membership database. The database has a wealth of information and is very useful with respect to member retention. The database indicates that the first two years are critical to retention. Roughly 1/3 of the members drops out within two years. Interestingly, there does not appear to be a corresponding retention problem with student members.

Our website, http://www.polyacs.org, is finally up and running. Some people may have access troubles for the next 24 hours as the nameserver across the world pick up the address. Let me know if you have trouble accessing the site.

Right now, I have it set up so it bounces you directly to our existing page at UMR. I have already set up a discussion list on the new site (access address will be forthcoming). I am learning how to set up multiple discussion lists for various topics (i.e. one for general members, one for EXCOM, one for programming, etc.).

We can begin assigning a limited number of e-mail addresses that would be things like treasurer@polyacs.org and the like. These e-mail addresses can be set up so that the mail gets redirected to whomever we wanted the recipient (or recipients) be.

There is much, much more we can do (secure billing, etc.).

The Business Office assisted with the following meetings during the fall 2000:

The Business Office is assisting with the following upcoming workshops/meetings:

Hotel contracts are currently being negotiated for Polyurethanes II to be held in Annapolis, Maryland in the fall 2002.

Brochures or these workshops were available at the Membership Booth in San Diego, California or by contacting the Business Office.

The fall 2000 Newsletter was mailed out to the membership in October 2000. Suggestions for changes and additional articles for the June 2001 Newsletter was accepted through April 15, 2001.

A total of 116 new members joined the Division of Polymer Chemistry in Washington, DC.

Daily responsibilities of the Business Office include responding to requests for information, performing accounting duties, assisting with various projects, and processing new membership applications.

POLYED continues on-line and for the first time is delivering pre-meeting reports and national meeting information for San Diego via our web site. As is typical, this trial run had some kinks, but everything is now in place and should run smoothly in the future.

Please visit the POLYED HOME PAGE at http://www.polyed.org. As reported at the last meeting, the web site has been extensively redesigned and expanded and now contains updated information about POLYED, links to the POLY, PMSE, and ACS web sites, and teacher resources including audio clips with definitions of polymers, molecular weight distributions, and other key terms, and examples of modern applications of polymers.

If you have any suggestions for changes to the web site, please let us know. We also would appreciate hearing about any particularly interesting developments or polymer education-related URLs that would be appropriate for inclusion on the site.

We continue to seek sponsorship to augment the two Divisions’ support for our programs. We have not yet heard a final response to our pending requests. Your help in identifying new sponsors is most welcome and needed. Please encourage potential sponsors to contact either the POLYED committee chairs or the educational funding committees of the POLY and PMSE Divisions.

We thank both POLY and PMSE for all of their support for POLYED’s polymer education efforts.

Twelve completed applications for the POLYED Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarship Program have been received. This program, headed by Steve Cohen of Amoco, provides important recognition and opportunities for outstanding undergraduate students interested in polymers. The applications are being reviewed and winners and alternates are expected to be announced in mid-April. The number of applications is down this year compared to seventeen each in 1999 and 2000 and thirty in 1997 and 1998. Steve had indicated that this most likely is due to the increasing number of other summer research opportunities that are available to undergraduates. He recommends continuation of the program based on the fact that the applications continue to be of a high quality and because the program continues to be competitive with more applications being received than there are awards available.

The Unilever Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Polymer Science and Engineering in 2000 was given to Linda Chen for research on rod-coil block copolymers that phase separate at unusual length scales. She earned the Ph.D. at the University of Rochester with Prof. Samson Jenekhe. The award symposium at the Washington ACS National Meeting in the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering drew a large and lively audience.

A decision on the 2001 Unilever awardee will be reached soon, and the winner and the winner’s mentor will be honored with a half-day symposium at the ACS National Meeting in Chicago in August 2001.

The number of nominations for the award has declined substantially over the last few years. For 2001 there were only one new and three holdover nominations despite the usual publicity in C&EN and at the division web sites. Guy Berry has done an excellent job of chairing the selection committee and getting out the publicity. Unilever should be thanked graciously for its support for the last eleven years.

The POLYED ICI Student Award in Applied Polymer Science, chaired by Elsa Reichmanis, reports that Ms. Amy K. Poshusta (Burkoth) was selected as the recipient of the year 2000 ICI Student Award based on her presentation at the Fall ACS Meeting in Washington, D. C. Amy was a graduate student from the University of Colorado, where her advisor was Professor Kristi S. Anseth. The title of her paper was "Photocurable Polyanhydrides Engineering for Orthopaedic Applications".

The Award was presented to Dr. Poshusta at the PMSE Division Awards Luncheon on Monday, March 30, 2001, in San Diego.

The other finalists who presented papers at the award symposium were: Guruswamy Kumaraswamy (Cal Tech), Rob G. H. Lammertink (Univ. of Twente, The Netherlands), Haiying Li (Georgia Tech), Royale S. Underhill (Univ. Florida), and Qing Wang (Univ. Chicago).

The ICI Student Award continues to attract applications from students involved in polymer science and engineering related research. This year, 6 finalists were selected from approximately 20 applications to present their work at the Chicago ICI Student Award Symposium to be held this Fall.