Spring 2009 Councilor's Report

[Rotobabe]

You have probably seen the 2008 Fall National Election Results in other ACS publications, or on the ACS web site, but if you haven’t . . .

Joseph Francisco, Purdue University, was chosen by ACS members as President-Elect for 2009. Prof. Francisco succeeds to the Presidency in 2010 and then will serve as Immediate Past President in 2011. Among Prof. Francisco’s goals is promotion of innovation and partnerships among academia, industry and government – interests shared by many in CHAL. In addition, active CHAL member Bonnie Charpentier, Metabolex, Inc. was re-elected by members in District VI (west coast) to another 3-year term on the Board and Pat Confalone, Dupont, was elected by members in District III (mid-Atlantic) to a 3-year term. Councilors elected CHAL champion and former President Bill Carroll, Occidental Chemical, as Director-at-Large for a three-year term.

The Constitutional Amendment on membership categories was ratified by ACS members, aligning the Constitution with the by-law amendments previously approved by the Council and confirmed by the Board of Directors. These will bring significant changes to the membership structure of ACS. The category of Associate Members will disappear. New chemists and others qualifying for membership become full members directly – with rights to vote and hold office. Undergraduate chemists who join ACS will no longer be Student Affiliates but Student Members of ACS, full members with a right to vote, but not hold office. The definition of “chemist” eligible for membership is broadened to include all natural sciences. These changes will be phased in over the next year or so. For more details about the recommendations that led to these changes, see the Governance Review Task Force Report available on the ACS website under the GOVERNANCE link.

Finally, the Council elected Jack Breazeale, Peter Dorhout, Catherine Fenselau, Peter Jurs, and Andrea Twiss-Brooks to the Committee on Nominations and Elections for 2009-2011 terms as well as Angela Wilson for the remainder of a 2009-2010 term; and Dwight Chasar for the remainder of a 2007-2009 term.

Meanwhile, at the Council meeting in Philadelphia in August, the Council elected CHAL charter member Howard Peters, Cherlynlavaughn Bradley, Rigoberto Hernandez, James Landis and Sara Risch to the Committee on Committees for 2009-2011 terms. The Council also elected Ray Dickie, Bonnie Lawlor, Mamie Moy, and Eleanor Siebert to the Council Policy Committee for 2009-2011 terms. CHAL Councilor Alan Ehrlich was a candidate but was not chosen.

The Council approved a Petition on Society Affiliate Dues. The petition raises Society Affiliate dues to be equal to full membership dues, and specifying that Society Affiliates are not subject to any of the discounts otherwise applicable to membership dues. The Board of Directors confirmed the action on October 24, 2008 and the change will become effective five months later on March 24, 2008. Society Affiliates are non-chemists who want to join ACS; many are ACS staffers.

One of the Council’s functions is to review the activities of ACS Committees on a regular basis and authorize their continuation. At this meeting, the Council voted to continue the Committee on Chemistry and Public Affairs, and the Committee on Patents and Related Matters. These Committees are appointed committees, and a number of CHAL members serve on them, in particular on the Committee on Patents and Related Matters.

The Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs submitted its latest version of the Professional Employment Guidelines for consideration. These guidelines offer a broad spectrum of recommended practices in employment for professional scientists and their employers. The Council will vote on the Professional Employment Guidelines at the 2009 spring meeting in Salt Lake City.

After a motion by CHAL Councilor Alan Ehrlich to recommit had failed, the Council voted to accept a revised division funding allocation formula recommended by the Divisional Activities Committee (DAC). DAC asserted that the formula improves clarity, offers simplicity, and rewards collaborative programming among divisions. The change will take effect in 2009 for 2008 activities. The CHAL Executive Committee has been concerned that the proposed and revised DAC formulae are unfavorable to small divisions like CHAL, but we were clearly unsuccessful in persuading the Council to agree.

The Council also approved the formation of the Probationary Division of Catalysis Science and Technology. The primary objective of this probationary division is to provide a “home” for the chemical science of catalysis within the ACS.

With respect to administrative matters, by the time of the Council meeting, the ACS Philadelphia national meeting had attracted 13,800 registrants. In keeping with the objectives of the previously approved National Meeting Long Range Financial Plan, the Meetings and Expositions Committee voted to support an increase of $10, apparently to $175, for the 2009 national meetings advance registration fee. Recall that at the Spring meeting, membership dues were increased for 2009 to $140. The Society’s Member-Get-a-Member program is on track to have its best year ever. In 2007, the number of paid new members nominated by current ACS members was 1,559. By August, 1998, there were 988 paid new member applications.

As in most recent Council meetings, a special discussion item was also on the Council agenda. This meeting’s discussion focused on Achieving Sustainability (e.g., Energy, Water, Food): What can/should ACS do to address this key global scientific challenge? To kick off the discussion, ACS Board Chair Judy Benham invited Council to participate in identifying the challenges and developing solutions. She highlighted new and ongoing activities, such as the Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcasts and related information, available online at www.acs.org/globalchallenges. She also sought Council input on member involvement and on ACS programming in support of Goal #3 of ACS’ Strategic Plan: "ACS will be a global leader in enlisting the world's scientific professionals to address, through chemistry, the challenges facing our world." Thirty-five councilors offered a wide variety of suggestions on ways in which the Society might develop initiatives to address sustainability of the world's resources. Further input is solicited, and all ideas will be studied. Members who have ideas should send them to strategicplan@acs.org.