MILWAUKEE SECTION
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Councillors' Report

Notes from the Council meeting at San Diego, CA, April 4, 2001.

1. The Council chose William Carroll, Jr. and Elsa Reichmanis from 4 nominees for 2002 President-Elect. Also Donald Clarke was elected by the Council to fill vacancy on the Committee on Nominations and Elections.
   
   
2. President Attilla Pavlath indicated in his report that he will continue actions on councilors' participation in the committees and on the task forces. President-Elect Eli Pearce spoke of 3 year strategic thrust utilizing: 1) the Individual needs of members; 2) using the Internet to become leaders in electronic communication; and 3) International collaboration and delivery of service. Part of his interest involves taking an electronic poll of the membership.
   
   
3. The report from President-elect Eli Pearce highlighted some of his interests for when he assumes leadership of ACS. He noted his interest in increasing the importance of the Regional Meetings in particular. He is also concerned about funding levels at the National Science Foundation and the participation of women and minorities in Chemistry.
   
   
4. The Council voted to continue the activities of Committees on Environmental Improvement and International Activities which was presented for action to the Council by Committee on Committee.
   
   
5. The ACS is utilizing part of the surplus funds which arose via the strong performance of the publications division. This surplus (donation) will be used to upgrade web-sites associated with The Society.
   
   
6. An amended petition for action to increase the size of standing committees of The Council was voted on and passed. The final amended petition stated that each standing committee shall consist of not fewer than 12 and not more than 20 members, except on special authorization of the Council.
   
   
7. The Committee on Technician Affairs has programs earmarked for aiding technicians. They include the ACS Education Division's NSF grant for technician education, the chemical technology program approval service, strategic planning by the division of chemical technicians, and membership recruitment efforts by the committee on membership activities(MAC). A major MAC effort is bylaw change proposal that would make it easier for technicians to become full members of ACS.
   
   
8. The membership dues for 2002 was presented for vote to the Council by Committee on Budget and Finances. The Council passed the motion to accept the $112 dues calculated from the formula in the bylaw.
   
   
9. The Society Committee on Education (SOCED) established a new office of Graduate Education. The advisory board met in San Diego and discussed recommendations for future activities. They are also looking into the prospects for offering continuing education programs for members on-line.
   
   
10. Committee on Divisional Activities established a task force on Support to Divisional and Local Sections including allocations and representations. These are listed at: http://membership.acs.org/p/ptf.
    
    
11. Total attendance at the Annual Meeting of the ACS held in San Diego was 17,824. The exposition sold out, attracted 252 companies in 472 booths. The San Diego meeting also marked the first time that every room in which talks were presented was equipped with an LCD projector. Even better, there were no power outages to interrupt the usage of laptops and projectors for PowerPoint presentations!
    
    
12. Committee on Economic & Professional Affairs(CEPA) reported strong economic climate. 208 employers offered 819 positions for total of 897 job seekers. CEPA also submitted for Council action a proposed 3rd edition of Academic Professional Guidelines which unanimously was passed by the Council.
    
    
13. Committee on Local Section Activities has a new electronic resource. Reports are now available at http://www.acs.org/localsections. Many creative ideas are categorized by topic such as "awards", "NCW", "newsletters" etc. The theme for National Chemistry Week – 2001 is "Chemistry and Art". The awards will be given at the fall ACS meeting in Chicago.
    
    
14. Committee on Constitution & Bylaws ( C&B) requested the local sections to report changes to their bylaws to the C&B before acting upon it at the local section.
    
    
15. The Committee on Publications reported 125th anniversary issue of C&E news as a success. In general, the publication is well read and the traffic to home page of C&E Online has increased by 20% since it became free. Paid subscribers were given a choice of donating their refunds to an ACS project or receive a cash refund. The majority elected to donate their refunds to Project SEED. The publication committee also noted the concerns of the editors of ACS journals regarding the practice of electronic publication of pre-prints of articles. When papers have been electronically published they will not be considered for publications in ACS journals.
    
    
16. In 2001, Project SEED will place 348 students at 101 institutions participating in the 1st year summer program and 81 students at 35 places in the 2nd year program. Many thanks were extended to the donors (including Dr. Alfred Bader) and organizations for their ongoing support.
    
    

Submitted by:

Tom Holme

Dimitri Gorjestani