Council Preview

When the ACS Council meets later this month in San Diego, it will select candidates for national office; vote on a change to American Chemical Society dues, revisions to a code of conduct for chemists, and two petitions; consider two other petitions; and discuss the ACS Climate Science Toolkit.

The Committee on Nominations & Elections (N&E) laid the groundwork for the council last fall, when it prepared a slate of nominees for the office of ACS president-elect for 2013. The four nominees are Thomas J. Barton, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames; Luis A. Echegoyen, Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry, University of Texas, El Paso; William A. Lester Jr., professor of the graduate school, University of California, Berkeley, and senior faculty scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and Barry M. Trost, Tamaki Professor, School of Humanities & Sciences, Stanford University.

The “President-Elect Nominee Town Hall Meeting” will be held in Ballroom Salon A at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina hotel on Sunday, March 25, 4:45–5:45 PM. Nominees, councilors, and other ACS members can interact at this event through a moderated question-and-answer format. During the council meeting on the following Wednesday, councilors will select two of the nominees to run this fall as official candidates for 2013 president-elect.

Last fall, N&E also prepared slates of nominees for the position of director in Districts I and V for the 2013–15 term. Earlier this month, councilors in the two districts chose candidates from among those nominees. The selected candidates, who will be named during the council meeting in San Diego, will stand for election in the fall.

Nominees who agreed to run for District I director are Barbara J. Garrison, chemistry department head, Pennsylvania State University; Thomas R. Gilbert, associate professor of chemistry, Northeastern University; Neil D. Jespersen, professor of chemistry, St. John’s University, New York City; and Julianne M. D. Smist, professor of chemistry, Springfield College, Springfield, Mass.

Nominees who agreed to run for director of District V are John E. Adams, Curators’ Teaching Professor and associate chair for undergraduate studies, University of Missouri, Columbia; Frank D. Blum, Harrison I. Bartlett Chair, Regents’ Professor, and chair of chemistry, Oklahoma State University; Peter K. Dorhout, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Kansas State University, Manhattan; and Frankie K. Wood-Black, senior air professional, Trihydro Corp.

Candidates who agreed to run for director-at-large, a group from which councilors will elect two directors this fall for the 2013–15 term, are Carol A. Duane, president, D&D Consultants of Mentor, in Mentor, Ohio; Valerie J. Kuck, who retired in 2001 as a staff member at Lucent Technologies (AT&T Bell Labs), in Murray Hill, N.J., and was an adjunct professor of chemistry at the College of Saint Elizabeth, Morristown, N.J., in 2008–09; Helen A. (Bonnie) Lawlor, executive director, National Federation of Advanced Information Services, Philadelphia; and Ingrid Montes, professor and Pre-MARC program coordinator, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras.

The council will vote on the “Petition to Amend Recorded Vote Request Procedure,” which would amend the society’s bylaws to clarify the rules governing requests for recorded votes during council meetings.

The council will also vote on the “Petition on Market Data Collection,” which would amend the bylaws to enable ACS to conduct market testing about membership, services, and benefits, including special dues categories, as a basis for recommending proposed changes to the council. The main purpose of the testing is to determine how best to attract new members to the society.

A two-thirds vote of the council and subsequent confirmation by the ACS Board of Directors are required to amend the bylaws.

Two other petitions to amend the society’s bylaws are up for consideration in San Diego, but they will not come up for action until the fall 2012 council meeting. The “Petition on Candidate Comment in C&EN” would codify a blackout period for publication of ACS Comments in the magazine by ACS Board of Directors candidates. And the “Petition on International Chemical Sciences Chapters Funds” would enable the board of directors to allocate funds to a chapter for a specific ACS activity.

The full text of petitions and associated committee reports are available at www.acs.org/bulletin5 (click on “Petitions”).

The council will engage in a special discussion on its reaction to topics proposed for the Web-based ACS Climate Science Toolkit, which the society’s Presidential Working Group on Climate Science is developing to help chemists discuss climate science within their communities (C&EN, Nov. 21, 2011, page 40).

Other business before the council includes approval of a revised version of “The Chemical Professional’s Code of Conduct,” which was last updated in 2007, and approval of ACS dues of $151 for 2013.

The ACS Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 28, in Marriott Hall at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina hotel. All ACS members are encouraged to attend the meeting, which starts at 8 AM.