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ACS News

Council Preview

Candidate selections and petitions are on the agenda for the spring ACS national meeting in New Orleans

by Susan J. Ainsworth
March 25, 2013 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 91, Issue 12

When the American Chemical Society Council meets next month in New Orleans, it will select candidates for national office and vote on a change to society dues and on petitions relating to an ACS international chapter and the presidential election process. Councilors will also brainstorm ways the society can help members succeed in the global chemical enterprise.

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 2014. The four nominees are G. Bryan Balazs, associate program leader, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California; Charles E. Kolb Jr., president and chief executive officer, Aerodyne Research, Billerica, Mass.; Carolyn Ribes, business analytical leader at Dow Chemical, Terneuzen, the Netherlands; and Diane Grob Schmidt, R&D section head at Proc­ter & Gamble, Cincinnati.

A “President-Elect Nominee Town Hall Meeting” will be held in Hilton Exhibition Center A at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel on Sunday, April 7, 4:45–5:45 PM. Nominees, councilors, and other ACS members can interact at this event via 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 2014 president-elect.

Last fall, N&E also prepared slates of nominees for the position of director in Districts II and IV for the 2014–16 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 New Orleans, will stand for election in the fall.

Nominees who agreed to run for District II director are George M. Bodner, Arthur E. Kelly Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Education & Engineering, Purdue University; Jed F. Fisher, professional specialist on the faculty of the departments of chemistry and biochemistry, University of Notre Dame; Alan A. Hazari, director of chemistry labs and lecturer, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and Robert A. Pribush, professor of chemistry, Butler University, Indianapolis.

Nominees who agreed to run for director of District IV are John P. Fackler Jr., distinguished professor emeritus of chemistry and toxicology, Texas A&M University, College Station; Rigoberto Hernandez, professor in the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta; Larry K. Krannich, professor emeritus of chemistry, University of Alabama, Birmingham, and executive director, Alabama Academy of Science, Birmingham; and John A. Whittle, retired director of risk management, Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas.

Candidates who agreed to run for director-at-large, a group from which councilors will elect two directors this fall for the 2014–16 term, are Susan B. Butts, independent consultant, Susan B. Butts Consulting, Midland, Mich.; Thom H. Dunning Jr., director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and of the Institute for Advanced Computing Applications & Technology, and Distinguished Chair for Research Excellence in Chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Dorothy J. Phillips, director of strategic marketing, Waters Corp., Milford, Mass.; and Kathleen M. Schulz, president of Business Results, Albuquerque, N.M.

The council will vote on an alternative version of the “Petition to Amend National Election Procedures,” which would amend the society’s bylaws to change the election process for ACS president-elect. The original version of the petition came up for consideration at the fall 2012 national meeting. The alternative version clarifies wording of the petition, which is intended to shorten the campaign period for candidates for ACS president-elect. It would also charge the Committee on Nominations & Elections with proposing two candidates for president-elect, rather than having the council vote on a list of four nominees, as it currently does. The process remains unchanged for candidates to be nominated by petition.

Councilors will also vote on the “Petition to Charter One New International Chemical Sciences Chapter,” which would allow for the establishment of an ACS chapter in Romania.

In addition, the Committee on Constitution & Bylaws (C&B), in cooperation with the Committee on International Activities, is asking council to approve changes to the charter bylaws for new international chemical sciences chapters. These changes would require C&B to review proposed bylaw changes before changes are approved by a chapter’s membership.

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

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 of the question: “What else should ACS do to help members to thrive in the global chemistry enterprise?” This discussion relates to a task force recently commissioned by ACS President Marinda Li Wu entitled “Vision 2025: Helping ACS Members Thrive in the Global Chemistry Enterprise,” which aims to identify opportunities with respect to jobs, advocacy, and strategic collaboration.

The Committee on Economic & Professional Affairs will ask the council to approve a minor revision of the “Academic Professional Guidelines,” which were last updated in 2008. A more extensive revision is under way and will be presented to the council for consideration in 2014.

The Committee on Local Section Activities will ask the council to approve a change in the way that ACS distributes funds to local sections, beginning in 2014. The existing formula is expressed in dollar amounts that are adjusted upward each year. If that formula were to remain in place, the total allotment for local sections would soon exceed the money available to distribute. The proposed formula instead uses percentages to allocate funds.

Other business before the council includes approval of a $3.00 increase in ACS dues to $154 for 2014.

The ACS Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 10, in Grand Ballroom A–C of the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel. All ACS members are encouraged to attend the meeting, which starts at 8 AM.

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