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Comment: Enabling fair representation of our members—globally!

by Kevin Edgar, Chair, ACS Committee on Nominations and Elections
January 23, 2025 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 103, Issue 2

 

Photo of Kevin Edgar.
Credit: Courtesy of Kevin Edgar
Kevin Edgar

When it comes to global representation of American Chemical Society members, this has been a remarkable 18 months for ACS. As international interest and membership in ACS have continued to grow, ACS leaders felt that it was important for each international member to have a voice and a vote in the society. With the recent actions of the ACS Board of Directors, the ACS Council, and ACS members to add an international director and zone councilors, we are nearing the full realization of this goal.

The Committee on Nominations and Elections (N&E) has been privileged to help implement these important decisions made by the society that affect our members around the world. In 2023, a petition to change one of the director-at-large positions on the ACS Board to an international director position was introduced. The petition was approved by the council, board, and members in late 2023 and targeted for implementation in 2024. N&E was responsible for creating and running a fair election process against a short deadline. I am happy to report that N&E (1) developed and documented a robust international director nomination and election process, (2) identified and developed a strong slate of potential nominees in fall of 2023, (3) contacted potential nominees, and in spring of 2024 arrived at four individuals who agreed to serve as nominees, (4) conducted the council election in March 2024, and (5) created and hosted the ACS International Director Virtual Town Hall in September 2024, just before the first election of an international director in October 2024.

N&E moved quickly and effectively to ensure that we had nominations from the ACS membership for the international director position. Along with traditional calls for nominations, we reached out to the ACS divisions, the Committee on International Activities (IAC), and ACS international chemical sciences chapters (ICSCs) because of their global involvement. N&E was grateful to receive many valuable suggestions. Thanks to the thoughtful and robust participation of many members, divisions, committees, and component groups, the process went smoothly, and the ACS Board of Directors welcomed its first international director this year.

As ACS grows and evolves, N&E is committed to enabling the representation of our members around the world.

The next opportunity to increase global representation arose in 2024 with the council and board approval of a petition to create more than 30 new “zone councilor” positions, which are meant to provide councilor representation to ACS members around the world who are not currently geographically represented on the council—that is, not part of a local section. N&E has developed and is currently implementing the zone councilor nominations and elections process. In collaboration with ACS members, divisions, ICSCs, and IAC, N&E is seeking nominations of qualified individuals as potential zone councilors. Your suggestions will be critical to ensuring that ACS has the best possible leadership from its zone councilors. The newly created N&E zone subcommittees will complete their work by early spring of 2025, presenting the slate of candidate nominees to the full committee at ACS Spring 2025 in San Diego.

As you might imagine, N&E already had a heavy workload with responsibilities to develop slates for president-elect, directors, the Committees on Committees, and the Council Policy Committee. With the addition of three new subcommittees responsible for assembling candidate slates for two of the new zones, N&E has made some changes to our subcommittee organization to cope with the sharply increased workload for 2025 and plans to bring a petition to the council to increase the number of members on the committee as a more permanent solution for the future.

In the spirit of encouraging fair elections in 2025, N&E would like to pass along guidance that pertains to all ACS elections. It is critical that ACS leaders at every level respect the integrity of elections and the confidentiality of the voting process and do not use their positions as leaders to attempt to influence the outcome of elections. For example, it is not ethical for leaders of divisions or local sections to urge members to vote for or against particular candidates, ask members to reveal who they voted for, or use their positions to influence the outcomes of elections in any manner. We must always maintain the confidentiality of the voting process. Following these simple guidelines will allow us to select the best leaders for ACS fairly and transparently.

As ACS grows and evolves, N&E is committed to enabling the representation of our members around the world. N&E values your participation in all ACS elections and reminds members to use nominations.acs.org to nominate your fellow members for service as zone councilors, elected committee members, president-elect, and board members. We greatly appreciate the willingness of ACS members to volunteer, run in elections, and if elected, provide leadership for our society.

Views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of C&EN or ACS.

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