Comment: Global Representation on the ACS Council

In early July, I attended the 9th EuChemS Chemistry Congress (ECC-9) in Dublin, Ireland, and interacted with chemical professionals who reside in Europe and around the world. I met many attendees who are currently or have been American Chemical Society members. They have ACS connections related to their education, postdoctoral work, experience in industry, scientific collaborations, or technical interests. Several thanked me, as a representative of ACS, for the specific, positive influence of ACS on their careers—the experience of presenting research at an ACS spring or fall meeting, connections made by participating in the ACS LEADS Conference, visibility gained by publishing the results of their work in ACS journals, and recognition of their research by ACS through a major award. Moreover, in nearly every scientific presentation I attended at ECC-9, speakers cited ACS journals and acknowledged ACS programs.

Attendees at ECC-9 frequently asked me how individuals can contribute to ACS activities and leadership. I hope to have an additional answer to that question after the council takes action on the Petition for Global Representation on Council during ACS Fall 2024.

ACS Council is the popular deliberative assembly of the society. Members elect councilors from local sections and divisions, and certain officers, including the ACS president, serve as ex officio councilors. Collectively, the council influences many aspects of the ACS member experience—from dues, meetings, and outreach to education and professional development. The council also strives to ensure that the voices of our increasingly diverse membership are heard whenever policy decisions affecting ACS members are made. This is challenging because approximately 20% of our membership is not represented by a local section on council. Individuals not represented include about 1,000 ACS members who live in a part of the US not within the territory of a local section and the majority of ACS members who reside outside the US. These are dues-paying members—they receive C&EN every week, attend ACS meetings, and publish in and serve as editors of ACS journals. Currently, there is no mechanism for these members to be represented geographically on the ACS council.

The petition to ensure council representation for all ACS members came out of work done by the Council Policy Committee (CPC) Future Council Representation Task Force. That group—which included ACS volunteer leaders from the Committee on Membership Affairs, Committee on International Activities (IAC), Committee on Nominations and Elections (N&E), and the ACS Board of Directors—worked closely with current and past presidents. In the simplest sense, this petition does two things:
▸ provides all ACS members with geographic representation on the ACS council.
▸ creates global electoral zones to elect councilors to represent ACS members who do not belong to local sections.

If the council approves the petition, implementation will run through the existing ACS governance structure:
▸ CPC and IAC will determine the number of zones.
▸ IAC will periodically revise the boundaries of these zones.
▸ N&E will implement the election of councilors and alternate councilors from these zones by the members residing in the zones—in three cohorts to provide for rotation—with the first elections occurring in 2025 for councilors to take office in 2026.

An important distinction is that, unlike local sections or divisions, zones will have no governance structure—no officers, no budget. These zones will exist solely to elect councilors from the robust pool of ACS volunteer leaders residing within their boundaries. These individuals include but are not limited to the active and engaged members of ACS international chemical sciences chapters described in a recent Comment by the chair of IAC.

The petition does not change the process for authorizing councilors from each local section and councilors from each division, the ability of individual ACS members to join the local section of their choosing, or the ability of a local section to annex territory, as described in a recent Comment by the chair of the Committee on Local Section Activities. No local section or division will lose councilors because of this petition. The addition of councilors elected by zones will increase the size of the council by a modest amount. All ACS members will have representation geographically and through any divisions they choose to join.

At council meetings, the main change—and this is an important and valuable change—is that new voices will contribute to and enrich the deliberations. Science is a global enterprise. For ACS to continue to lead as the premier scientific professional organization and yield the greatest positive impact for society, we must leverage the talents of the global ACS membership community.

CPC welcomes questions and comments about the petition: cpc@acs.org.

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