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Rochester Section. (Retired) Eastman Kodak, Rochester, New York.
Honors: ACS Volunteer Service Award, 2017; ACS Fellow, 2017; Northeast Region ACS Volunteer Award, 2006; Special Recognition Award, ACS Division of Chemical Technicians, 2005, 2002; ACS Rochester Section Award, 2005, 2001; ACS Rochester Section, “Salutes to Excellence” Award, 2004.
Professional positions (for past 10 years): Eastman Kodak, senior research associate, 1969–2011; Division Health, Safety and Environmental director, 2000–2011.
Service in ACS national offices: Committee on Committees, 2017–19; Committee on Nominations and Elections, 2011–16, chair, 2015–16; Council Policy Committee (nonvoting), 2014–16, 2008–10; Committee on Membership Affairs, 2008–11, chair, 2008–10, committee associate, 2007; Board of Trustees, Group Insurance Plans, 2008–10, ex officio, 2008–9; Committee on Admissions, 2002–7, consultant, 2008, chair, 2003–05, committee associate, 2000–2001; Committee on Technician Affairs, 1998–2003, chair, 2000–2002, committee associate, 1997; ACS Governance Review Taskforce, 2005; Board Oversight Group on Leadership Development, 2005.
Service in ACS offices: Rochester Section: councilor, 2008–19, 1999–2003; chair, 2007; chair-elect, 2006; secretary, 2005; alternate councilor, 2004, 1998–99; treasurer, 1995–97. Division of Business Development and Management: immediate past chair, 2016; chair, 2015; chair-elect 2014. Division of Chemical Technicians:councilor, 2007–9; chair, 1997; chair-elect, 1996; Membership Committee, chair, 1998. Northeast Regional Board of Directors: chair, 2013–16; vice chair, 2007–12. Northeast Regional Meeting: on–site coordinator, 2020; Organizing Committee, 2012; general chair, 2004.
Member: Member of ACS since 1994; ACS division:Business Development and Management.
Related activities: Facilitator for ACS Leadership course Collaborating across Boundaries.
Cobb’s statement
Why am I running for ACS director-at-large?
I want to make a difference in how we function as a membership society. We live in a new world now, yet we seem to keep trying to solve new problems with answers based on how we have done business for the last 150 years. It is time for a fresh approach and a new direction.
My vision. An expanding, flexible professional society built upon and established for the individual needs of its members.
My mission.To replace a bureaucracy, built upon a 150-year foundation of “one-size glove fits all,” with a responsive and flexible membership society meeting the individual needs of its members, its local sections, its divisions, and its international chapters.
My history: I have served in the following leadership roles within the ACS:
▸ Local section—every leadership role
▸ Division—chair
▸ Regional meetings—chair and other roles on organizing committees for three regional meetings
▸ Regional board—chair
▸ National committees—chair of three national committees
From my own experience, I have witnessed many of the problems and roadblocks we run into trying to serve our fellow members. This is frustrating, and often all we want is someone to help show the way. However, there are also times when we are begging for the bureaucracy to just get out of our way. When I became involved in ACS, it was at a time when people with my professional background were not allowed to be full members of the society. Technicians were seen more as helping hands than chemists. Move forward to my second leadership role as chair of the Committee on Membership Affairs when we acquired council approval of the bylaw change that allowed full membership for both technicians and students. I do not consider adversity as an enemy. I consider it a character builder. I do not worry about roadblocks—I seek solutions.
My theme:
Give me a need . . .
Give me a problem . . .
Give me a challenge . . .
Give me a chance!
My record. I am willing to try new approaches and have taken daring steps to make the changes needed to reshape my local section, my division, my committees, and ACS, as a whole—solutions that are applicable to today’s world and today’s member needs. I seek common-sense approaches to uncommon problems, and I come from a strong conviction that the best solutions are built from the bottom up, not dictated from the top down.
My idea of key problems facing the ACS
▸ Declining membership, much of that from industry.
▸ Increasing international membership, yet we are unsure how to handle it.
▸ Living in a time when loyalty to membership is of the past. It may be ACS—it may be a church. Once one finds little value in response to their needs, they move on.
My ideas for change
▸ Fast-track a plan for à la carte membership, allowing members to individualize their own membership and value. Imagine an ACS where each member, not governance, creates the membership and its value!
▸ Refocus international efforts around each of the individual international chapters and their needs, rather than using general terms such as “international membership,” “international benefits,” or “international representation on governance.” Each chapter, as each nation, is individual with individual needs. It is time we treated them and respected them as such.
▸ Establish an ACS Industrial Relations Council, to replace (the old) Corporation Associates, made up of key leaders from larger chemical corporations as well as upcoming new small chemical businesses and incubator companies.
▸ Reevaluate the burden we place on our members in the organizing of regional meetings. In my opinion, there is no harder task placed on the shoulder of our volunteers than this— with a terrible financial responsibility. I want to work with N&E and the ACS Office of Meetings to develop more opportunities to help in planning, and offer more services to help lighten that heavy burden off the shoulders of our volunteers.
My principles and my core values, in my opinion, are expressed best in “The Elements of Leadership” document and my keynote address before the 2017 ChemLuminary Awards event. Please visit my website at cobbfordirector.com to view these documents and other aspects of my candidacy.
So why am I running? To offer a new spirit of leadership to ACS, to bridge the gap between governance and membership—and to hopefully have you join me in making 2020 a vision of change for the ACS.
Candidates will not be notified of comments left on this webpage. To contact this candidate directly, email DCOBB4@rochester.rr.com.
This story was updated on Sept. 13, 2019. Due to a production error, Richard Cobb's name was spelled incorrectly in the headline of this story.
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