Council Creates Ethics Committee

When it met last month during the national meeting in San Diego, the American Chemical Society Council had a full slate. It created an ethics committee, chose candidates for the fall society elections, and increased member dues. The council also heard reports from committee representatives.

Creation of a society committee devoted to ethics was a contentious issue. At the previous council meeting in Philadelphia, a similar motion had been sent back to the Committee on Committees (ConC) on a voice vote. At the time, councilors expressed their desire to better familiarize themselves with the concept and mission of the committee.

In San Diego, ConC recommended that the ethics committee be created with the following charge: "To coordinate the ethics-related activities of the society; to serve as an educational resource and clearinghouse, but not as an adjudication body, for ACS members seeking guidance on ethics issues; to raise awareness of ethics issues through meeting programming and columns/editorials; to review recognition opportunities for acknowledging ethical behavior; and to develop and oversee such other ethics-related activities as will serve ACS members and promote the society's standards of ethical conduct within the profession of chemistry and its related disciplines."

The motion to create the committee led to spirited debate from both pro and con camps. Lee H. Latimer of the California Section moved that the function of the ethics committee be assigned to the Committee on Economic & Professional Affairs' existing Subcommittee on Standards & Ethics. The motion was subsequently defeated. Councilors then voted to create the ethics committee as an ongoing "other committee of the council" to be made up of nine members.

The council also voted to continue the Committee on Project SEED, per ConC's recommendation. As part of its charge, ConC is required to review each joint board-council and other committee no less often than every five years and then advise the board of directors and council on whether the committees should be continued.

Councilors also chose candidates for the fall society elections. They first heard brief speeches from the four industry representatives put forward for consideration for 2006 ACS president-elect by the Committee on Nominations & Elections (N&E). The candidates were Pat N. Confalone, DuPont, Wilmington, Del.; Catherine T. Hunt, Rohm and Haas, Spring House, Pa.; John W. Kozarich, ActivX Biosciences, La Jolla, Calif.; and Cynthia A. Maryanoff, Cordis Corp., Spring House, Pa. The four candidates also participated in a town hall meeting earlier in the week to make presentations and answer questions.

Hunt and Kozarich were selected by the council to run in the fall presidential election. After that, N&E announced that George E. Heinze, Rockland Technimed, Rockland, N.Y., had been certified as a petition candidate. The winner of the election will serve a three-year term in ACS's presidential succession, from 2006 to 2008.

N&E also announced previously selected candidates for 2006–08 District III and VI directors and directors-at-large. For the District III position, the candidates are Catherine C. Fenselau and incumbent Madeleine M. Joulli. For District VI, the candidates are Bonnie A. Charpentier and incumbent Stanley H. Pine. Two directors-at-large will be selected from among four candidates: incumbent James D. Burke, Edwin A. Chandross, incumbent C. Gordon McCarty, and Frankie K. Wood-Black.

ALL OF THESE candidates, plus any additional petition candidates certified by the July 15 deadline, will be placed on the official election ballot that will be mailed to ACS members in the fall.

N&E announced that it will retain a 750-word limit on candidate statements, per an earlier vote. (These are the statements that run in Chemical & Engineering News and are included with ballots for elections.) N&E also announced that it had withdrawn a petition for further improvements. Most likely, a modified form of the petition, which deals with procedures for multiple-candidate elections, will be presented for consideration to the council at the fall national meeting in Washington, D.C.

Stephen A. Rodemeyer, vice chair of the Committee on Budget & Finance (B&F), had positive news to report to the council on ACS's 2004 financial status. After factoring in proceeds from the Member Insurance Program and the sale of the Belmont Conference Center, the society's net contribution for 2004 was $4,465,000, which was $3,229,000 favorable to the approved budget. The favorable variance was due primarily to staff vacancies; reductions in information technology spending; and reductions in discretionary spending in such areas as travel, consulting, and marketing. In 2003, year-end financial performance was $811,000 better than had been budgeted. On the recommendation of B&F, the council voted to raise 2006 dues from $123 to the fully escalated $127.

James D. Burke, chair of the ACS Board of Directors, announced to council that the board rewrote its governing regulations at its December 2004 meeting to include a set of goals for the board to guide its activities and actions.

The board also reviewed and approved several recommendations from the January Financial Planning Conference and voted to create a Joint Board-Council Policy Committee (CPC) Task Force on Governance Review (subsequently approved by CPC) to review the society's governance structure and its constitution and bylaws.

In addition, the board reviewed the temporary assessment on dues--used to cover the costs of increased funding to divisions and local sections--and voted to reduce the 2006 assessment to $5.00 from $6.00 in light of the society's favorable financial performance.

Joseph A. Heppert, chair of the Society Committee on Education, reported that SOCED had received an update from the Committee on Professional Training on revising guidelines for ACS-approved degree programs. It also voted to support a pilot program to foster high school chemistry clubs.

The Committee on Science announced that its programming at the fall national meeting will include programs titled "The Changing Practice of Graduate Research: The Bayh-Dole Act 25 Years Later," "Impact of U.S. Government Policy on Green Chemistry," "Meeting Scientific Workforce Needs of 2015," "Impact of Globalization on Materials Research," and "Chemistry, the Great Challenges: Molecular Medicine," as well as a lunchbox discussion on ACS President William F. Carroll's project, Chemistry Enterprise 2015. Councilors also held a 30-minute discussion titled "Enterprise 2015: Where Will Our Students Come From in the Next 10 Years, and Where Will They Go?"

According to the report from the Committee on Meetings & Expositions, the San Diego meeting drew nearly 16,000 attendees. There were 15,739 total registrants: 8,499 regular attendees, 1,633 exhibitors, 4,296 students, 704 exhibition-only attendees, and 607 guests.

There was little change in official society membership numbers during 2004. The year-end total of 158,127 members was a drop of less than 1% for the year, according to a report from Joseph R. Peterson, chair of the Committee on Membership Affairs (MAC). In addition, MAC passed a "365 in 2005" resolution, emphasizing recruiting one new member for each day of the year.

Dwight W. Chasar, chair of the Committee on Divisional Activities, announced that two divisions are celebrating milestone anniversaries in 2005: the Division of Chemical Health & Safety and the Division of Small Chemical Businesses both turn 25 this year.

Will E. Lynch, chair of the Local Section Activities Committee, said that LSAC will host a second leadership conference in 2005, in Memphis in October, following up on the January event in Baltimore. He also announced that this year the North Central Oklahoma and Western Michigan Sections will be celebrating their 50th anniversaries; the Dayton, East Tennessee, Mo-Kan-Ok, and Northeast Wisconsin Sections will be celebrating their 75th anniversaries; and the Iowa and Western New York Sections will celebrate their 100th anniversaries.

According to Marinda Li Wu, chair of the Committee on Economic & Professional Affairs (CEPA), the Chemjobs Career Center had 1,344 job seekers registered for the service, with 1,410 interviews scheduled for 189 positions; 32 career workshops were presented. These numbers were down from last August in Philadelphia, where the career center debuted with 1,556 job seekers registered and 107 employers conducting 1,639 interviews for 303 jobs posted.

Wu also reported that job seekers may register for regional meeting employment centers online, as they currently can with the national meetings. CEPA is also currently conducting its ChemCensus 2005 survey. ChemCensus is a comprehensive survey of ACS members undertaken every five years.

M. Elizabeth Derrick, chair of the Committee on Constitution & Bylaws, reported that C&B had approved new versions of its guideline documents for the amendment of local section and division bylaws and guidelines for incorporation. New petitions to amend the ACS constitution or bylaws are due by May 11 to be included in the agenda for consideration by the council in Washington, D.C.

Members of the Committee on Project SEED announced that during the national meeting in Philadelphia, they had adopted a motion to increase student stipends by 30% for the following year, with the goal of doubling stipend levels from 2004 levels in four years.

The Committee on International Activities formed a task force to study the issue of globalization in response to the Chemistry Enterprise 2015 challenge during its open-session meeting in Philadelphia. It also accepted recommendations from a task force reviewing the International Initiatives program, which will focus on countries in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa in 2005.