Official Reports from the ACS Board

The major actions taken by the ACS Board of Directors at its Nov. 30-Dec. 3, 2006, meeting in Arlington, Va., were reported in the Dec. 11, 2006, issue of C&EN (page 13).

Reports of Society Committees

Budget & Finance

The Society Committee on Budget & Finance met on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006, to review the society's 2006 probable financial performance and to consider the 2007 proposed operating and capital budgets. In addition, the committee received an information report on the society's 2008-09 financial forecasts. The society is expected to end 2006 with a net contribution from operations of $11,748,000, or $7,406,000 favorable to the approved budget. After inclusion of the activities of the Member Insurance Program, the society's projected net contribution for 2006 is $10,957,000, or $6,865,000 favorable to the 2006 approved budget. In addition, the society is projected to end the year in compliance with all of the board-established financial guidelines.

The committee considered a proposal from the Council Committee on Meetings & Expositions (M&E) regarding the 2007 national meeting registration fees. M&E recommended a departure from the normal escalation of fee increases outlined in the National Meeting Long-Range Financial Plan approved by the ACS Board and Council. The committee was concerned that keeping the advance member registration fee for 2007 the same as the fee for 2006 (i.e., $305) would have a long-term negative impact on the society's financial position. Therefore, the committee voted to recommend to the ACS Board of Directors, in accord with the long-range financial plan for ACS national meetings approved in December 1999, that it approve an advance member registration fee of $320 for 2007 national meetings.

The committee reviewed the 2007 proposed operating and capital budgets. After discussion, the committee voted to recommend to the board of directors that it approve a 2007 proposed operating budget with a projected net contribution of $7,603,000, subject to further board actions at this meeting. The committee also voted to recommend to the board of directors that it approve the 2007 proposed capital budget of $29,288,000.—Judith L. Benham, chair

Board Committee Reports

Grants & Awards

Acting under delegated authority, the Committee on Grants & Awards (G&A) voted to:

Accept the recommendations of the ACS Petroleum Research Fund Advisory Board (September 2006 meeting) for funding grants totaling $8.4 million;

Approve the proposal from the Green Chemistry Institute for funding through the ACS PRF, titled "Regional Green Chemistry Laboratory";

Invite the current sponsors of eight national awards to renew their sponsorships, which are scheduled to expire after the 2008 award presentation; and

Make selection committee members for a particular award known to each other.

The committee voted to recommend to the board of directors that the ACS Award in Industrial Chemistry, the Arthur W. Adamson Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Surface Chemistry, the ACS Award for Computers in Chemical & Pharmaceutical Research, and the E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy be financially supported by ACS for the 2008 presentation unless a sponsor is found to support them.

C. Gordon McCarty discussed with the committee the newly appointed Special Board Task Force on the Review of the ACS National Awards Program, chaired by Ron Breslow. Other members of the task force include Paul Anderson, Jacqueline Barton, Joseph Francisco, and Nancy Jackson. The task force will review several of the 22 recommendations resulting from the Raber Report.

Howard Peters updated the committee on the activities of the G&A Working Group and its efforts to develop a process for the periodic review of the ACS national awards.

The committee considered the establishment of a new award, the ACS Award for Achievement in Affordable Ecofriendly Chemistry, sponsored by Rohm and Haas.—C. Gordon McCarty, chair

Professional & Member Relations

Acting under delegated authority, the Committee on Professional & Member Relations (P&MR) voted to approve requests for nominal cosponsorships of the International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic & Medicinal Chemistry (ASMC07), which will be held Aug. 28-Sept. 1 in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Conference on Chemical & Biological Sensors and Detectors, which will be held April 22-24 in London, and a request for cooperative cosponsorship of the Frontiers in CNS & Oncology Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, which will be held Oct. 7-9 in Siena, Italy. A cosponsorship request for the third iteration of the ACS/MRS/IEEE Workshop on Organic Microelectronics was approved by the chair and the ACS Secretary's Office.

The committee reviewed a proposal from the Colegio de QuÍmicos de Puerto Rico (CQPR) requesting that ACS serve as a cooperative cosponsor of the International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) 43rd World Chemistry Congress and the 46th IUPAC General Assembly meeting in San Juan, P.R., July 30-Aug. 7, 2011.

CQPR is in the process of formally submitting its bid to IUPAC before the 2007 deadline. The total request for funding from ACS is $100,000, with the majority ($75,000) to be spent in 2011. These funds will be offered back to the ACS technical divisions or ACS multidisciplinary topical groups through a competitive request for proposals to develop technical symposia for the event. The remaining $25,000 would be spent for travel by ACS representatives to organizational meetings held during 2008-11.

The committee voted to recommend that the ACS Board of Directors approve the request for cooperative cosponsorship of the IUPAC 43rd World Chemistry Congress and the 46th IUPAC General Assembly meeting in San Juan, P.R., July 30-Aug. 7, 2011.

P&MR received a briefing on the Report on Electronic Technologies and voted to recommend to the ACS Board of Directors that the society continue to review evolving information and communication technologies formally and periodically, on a continuing basis. P&MR also voted to recommend the following motion: "It is the sense of the ACS Board of Directors that the society should encourage and foster use of contemporary electronic technologies with, and among, its members."

The committee received a briefing on ACS International Strategy. It included a benchmarking presentation that outlined the relevant activities of several peer organizations. Committee members submitted ideas on the subject of specific international opportunities and threats confronting the society. The committee was asked to identify key stakeholders for inclusion in the next steps of the development of an international strategy. Staff was asked to map the various threats and opportunities identified through this process and present the findings to the committee.—Kent J. Voorhees, chair

Public Affairs & Public Relations

The Committee on Public Affairs & Public Relations (PA&PR) met on Nov. 30, 2006, and, acting under delegated authority from the board of directors, took the following actions:

Approved a new public policy statement on inherently safer technology;

Extended four public policy statements set to expire in December 2006—visa restrictions, federal government's role in 21st-century environmental protection and laboratory regulation (each for a period of three years), and employment nondiscrimination (for a period of one year); and

Approved the nomination of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a National Historic Chemical Landmark.

The committee voted to recommend that the board of directors:

Approve the new ACS biennial Public Policy Priorities for 2007-08; and

Approve the nomination of three recipients for the 2007 ACS Public Service Award.

The committee received updates from the chair on attainment of the committee's 2006 goals; advocacy efforts undertaken by ACS members, ACS presidential succession, and governance; OLGA and PA&PR Web usage statistics; and a year-end review of PA&PR 2006 accomplishments.

The committee also received detailed presentations from staff on the issues and opportunities in the emerging debate on public access to federally funded research, ACS advocacy efforts to promote adoption of legislation to foster U.S. innovation and competitiveness, results of an ACS-led public opinion study on the issue of evolution and intelligent design issues in the classroom, and the development of an ACS speech repository.—Diane Grob Schmidt, chair

Central Regional Meeting Call for Papers

Abstracts are requested for the 39th Central Regional Meeting (CERMACS 2007), which will be held May 21-23, in Covington, Ky.

CERMACS 2007 will be held at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, in Covington, and will be hosted by the ACS Cincinnati Section. Use the meeting website, www.cermacs2007.org, to submit an abstract, to register for the meeting, and to get information updates.

The meeting will feature technical sessions on such topics as forensics in the classroom, chemistry of obesity, chiral separations, photochemistry, flavor chemistry, and phosphorus chemistry. Two multiday symposia, "Illuminating Molecules" and "Chemical & Biological Sensors," are also planned.

The meeting will include a symposium on investigative forensic science presented by William Dean, chief of forensic sciences at the Hamilton County, Ohio, coroner's office. A special session, "Fantastic Four Science Guys," featuring demonstrations by Bassam Shakhashiri, David Katz, Al Hazari, and John Fortman, will be open to the public.

An ambitious program for undergraduate and graduate students is also planned. Students are strongly encouraged to submit their research for presentation at oral and poster sessions.

An exposition will be held at the meeting. Interested vendors should contact Robert Voorhees, (513) 556-9297 or Robert.voorhees@uc.edu; or Michael Kurutz, (866) 396-6765 or kurutz@MeasureNet-Tech.com, for more details.

Abstracts submission and housing reservation information are on the CERMACS website. The deadline for abstracts is March 26.

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