Dear Colleagues,

In an article in the Sept. 22 online edition of C&EN I stated ACS is reviewing how we can best help our members, students, and academic, government, and corporate institutions affected by the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ike.

Let me say at the outset that although the damage was horrible and heart-wrenching, this situation appears to be different from Hurricane Katrina in terms of scope and the impact on our members, students, and chemistry departments. Again, our hearts go out to those who have lost their homes, and our immediate concerns, beyond the health and safety of the residents, are in areas where we can help most effectively.

ACS's expertise is in science, education, information technology, and communications. Accordingly, we are working to use our own particular expertise in areas that address the needs of our stakeholders. Our committees and divisions possessing expertise in environmental science and chemical health and safety are ready to share that expertise with state and federal environmental authorities, if such is needed. We asked our staff and governance units to consider ways in which their units (and the society) can offer assistance to those ACS members and others in the chemical enterprise who were negatively affected by the storm. We continue to encourage members to donate to relevant agencies who are able to address immediate short-term disaster relief.

To summarize some of what we have done so far:

■ Chemical Abstracts Service is providing relief for customers similar to what it did for Katrina: All impacted schools and industrial customers will benefit from suspended payment terms to cover any periods where there were service outages or disruptions. Also, affected schools will be shifted to the lowest possible pricing level during the period of diminished use following the outages.

■ ACS Publications continues to ship print copies of C&EN and journals to the affected region.

■ Education Division staff members, with assistance from a Society Committee on Education member at the University of Houston, contacted ACS members at universities in the region. Most universities have reopened already. We are seeking to identify any need for textbooks and lab equipment. Membership staff members contacted the five local sections in the affected region to assess their needs.

■ Ballots for the ACS national election will be mailed on Sept. 29. There will be two e-mail reminders for those who have not voted which will explain how they can get a replacement ballot if they failed to receive theirs in the mail.

We're all trying to do our part. As ACS president, I welcome additional suggestions of ways we can help via e-mail to president@acs.org, and I urge you to keep giving and volunteering to aid in the relief and rebuilding efforts needed to overcome this disaster.

Bruce E. Bursten
ACS President