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Policy

ACS Board Elects Chair, Executive Committee Members

Vacancies filled and leaders elected at december meeting of society's top governance body

by Linda R. Raber
February 1, 2010 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 88, Issue 5

PRESIDENTIAL
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Credit: Linda Wang/C&EN
Jackson (from left), Francisco, and Lane are the current ACS presidential succession and serve on the ACS Board of Directors and its Executive Committee.
Credit: Linda Wang/C&EN
Jackson (from left), Francisco, and Lane are the current ACS presidential succession and serve on the ACS Board of Directors and its Executive Committee.

At its meeting held on Dec. 3–5, 2009, in Arlington, Va., the ACS Board of Directors elected Bonnie Charpentier for a one-year term as its chair. It also selected three members to fill open slots on its Executive Committee: Diane Grob Schmidt, Eric C. Bigham, and William F. Carroll Jr. Schmidt was elected for a two-year term, Bigham will serve the remaining year of a two-year term previously h eld by Charpentier, and Carroll was elected for a one-year term.

As chair of the ACS Board, Charpentier is also chair of its Executive Committee. Current members of the ACS presidential succession—Nancy B. Jackson, Joseph S. Francisco, and Thomas H. Lane—are ex officio members of the Executive Committee. The ACS executive director and chief executive officer, Madeleine Jacobs, is the sole nonvoting ex officio member of the Executive Committee.

The duties of the committee are spelled out in the society's bylaws: "The primary responsibilities of the Executive Committee shall be to act ad interim for the Board of Directors in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, and to provide oversight for all employee personnel policies and practices administered by the Executive Director."

For members who wish to observe, the ACS Board of Directors will meet in an open session on Sunday, March 21, from 10 AM to noon at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco.

In addition to electing its Executive Committee, the board received various committee reports. These are printed here.

Society Committee Report

Budget & Finance

The Society Committee on Budget & Finance reviewed the society's 2009 probable financial performance and considered the 2010 proposed operating and capital budgets.

The society is expected to end 2009 with a net contribution from operations of $11,530,000, or $858,000 favorable to the approved budget. After including the Member Insurance Program and new ventures, the society's projected net contribution for 2009 is $11,611,000, or $2,256,000 favorable to the approved budget. The society is projected to end the year in compliance with four of the five board-established financial guidelines.

Finally, the committee voted to recommend to the ACS Board of Directors that it approve a 2010 proposed operating budget with a projected net contribution of $10,810,000. The committee also voted to recommend to the ACS Board that it approve the 2010 proposed capital budget of $23,384,000.—Dennis Chamot, Chair

LEADERS
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Credit: Linda Wang/C&EN
Charpentier (right) is the newly elected chair of the ACS Board of Directors and also chairs the Executive Committee, of which ACS Executive Director and CEO Jacobs is an ex officio member.
Credit: Linda Wang/C&EN
Charpentier (right) is the newly elected chair of the ACS Board of Directors and also chairs the Executive Committee, of which ACS Executive Director and CEO Jacobs is an ex officio member.

Board Committee Reports

Grants & Awards

The ACS Board Committee on Grants & Awards (G&A) received the report that the Awards Impact Survey was sent in early November to the 2010 ACS national award recipients. The purpose of the survey was to collect data regarding the ways in which the ACS national awards program has altered the professional status of the 72 award winners.

Based on survey results, approximately 10 award winners will be asked to participate in in-depth, videotaped interviews (during the spring national meeting in San Francisco) focused on how their accomplishments can be and are used to improve the lives of everyday people. The series of interviews will be called "Prized Science," and the committee previewed a draft version of the first in the series, an interview with the 2010 Priestley Medalist, Richard Zare. The series will consist of six videos for students and nonscientists that will be posted to YouTube, the ACS Awards website, Twitter, ACS Press Pac, and others. The videos will also be used for promotional purposes, to illustrate best practices, to communicate the contributions that chemists make, and to add to performance measurement data.

The Awards Review Committee reported that it held a conference call to discuss process improvements for 2010. Acting under delegated authority, G&A voted to accept the guidelines for review of national awards, dated Nov. 10, 2009, with minor revisions.

Acting under delegated authority, the committee also voted to adopt the purpose, nature, and eligibility statements for the Parsons Award and the Priestley Medal as they appear on the ACS website and to invite the 2010 G&A Subcommittee on Nominations to develop a shorter nomination form for the national awards program.

Staff from the ACS Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) presented an update on the financial status of PRF. For fiscal 2009, ACS PRF funded 299 grants in support of advanced scientific education and fundamental research in the petroleum field for a combined total of $19.4 million. The ACS Committee on Pensions & Investments authorized a distribution of 5% of the end-of-the-year, three-year rolling average for fiscal 2010. It is estimated that this would give PRF a grant budget of approximately $18.5 million for fiscal 2010, assuming the financial markets remain the same or increase by the end of the year.

The committee discussed the request from the Division of Chemical Health & Safety to include safety as part of the award review process. At the August G&A meeting, the committee asked staff to draft a statement regarding the importance of safety. After a lengthy discussion, the committee decided not to add a statement regarding safety to the administrative guidelines on the awards website.

G&A was briefed on the status of the ACS Fellows Program, and acting under delegated authority, the committee voted to appoint a small transition working group for the program.

The committee then discussed whether ACS national award winners must be members of the society, and it was decided that ACS award winners do not need to be ACS members.

Acting under delegated authority, the committee voted to add the National Women's Hall of Fame to the list of external awards for which ACS generates a nomination, and the Committee on Patents & Related Matters has agreed to prepare the nomination materials for this award. G&A then voted to recommend to the ACS Board of Directors the Committee on Patents & Related Matters' selection of Helen M. Free, Edith M. Flanigen, and Ruth R. Benerito as the society's nominees for the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Acting under delegated authority, G&A voted to add the National Science Board Public Service Award to the list of external awards for which ACS generates a nomination, and the Committee on Public Relations & Communications has agreed to prepare the nomination materials for this award.—Eric C. Bigham, Chair

Planning

The Planning Committee met to discuss the revision of the draft ACS Strategic Plan for 2010 & Beyond in preparation for approval by the board of directors in December. Input received from governance and members over the summer was incorporated along with new content that reflects important strategic developments. Key elements of the current plan, including the vision, mission, core values, and the essence of the six society goals, will remain intact. The plan will be posted at strategy.acs.org in early 2010, along with videos of board members describing the aspirations of each goal. The committee also began environmental scanning and scenario planning. Along with staff, it will merge existing and new information to inform the next annual cycle of strategic planning.—Judith L. Benham, Chair

Professional & Member Relations

At its December meeting, consistent with the recommendation of the Membership Affairs Committee, the Committee on Professional & Member Relations (P&MR) approved a draft charter and voted to recommend to the board the establishment of a Joint Board-Presidential Task Force on Society Services & Associated Pricing Models to review dues-associated bylaws and explore changes to make ACS more competitive.

P&MR reviewed documents provided by the Professional Advancement Subcommittee and approved the proposed methodology and questionnaire content for the 2010 Membership Satisfaction Survey. P&MR also supported the subcommittee's recommendation to send a letter to the Committee on Economic & Professional Affairs (CEPA) expressing appreciation for the work of its Globalization Task Force and deference to CEPA on handling this issue going forward.

The Community & Network Building Subcommittee reported on the recommendations of the Divisional Activities Committee on the 2009 effort to post national meeting content online. Consistent with recommendations, P&MR approved the establishment of a Task Force on Electronic Dissemination of Meeting Content to set policy guidelines for this initiative. P&MR also approved a draft charter for a new P&MR subcommittee to develop and recommend policies on ACS Web strategies, continuing the work of the outgoing Board Web Advisory Group.

At the recommendation of the International Strategy Subcommittee, P&MR reviewed and voted to recommend to the board approval of draft bilateral collaboration alliance agreements with the Chinese Chemical Society and the German Chemical Society. P&MR also was briefed on recent activities to advance the International Year of Chemistry 2011, society-wide sustainability efforts, and the ACS Diversity Partner Program.—Diane Grob Schmidt, Chair

Public Affairs & Public Relations

The chair opened the meeting of the Committee on Public Affairs & Public Relations (PA&PR) by highlighting several major governance activities:

• ACS President Thomas H. Lane attended a White House press event where President Barack Obama announced the Educate to Innovate initiative.

• ACS Executive Director and CEO Madeleine Jacobs participated in a December innovation conference panel with National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins and Columbia University professor Brian Greene that discussed U.S. support for science.

• Jacobs also participated in a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress to discuss U.S. innovation strategies.

• Committee member Jan Hayes testified before a California Assembly Committee in support of an ACS-sponsored resolution to establish a California Legislative STEM Education Task Force.

• Lane attended a White House reception honoring the U.S. 2009 Nobel Laureates on Dec. 1, 2009.

The committee addressed five ACS position statements set to expire at the end of 2009 by acting on recommendations made by ACS committees and staff. The committee voted to adopt updated statements on innovation and on laboratory waste and to extend the statements on inherently safer technologies and public access to scientific research. The committee agreed to let the statement on labeling of chemicals expire.

The committee then discussed nominations received from the Committee on Chemistry & Public Affairs for the 2010 ACS Public Service Awards and voted to recommend to the full board of directors that it approve the nominations. The committee also discussed a nomination for a National Historic Chemical Landmark to recognize development of the nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer and the invention of magnetic resonance imaging and voted to approve the nomination.

PA&PR received a presentation from staff of the Office of Public Affairs (OPA). The presentation covered the following topics:

• Examination of the extensive media (print and electronic) coverage generated for the 238th national meeting held in Washington, D.C., in August, which reached a potential audience of 1.7 billion people.

• Media coverage generated by ACS has nearly doubled from 2008 to 2009. The value of this earned coverage—if ACS had to purchase the space on the basis of advertising rates—was $6.6 million for the period of May to September 2009.

• An OPA publication—"In Their Own Words"—a compendium of testimonials received from researchers whose work has been publicized by ACS.

• Details were presented on ACS President-Elect Joseph S. Francisco's participation in the NBC "Science of the Winter Olympics" series, which is set to air in February.

• A member survey revealed that 90% of respondents recognized the new ACS logo and tagline "Chemistry for Life" and that 83% were favorable to the new look. Chemistry Ambassadors now number in excess of 1,100, and local section Public Relations Committees have grown by 40% this year to 52.

• The Legislative Action Network has grown to 18,549 members, and the number of local section Government Affairs Committees has increased to 97.

• ACS legislative activities and a review of the 11 ACS Science & the Congress briefings held in 2009, with two additional briefings slated for December.

• An update on the State Government Affairs program, its achievements, and plans to leverage a modest program expansion using existing resources.

• An OPA update that covered the realignment of the National Historic Chemical Landmark program, reinstitution of the OPA Science Policy Fellow, and creation of a new Web/communications position in OPA.

The committee discussed activities that have led to the attainment of the 2009 committee goals.—Bonnie Charpentier, Chair

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