How to Ease the Workload of the Executive Committee in the Small-to-Medium-Size Local Sections

The Executive Committee of a local section consists of an elected chair, a chair-elect, a secretary, a treasurer, and a councilor. The offices of secretary and treasurer may be combined; however, both of these positions have specific reporting responsibilities to the Society at the national level. For example, one of the primary responsibilities of the secretary is maintenance of the local section membership list and other section records. The most important task of the treasurer is to complete and submit the financial summary, or Part III, of the annual report, due February 15 every year. If this report is not filed, the local section will not receive its allotment from the national office.

Because the members of the Executive Committee have defined roles, it is often necessary for them to seek assistance from other members of the section and from the community. The chair should consider asking each officer to identify at least one additional member to take responsibility for a single project. In addition, he/she may ask the membership for a volunteer to assist with a current or future activity. The operative word is “ASK”. For example, the Chemistry Olympiad Committee could certainly include members from the high school community. Reach out—ask a high school teacher to sit on the committee. Any number of non-voting members can be appointed to committee positions at the discretion of the chair, and they are not required to be members of the ACS.

Another example to consider is to suggest that a group of senior members form a committee to plan activities for their peers. The senior group should be in charge of posting their own meeting notices on the section web page and be responsible for planning events such as quarterly dinners for the senior chemists. By designating planning of this type to a core committee, the Executive Committee can then focus more on the operations of the section. In addition, a committee such as a senior chemists committee can help to involve more members, improve the activities and outreach of the section, make recruitment of officers easier, and reduce the workload of the chair.

Your section has a wealth of human resources. Just ASK them to volunteer!

Maurice R. Smith
Local Section Assistance & Development Subcommittee
ACS Committee on Local Section Activities

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