Welcome to New Chairs and Officers!

The year 2004 is here! A new year means new local section chairs, new LS officers, new committee chairs, and new committee members. And, of course, a new year of activities. That’s a lot of organizing for a new chair! Many of you participated in our leadership conferences last year and are therefore well prepared to manage and lead. We look forward to hearing of your many successes as the year progresses.

As we begin another year, it’s up to you, new chairs and officers, to make sure your local section structure is sound and well organized. We have helped you get trained; now it’s your turn to train a new team. This is the time to set goals for your officers and committees. In addition, it is important for the section as a unit to set goals and establish an amicable, productive working relationship. Sound ambitious? Perhaps, but I know you can do it! You remember “SMART” (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-specific) goals, and you also have a lot of resources to share with your group. In addition, ACS staff members are ready to answer questions and provide information. There are also 24 councilors on the Local Section Activities Committee (LSAC) who want to see you succeed and want to help.

We are already hard at work planning the next leadership conference—a mega conference—scheduled for February 6-8 in New Orleans. There will be only one leadership conference this year, and registration is already open. Make sure that your chair-elect attends. It is essential for future section activity. The advanced leadership conference will be held in early October 2004 for those who attend the February conference. Review your budgets and note the dates on your calendar. Plan, plan, plan! That is the secret to setting in motion your activities for the coming year. The spring national meeting is scheduled for Anaheim, March 28-April 1; the fall meeting will take place in Philadelphia, August 22-26. Start making arrangements now for your councilors to attend to assure that your section has a full complement of councilors at each meeting.

Tip to chairs: Don’t attempt to do everything yourselves. Instead, appoint committees and get other members to buy into the goals you have set. This will enable you to spend your time on more creative endeavors. For those in medium to very large sections: Appoint a councilor coordinator. Why? To find out which councilors can attend a national meeting and which ones cannot—early enough to involve an alternate, if necessary. The coordinator can also collect reports from councilors after each meeting. That will allow you and the secretary to take care of other important tasks. If you keep everyone busy and coordinated, your responsibilities become fewer—mainly, talk to each of the coordinators (read committee chairs, etc.) you’ve appointed and have them report to you their progress and their problems, and to poke, prod, and help if needed. If you appoint dependable, efficient leaders, you won’t need to be so concerned with details. You will need only to monitor their work occasionally. This leaves you with more free time to plan new activities.

At last year’s spring meeting, your council approved a petition to fund local sections and divisions, and the board and general membership subsequently gave their approval. Part of that petition established an annual fund of $115,000 for local sections. The Executive Committee of LSAC prepared guidelines for the new local section Innovative Projects Fund. Under these guidelines a local section may apply to LSAC for funds to initiate innovative projects with other local sections and/or with divisions. Sections can request up to $3,000, none of which can be used for honoraria, alcohol, or meals.

In the first round of proposals (submitted by the October 1, 2003, deadline), the Executive Committee was careful to look for innovative projects that proposed cooperation with a division(s) or other local section(s). The Executive Committee (five of us) read and judged each of the proposals and funded a total of $ 38,500 in the October 1 competition. This leaves $76,500 for the April 1, 2004, submission date. So put on your creative thinking caps and get to work! New projects are fun to plan and carry out, and interaction with another local section and/or division is challenging and exciting. We’re looking for new, innovative, cooperative projects. Some committee members like to see chemistry incorporated into the new projects. A list of projects that have been funded thus far will soon be available.

Here’s to the best of new, local section, cooperative activities in 2004.

New Year salutations and felicitations to all!

Yorke E. Rhodes, Chair
Local Section Activities Committee

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