A Natural-Born Leader

Leadership isn't a trait we're born with. Rather, it's learned and honed and shaped and developed over time. After an individual has earned one or more degrees in chemistry and has been sufficiently active in a local section of the American Chemical Society to become nominated for office, he or she might well have acquired a goodly amount of leadership knowledge and skills. Yet even those with a substantial leadership arsenal may not recognize what it takes to organize and manage an ACS local section in ways that will lead to meaningful accomplishments.

That's the reason ACS began providing leadership development opportunities for local section leaders back in the 1960s. The content has evolved over the decades so that today we have a long record of highly rated conferences—conferences that consistently net overall ratings of well above 4.0 on a 5-point rating scale. Therefore today we can claim with unwavering confidence that participants in an ACS leadership conference will learn how to

• Generate a set of goals for committees to follow during the year as a means of moving the section toward desired accomplishments.
• Allocate funds for each goal to assure that each is achievable.
• Recruit—and keep—sufficient numbers of volunteers to enable each goal to become a reality.
• Communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, news about local section progress and obstacles encountered (there's some of each in all sections).
• Delegate work to fellow officers (Executive Committee members), committee chairs, and others in order to achieve widespread buy-in and accomplishment of goals while at the same time avoiding burnout for him- or herself.
• Organize Executive Committee meetings that are purposeful and productive time after time.
• Produce a series of local section meetings that are perennially successful—i.e., that offer substantive chemistry-related information, provide opportunities for members and guests to network, are enjoyable, and start and end on time.
• Recognize, acknowledge, and celebrate successes throughout the year.
• Use a bevy of ACS tools and resources developed specially for local sections.

Local section officers are invited to participate in two leadership conferences in 2004. One is the "ACS Leaders Conference," which will be held February 6-8 in New Orleans. While designed for the chair-elect, the conference is open to any officer of the section (including councilor). This is a "nuts-and-bolts" conference that prepares each participant for the year ahead. It's also a conference that provides an abundance of networking opportunities, not only with fellow local section officers nationwide, but also with four other groups of ACS leaders who will be meeting in the same hotel at the same time: new Board and Council committee chairs, division leaders, regional meeting planners, and career coordinators, not to mention chairs of Technician Affiliate Groups (who enroll in the local section track). In fact, several general sessions bring all of these groups together to study leadership matters of common/overlapping interest. Meals and social activities, as well as networking breaks, offer additional opportunities to form contacts that will be of ongoing help to each leader for months and years to come.

At a minimum, the current chair-elect should register for this event. Several local sections send more than one officer each year. The return on investment more than offsets the expenses incurred by the local section (with ACS underwriting the bulk of the expenses). For more details about the February conference, click here.

Officers who attend the February conference will be eligible to register for the Second Annual Advanced Leadership Conference (St. Louis, October 8-10). At the October conference, participants will learn how to lead—TRULY LEAD—their local sections in ways that positively impact the field of chemistry. Not only will participants learn how to determine their own individual leadership strengths and weaknesses and how to play to those areas in which they excel, but they will also learn how to influence all spheres of the profession and the public at large—industrial, academic, philanthropic, and governmental.

The February conference equips officers with the know-how to get local sections organized and up and running. The October conference helps them focus exclusively on their individual leadership styles and identify the arenas in which they can exert influence during their term of office. It's a one-two punch that simply is unheard of in other associations.

Still need convincing that either or both conferences is worth the time away from home and work—and the expense to the local section? Click here for unsolicited testimonials from recent participants.

Registering for the February conference is only a click away . Make sure that your local section is among those that get a head start on the coming year, and a heads-up on the spheres of influence throughout your service area. ACS wants you and your section to be fully and completely successful. After all, the more successful local sections are, the more chemists will be drawn to and retained in membership. While there's no such thing as a natural-born leader, there's a lot that can be done to become one. The choice is yours!

Dale Gaddy
Manager, Office of Local Section Activities

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