A New Year Filled with New Opportunities -Welcome to 2005!

The year 2005 will be an exciting one for us all. Many of us are assuming new positions, either moving from chair to past-chair, chair-elect to chair (this is an exciting one), new councilors, new committee chairs. I, like many of you, am assuming a new role in the American Chemical Society (ACS), that as chair of the Committee on Local Section Activities (LSAC). After 5 years on the committee and 3 years as the subcommittee chair for Technology, Tools, and Operations, I, too, have moved into a new slot. I look forward to the challenges and rewards of working in this new capacity, but mostly I look forward to working with the best people anywhere, the volunteers, and staff of the ACS. It is truly amazing all the great work that we get accomplished for our membership and our society. Much of that effort comes from our volunteers at the local section level, and it is an honor to work with each of you.

If you are a new chair, a few comments about your year at the helm: 1) Don’t forget to have fun with your responsibility and your local section. 2) Try out some new activities for your membership; the risk of a stagnant local section may be stagnant members. Try to further energize your membership with new events to reach a variety of constituencies, especially new and non-members. Thoughtful event planning can help attract chemists who haven’t had a relationship with the local section and/or the ACS in the recent past and add capital to your section. 3) Think about succession—the time is now to think about replacing yourself. As the new chair of LSAC, it is now time for me to look into the crystal ball for future leadership of LSAC and you should be thinking the same for your section.

A couple of activities in 2005 that I would like to call to your attention:

1. Innovative Grants Program: 2005 will mark the second year of this program for local sections. Last year, 44 local sections received up to $3,000 to enhance the activities for the membership at the local section level. These activities ranged from technical symposia involving one of ACS’s technical divisions, to technical symposia involving other local sections, to outreach activities, to membership drives. One thread that ran through the goals of funded projects was enhancement of the membership or chemistry in society. I challenge each local section to submit a grant this year as a way to make the 2005 activities already being performed in your section even more meaningful to the section. For information, go to http://www.acs.org/localsections. The next deadline is April 1, 2005. LSAC looks forward to receiving your proposal.

American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE): The leadership of LSAC has asked local sections to host an event this year with a sister local section of the AIChE. AIChE has local sections in many of the geographic areas that our local sections reside in, and the goal is to reach across our organization to theirs and co-host an event. Three areas of focus are a normal section meeting with a technical program, a combined awards program, and/or a younger chemist/professional event. Look at the AIChE Web site for contact information (www.aiche.org) for the local section nearest you. This is a great way to expand the reach of ACS to our engineering colleagues and a perfect way to try a new activity if your section doesn’t already have a joint ACS/AIChE event. When you do host your event, let us (olsa@acs.org) know so we can highlight it.

Let’s have a great year in 2005! I look forward to working with you to make our society stronger and more valuable to our membership through our 189 local sections!!

Will Lynch, Chair
Local Section Activities Committee

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