LOCAL SECTION MEETING PLANNING FACILITATED BY THE ACS SPEAKER SERVICE ONLINE

Attention Chairs-Elect: Even though your term is just starting, it is time to begin planning speakers for 2006 local section meetings! You may want to consider how many meetings to hold, what time, and which location and meeting sites. Many local sections have conducted joint meetings with neighboring local sections as well as working with other groups such as ACS divisions, local museums, and industry, and organizations such as American Institute of Chemical Engineers (IAIChE) and National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE). And you’ll want to work closely with your newsletter editor/publicity chair and/or Webmaster to get the information out to members.

There are many ways to find speakers for your meetings. One resource is the ACS Speaker Service, which provides a convenient and economical source of volunteer tour speakers. Using the ACS Speaker Service Online is not difficult, but it is a detailed process that begins almost a year in advance. Throughout the year you’ll work with the ACS Office of Local Section Activities, other local section planners, and some of the 200 volunteer speakers in the program.

An overview of the program, as well as training, is given on the Saturday evenings of the Leaders Conferences. It is also an excellent way to meet other chairs-elect in your circuit—you can network with each other and formulate plans. You will discover that almost everyone is new and that no one is alone; planners have connections to ACS and to each other.

In the ACS Speaker Service, each local section is assigned to 1 of 29 tour circuits, and each circuit comprises 6–13 neighboring local sections (a map is available). Program chairs from each section within the circuit coordinate their meeting schedules and request speakers. If at least three local sections within the circuit agree to the same (available) speaker for the same week, a tour can be scheduled. Tour speakers typically visit three to five local sections during the course of a one-week tour.

The Speaker Service Online database allows you to input your preferred meeting dates, create a “wish list” of potential speakers, and view the selections of the other local sections within your circuit. For a variety of reasons, you may not get the speakers you have requested, but we try to match speakers’ schedules with local section preferences. For more information, go to: http://chemistry.org/localsections/speakerservice.html

Confidential userID’s and passwords to access the Speaker Service Online will be provided at the upcoming ACS

Debra McLaughlin
Membership Associate
Office of Local Section Activities

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