Happy Spring To One and All!!

I trust that your activities for the 2005 local section year are off to a great start. The spring calendar is a time of renewal for all things—including local sections—so here’s to the beginning of a successful year. The 2005 Spring ACS National Meeting provided the Committee on Local Section Activities (LSAC) the opportunity to jump-start its new year, and I wanted to share with you some of the ideas that might come across your desk over the course of the coming year. More…

LSAC has come out swinging this year by reorganizing its structure to include subcommittees dedicated to Alliances, Grants and Awards; Local Section Assistance and Development; and Technology applications in the local section.

As our Society moves further to the fringes of the classic disciplines of chemistry, LSAC believes it is important to mirror this movement. Thus, the committee established the Alliances Subcommittee to assist sections in bridging the issues of interdisciplinary and expanding alliances with other entities inside and outside of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and to provide opportunities and protocols for local sections to enhance their activities. For example, all sections participate in National Chemistry Week (NCW), so we have an excellent mechanism with Community Activities to put NCW into play in the local sections. However, not all sections are involved in Project SEED or Chemistry Olympiad nor do they provide career services to their membership or have “Silver Circles”. We are working to promote and provide local sections with resources to incorporate these and other ACS programs throughout each section. Also, many of our sister organizations can work with us to provide exciting activities for membership. Many of our sections interact with local chapters of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. This year, I challenged each of you to host a section meeting or event, and we have since heard from many of you who are doing so. In addition, consider working with other groups such as National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) or Society of Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS).

One exciting application projected to be released to local sections later this year will be E-rosters, a project assisted by the Technology, Tools, and Operations Subcommittee. Interestingly, I had a chance to participate in the testing of this application and found it to be a significant enhancement over our current bimonthly rosters. Local sections would access their membership through a password-protected system via the Internet and could sort and manipulate rosters to meet their needs. For example, to organize a senior chemists committee or sponsor a senior event, one could search the roster for all senior chemists. This item generated a considerable amount of interest among the attendees at the Open Meeting of LSAC.

The Grants and Awards Subcommittee has been renamed and expanded their responsibilities as well. This group continues to administer the LSAC Awards given at the annual ChemLuminary celebration held at each fall ACS national meeting and other local section recognition programs. This year, they will also oversee the Innovative Projects Grant Program, a relatively new initiative that encourages creative new programs within local sections and divisions, and provides funding for those projects. In the first year of the grant program, LSAC distributed nearly $97,000 to 44 local sections. And for the April 1, 2005 deadline, 30 applications were received. This year, we hope through better communication and feedback, to improve the number of proposals as well as the impact on local sections. If your section was not among those 30 (or one of the funded sections in the October 2004 round), we encourage your section to consider submitting an application for the August 1, 2005 deadline.

LSAC is poised to expand its direct connectivity to local sections through its Assistance and Development Subcommittee Visitation Program. Over the past few years, LSAC has made 50 peer contacts to help stimulate local sections and has visited 8 local sections to assist in enhancing the service delivered to the membership. In 2005, we have more visits planned as well as an extensive web of peer contacts. The goal here is simple—to provide local sections with an outside source of ideas and suggestions to help maximize the potential of your section. If you would like more feedback from a fellow officer in a neighboring local section, don’t hesitate to contact a LSAC member through the mechanism outlined above.

LSAC is a working group dedicated to assisting local sections in their success. I encourage you to contact me, or any LSAC member, with any questions, concerns, or suggestions. Visit the LSAC roster at www.acs.org/localsections, under “Contact”.

Will Lynch, Chair
Local Section Activities Committee

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