Alliances are integral to building the ACS community. Partnering with other societies, companies, organizations, divisions, and sections enhances events and draws in more volunteers. The key is to cast a wide, inclusive net of volunteers, participants, and groups.

Why do people participate in ACS events? The social and networking aspects are the driver for many people. For them, ACS becomes a lively community that they want to be an active part of—they become the core participants who attend most of your events. Building a community and personal connections will help attract participants and volunteers to your events. You can enhance your chemistry community through alliances with other groups. The alliance could be with other ACS groups (sections, divisions, student affiliates, etc.), other societies (e.g., the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) or the American Institute of Chemical Engineers), or even a meeting site (a company, university, or restaurant). Science Cafés would be a great way to develop a relationship with a coffee shop and its customers.

In areas with small ACS or chemistry communities, alliances are an especially great way to expand or build a community. You just need to expand your definition of community—it could be based on location, hobbies, or interests, or you can expand “chemistry” to “science” or “chemist” to “professional”. In some areas, science professionals would be delighted to link up with a group of scientists even if, or possibly because, their exact disciplines were different.

The team or committee approach to organizing events is an ideal way to build community and provides a basis for future contacts and activities. A successful community will provide back-up and support and involve more people in planning “community” events. Alliances between groups advance these goals by providing additional volunteers, and the fact that two groups are involved means that sharing or duplication of responsibility is natural, for example, fundraising or publicity that targets both groups. Alliances and teamwork will provide new contacts that you can use to build awareness of ACS in new areas.

The team approach lowers the barriers to people volunteering to help—they know that others are involved, the time commitment is reduced, and progress will still be made even if they cannot attend a particular meeting. Also, because they know the people involved, the planning becomes a social event in itself rather than just a chore leading up to the main event.

The key to building a community and a successful alliance is to involve everyone in the discussions, copy them on e-mails, and encourage everyone to share ideas and comments: make it a community activity. Share everyone’s contact information among the committee. It takes a little effort to include everyone in everything, but the benefits greatly outweigh any costs.

Record everything that is done in planning the event—this allows people to repeat, refine, and improve it next time. This will also make it easier to recruit future participants, because you can show them exactly what is involved and give them an established road map to success. Face-to-face meetings, particularly as a kick-off and/or as a celebration after the event, obviously strengthen the social and interpersonal aspects. However, you should try to do as much as possible by telephone and e-mail to save time. Remember to recognize the contributions of the team and the alliance partners—have them participate in the event, introduce the speakers, acknowledge them in the program, and so forth.

You need to tell your community what you are doing, so advertise future events at the current event and on your website, take photos at your events, and share them via your website.

Building a community will expand your leadership pool. Students can develop into leaders for your section, and the new ACS Leadership Development System will help this process. Volunteers for National Chemistry Week (NCW) can expand their involvement into other activities or possibly establish an outreach activity outside of NCW (Earth Day, etc.). Building an alliance with a technical group may introduce new volunteers to ACS. Often, volunteers for one specific event stay involved and indeed expand their participation. For example, a recent chair of the North Jersey Section first got involved in ACS through the Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting 1999. And, the ACS, RSC, and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry held a joint special symposium in Cambridge, MA, in March 2007. The meeting helped ACS and RSC develop their communities and provided enhanced programming for their membership.

The need for community is central to many human activities. By providing it, you can increase participation in ACS activities, and one of the best ways to expand your community is to partner with other groups.

Les McQuire
Councilor, North Jersey Section

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