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Local Sections: Moving Forward Together
As the new chair of the ACS Committee on Local Section Activities (LSAC), I am excited about the opportunity to meet and work with so many outstanding volunteers across the country who are carrying out the ACS mission within local sections. In 2008 LSAC will be focusing on several core programming opportunities to help local section officers achieve their objectives and to advance the ACS Strategic Plan.
The beginning of the year is an exciting time for local section officers as they look forward and back all at the same time. With the annual report deadline looming in February, many are dreading finding the information needed for the completion of their reports. I would like to encourage everyone to make this activity as inclusive as possible. Now is a great time to send an e-mail out to everyone on the executive committee asking them for their input and assistance in completing the annual report.
Under the leadership of Will Lynch, the Committee on Local Section Activities (LSAC) achieved success on many levels in 2007:
- 25 local sections received $56,280.00 in funding through the Innovative Project Grants (IPG) to support new activities.
- LSAC initiated the Science Café program which resulted in 57 Science Cafés sponsored by local sections in their communities.
- A video entitled “Local Sections Connecting Chemistry and the Community” was produced and distributed to local sections to serve as a promotional tool to highlight the many positive things that local sections do to promote chemistry in their communities.
- Members of LSAC made 44 personal contacts to challenged local sections. In addition three visits to local sections were made to facilitate an open forum for the local membership and three outreach breakfasts were held at national and regional meetings to discuss challenges faced by local sections.
In January, the newly developed ACS Leadership Institute will occur in Dallas, TX. We hope that all local sections will be able to send a representative to this important new event. It is certainly not the same leadership conference that you might remember from years gone by. The weekend now contains professional development programming that will be useful to your local section leaders in their everyday professional lives. We have also retained the best aspects of practical, local section management training, and of course the opportunity to network with the ACS leadership and staff. The whole event is very interactive and early reviews from the pilot programs suggest it will be a great success.
In the past couple of years, two Local Section Summits were hosted with the goal of exploring what it would take to help local sections achieve an even brighter future. Local sections are really the front lines for “Connecting Chemistry and the Community.” As a result of that multiyear effort, LSAC will be focusing the next three years on implementing the strategies listed in the summit reports: community building, mentoring, public outreach, professional development, continuing education, and advocacy. In 2008, we will be focusing on the first two of these initiatives and look forward to working with each of you.
Have a great year, and thank you again for your volunteer efforts.
Wayne E. Jones Jr., Chair
ACS Committee on Local Section Activities
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