February 3rd 2001 Executive Committee Minutes

MONTANA SECTION - AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Montana Tech, Butte, Montana

Montana Local ACS Section Executive Committee Meeting

Agenda:

1. Secretary's report, approval of minutes

2. Councilor's report

3. Treasurer's report

4. Chair's report

5. Assessment of Fall Social at Yellowbay

6. Spring "Meeting-in-miniature" - when and where?

7. NORM 2003.

8. High School issues

9. ChemDemo with Household Chemicals Exchange session at San Diego meeting for Student affiliates.

Executive Board members present: Cyd McClure-chair; Steve Holmgren-chair-elect; Doug Cameron-treasurer; Doug Coe-councilor; Don Stierle- past-chair; Andrea Stierle-secretary

Minutes of the last meeting (fall social) were read and approved.
There was no councilor's report since last fall.
The treasurer's report was read by Doug Cameron. Our funds look good, and Doug reported that he had transferred $10,000 into a money market account.

Chair's Report- Cyd discussed her attendance at the Local Section Leadership Conference, Jan. 19-21, 2001. She was enthusiastic about some of the ideas discussed at the meeting, including ideas to encourage more participation from members, such as: membership surveys, establishment of other committees in the section, meetings/tours at mines, Berkeley pit, etc.

The eternal discussion ensued -- how do we get more members to participate in ACS events? The Fall Socials are probably our most successful event of the year, and they only draw 30-40 people every year. Considering Montana's large geographical size and small population, this is probably a respectable turnout. Other ideas included joint meetings and guest speakers with other societies such as Sigma Xi; annual or biannual tours at Chemistry-related sites. Ideas included tours of ASIMI in Butte, the Stillwater Mine, Museum of the Rockies, breweries. It was also suggested that new committees be created that actually promote membership and involvement.

Assessment of Fall Social at Yellowbay - the Fall Social last year was well-attended, particularly by graduate students. The decision was made last year to drop the poster session and to use that money to help pay for lodging for student attendees. That decision, coupled with the presentation of beer-making, combined for a most successful event.

Fall Social 2001- Andrea requested that the two universities provide homecoming dates to facilitate scheduling of the event. Some discussion as to possible sites for the meeting. Yellowstone again? Luebrecht? Canyon Ferry?

Spring "Meeting-in-miniature" - this year's event will once again be held at Montana Tech in Butte, Saturday, March 3. This has worked well for us, but should we continue to schedule this meeting at the same place. The general feeling was that Montana Tech is a good location that makes it easy for all of the schools to participate with a minimum "average" drive. It will be held this year on March 3, 2001. This is an unusually early time, but competing events (National ACS mtg, spring breaks, etc,) compelled the date selected. Andrea will send out a "call for papers" immediately. This year, it is MSU's turn to organize the presentations. Cyd and Steve Holmgren will coordinate the abstracts and schedule the speaker agenda. Standard ACS abstract forms will be used. Don and Andrea Stierle will once again coordinate room use, AV equipment and refreshments. Cyd promised to send list serves

NORM 2003 -- the date has been set for Thursday-Saturday, June 12-14, 2003 at Montana State University. Cyd requested a $5000 deposit to hold the dates. The Board concurred unanimously.

High School issues -- Gary Freebury reported that he had purchased the CRC Handbooks for the Chemistry Olympiad and would be mailing them out soon. He led a discussion of the ACS Award for Outstanding High School teacher and promised he would draft guidelines for the selection of a nominee. The Board agreed that we would use membership in CheMST as a minimum criterion. Journal of Chemical Education and ACS membership were proposed as reasonable prizes.

Gary then gave a history of ACS outreach to Chemistry teachers, citing in particular, Arnold Craig's Eisenhower and NSF grants to provide content-based courses for teacher enrichment. These courses brought many teachers together and helped them get over their embarrassment or discomfort with taking chemistry courses. Can we do something similar to what Arnold did?

Chemical Amnesty for High School Teachers -- Gary will meet with Bob Reinke, the state hazardous waste officer, to determine what can be done to help rid high schools of their chemical burdens. The Board was very clear that they would not accept the responsibility for this clean-up or actually remove the chemicals from the high school. Gary estimated that the cost of disposing of chemicals is $600,000. How do we organize or assist in the process. Gary will draft a plan after his meeting with Reinke.

is there a statewide website where teachers could "advertise" their new, unwanted chemicals?

is there a statewide inventory of all of these chemicals?

does liability rest with the state or with the high schools or teachers?--- Amnesty Laws will remove the liability from the teacher and give it to the state.

Meeting adjourned at 12:30 PM