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ONTANA SECTION - AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETYApril 12th, 2003 Executive Committee Minutes
Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana
As part of Spring
Meeting in Miniature:
Members present: Chair – Donna Minton, past-chair – Steve Holmgren, Safety Chair and High School liaison – Gary Freebury, NORM program director & Past-chair – Cyd Mc Clure, Treasurer – Doug Cameron, Councilor - Doug Coe, NORM co-chair - Don Stierle, and Secretary – Andrea Stierle
Treasurers report Doug Cameron -- We’re in good shape as usual, but will not have a clear idea of exactly what our total financial status is until after the NORM mtg.
NORM
Some monies have been acquired either through small grants or through industry support for the NORM mtg, including:
$1000 for analytical division
$500 Bend Research Inc.
April 2003 Councilor's Report - Doug Coe (prepared by Doug Coe)
The American Chemical Society's 225th National Meeting was held in New Orleans from April 23rd - 27th, 2003.
The following actions were taken on petitions before the Council at the Boston Meeting:
The Petition for Division and Local Section Funding was passed by a voice vote of the Council. Passage required 2/3 of the council members in attending to support the petition. The petition will now be put to a vote of the general membership of the society. This petition would fundamentally change how the annual allotment for local sections and divisions is determined. Currently all local sections receive a base allotment of $2,400 plus $3.00 per member for the first 2000 members and $2.00 per member thereafter. These amounts were established in 1986. From 1987 onward this allotment has been multiplied annually by the same ratio (usually a ratio of CPIs) used in calculating the dues escalator for each year. This petition would replace this method of funding local sections with an annual allocation equal to 20% of the dues revenue generated by the number of members and National Affiliates of local sections. The Committee on Local Section Activities would determine how this dues revenue would be distributed among local sections. The distribution procedure would be approved by Council and would be reviewed by Council once every three years. The distribution method must include a base allotment, an allotment tied to local section membership, and distributions based on other factors such Society initiatives, strategic planning, and Board directives. The method for funding divisions would be essentially the same. This petition rather dramatically increases the allotment to divisions (from ~ $378,000 to $1,171,000, using FY 2002 figures). While the allotment for local sections also increases, the increase is considerably smaller (from ~$1,318,000 to $1,431,000, again using FY 2002 figures). Under the current system may divisions are experiencing financial difficulty, e.g., the Division of Colloids and Surfaces was reported to have a current deficit of $20,000. It is not clear how individual local sections would fare under this petition.
While in the long term the ACS intends to find the support for this increase within its budget, in the short term, it plans to add a $2.00 surcharge to the annual dues to pay for the increase in funding. Here is how your annual dues would increase during these four years assuming a constant $4 dues escalator:
2004 $120 annual dues + $2.00 = $122
2005 $124 annual dues + $4.00 = $128
2006 $128 annual dues + $6.00 = $134
2007 $132 annual dues + $8.00 = $140
2008 $136 annual duesYour councilor both spoke (in the general council meeting) and voted against this proposal. While philosophically I am in favor of increasing the support to divisions and local sections, I am opposed to the short-term plan to fund this petition. Over four years our approximately 180 section members would contribute $3,600 of this support. This is roughly 20% of the Montana Section's dues allotment over the same time period. Most of this increase in funding during this period would be going to divisions. The divisions primarily would use these increased funds to offset loses that they have incurred in developing programming for the national meeting (for every $5 they spend on this programming they only get $1 of help from the society). Divisional programming at national meetings is well done and constitutes the bulk of the presentations given at national meetings. However, only a relatively few members of the Montana Section attend national meetings and take advantage of this programming. I saw it as unfair to tax all members of the society for a program that would primarily benefit only some members.
Note: Doug voted against increase but it passed with a overwhelmingly. The vote will come to the society later and we will have a chance to decide – members vote will decide
Discussion of section finances re: councilor’s report:
Don – why not charge more for registration fee? Why should the local sections pay for the national mtgs when most people don’t go in a section?
Dues for local section – Currently $5.00--- reasonable?
Dues money goes into educational fund.
Current dues are adequate----
At this point the current dues meet our needs. – about $889 last year (2 half-years)
Biggest expenditure – CRC handbooks for Chem Olympiad
Andrea will find out how many members actually pay dues
More NORM business:
Check with Ed Rosenberg about ACS regional mtg programming grant. $1500
Cyd also has another $2000 for High School teachers
Ed Rosenberg – PRF –SC – air fare for special keynote speaker
Cyd paid to go to ACS mtg to solicit Exhibitors --- fee was $275.
Andrea made motion that the section reimburse Cyd for the cost of registration
Gary seconded -Motion carried unanimously --- Doug will reimburse Cyd for registration fee.
Annual Report:
Steve Holmgren submitted the annual report
Votes for best undergraduate and graduate student presentations at the Meeting in Miniature:
Graduate students: Nicholas Jones (Cyd McClure)
Undergraduate students: Britney Moss (Jean Starkey)
Alexandra Antonioli – (Don and Andrea Stierle)
Should we turn this into an undergraduate/graduate researcher fair.
Fall agenda: should we discuss how awards are made? Actually limiting to one session at a time would help with the judging.
What are criteria for a winning talk.
Chemical Safety Handbooks --- distribute to high schools --- put on backburner until after NORM
Chemistry Olympiad and CRC Handbook --- need list of students and list of handbooks.
Steve Eversal (Kalispell) is handling dissemination. Order CRC handbooks and have them sent to Steve Eversall. About 1000 students participated in last year’s Olympiad. Steve has a form letter to send out for the award announcement. Ask Steve to submit letter to local newspapers for blurb.
50 year members!
James Banks - Bozeman
Owen Maloney – Missoula
Posters on the Hill -- Feb. 6th - Steve reported --- talked to Cathy Conover (MSU public relations) who took it over . Montana Tech, U of Montana, Montana State University, Helena COT
Research and Commercialization Board was saved partly because of these outreach efforts.
Will happen every two years – still handled by University relations people. We do need backboards --- should ACS provide??
ACS presence --- what should it be? How can we make our presence known?
Fall Social – Yellow Bay? Rocky Mountain – Blackstar? (Gary)
Please let me know home football events --- homecoming --- (Donna)
Spring Mtg --- will be a Carroll event—call Kyle Strode with appropriate dates.
NORM
Don Stierle- sent out 7000 emails. 10% return
1st call – midFeb
2nd call --- mid-March
Last call April 13th.
85 abstracts at this point.---some not finished
Ed and Don each setting up half of the program
last mtg in Spokane --- about 200 presenters. Spokane broke even ---
9 natural products
collect abstracts next Monday --- send to section chairs!
Need to get abstracts by May 12th
MSU came down to $2400 rather than $5000 (John Sophos talked em down).
Cyd will send budget as attachment
How many LCD’s will be needed??? MSU has two, maybe three.
Gary thinks all High Schools will want LCD.
Standard in each room: 35 mm slide projector and overhead projector.
MSU has poster boards already
“Cyd will never do this again”
Gary Freebury --- High school – sent form letters to all superintendents on safety and green chemistry. Disposal, cost of disposal, safe usage, access for special needs students.
Can we use ACS stipend to pay for materials presented? Can we help defray some costs?
Ed Dept. $750
Pres. $500
MSU $1000
Presidential award -$1500
Each teacher gets $100 IF they participate all three days.
Meeting adjourned at 4:30 PM