The Younger Chemists Committee

Invitation to the Local Section Younger Chemists Committee (LSYCC) Summit, Sunday, August 16th, 2009, 2:00 - 4:00pm, Washington DC.

LSYCC Leaders,

On behalf of the Local and Regional Activities Subcommittee of the ACS Younger Chemists Committee, I would like to invite you to attend the Local Section Younger Chemists Committee (LSYCC) Summit (PDF)to be held at the upcoming Fall 2009 ACS National Meeting in Washington, D.C.. This exciting event will take place on Sunday, August 16, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Renaissance Hotel, Congressional A.

The LSYCC Summit, through a partnership with the ACS Local Section Activities Committee (LSAC), will provide a venue for younger chemists to share ideas on local section activities and leadership recruiting. The Summit will also provide the opportunity for younger chemists to build their professional network by meeting other local section younger chemists as well as members of the national YCC and LSAC. The program includes a presentation by the ACS Board Oversight Group about the leadership development programs available from the ACS. Several topics pertinent to LSYCC's will also be discussed during breakout sessions.

Tentative agenda:

• Ice breaker, speed networking (~15 min)
• LSAC presentation (15 min)
• YCC presentation (15 min)
• Leadership presentation/facilitator (~30 min)
• Breakout/roundtable discussion (45 min)
• Feedback (15 min)

This will be a time for you to share your ideas for local and regional LSYCC activities and we hope that you will plan to join us! The summit is free, but please RSVP to ycc@acs.org by July 1, 2009, so that we have an accurate count of those planning attending.

We are looking forward to seeing you in Washington, D.C.

Burt Hollandsworth, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry (Inorganic)
Harding University
Member of the ACS Younger Chemists Committee (YCC)
Box 12272
Searcy, AR 72149-2272
Phone: 501-279-4460 or 501-279-2977
Cell: 614-519-8751
Fax: 501-279-4706

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Local Sections and LSYCCs facilitate networking with others in the community and introduce young chemists to active roles within the ACS.

Over the past several years, the ACS Younger Chemists Committee (YCC) has encouraged the establishment of Local Section Younger Chemists Committees (LSYCCs) and/or Local Section Younger Chemist Liaisons across the country to encourage young chemical professionals to network at the grassroots level and engage in active roles within the ACS.

What should you do? That depends on the younger chemists in your area. The heart of every LSYCC is its programming, which can include everything from social get-togethers to technical programs and we have resources to help you get started!

Local & Regional Activities (LRA)

The YCC Local and Regional Activities (LRA) subcommittee is planning a summit for the Local Section Younger Chemists Committee (LSYCC) chairs and other younger chemist leaders within local sections. The summit would provide a venue for local sections to share ideas on local activities and leadership development for younger chemists as well as allow them to meet members of the YCC. The LSYCC Summit will be held at the Fall 2009 ACS National Meeting in Washington, D.C.

YCC LRA subcommittee also spent time planning for the conversion of ACS Student Affiliates to Student Members. This membership category change will make Student Affiliates full members of the ACS. The YCC plans to work with the Society Committee on Education (SOCED) to help incorporate these younger chemists into ACS local section activities.

LSYCC spotlight: UCA SAACS

The UCA SAACS student chapter was approached by the 2008 ACS Southwest Regional Meeting (SWRM) planning committee to plan the Undergraduate Programming for the meeting held at The Peabody Hotel in Little Rock, AR.

Technical Program

One of the most important and exciting parts of an ACS meeting is the opportunity for students to present their research. We originally only expected to have one poster session and a half-day oral session. This grew to two undergraduate posters sessions with 98 total posters, plus one half-day oral session and one full day oral session with 23 students presenting talks. Many students benefit from presenting research through oral seminars, so the more spots available for this, the better. These high participation numbers were exciting, but caused some last minute changes in event locations and times. We learned that you had to be flexible and communicate often with the meeting chairs. We were honored to have Dr. Keith Pannell, an inorganic professor at University of Texas at El Paso and recipient of the 2004 ACS Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution, deliver a Plenary Lecture to open the Undergraduate Sessions.

Graduate School Expo & Breakfast

We were also very proud to have 21 graduate schools attend our Graduate School Expo & Breakfast. We began contacting schools in May for the meeting in October. We found it easier to assign each student a state. A good place to start looking is the Directory of Graduate Research (http://dgr.rints.com). We then set up a contact list and sent mass emails out to all schools inviting them to the Expo & Breakfast.

With more graduate schools participating, there was more interest from students to attend the meeting. In addition, we received a portion of the booth registration fee from the expo to cover the costs of our breakfast and luncheon events. This is a huge event for undergraduates, because it provides students with the opportunity to talk to many regional graduate programs in a single day. The Graduate School Recruiting Breakfast provided attendees another opportunity to interact with the graduate schools. Events with food always encourage participation. This event was good for a student who already has a specific graduate program in mind.

Careers in Chemistry Luncheon

The Careers in Chemistry Panel Luncheon was planned to encompass jobs in industry, pharmaceuticals, forensic science, national laboratories, and academics. We had two students emcee the event by walking around with a cordless microphone within the audience. Unfortunately, we had some planning mistakes and we had to put together a panel at the last minute. We were grateful for those who stepped in, but our variety of careers could have been wider. However, participant feedback was positive and everyone seemed to enjoy the event.

After looking back, we have a few ideas to help organize a panel: (1) Start planning early, the first people you invite may not be available for the event. (2) Make a list of different people from each branch of chemistry. This way, if the first industrial chemist you invite cannot attend, you have a list of other industrial chemists as backup. (3) Contact the panel members a week or two before the event to confirm. Make sure they are ready to attend the event, and that they know what time the event is. (4) Make sure at the event there is a moderator with questions ready. If the audience doesn’t ask questions, someone needs to.