Councilor Report from ACS National Meeting in Orlando: 4/3/19
We’re just back from the ACS National Meeting in Orlando, and we are asking you to give us feedback about three things:
ACS National Meetings
If you currently go to ACS National Meetings: please tell me why you go. What do you value most at the meeting?
If you don’t go, what would encourage you to pay the costs of going (which are substantial)?
International Members
Please give us your feedback about the following two items:
- 20% of our members are now international. They are not represented on council. Should they be?
- In a pilot program that was just renewed through August 2022, some countries have ACS membership dues for international members that are pegged to economic conditions in each country. This ACS program is called the International Dues Discount Program and is based on World Bank Country Income Levels. To participate, a country must have either an International Chapter or an International Student Chapter. Only 18 out of the 133 countries from which ACS currently has members participate in this program. As examples of those 18 countries, members of ACS in Brazil and China get a 50% dues reduction while members from Jordan and Sri Lanka receive a 66.7% dues reduction. Members from other countries pay full dues. Do you support this program?
Under-Represented Groups in the chemical sciences
How can we increase the percentage of under-represented groups in the chemical sciences? What are you currently doing to support students and professionals from underrepresented groups become and advance as chemists?
Some highlights of the rest of the council meeting:
We voted on the candidates for President-Elect in 2020. They are H. N. Cheng and Carol Duane and their candidate statements are here Statements in council agenda (link in report)
We voted to keep dues for 2019-2020 at the current rates of $175 and to keep national meeting registration at $490.
We voted to streamline the governing documents of the ACS.
We held a discussion that focused on how to maintain members by improving the value that members get from the society.
Please email your feedback to millerw@scc.losrios.edu with the subject “Councilor’s Report”, so I can take it to the next ACS National Meeting.
John Berg, Mariela Carpio-Obeso, Bill Miller, and Shawna Rickards meet for dinner in Orlando
