The meeting was called to order at 8:00 a.m.

Presentations by four President-Elect 2010 candidates, Berkeley W. Cue, Jr., Nancy B. Jackson, Cheryl A. Martin, and Dorothy J. Phillips, were made. The Council selected Nancy Jackson and Cheryl Martin as candidates for the 2010 President-Elect Election. One of these candidates, along with any petition candidates, will be elected President-Elect by the membership in the fall. Note: This was the first time that Council used ÒclickersÓ in the election process.

Council also selected (before the meeting) candidates for District I (Richard Cobb and Neil Jespersen) and for District V (Judith Benham and Peter Dorhout). We are in District V, and membership of District V will select District Director V by mail ballot in the fall. Candidates for Director-at-Large will be selected by Council after the Fall ACS Meeting. The candidates for this office include Dennis Chamot, H. N. Cheng, Ray Dickie, and Valerie Kuck.

A considerable amount of time was spent in discussing the Society's finances relative to the economic downturn. The Society finished 2007 with a net from its operations of $9.7 million, which was $560,000 favorable to budget. This is consistent with recent years providing net operating results. Unfortunately, the investment market has been seriously damaged in the last year. Consequently, the ACS's unrestricted assets were $212 million at the beginning of the year, which dropped to $60 million at the end of 2008. In addition to the market, there was a significant charge from unrestricted reserves to restricted reserves for the ACS Pension Plan. Consequently, ACS has frozen its Defined Benefit Plan and has moved to a Defined Contribution Plan. The level of reserves is considered to be low, and ACS will be taking steps to try to increase this to put it into compliance with Board directives to bring it to within 40% to 80% of an annual year's expenditures.

After some significant discussion, the 2010 member dues was increased to a fully escalated rate of $145. The vote of Council was significantly in favor of this, especially given the current financial status of ACS. ACS dues do not come close to covering the costs of various member services. [I should point out that I do believe the Society's finances to be healthy, but the reserves need to be substantially improved. A significant increase in the stock market would help improve this situation.]

There was a special discussion item on a Councilor survey about what ACS members could do to attract new members. A variety of things were mentioned, but many focused on the value of ACS members and growth opportunities among students, international scientists, high school teachers, and technicians.

The attendance at the ACS meeting was approximately 10,700 registrants, with regular attendees being approximately 5,800 and 3,500 students.

Council voted to approve the revised Professional Guidelines. These guidelines will be available on the ACS website and provide guidance for recommended practices for both scientists and their employers.

The Committee on Divisional Activities reported that there has been a request by the Division of Chemical Technicians (TECH) for dissolution. The Divisional Activities Committee concurred and this item will likely be on the Council agenda for the fall ACS meeting. The Committee has also has shown leadership in its development of a multi-disciplinary program planning group (MPPG) which tries to develop themes around the national meetings. Because of this broader based programming, it seems likely to me that the programming bodies known as Secretariats are likely to dissolve. They appear to be relatively inactive at the current time.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 12:20 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,
Frank D. Blum, Councilor
South Central Missouri Section, ACS

Note: I continue to serve as consultant to two ACS committees, the Divisional Activities Committee and the Joint Board Council Committee on Publications. I have served on each of these for a number of years. I also am Chair of the Council Committee on Nominations and Elections. This committee is responsible for selecting nominees for ACS national office (Presidential succession and Board of Directors). At this ACS meeting, we established the use of clickers to provide feedback for the Council. With a few minor glitches, the use of clickers worked quit well and afforded us the opportunity for accurate and rapid results.

I have a detailed Agenda Book in my office from the Council meeting. If anyone is interested in more details on any of these items, please feel free to contact me.