The Council selected members for its three elected committees, Committee on Committees, Council Policy Committee and Nomination and Election Committee.
President Bush reported on his activities, including sponsorship of a Presidential Session on "Chemistry Preprint On-line Servers". The ACS is in the process of acquiring the Green Chemistry Institute. He also discussed his initiatives relative to legislative matters.
President-Elect Pavlath reported on Member Retention and outlined plans for next year.
Immediate-Past-President Wasserman reported on the effect of patents in universities.
Chair of the Board of Directors Whalen reported also on the Green Chemistry Institute.
Executive Director John Crum talked about a program to update the ACS web pages and the actions of the governing Board for Publications.
As Chair of the Divisional Activities Committee, I requested Council vote to dissolve the Division of Fertilizer and Soil Chemistry (FERT). The FERT Division members will become members of the Agrochemicals Division. Council voted to approve the dissolution.
The proposed bylaw change on increasing committee size that was proposed for urgent action was withdrawn and this possible change will be discussed in San Diego as a regular change in the bylaws.
Council passed revised guidelines for Publications, Technician Activities and Women Chemists Committees.
Recognition of members of Council for 15 years and up was made.
A petition to change the names of the Regional Director to District Director was approved. Since this is a change to the Constitution, it will require ratification by the membership.
The Committee on Budget and Finance reported that the Society is in excellent financial shape. The core programs are expected to result in a net excess in revenue of $8.5 million. The performance in the Publication Division and the investments have done exceptionally well. Several new programs and program expansions were sent to the Board for approval, including budget increases for Green Chemistry, Regional Meeting, Member Retention, Division Innovative Projects, Communications Web Staffing, National Historic Chemical Landmarks, Minority Affairs, International Program Development, Chemical Science and Technology Advancement.
As of Wednesday, 13,368 attended the meeting. The on-line housing was a success and over 60 % of the registrants used it. The Council approved 2111 Anaheim, Chicago, 2112 Boston.
The petition to change meeting registration categories recommitted. It would change the registration fee for foreign participants who are not ACS members.
The meeting was adjourned at about 11:45.
I continue to serve on the Publications Committee which reviewed the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Organometallics and Langmuir. I was the Committee liaison to Langmuir review. The Publications Division is doing very well and much of the excess revenue from the Publications Division goes into the Societyıs treasury and funds member-related programs. I also reported on the Polymer Divisionıs project for publishing Polymer Preprints electronically. I am happy to report that the Publications Division is committed to digitizing all of its previously-published articles from ACS journals and making them available on the www.
I also serve as Chair of the Divisional Activities Committee. As Chair we have introduced several new concepts in the Divisional Activities Committee, including a luncheon with all division chairs. As you possibly know, the ACSıs technical divisions are responsible for virtually all of the programming at National Meetings and many other activities. These divisions are currently under, in my opinion, significant financial stress. I have also been serving on a task force that looks at the Societyıs contributions to technical divisions and local sections. In addition, the task force is looking at possible changes in ACS governance so that the importance of technical divisions is more accurately reflected.
As always, I have a detailed agenda book with written reports and other information in it. If you would like to look at these or discuss these issues with me, please let me know.
Respectfully Submitted,
Frank D. Blum, Councilor