The Virginia Section of the American Chemical Society

The Virginia Section of the American Chemical Society DRAFT Executive Committee Meeting Minutes DRAFT J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College 700 E. Jackson Street, Richmond, VA Friday May 9, 2008 Attendees: Officers: Present Immediate Past Chair - Will Lewis, Jr. Chair - Trey Gregory Chair Elect - Ken Chapman Vice Chair - Yezdi B. Pithawalla Secretary - Stephanie Mabry Treasurer - Brian Moores Councilor (2006-2008) - Jerry Bass Councilor (2008-2010) - Ann Sullivan Alternate Councilor (2006-2008) - Sheryl Baldwin Trustee (2006-2008) James Demas Trustee (2007-2009) - Bill Welstead Trustee (2008-2010) Phil Burks Absent Councilor (2007-2009) - Pat Barber Alternate Councilor (2007-2009) - Mark Sleevi Alternate Councilor (2008-2010) - Eddie Thomas Other members of the Executive Committee present: Joe Pompano Bill Rademaker Justin Haley Emily Golden Jim Beck Don Shillady David Hagan 1

I. Call to Order Chair Trey Gregory called the meeting to order at 6:15 pm. II. Approval of Agenda Trey Gregory requested a review of the agenda. The agenda was approved by common consent. III. Minutes of January 2008 Executive Committee Meeting Minutes from January 2008 meeting were reviewed by the members of the executive committee. Jim Beck pointed out a correction needed on page 7, to change Ryan White, Chair of the Chemical Education committee to read Ryan Warren, Chair of the Chemical Education committee. Trey Gregory requested approval of the minutes as amended. Bill Rademaker made a motion that the minutes be approved without changes, and Phil Burks seconded the motion. The motion carried. IV. Officer s Reports A. Past Chair B. Chair Trey Gregory submitted the agenda as his report. Trey will be working this summer with Janet Asper on setting up a Science Café in the western half of the section. C. Chair Elect Ken Chapman submitted a report listing the schedule for the fall meetings. Ken noted a change in the October meeting site and date. The changes were made due to the undesirability of the Tuesday date and with the concurrence of the host, Prof. Joe Crockett. A speaker is still needed for the December meeting. Jerry Bass suggested some local chemists who have won national awards for speakers. Trey Gregory suggested we plan on holding a meeting at Bridgewater next year since it will be a couple of years since a meeting was held in that part of the section. D. Vice Chair Yezdi Pithawalla submitted a report describing the ACS Leadership Institute in Dallas which he attended in January and gave a tentative meeting schedule for 2009. Ann Sullivan stated that the next Leadership Institute will be held on January 23-25, 2009 in Fort Worth, TX. Jerry Bass recommends attendance of these in-person training courses versus the on-line training courses. E. Secretary Stephanie Mabry submitted the minutes from the January 2008 meeting as the report. 2

F. Treasurer Brian Moores submitted the Treasurer s report and reviewed the 2008 budget. Currently income is running twice ahead of expenses for the year, and the investment pool is down due the stock market. This year is Brian s third as Treasurer and he questioned whether he should rotate out of the position after this year. Jim Beck brought up the issue that the cost of meals was twice the receipts from the meetings. Phil Burks suggested that the costs and receipts be broken down for each meeting. Brian Moores will work with Justin Haley, Entertainment Chair, and send this information out in an email. However, it appeared that the discrepancy was due to the bill from the December meeting not being paid until January. Don Shillady discussed the history of the northern part of the Virginia Section trying to break away and suggested more advertisement of the western meeting in the northern Virginia outlets. Brian Moores asked to introduce two new members of the Executive committee: Justin Haley, the new Entertainment Committee chair, and Emily Golden, a teacher at the Commonwealth Governor s School in Fredericksburg. G. Councilors Ann Sullivan distributed flyers on the ACS Leadership Development System and the ACS Member Network, a chat room for chemists. She also distributed copies of emails regarding the candidates for the Fall 2008 ACS National Elections and on Electronic Elections. Will Lewis will be participating in the teleconference on Electronic Elections on May 28, 2008. Jerry Bass presented the Councilors report. He pointed out a correction needed on the bottom of page 2, to change member of the Board of Directors to read member of the Council Policy Committee. Jerry discussed the candidates for President-Elect and Directors-at-Large. Jerry then described the amendments approved by the Council at the spring national meeting that will next go to the Directors and then the membership for approval. One petition was regarding membership categories and requirements. This would replace the current Student Affiliates with Student Members. The new Student Members would be able hold local offices at the discretion of the individual local sections. The membership of the Virginia Section would increase by approximately 5-7% from this change. It would also be easier for high school teachers to become full members. The second proposal regarded petition candidates that would require them to obtain the signatures of more members in a shorter time frame to be placed on the ballot. The Academic Professional Guidelines was also approved by the Council. Brian Moores pointed out that the current draft of the strategic plan is posted on the National ACS website. Ann Sullivan stated that the Council committees are working to align their plans with the National plan. 3

H. Trustees Bill Welstead presented the Trustees report, which was a ten-year summary of total assets of the section. The number of accounts has been reduced, but the value of total assets has been stable. Phil Burks presented a paragraph for the Job Manual covering the Trustees. The Trustees were not previously included in the Job Manual. The description includes an annual audit, which Phil described. Don Schillady asked if this required a change in the By-laws, and Phil answered no. Phil moved that the proposed job description be approved, and Ken Chapman seconded. The motion was approved. Trey Gregory called for a fifteen-minute break at 7:30 pm. V. Old Business David Hagan from the Science Museum of Virginia gave a status report on the chemistry exhibit at the museum. They are currently prototyping new demonstrations and exhibits for a new full chemistry gallery. The new gallery will have an environment emphasis, focusing on the physical sciences and chemistry data. David will present a written report at the next meeting. VI. Review of Committees Trey Gregory mentioned that a chair is needed for the Minority Affairs committee. He is looking for names of people that might be interested. VII. Committee Chair Reports A. Awards Sheryl Baldwin submitted the report of the Awards Committee. The committee currently has one prospect for the Distinguished Service Award but welcomes other nominations. The biotech park is helping to find nominees for the industrial innovation award. Sheryl is also working to get Boehringer-Ingleheim Chemical (BICI) to fill out the application for the national ACS Heroes in Chemistry award to nominate the team at BICI that developed the cheaper AIDS drug that is being given free in Africa. The application is due by October 1. Bill Rademaker, who handles the educational awards, was also present. B. Chemical Education C. Chemistry Olympiad Ann Sullivan submitted the report. The number of participants was lower than last year. Fourteen students were invited, nine accepted, and 5 showed up to take the national test. High schools in the section were realigned in the size/type categories, and Franklin Military School was a new school participating this year. The budget for the Chemistry Olympiad is almost spent for the year. Ann thanked Joe Pompano for helping with the Saturday event. D. Chemical Technician Ken Chapman submitted the report. The proposal for a Molecular Sciences Technology program at JSRCC was rejected by the NSF. Sheryl Baldwin suggested that it may be beneficial to be involved with the Virginia Workforce Commission s project for chemical plant operators. 4

E. Entertainment Justin Haley submitted the report on the Spring 2008 meetings. Joe Pompano requested that the Section make or obtain more official looking receipts to give meeting attendees who need a receipt. Ken Chapman asked about the Letters Submitted category, which are new members of the Section who bring the letter from the Hospitality Committee to get a free dinner. Jim Beck pointed out that it appears that the number of people attending the meetings does not match the cost of the meetings. Brian Moores agreed to work with Justin and provide at the next Executive Committee meeting a detailed review of the meal expenses versus receipts for each meeting. Brian did point out that the cost of the December meeting was not billed until January 2008, and that this is the most probable reason why the meeting costs look high. F. Government Relations Sheryl Baldwin submitted a report. She pointed out a correction needed, to change the Governor s office to read the Governor s associate. Senator Jim Webb wrote a letter supporting full funding for NSF STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) research and education programs. The committee assisted with a proposal to the National Governors Office for non-thesis science masters degrees with a business focus. The proposal was approved. BICI also supported the proposal, and Sheryl thanked Trey Gregory for his help. G. Hospitality Will Lewis stated that welcome letters to new members have not been sent out recently. H. Industry/Professional Relations I. Media/Public Relations J. Membership Trey Gregory will ask Dorothy Eseonu if she is interested in being Chairman. K. Minority Affairs Trey Gregory stated that a member from Longwood University was interested in this committee, but this person may now be moving outside the Virginia Section. Ann Sullivan proposed that each committee be required to send at least an email outlining their activities when the committee chair is not attending the Executive meeting. L. National Chemistry Week and Chemists Celebrate Earth Day It was stated that Kristine Smetana has applied for a ChemLuminary Award for our National Chemistry Week activities. M. Nominations Will Lewis asked if the Section wants to have an electronic ballot. He will participate in the teleconference on Electronic Elections on May 28, 2008. Ken Chapman volunteered the use of 5

his Survey Monkey account. Jim Beck commended Dorothy Eseonu for getting last year s ballot ready in time to use bulk mailing, which saved the Section $400 last year in postage. N. Publications Jim Beck submitted the report. Abstracts for the student posters from the April meeting will be published on the website with a note printed in The Bulletin due to space issues. There were 41 posters at this year s meeting. Jim stated that a summary of past meeting speakers is on the website. He also emphasized a list of thanks included at the end of his report. Ann Sullivan discussed how the header/logo design on the Section s website needs to be updated. She would like a contest to pick a new one. Ken Chapman suggested that we check with National if the changes would involve the official ACS logo, but the consensus was that the official logo would not be impacted. Ann moved that we have a contest for high school and college students to design a new website logo. The contest would be advertised in The Bulletin and the prize would be $50. Jim Beck seconded the motion, and it was approved. O. Safety No Report. P. SERMACS 2011 Meeting Joe Pompano presented the report. Ann Sullivan and Joe attended the ACS Regional Meeting Planning Conference in February and were the only ones attending from 2011 host sections. From that respect, we are ahead in the planning schedule. Peggy Smith, ACS Regional Meeting planner, toured the Marriott and Omni with the committee members. The initial plan was to have the meeting at the Marriott, but the Omni will supply the meeting rooms for free and is in a better location for visitors to Richmond. A move to the Omni would require the meeting date to be moved up a week. A decision will be made soon. Joe Pompano is attending SERMACS this year and is looking for another committee member to attend with him. Will Lewis said that he may be able to attend. Ann suggested that next year another committee member attend the Planning Conference, and that we start fund raising now with the help of the Trustees. Will Lewis pointed out that we need to develop something to show potential donors first. Sheryl Baldwin said she would help with this. The slogan for SERMACS 2011 is Richmond: Rich in Knowledge, Rich in history, Rich in Science. Ann Sullivan will see about buying the domain name sermacs2011.org. Q. Student Affiliates R. Younger Chemist Committee VIII. Taskforces No items were discussed. 6

IX. New Business A. Women Chemist Committee Stephanie Mabry presented a proposal to start a WCC in the Virginia Section. Ann Sullivan said that she would help, and other names of those interested were mentioned. Bill Rademaker moved that the proposal be approved, and Ken Chapman seconded. The proposal to start a WCC was approved. Ann Sullivan recommended that the section get involved with the Project Seed and Silver Circle programs sponsored by the National ACS. Joe Pompano suggested that Project Seed fits under the Minority Affairs committee. Joe Pompano asked if the Section could supply babysitting at meetings as he has heard many members cite this as a reason for not attending meetings. The cost and insurance requirements would have to be investigated. Phil Burks stated from his experience with setting up childcare at his church that this would be too big a hassle. Ann Sullivan suggested looking at a private company for this. B. Strategic Planning Brian Moores requested that budget/priorities be set prior to the January Executive meeting by a small group of officers. Ann Sullivan added to this idea by suggesting that the officers hold telephone meetings to avoid travel and recommended 30 minutes once a month. Will Lewis stated that the Section s goals need to be aligned with National goals. Trey Gregory proposed having a telephone meeting in the fall to set the budget for the coming year. Attendees would be the Chair, Chair-Elect, Past-Chair, and Treasurer (i.e. the Annual Report committee members). Will Lewis suggested at least one Trustee be included. Bill Welstead said that this is outside the focus of the Trustees, but they would be willing to participate. Jim Beck suggested that the committees be required to submit their budget requests in advance. It was recommended that Trey Gregory create a Strategic Planning committee consisting of the Chair, Chair-Elect, Past-Chair, Treasurer, and a Trustee. Trey will email the members of the committee. Will Lewis suggested that there is no excuse for the committees that did not submit reports for the Executive Committee meeting and that this should be required. Electronic versions of all reports need to be sent in electronic form to Trey Gregory. X. Adjournment Trey Gregory adjourned the meeting at 9:07 pm. 7