DRAFT
MINUTES
ACS
Division of Chemical Information
Executive
Committee Meeting
McCormick
Place
Room
S404D
Chicago,
Illinois
Saturday, August 27,
2001
1:07pm
- 5:07pm
Chair
Andrea Twiss-Brooks called the Executive Committee to order at 1:07pm. Those
present for all or part of the meeting are as follows. Asterisk designates
voting member. Committee reports and informational materials had been sent to
the Executive Committee by Twiss-Brooks prior to the meeting. Handouts and agendas were available
during the meeting.
Andrew
Berks*
Ann
Bolek*
Graham
Douglas
Gunther
Grethe
Chuck
Huber
Maggie
Johnson*
Svetlana
Korolev
Bonnie
Lawlor*
Margaret
Matthews*
Michael
O’Hara*
Kitty
Porter
Bruce
Slutsky
Robert
Snyder*
William
Town *
Andrea
Twiss-Brooks*
Gary
Wiggins*
Joanne
Witiak*
I.
ACS Office of
Legislative and Government Affairs (Tamar Namaroff)
Namaroff explained the ACS
viewpoint on the government’s role in providing scientific and technical
information. A statement was
available at the meeting.and is available on the ACS website. The points she emphasized were as
follows:
a. Information that the
government produces isn’t well disseminated.
b. The government is
getting into areas that non-profit and for-profit organizations are already
in. If the government enters
ACS won’t be able to do what it does.
c.
Government distribution
would mean government control.
d. What are the long term
effects?
e. ACS is trying to find a
productive role for government.
Berks stated that what is
driving this is the need to get low cost information to education and small
businesses. He suggested grants to
universities and small companies.
Lawlor applauded ACS’s efforts and noted that the government can even
keep NTIS open. Quality of
information would go down.
Twiss-Brooks expressed serious doubts about long term viability of the
data bases. There is a history of
broken promises. Wiggins seconded
our bad experiences with NTIS. He
thinks that ACS specifically needs to mention PubScience in the
document.
II.
Proposed
Laboratory Automation Division – Mark Hayward
A
representative of the proposed Laboratory Automation Division, Mark Hayward,
spoke about the proposed new division. He gave a brief overview of the proposed
division including programming proposals and membership. The proposed
division is based on the LRIG (Laboratory Robotics Interest Group), a New Jersey
based group with 6000 members. Most LRIG members have a BA or BS in
biochemistry, biology, or electrical engineering. The degree and/or
experience would qualify them for membership in ACS. 80% are
not currently members of ACS.
There was discussion of
overlap with CINF interests in programming. Several committee members felt that
the many of the programming ideas of the proposed division overlap with
established CINF and COMP programming. Hayward agreed in part but replied that
there were areas that were not being addressed.
There was also concern on
the committee that no one from the proposed division or LRIG has been in
contact with CINF or COMP about programming. A suggestion was made that
they consider being a sub-division of CINF for a few years. Hayward said
they tried that with ANYL and that it didn't work with them. He emphasized
that they wanted cooperation with other divisions including CINF but that they
wanted to be in independent division. He then left the CINF
meeting.
After further
discussion, Witiak moved that CINF vote not to support their proposal.
Johnson seconded. There were 10 votes not to support the proposed
Laboratory Automation Division and 2 abstentions. Berks, Twiss-Brooks, and
Lawlor will draft our comments for DAC.
II.
Review and Approval of Minutes from March
2001 Executive Committee Meeting in Chicago.
Berks moved the minutes be
accepted as written. Town
seconded. The motion carried
unanimously.
The executive committee
received a spreadsheet with year to date figures. We are in the red by $2100. There are problems with the bills from
the spring meeting. Pacifichem
billed us incorrectly. We get dues
payments twice a year. After
discussion it was agreed that Matthews certainly has the situation under
control.
This was discussed by the
Publications Committee as well as Membership. Lee, Twiss-Brooks, and Baysinger will
attend the ACS discussion on this.
None of the projects we’re involved in are operating yet.
This report was sent my
email. The new Skolnik Award page
is up.
Chair Witiak’s report is on
the web. The Lucille Wert Award
winner is Phillip Edwards of the University of Michigan. The winner of the Skolnik Award is yet
to be decided. Grethe’s picture as
winner of the Skolnik Award was in C&E News. Witiak encourages members to
submit nominations for Meritorious Service Awards. Town will serve as assistant chair of
the Awards Committee. Grethe also
volunteered to serve on the committee.
Witiak will review the committee’s procedures manual and send
Twiss-Brooks changes.
Grethe reported that the San
Diego symposium went well.
Attendance was good. The
next meeting is in Boston. The
theme is green chemistry. The 2003
BETC symposium will be in New Orleans.
It’s titled “Biochemistry in the Service of Health.” CINF will have two half-day
sessions. The 2004 meeting will be
in Philadelphia. There was a
request for a motion to support the 2003 meeting. Town so moved and Wiggins seconded. The motion was approved
unanimously.
Twiss-Brooks reported that
there was no report. The committee
is in need of an assistant chair and some members. The committee is doing a careers
symposium this meeting.
ACS is still looking at our
change in student dues. It should
be on the next ballot. The
Executive Committee would like to thank Robert Stobaugh for his valiant service as
Chair for many years. Twiss-Brooks
is the incoming Chair.
Kitty Porter, chair,
reported that the Education Committee report had been emailed to the Executive
Committee. The
Committee is doing the Chemical Information at this meeting and at a regional
meeting. It was also offered at
BCCE at Michigan and the SE Regional meeting in Charleston. Rob McFarland will spearhead and effort
to update and make it more flexible.
Will try to set up a web teaching system that is password protected so
students can’t get the answers to our problem sets. The Education Committee will do
one session a year at ACS. They are
also planning a roundtable on teaching chemical information at Boston.
Ann Bolek, Membership
Committee Chair, reported that current membership was 1495 and going up. Bolek is working with Wiggins to get a
list of new CHEMINF-L members so she can send them membership materials. New CINF members get a packet of
information. Silvia Lee is working
on an electronic version of the Membership Directory with ACS. There will be no paper version. Twiss-Brooks, Johnson, and Bolek
volunteered to be a Task Force on the Membership Survey.
Teller Ann Bolek reported
the election results here. Chuck
Huber is the incoming Chair-Elect of CINF and Susan Cardinal is the incoming
Secretary.
Chair Robert Snyder reported
that CINF has 14 half day sessions in Chicago. One speaker cancelled a Wednesday
session. We do not have the final
attendance for NCIS in June but he believes that it was near 50 which puts us at
the break even point. Twiss-Brooks
will distribute the financials for NCIS when we receive them. The future of NCIS will be discussed –
perhaps at winter meeting. The web
site has a lot of information on what happened at NCIS. They are working on programming at
regional meetings. ACS meetings are
programmed through 2003.
CIB had a color page printed
last time. This issued are saved as
PDF for archives and on the Web (password protected.) CIB needs a subscription manager. Barb Hurwitz volunteered to do it. Graham Douglas will solicit new
subscribers. CIN-Enews has a
September 15th deadline.
The salary survey is ready for Carr and Baysiner to proof. Patricia (O’Neil) Kirwood, survey
coordinator, has 8 commitments to purchase. Billing details need to be worked
out with O’Neil. A grand thank you
will be sent to her.
The strategic planning group
met on Friday night when they had time to brainstorm and discuss. Lawlor said we really need to do some
long range planning.
Berks reported that ChemWeb
is paying for the welcoming reception and MDL is paying for the Skolnik. He will be working with sponsors for the
technical programs.
The Tri-Society Symposium is
this year. Dana Roth will handle
the paperwork.
Berks answered a few
questions regarding the location of items in the budget. Johnson moved the budget be accepted and
Witiak seconded. The motion carried
unanimously.
It was moved that the
outgoing Chair of CINF will send thank you letters to outgoing committee chairs
by Town. Witiak seconded. The motion carried
unanimously.
Our weaknesses were no
membership survey and a dearth of regional programming.
Berks handed out as draft
proposal on CINF fundraising efforts.
Grethe thought the tiered plan should run by calendar year. Town thought the levels were too close
together and should be $20,000, $10,000, and $5,000. He so moved and Bolek seconded. The change was unanimously
accepted. Witiak moved to create a
fund raising committee to raise funds for the division. Town seconded. The motion carried unanimously. Twiss-Brooks will make sure we can do
this within our by-laws.
Grethe stated that the
Skolnik Award could be moved to ACS national award status. He is very sure we would have a
sponsor. We would demand that
we keep the Skolnik name. An
official request to the ACS Awards Committee must be made. The donor donates $12,000 per year. The winner gets $5000 and the remainder
goes to ACS overhead. If we do this
we give up control of the selection process. As an ACS national award there would be
extra expense for our reception as well as a national reception. What if the sponsor decides not to
support after the first five-year commitment? Grethe will take our questions to
Micheal Shea.
Witiak
moved and Johnson seconded that the Executive Committee adjourn. The motion
passed unanimously. The Executive Committee adjourned at
5:07.
Respectfully
submitted,
Maggie
Johnson
Secretary,
ACS Division of Chemical Information
Voice
859-257-5954
Fax
859-257-4074
E-mail
mjohnson@ uky.edu