2003 ChemLuminary Award Nominations
Award Category: Outstanding Performance by a Local Section
2003 has been another very busy and fruitful year for the Chicago Local Section. Our members have been active in many diverse areas, volunteering countless hours to the betterment of chemistry, our local community of chemists and the Greater Chicagoland community at large.
Much of the first half of the year was taken up with finalizing plans for the Great Lakes Regional Meeting and then overseeing this successful event here at Loyola University. The organizing committee put together an ambitious program centered around the theme of Chemistry Serving Society, emphasizing environmental chemistry and chemical education. Other areas of chemistry were also well covered in sessions and symposia. The symposium on Adjunct Faculty Issues in Higher Education was co-sponsored by the Section and the Division of Professional Relations. In addition to the presentations, several workshops, various award luncheon and dinner addresses and an exhibition were available to those attending the meeting. Many Section members volunteered to help out at the meeting itself.
As always, our celebration of National Chemistry Week was a highlight of the year's activities. We held a day-long "Chemistry Day" at the University of Illinois Chicago which attracted about 1500 children, students, parents and teachers, the highest attendance that we have ever had at this event. Our publicity for the event was very good this year and included a Spanish version of the flyer. Presentations related to the theme of "The Earth's Atmosphere and Beyond" occupied the auditorium while hands-on activities took place in classrooms, exhibits by governmental, industrial, and academic institutions were in an open area, and the hallways between these rooms had high school teachers running demonstrations all day. Poster and poetry writing contests were held for the children and older students. Our many volunteers included both Section members and non-members, some of whom were high school students.
As in other years, we concentrated much of our efforts for education at all levels. Our service-learning project involving high school students and pre-kindergarten children continued and will likely expand in 2004. The Chem Shorts for Kids column continues in the Chemical Bulletin and on the web and is now also available on CD.
We awarded over $13,000 in scholarships to outstanding high school students as well as financial awards to their teachers. As a result of our Chemistry Olympiad exam, two area high school students were invited to the National Chemistry Olympiad camp and one of them went on to the International Chemistry Olympiad competition. Four students spent the summer doing research under Project SEED, two of them SEED I students and the others SEED II. We held a two-project workshop for high school teachers in conjunction with Chemistry Day. Middle school teachers have asked us to develop workshops for them also. Our Membership committee proposed a change in Section policy to open up Section Affiliate status to more individuals, especially teachers.
This November, the first of three scheduled Undergraduate Research Symposia featured three University of Chicago students presenting the results of their research. It was held immediately prior to a Section dinner meeting and attracted a fairly large audience. Some of our Student Affiliates volunteered at Chemistry day and have attended some of the Section dinner meetings.
Continuing education has not been neglected. These programs were combined with our Topical Group meetings and have been quite well attended. This programming has been more successful than the Saturday morning schedule of the previous year. We consider topics suggested on our dinner surveys.
Employment concerns remained an important focus for the Section in 2003. The Employment committee put together a Primer on Job Search Success, available to anyone who requests it, and held eight Job Club meetings immediately prior to Section dinner meetings. Recruiters attended one of these meetings. We continue to post job openings and information on the web, we have compiled a listing of companies in the area who employ chemists, and our online jobs discussion group remains active.
Late in the year, we organized a Section Women's Chemists Committee and formed definite plans for one ongoing activity in 2004. Immediate response to announcement of this committee was very favorable. Two women who joined this committee attended the National mentoring workshop and will work on a mentoring program.
Our Younger Chemists' Committee and other active Section members have actively recruited new faces with significant success. One means was the displaying of posters at dinner meetings to increase awareness of the various Section activities. We send new ACS members a packet of information on the Section and invite them to a dinner meeting. We have several new members working on committees and almost half of those running for election to Section positions were members who had been relatively inactive recently.
Our Public Relations committee has been revitalized, partially as a result of the Chair attending the National workshop on public relations. Many press releases have been sent to the media and publicity in the form of flyers was designed to be attention getting.
With the change to a calendar year, we decided it was important to develop guidelines for how the finances of the Section are handed. The Comptroller wrote a Finance Manual detailing our accounting practices and the Section Trustees described the strategies used with our investment portfolio. In addition, they held an informational meeting on Section finances and a tutorial for individuals interested in serving as trustee.
In the past, our change of officers and committee chairs has taken place during the summer months, traditionally a slow time for the Section. This allowed for an easy transition and time to adjust to new roles. With the change now occurring at a very busy time, we found that incoming officers and committee chairs needed to start working with the outgoing ones at a much earlier point, in order to be comfortable and effective in their new roles. Having an office employee in a continuing position has eased the transition and it has gone fairly smoothly thus far.
Further details and supporting materials for these activities are available elsewhere in the Annual Report. The Section is proud of its accomplishments in 2003 and of the devotion of its many volunteers. We hope to continue serving our members and the Greater Chicagoland community at large in 2004.
2/26/04
