Council Written Report March, 2005

Council Report

William F. Carroll, Jr., President

First, the final score for last year. Over the course of the year I visited twenty local sections; in doing so I also spoke at 15 high school classes and 15 student affiliate chapters. I represented ACS as Scientific Chair at CHEMRAWN XV, and attended numerous other events on behalf of the Society. It was an honor and a pleasure. I hope that if I can provide value for your local section by visiting, you will not hesitate to ask. Meeting with members the most pleasant part of the job.

For the San Diego meeting I am asking the membership to focus on the three parts of my agenda for this year. First and most important is the Enterprise 2015 project. As you probably remember, this is an exercise whose goal is to understand vectors for change acting on industry, academe and government and using that knowledge, envision the state of the enterprise ten years from now.

Enterprise 2015 operates in three parts. The first step involves analyzing the current situation and the forces driving the enterprise. In step two we will seek to envision the possible consequences of those forces as they act on the various parts of our discipline—industry, academe, and government. In step three we will distill the many views of the future into a single document that will provide a glimpse of where we, the members of ACS, think our field is going.

As of January 1, the first part—a Situation Analysis paper—has been available on the web at http://chemistry.org/chemistryenterprise2015.html. I hope you have or will take he time to read this short paper and help the exercise by providing your vision of the future. A more complete description of the project and the process for the year can be found in my presidential statement and in my ACS Comment in Chemical and Engineering News of January 10, 2005.

For the second topic on the agenda, we have scheduled for this meeting a session on encouraging development of second-career high school teachers. This session is designed as a live “Frequently Asked Questions” opportunity describing what it takes to be a high school teacher. Personal testimony of mid-career professionals who have made the transition is included.

Finally, work on the third agenda point related to the public’s perception of chemistry is ongoing. I have been participating in the American Chemistry Council’s “essential2everything” campaign in order to learn more about how our organizations might collaborate in a way that benefits all.

It is a huge honor to be writing this report as President of ACS. This is the best job in the world working with the best people. I hope you’ll feel free to comment on my agenda or tell me anything else you think I should know by e-mail at bill_carroll@oxy.com.