Hello and Happy New Year!
It is an honor to be able to serve as Chair of our Local Section in 2007. I do hope you try to attend the Annual Dinner Meeting that is taking place on Friday, February 9th at Rick’s Prime Rib House. I am excited that ACS President Katie Hunt will be coming to Rochester to meet and talk to our members. Let’s have a great turnout for this event!
We have a lot going on this year – and a lot of changes being made. Many are in answer to the surveys that our members sent in. Some changes are addressing the changing demographics in our region and changes all around us. And some are in line with the many changes taking place within the American Chemical Society itself.
It is an honor to have been selected to serve on the ACS Governance Review Taskforce, beginning in 2006. This gives me the chance to see firsthand what the new direction of the ACS will be. It also offers me the chance to help prepare our Section and our members so we are ready for those changes or enables me to see how our Section can help transition to those changes.
My main focus in 2007 will be twofold – communications and membership value.
Even though the elimination of the old “Chemunciations” newsletter was a smart business decision, I know many of you feel this decision cost us a connection between our members and the leadership of the Section. Thus, we are going to increase communications in 2007 with:
- A mailed New Years letter by me, as Chair, laying out the year ahead,
- A mid-year post card update mailed to each member,
- A new monthly electronic newsletter called “The Chemunicator”,
- An improved and expanded Local Section web page, and
- This blog, which will be frequently updated with my latest reports, Councilors' reports, meeting minutes, available job openings, and other items of interest to our community.
If we do not have an e-mail address for you or if you have changed your e-mail address recently, we must be notified so that we can successfully keep you in the loop. To join our e-mail distribution list, please visit the Rochester ACS home page and look for the sign up box.
We also plan to address membership value in two ways:
- Expanded opportunities in which you can get involved as a member and better information about those opportunities, and
- Charging non-members more for Local Section events that members and their guest.
Please take the time to look at where we have volunteer opportunities and our schedule of events for 2007. There’s a lot going on and we’d love to have the chance to be with you and work with you!
D. Richard Cobb
2007 Chair
Rochester Section, ACS
d.richard.cobb@kodak.com
585-477-4903
