Councilor Update from District III Caucus Meeting
As you may (or may not) know, CSW is part of ACS District III. There are 6 US across the ACS membership. Each district holds a caucus meeting prior to the ACS meetings to review important items that will be brought before the entire Council. This gives us a chance to discuss things coming up to a vote and to be aware of anything new going on in various committees. Our own Allison Aldridge organized the recent District III caucus held on March 15. After opening with some ideas of what has been working in our local groups and regions for innovative projects, we started hearing from different representatives across ACS.
Bonnie Lawlor, District III board representative, gave us an update on the efforts the ACS Board of Directors have undergone to advocate for science on the Hill. She reminded everyone of the Act 4 Chemistry campaign, which is a Legislative Action Network anyone can join to advocate for the chemical sciences. There was some concern over how much work the Board does on behalf of the ACS membership, and Bonnie reassured us she would bring concerns to the Board. The main idea was about transparency of Board actions and the importance of evaluating effectiveness of policy outreach actions. Bonnie closed with reminding everyone about the ACS Open Board Meeting Sunday March 22 at 4 pm, which will be followed by an address by Priestly medalist Dr. Jennifer Doudna.
Bill Carroll presented updates from the Committee on Committees (ConC). There will be a petition to change the name and responsibilities of the Committee on Budget and Finances (B+F) to become the Committee on Fiscal Affairs. These changes would allow the committee to focus more on supporting societal needs and the Board would form a budget committee to focus on the affairs of the ACS enterprise as a whole. Fiscal experts will be brought in as advisors to the volunteer members on both committees. Don Mercer from B+F later added context that these discussions have been ongoing for a little over a year, as the Board reached out to B+F with the desire to form a Board-level committee and adjust the duties of the B+F committee. Don emphasized that the B+F membership are volunteers who may not fiscal experience handling a $1B+ organization, hence why these changes will be a good move for all in the end.
Bill also reminded us that the Committee selection form is active. If you are terming off soon, please don’t forget to fill it out. If you are interested in serving on a committee, please be sure to fill out the form. He mentioned there are some committees who are hurting for membership including Committee on Chemical Technical Professionals (CTP) and the Committee on Nomenclature, Terminology, and Symbols (NTS). The committee preference form will close July 6, 2026. There are several committees across ACS to look through, which can be found here.
Melissa Cichowicz from the Membership Affairs Committee (MAC) shared the vision of having 150k members by the 150th anniversary. There is a Recruitment and Engagement Toolkit put together by MAC that may be of use. Melissa also discussed the organization of the new “My Benefits” dashboard, organizing all ACS member benefits in one cohesive space.
Donivan Porterfield from the Committee on Nominations and Elections (N+E) was the last speaker at the Caucus meeting. He reminded everyone to come listen to the four candidates for President Elect. There will be a downvoting process to narrow the list to two candidates before the official ballots go out to members. N+E also had a Strategic Planning Retreat recently, where they discussed things such as unifying equitable access to communication strategies for candidates and supporting the pipeline of development for future candidates.
Much thanks, again, to Allison Aldridge for organizing the District III Caucus.