Chemical Education Today
Association Report: ACS Division of Chemical Education
Division News and Announcements by Diane Bunce
Ideas from the Division Chair
Shortened Executive Committee Meetings
DivCHED is not a thing, it is a community of people with an interest in teaching chemistry. It is led by an Executive Committee of elected and appointed members who have volunteered to help represent this community and to work to transform ideas into action. Every Division chair begins a term building on the initiatives of previous chairs and adding his/her own. During my term as chair there are three initiatives and one ongoing effort that I, the Executive Committee, and other committees expect to devote extra time and energy to. These initiatives are discussed here.
Beginning with the ACS national meeting in San Francisco in March 2000, the Executive Committee will experiment with a new format and focus of its twice-yearly meetings. Due to the scheduling of technical sessions on Sunday of the meeting week, many of DivCHED’s largest committees that meet during the national meeting (such as the Board of Publication for the Journal of Chemical Education and the Program Committee) are having trouble finding a time to meet. In response to this problem the Executive Committee will shorten its meeting from a full day to half a day on Saturday. This means that in San Francisco the Executive Committee meeting will begin with a closed session at 7:30 a.m. followed by an open meeting from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. To do this, we will attempt to deal with many simple matters via email prior to the meeting, thus leaving us more time to discuss complicated issues and new initiatives. It is our hope that we can accomplish as much as or more than before by switching to this new format. As usual, all members of DivCHED are invited to the Executive Committee meeting starting at 8 a.m., Saturday, March 24, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Francisco.
Regionalization DivCHED, as well as ACS, is committed to bringing quality programming to regional ACS meetings. The impetus for this initiative is the growing realization that due to budget and time constraints, many university/college, twoyear college, and high school members cannot attend national ACS meetings. The DivCHED Task Force on Regional Meetings, chaired by John Kenney, is working hard to generate new ways to involve members in regional meetings. Regional ACS meetings are less expensive to attend and easier to get to. We are committed to offering our support and expertise to help make regional meetings as useful and profitable to members as possible. Your ideas for doing so are welcome. Electronic Communication for Committee Business Too often appointments to committees or task forces are limited to those who regularly attend ACS national meetings, something that is not feasible for many of our members. This year, we will encourage committee chairs to include members regardless of whether they can attend national meetings by encouraging more committee and task force discussion to be conducted electronically. Yearly reports will be submitted to the Executive Committee via email and distributed electronically to the Executive Committee. In order for committees and task force to respond to new issues and initiatives as they are discussed, they are being encouraged to have one member attend the Executive Committee meetings. If the bulk of committee work is shifted to electronic communication, more new members will be able to accept committee and task force assignments, thus expanding the base of active members in the Division.
High School Committee Many of our members are high school teachers. A High School Committee has been an important contributor to DivCHED affairs for many years, but recently new issues and initiatives have arisen that directly affect high school teachers. The Executive Committee is encouraging the members of the High School Committee chaired by Allene Johnson (
[email protected]) to work with high school members to seek their input and to work more closely with the Executive Committee to help bring some of these new initiatives to fruition. One of the Executive Committee’s goals this year is to encourage the members of the High School Committee and all high school members to voice their opinions and join the effort to select and accomplish the most important goals on their list. Diane Bunce is a member of the Department of Chemistry, Catholic University, Washington, DC 20064; email:
[email protected]; phone: 202/319-5390; fax: 202/319-5381. She chairs the Division of Chemical Education for the year 2000.
Membership in the ACS Division of Chemical Education Contact
Booth 433 is the Division of Chemical Education
Jerry L. Sarquis, CHED Secretary Department of Chemistry Miami University Oxford, OH 45056
[email protected] Booth 429–431 is the Journal of Chemical Education
Visit DivCHED at the Exposition in San Francisco
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 77 No. 3 March 2000 • Journal of Chemical Education
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