Challenges Faced by ACS Student Chapters - American Chemical

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Challenges Faced by ACS Student Chapters Steven A. Fleming* Temple University, Department of Chemistry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 *E-mail: [email protected]

There are many challenges that face the successful operation of a chemistry student chapter. Five specific challenges are addressed in this chapter. Some solutions are presented and a list of chapter activities is provided.

Don’t kid yourself. It is the students that make the chemistry chapter (club) run. If the student leaders have the time and motivation to run a successful chapter, then it will happen. If the student leaders have too many distractions (classes, family issues, health issues, etc.), then even a historically successful chapter will likely have few activities and even the well-oiled chapter might grind to a halt. There are many challenges that face the successful operation of a chemistry student chapter. I will discuss five in particular and address ideas for dealing with the challenges. I have used some of my experiences from the past to illustrate possible solutions.

Time Commitment The first challenge has to do with our most precious resource—time. The student leaders of the chapter are likely chemistry majors and therefore they likely have significant course loads each semester. Coursework interferes with planning and running club activities, which is particularly a problem for the junior and senior level students. The upper class student usually has the instrumental analysis lab course and/or p-chem. Both require a significant amount of the student’s time. In my experience, it has been even more of an issue for the leaders who have to work part-time. One idea for helping with this problem is to support the club president with a work-study type of stipend. I have been at institutions that provide such © 2016 American Chemical Society

Mio and Benvenuto; Building and Maintaining Award-Winning ACS Student Member Chapters Volume 2: Specific Program Areas ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


support and it worked well. Another way to mitigate some of the time pressure for the club president is by making sure s/he is nominated for any department scholarships that are based on leadership. I have found that the club runs more smoothly if there is a weekly executive committee meeting (president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, fund-raising chair, activity chairs). These weekly meetings add to the student leader’s time commitment. It is my opinion that the advisor ought to attend this meeting. Some might have thought that was an obvious suggestion, but I have been at institutions where the advisor doesn’t get involved in the student organization at all. The time commitment challenge applies to the advisor as well as the student leaders. I’ve found it is helpful to have a faculty member present for the planning and assessment of the activities. Suggestions for tours of local chemical facilities, ideas for speakers at the club meetings, or recommendations for entertaining chemical demonstrations can all come from an advisor who is more familiar with the profession. Furthermore, advisors should help the undergraduate chemistry students get plugged in to the chemistry community. Not all of the club members are headed into a chemistry-related career. But those who are can benefit from attending department research seminars. Those students who are already involved in undergraduate research are likely to know about the seminars, but the new students and the non-majors might not be plugged into the seminar information. Some students are unaware that they are welcome to attend the seminars. Having the advisor attend the executive committee meetings is one way to relay the seminar information to the club members. Of course, some schools don’t have regular research seminars. In that case, students can be encouraged to attend local ACS section meetings, or regional meetings, or national meetings. Perhaps there are research seminars at local institutions. I’ve been at departmental seminars where a dozen attendees are undergraduates who have come by van from a small 4-year school located 50 miles away. Here’s another time commitment complication—undergraduate research. Research is a significant time commitment that can interfere with club activities. It has been my experience that the most research-invested students are usually too busy to regularly help with the club leadership. But if the student is paid for their undergraduate research hours, then they likely don’t have off-campus employment, which means that they might be plugged in to the club activities and maybe they have more opportunity to be involved. At least in the medium-sized chemistry department, the students who are active in undergraduate research network well with the student chapter organization. I have observed that undergraduate researchers at institutions with large graduate student populations are less connected with the student club. Presumably they have more social interactions with their large research group and don’t have as much need for the student club. In that case the student leaders might ask the undergraduate researchers to highlight their research at a chapter meeting. Time is the one resource that is really fixed. Deciding that the student chapter is a priority helps the advisor and the student leaders make the time for the activities and projects. Leadership is the key, and one could argue that the faculty advisor is the one responsible for inspiring and setting the example of leading. 8



Financial Support The second challenge I have chosen to address is the major problem of obtaining funding. We have found that student attendance at chapter meetings (see Figure 1) and activities is directly related to the free food provided at those events. The chapter needs a good cash flow to allow for purchasing of food. Other expenses include: travel to local, regional, and national ACS meetings, registration for ACS meetings, club t-shirts, supplies for club demonstrations (see Figure 2), and donations to charity. Of course the club members run regular bake sales (including π day, mole day, Earth Day, NCW, Valentine’s day, and Halloween) and they sell goggles and model sets. We have considered selling calculators, lab jackets, study packets, and used books.

Figure 1. Chapter meeting. Photo courtesy of Kathryn Gensemer

Figure 2. Demonstrations for club. Photo courtesy of Jessica Fenton Another resource is student dues. We try to keep the dues for the club as low as possible. One enticement to join is the offer of a free t-shirt. Another way to 9 Mio and Benvenuto; Building and Maintaining Award-Winning ACS Student Member Chapters Volume 2: Specific Program Areas ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


encourage joining is to offer the ACS membership as an alternative. The current policy in our chapter is that joining the ACS waives the club membership dues for the first year. If the student joins ACS through the advisor, s/he gets a free blanket, the member-get-a-member perk. Although this doesn’t immediately build up the coffer for the club, usually ACS membership correlates with student retention in the chapter, so in subsequent years the student pays dues directly to the club. All students are welcome to attend the club meetings and they do not have to “join the club” in order to enjoy the free pizza. Another source of funds is from textbook royalties. Many schools have lab manuals that are a potential source of funds. We have had an arrangement with a textbook author so that a percent of the royalties for a textbook used by the department comes back to the student club. The ACS is a great resource for funding worthy projects. This avenue for support is competitive and it is not money that a club can expect to receive every year, but it makes sense to seek support for a new activity. Our “new activities” that have been supported in the past include: elementary school demonstrations, competitions between chemistry clubs from different schools in the local section (see Figure 3), and a campus-wide volleyball tournament (1). The chemistry competition between schools and the volleyball tournament have both become annual chemistry club events. Now participants pay to be involved in both of these large-scale activities. The excess funds could help build up the club’s bank account, but the decision to-date has been to donate the profit to charitable causes.

Figure 3. Competition between schools. Photo courtesy of Emily Laughlin The local section of the ACS can also provide funds for student chapters. We have obtained travel support for national ACS meetings from our local section. Chapter officers have attended the spring ACS National Meeting for the past three years in a row, so travel funds have been very helpful. Other sources of financial support include local businesses. For example, we have pizza at every club meeting and the pizza vendor is usually willing to help support club activities. 10 Mio and Benvenuto; Building and Maintaining Award-Winning ACS Student Member Chapters Volume 2: Specific Program Areas ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


Facility Availability The third challenge I will discuss is the availability of facilities for holding meetings and activities. The chemistry club I am currently advising has a small office space and a computer in that office that is dedicated to the student chapter. This is a bonus that many student organizations probably don’t enjoy. The room ends up being a place to store goggles and other items for sale, food purchased before the meeting occurs, food not consumed after the meeting, awards received, awards to be given out, collections from food drives, hard copies of historical records, a calendar posted on the door, old textbooks, a Directory of Graduate Research, and items whose owners have gone missing. I have advised student clubs that don’t have their own room or office space. One solution to that problem is to ask for storage space from the advisor. The days of needing a phone line or a computer connection are probably gone. But storing that box of t-shirts or having a place to store other items for sale is still needed. If the advisor doesn’t have space, perhaps the department office will have a corner that can be devoted to the student club stuff. Fortunately for me, in my case the university facilities department works well with faculty members advising student clubs. There is an office in the student center that helps the chapter president schedule rooms on campus for most activities. There are times when the advisor is able to reserve the desired room more easily (for example, the chemistry conference room is often used and reservations for that room are supposed to be made by faculty members) and there are times that the student has an easier time reserving the room (for example, student clubs are given top priority for space in the student center). There are many events that don’t run as successfully as we think they should because the time or location was less desirable. For example, the volleyball tournament for 2016 was held on a Sunday, because the gymnasium space was unavailable on any of the weekdays during the month of April.

Communication The final challenge I will discuss is simply titled communication, but it is multifaceted. There are challenges communicating between the club and the general student body, between the advisor and the club officers, and between the club officers and funding organizations. A logical approach to communicating with the general student body is use of current technology. It helps to have one member of the executive committee (secretary or communications chair) assigned to the task of communicating to the student members. An email list that is compiled at the beginning of the year and updated regularly is a must in this electronic age. The sign-up list that is passed around at every chapter meeting has a column for the email address. A weekly email blast to the club “members” lists all of the activities for the upcoming week. If everyone read their emails, maybe this approach would be sufficient. But every organization is sending out email blasts so students, like the rest of us, are bombarded with emails and students are notorious for not reading their email messages. The result is that meetings still have relatively low attendance. The use of social media may have an impact on 11



the ability to communicate, although it is difficult to know how much it helps. The students use facebook and twitter accounts to promote the club events. The club webpage (2) is another necessary part of the communication process. Students are referred to the webpage for information about past and upcoming events. A weekly calendar on the webpage helps keep the members and non-members informed. Another approach to communicating about the meetings is the posting of fliers in science buildings and student unions. Students also should hear about the club activities in their classrooms. Advertising the meetings is a balancing act between telling students too far in advance and not soon enough for them to adjust their activities to make room for the meeting. One alternative that works well is to have the club meetings consistently on the same day of the week. That requires a very careful analysis of lab schedules in the chemistry program. There are other potential conflicts ( jobs, extracurricular activities, other classes), of course. But avoiding having meetings during chemistry classes would be the easiest in-common conflict to avoid. Advantages of having the meeting the same time and day of the week typically include being able to schedule the same room for the whole semester. Of course the disadvantage is that some students might be unable to attend the meetings. Communication between the club officers and the advisor is not as significant of a problem if the advisor can attend the weekly executive committee meeting. Of course, chemistry clubs can function without an involved advisor. And it might be that such a club is even more successful than the one interacting more closely with an advisor. Undoubtedly there are students who are more capable leaders or who are better at planning social activities than the advisor. Advisors might also have their own agendas in mind, when overseeing a club. One of the challenges that is complicated by regular club officer turnover is the communication between the club and the donors. Donors can include: the chemistry department, college deans, the national ACS, the local ACS section, local businesses, or individuals. Funding for events in one year under one leadership needs to be reported in the following year under a different set of club officers. It is tempting to argue that the advisor (the one constant in the club executive committee) is the one who ought to provide the reporting on the outcome from projects receiving support. We have been most successful when we have committee officers or vice-president who are sophomores or juniors. That gives the student leader a chance to learn the ropes in their first year, having overlap with the club president.

Undergraduate Research Undergraduate research is not exactly a challenge for running a successful club. But often the undergraduates working in the research lab are so committed to their projects that they don’t have time or inclination to participate in the club activities. Yet these are likely chemistry majors who are very able to provide enthusiasm about the major that can help with membership and activities of the organization. So I’ve chosen to address this issue. 12 Mio and Benvenuto; Building and Maintaining Award-Winning ACS Student Member Chapters Volume 2: Specific Program Areas ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


Table 1. Activities list Activities

Frequency

# typically involved

executive committee meeting

weekly

8

elementary school demos

weekly local community irregularly (~ 1/year) at other schools on request

3

demos at Science Festival

annual

5

general meeting (see Figure 1)

once per month pizza provided

20-40

industrial tours

~ once per semester

5

table at NCW poster session

once per year

5

table at local section poster session

once per year

2

fundraisers (bake sales)

~ monthly

10

charity events (Alex’s lemonade stand, AIDS walk, Boo at the Zoo, food fight)

4/year

5-10 each event

chemistry competition (see Figure 2)

once per year $10 fee/student food provided used as fundraiser for charity involves student chapters from local universities ~ 100 attendees

15

resume workshop

once per year food provided

15

table at University club day (see Figure 3)

twice per year

5-10

volleyball party

once per year fundraiser for local high school science classes

20

research luncheons

~ monthly hoagies provided

5-10

attend ACS local section meetings

~ once per semester

2-3

attend National ACS Meeting

~ once per year

4-5

Certainly students should be encouraged to do undergraduate research, particularly if they intend to apply for graduate school in chemistry. Medical schools and dental schools also look favorably at those who have taken time to be involved in independent research projects. Students can learn about 13 Mio and Benvenuto; Building and Maintaining Award-Winning ACS Student Member Chapters Volume 2: Specific Program Areas ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.


undergraduate research opportunities through various sources and the student club is one of those sources. This can be facilitated by regularly hosting a “meet the researcher” presentation that is devoted to undergraduates. We have 3-4 of these events each semester. The presenter is a faculty member who, ideally, is looking for undergraduate researchers. Students are drawn to the event by offering free food and the opportunity to become familiar with the type of research going on in the presenter’s lab. Perhaps one way to keep the undergraduate researchers involved in the student club is to have mini research presentations by the students at the general meetings. Another option is to have leadership positions for those who are doing research. For example, such a student would be a logical organizer of the research luncheons.

Summary I have created a list of activities (see Table 1) that are part of our regular program. It isn’t a complete list, I didn’t try to map the whole year, but it is a list of the major events. Not all activities would fit into every chapter. This is meant to be a list of ideas. I’m also not suggesting that this is an award winning level of activity. The number of individuals involved (last column) is based on a chapter that has 63 dues paying members and an email list of 1664. The involved individuals include executive committee members, student club members, and/or student volunteers.

Conclusion There are many challenges associated with running a student chapter. I have only addressed four: time, funding, facilities, and communication. While these particular issues are the ones that have had the most impact on the effectiveness of the chapters I have advised, it’s possible that there are other challenges that the reader might want addressed.

References 1.

2.

Edinger-Turoff, E. Tournament attempts to spike support for science. The Temple News, 29 April 2013. http://temple-news.com/lifestyle/tournamentattempts-to-spike-support-for-science/ (accessed July 12, 2016). Temple University Chemistry Society, ACS Student Chapter. http:// tucs.weebly.com (accessed July 12, 2016).

14 Mio and Benvenuto; Building and Maintaining Award-Winning ACS Student Member Chapters Volume 2: Specific Program Areas ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2016.

Challenges Faced by ACS Student Chapters - American Chemical

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