The History and Mission of Chemists Without Borders - ACS

Chapter 2

The History and Mission of Chemists Without Borders Downloaded by UNIV OF FLORIDA on November 17, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): October 23, 2017 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2017-1267.ch002

Steven D. Chambreau and Bego Gerber* Chemists Without Borders http://www.chemistswithoutborders.org/ *E-mail: [email protected].

This is the story of how Chemists Without Borders was created, how we clarified our purpose, what philosophies and thinking are our foundations, how people figure in the picture, what resources and skills are required, and what lessons we have learned – so far. The inception of the organization came about from a letter to the editor of Chemical and Engineering News, and was originally modeled after the global humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders. The incorporation (2005) and the establishment of the non-profit status (2008) of Chemists Without Borders led to the development of the mission and vision of the organization, which have evolved over the last twelve years to allow us to pursue chemistry-related humanitarian projects and other initiatives. The importance of maintaining an all-volunteer workforce and the complications that arose from cultural differences in our volunteer base will be discussed. Also, the necessity of recruiting non-chemists into the organization is addressed here. Some of the major challenges to the success of Chemists Without Borders include development of a sound organizational infrastructure, project development, fundraising, and volunteer retention. Approaches we are taking to address these challenges are included in this chapter as well. The joy of working for a good cause alongside so many dedicated volunteers is indescribable.

© 2017 American Chemical Society Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

History “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Meade (1).

Downloaded by UNIV OF FLORIDA on November 17, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): October 23, 2017 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2017-1267.ch002

Thin Threads The original concept of Chemists Without Borders came about in response to an article in Chemical and Engineering News in 2005. Dr. Bego Gerber had read the article “Carbohydrate Vaccines (2)” and suggested that the world perhaps needed a humanitarian organization for chemists similar to Médecins Sans Frontières for doctors. In this letter to the Editor of C&E News, Dr. Gerber translated Médecins Sans Frontières literally as “Chemists Without Frontiers.” Upon reading this letter, Dr. Steven Chambreau responded to Dr. Gerber, explaining that perhaps “Chemists Without Borders” would be a better translation of Médecins Sans Frontières, as Chemists Without Frontiers seemed to indicate a chemist who was not pushing the boundaries of science or was not interested in being on the frontier of their field. Although Dr. Chambreau was the only person who responded to Dr. Gerber, the pair, who had never met prior, decided to pursue the development of Chemists Without Borders as a global humanitarian organization to utilize chemistry and mobilize chemists to solve humanitarian challenges. It is worth emphasizing that roughly 160,000 people receive this news magazine every week, yet only one person responded. Not only that, if the letter to the editor had not contained poor wording, Steve says he would not have responded. How many times have you taken on a challenge with odds of 1:160,000 against? If Bego had known the odds, he may not have written the letter in the first place! For an organization to be successful, it is necessary to have the funding to carry out its mission. Therein lies a dilemma similar to the “chicken and egg” conundrum, where in order to carry out the proposed projects, the organization requires funding, and in order to raise funds, the organization needs to have accomplishments with which to demonstrate effective use of funds. In the first ten years of Chemists Without Borders, most of the funding came from volunteers and Board Members within the organization. Currently, fundraising remains a continuing process, but with several projects underway and the current success of the Arsenic Education in Bangladesh project, these accomplishments can be used to promote donations and apply for grants. We also continually look for ways to make projects themselves be sources of revenue. In addition, as more and more people participate, more and more sources of revenue appear. First, it was necessary to research if Chemists Without Borders already existed. A Google search yielded an article on the UNICEF website called the Tajikistan Diaries (3) and written by Lynn Geldof, the sister of Bob Geldof, the renowned humanitarian of the Boomtown Rats rock band. A chemist in Great Britain is what the United States calls a pharmacist, so Lynn was referring to Pharmaciens Sans Frontières. Since no other instances of Chemists Without Borders was found in the research, Chambreau and Gerber applied for incorporation as a nonprofit entity in California in 2005. Incorporation requires a 12 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


minimum of three directors to be on the Board., Dr. Rolande Hodel, the founder of AIDSfreeAFRICA, who was very active in the first year of the organization, was asked to fill the seat of the third director along with Dr. Gerber and Dr. Chambreau. By the time we were up and running, the vaccine whose dormancy had originally motivated us, was being manufactured in India for distribution. The first project that Chemists Without Borders sought to implement instead was related to arsenic contamination in the groundwater in places such as Bangladesh (see Chapter 3 on the Arsenic Project for more details). This project was proposed by Steve, one of the co-founders of Chemists Without Borders, and continues today under the auspices of Dr. Ray Kronquist, our current president. As more people became aware of Chemists Without Borders, many project ideas were proposed. Initially, the organization sought simple projects with a high probability of success. Currently, project ideas are submitted to the organization for review on a simple one-page proposal form (available on our website (4)) which asks for information about the potential project and for possible sources of funding. Proposals are reviewed periodically and projects with a high probability of success and good funding possibilities are assigned a project leader to implement them. Other times, project ideas stem from a current project where additional needs are identified by the project leader while carrying out the project. Ideally, the project ideas will come from people on the ground in developing regions where their needs can be best understood. It was important in the application for incorporation to include any potential projects we could imagine Chemists Without Borders overseeing so that we would not subsequently be limited by our role defined in the 501(c)(3) application. This was actually more difficult than it would seem, and many long discussions ensued in the drafting of the 501(c)(3) application. One of the major sticking points was to decide whether or not to organize as a “membership” nonprofit, where members of the organization would pay annual dues and have voting rights on decisions made by the organization. Ultimately, Chemists Without Borders decided to form as a non-membership organization so that no dues were required and anyone could join the organization. The organization’s original mission and vision were finalized, the application was submitted in late 2007, and Chemists Without Borders’ 501(c)(3) application was approved in 2008. In order to maintain 501(c)(3) status for organizations with an annual income of $10,000 or less, the organization is required to file with the IRS annually. This was not initially apparent to us, and in 2011, the IRS revoked our 501(c)(3) status until we applied again. The reapplication process was another major effort, but Chemists Without Borders successfully had its 501(c)(3) status reinstated by the IRS in 2012 and donations from 2011 were retroactively designated as nonprofit donations. Chemists Without Borders has been successfully operating since its inception. A timeline of early milestones is listed in Figure 1.

13 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Figure 1. Early chronology of Chemists Without Borders.


Purpose Mission Statement


“Chemists Without Borders Solves Humanitarian Problems by Mobilizing the Resources and Expertise of the Global Chemistry Community and Its Networks.” In other words, we seek to convert the potential energy of the chemistry world into the kinetic energy of humanitarian solutions. Of course, many of us are already making humanitarian contributions in our daily lives, especially as chemists, but there remain many things which never quite get the energy and resources they need. Those things are our domain of opportunity. How big is the pool of people into which Chemists Without Borders wishes to tap for resources, human and otherwise? According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), “The chemical industry is of strategic importance to the sustainable development of national economies. The ILO estimates that there are up to 20 million people employed in the global chemical, pharmaceutical and rubber and tyre [sic] industries today (5).” Not only that, each of these 20 million people has a circle of contacts, sometimes in the hundreds, in all sorts of occupations from graphic designers to geologists, plumbers to programmers, artists to architects, etc. If there were 100 unique contacts in each person’s circle, that would be a community of 2 billion people! Of course, for whatever reason, not everyone is available to volunteer. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “The volunteer rate was little changed at 25.3 percent for the year ending in September 2014. About 62.8 million people volunteered through or for an organization at least once between September 2013 and September 2014 (6).” As mentioned earlier, one single step in the thread of Chemists Without Borders’ creation turned out to be a 1 in 160,000 chance. What if, instead of a 25% chance, a mere 1 in 160,000 people volunteered (0.0006%)? Out of 2 billion people, that’s 2×109/160,000 = 12,500. That is a significant number of potential volunteers, if we can find them. This presents a large opportunity to identify people who might be willing to volunteer for a worthy cause to which they could relate, if only they knew the cause existed. What are the magnets that will find the needles in the haystack? What are the best practices of today for recruiting people to a cause in large numbers through social media, and how can we do that? As our slogan says: The Power is in the Network!

Vision Statement Drafting the organization’s mission and vision statements was a lengthy process, and much effort was put into having the right wording to best convey what Chemists Without Borders intends to accomplish. Our mission is “Chemists Without Borders solves humanitarian problems by mobilizing the resources and expertise of the global chemistry community and its networks.” 15 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

Our vision is: A global support network of volunteers providing mentoring, information and advice to ensure every person, everywhere, has affordable, consistent and persistent access to: -


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Safe processes in work environments where chemical hazards exist Education in green chemistry and business, which people can apply in their daily lives and teach to others Sufficient safe water Essential medicines and vaccines A sustainable energy supply Emergency support, including essential supplies and technology

What’s in a Name?

Figure 2. Chemists Without Borders logo. (Reproduced with permission from Chemists Without Borders. Copyright 2017.) Our logo (see Figure 2) symbolizes our name in that it is intended to reflect the idea that we have no borders, that we are limitless. The hexagon (reminiscent of so many chemical structures) has no defined edges. The word Chemists is inside the hexagon, the word Without crosses the no man’s land of the border, and Borders is well outside the border. The name also implies thinking without borders, i.e.., thinking broadly, seeing things through other people’s eyes, imagining what’s possible, working with other people outside our profession, letting go of ownership, and so on. We have the capacity to mold our thoughts and our philosophies to achieve better the ends we wish to accomplish. In the context of Chemists Without Borders, that means focusing on those whom we are serving and looking at things from a totally different perspective so that our personal limitations diminish in importance. It is worth every minute to take a small amount of time each day to read material that will accelerate the work, whether it is about the work itself or 16 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


about how to become personally more effective. At 10 pages a day, roughly 10 - 20 minutes, one can read most books in a month. That’s 12 books a year and 60 books in 5 years, by which time you are pretty much an expert - all from 10 pages a day! This is known as “the slight edge (7)”. We have found that just one more person reading Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People (8)” can change the dynamics of conversations for the better, because there is a fresh perspective and a reminder of what is sometimes forgotten in the heat of the moment. In the words of leadership coach Blair Singer, “When emotion goes up, intelligence goes down.” If other people have been working for decades on a problem, does the problem still remain serious, and what can we at Chemists Without Borders bring to the table that might improve things? We’ve all heard the expression, “Think outside the box.” This has been such a useful metaphor that it’s now become a cliché; but how we describe it is not really the issue. What matters is what we do about it. One challenge often is that the instructions for getting out of the box are written on the outside of the box! How then do we get out of the box? One way is to have somebody who is already outside tell us what the instructions are for getting outside the box, or even tell us what it’s like to be outside the box. Thinking we are outside the box is being outside the box. (Is there something reminiscent of quantum mechanical tunneling about this?) Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Györgyi said, “Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different.” Here’s an analogy. We ask young Johnny what he wants for dinner, and he says, “I don’t know.” We then say, ”Johnny, if you did know, what would you want for dinner?” Johnny thinks, then says, “Fish sticks.” “Johnny, would you like fish sticks for dinner?” Johnny responds, “Yes, please.” The fundamental point is that the box is an artificial creation of the mind, and the mind has the capacity to change its artificial creations almost all the time. It may take work, but none of us is afraid of work, or it is doubtful you’d be reading this at all. As you will read in the chapters on arsenic, our current approach to addressing the problem of arsenic in drinking water in Bangladesh is very different from our original approaches. First we had to make room for new ideas by accepting that our earlier ideas were not as good as we had thought. Even after decades of work by many people to address this problem, Steve, Peter Ravenscroft and Satinder Ahuja proposed a new strategy which, under the direction of Ray Kronquist and Shahena Begum, is already providing water safe from arsenic in high schools in Bangladesh. How do we come to have these seemingly but not in practice immutable beliefs? There is a strong connection between our beliefs and our associations: family, teachers, friends, books, newspapers, colleagues, journals, the Internet, gossip, social media, TV, radio, movies, etc. When we surround ourselves with different people and ideas, our own ideas tend to shift. Each of us, both inside and outside Chemists Without Borders, has limiting beliefs; collectively, however, where one person has limitations another person has the necessary strengths. At Chemists Without Borders, we focus on people’s strengths. We keep in mind that there is a huge pool of people and resources to tap into if we remember the power of the network. 17 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Where Should Chemists Without Borders Put Its Energy? Chemists Without Borders is opportunistic. We go where we can go, where something needs to be done and we have the capacity to do it or to find other resources who will do it. It is tempting to do the obvious. Should we be doing what chemists obviously are capable of doing? We think we should be doing what those in need require most. According to “How the Other Half Dies” (9), severe poverty is the root cause of the high mortality rates in the developing world. Therefore, our principal goal should be to eliminate severe poverty. Poverty results in malnutrition, overcrowded living conditions, inadequate sanitation, and contaminated water. Routine vaccination is often unavailable for both children and adults, and basic clinical care for the acutely ill is in short supply. Thus, poverty creates a fertile environment for infectious and parasitic diseases. Poverty also leads to illiteracy and inadequate education. Deficient education, especially of females, is closely correlated with poor health in developing countries. In many places, people work in very hazardous conditions without any knowledge of what those hazards are. That is why Chemists Without Borders looks at every project in economic terms: Does the money flow into or out of the village? Is the village empowered or disempowered by what we do? Some people ask why we emphasize working in developing countries, for no doubt there are plenty of inadequacies in developed countries too. There are indeed plenty of things to do in developed countries, but by definition, developed countries have resources to deal with their inadequacies, if they choose to use them. Developing countries, on the other hand, lack these resources. That’s where Chemists Without Borders comes in. Many scientists are frustrated in their work because they are allowed to contribute only to the science of an organization and not to its management. One reason this may frustrate scientists is that we are trained to think about problems and solve them, and we feel we have a contribution to make to all kinds of problems because of that training. Therefore, Chemists Without Borders focuses on the big problems, regardless of the chemistry involved. We should, however, apply chemistry to the solutions wherever and whenever chemistry can make a significant contribution. It is true that others may already be addressing some of these problems, yet in many instances, it remains that these problems have yet to be solved. To the extent that Chemists Without Borders can support, catalyze, and promote those other people in their efforts, we should make a point of doing so. To the extent that there are gaps, where problems are not being addressed, we should address them. Determining the priority of these efforts should depend on the magnitude of the needs and the magnitude of the impact we are likely to have. We also keep in mind that, in practical terms, a major factor in solving many of the most critical problems is the distribution of goods, services, and information. How do these get from the source to the users? How does the money flow in the process? Where are the assets and liabilities; i.e., do the processes put money in the pockets of villagers, or take money out of their pockets? One of our goals, therefore, is to promote methods that push or pull money towards the village. 18 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

Consider that in many places, people live on two or three dollars a day. Consider too that there are many wealthy people in these same countries. There are many people, therefore, who are living on much less than one or two dollars a day. It is hard to imagine as an outsider what that must be like.


Why Arsenic? Some people ask, “Why arsenic? That’s old hat. There are so many other people working on the arsenic problem.” To which we reply, “Why address the largest mass poisoning in human history?” See the chapters on Arsenic, and watch this brief video to get a sense of the issue: “People are dying, people are dying” –Dr. A.K.M. Munir, physician-inventor, Bangladesh (10) (See Figure 3.)

Figure 3. Dr. Munir in Bangladesh.

Philosophy Cultural Humility Standing in other people’s shoes is a valuable concept, but is easily misconstrued. It’s all very well for us chemists to express opinions about those living in foreign places; while we may have been around the world and seen much, we have only our own limited experience. For instance, there is no imagining I could do that would give me any realistic sense of what it is like to grow up in a rural village in Sierra Leone during or after a dreadful civil war. We can be misled into thinking we understand things we still do not. Standing in others’ shoes is as fictional as a map is to the territory it represents or a menu is to the meal itself. That does not mean, however, that this thought experiment of standing in others’ shoes has no value. It does get me out of my own shoes, which is a small but significant step in the right direction. 19 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Since Chemists Without Borders was founded to be a global organization, it is very important to us that we understand how cultural differences might affect the implementation of a project in another country. Some projects might not be feasible due to cultural differences, or changes to the project plan might be necessary to avoid offending the intended recipients of the project. More importantly, we find the opportunity to solve problems in practical and fruitful ways can only come from listening to the people whom we are aiming to help. “When I went to the village, everything changed.” So said Prof. Bernard Amadei, the founder of Engineers Without Borders. He was talking about his own perceptions of what needed to be done. When he actually got to the village, things looked very different. Sometimes, the problem is not the problem. Consider a hypothetical case where the village water system isn’t working. The engineer in charge knows how to fix it; the mayor knows how to fund it. The real problem: the engineer’s family and the mayor’s family haven’t spoken to each other in five generations, and it is not likely to change soon. The problem is not the problem. Relationships are the problem more often than not. That is why acquiring people skills is so crucial to success in real life problems. How does the job get done even though there seem to be insurmountable barriers? As chemists, we are familiar with energy barriers, how to surmount them or better still, circumvent them. At Chemists Without Borders, we have an opportunity to transfer these skills from the lab to human relationships. Having an expectant attitude, too, makes a big difference at Chemists Without Borders. That is, we make a point of expecting things to go well, expecting that each of us will excel. These kinds of attitudes lead us indeed to perform better than we might otherwise do. Also, if we keep our eyes on our goals, obstacles become mere stepping stones towards those goals. As we chemists know, failure is temporary in science as in life - as long as we persist. People are almost always doing their best. Some days their best is better than other days, sometimes sufficient, sometimes not. Baseball legend Ty Cobb holds the record batting average of 366, which means he missed the ball almost 2/3 of the time. (Nowadays people are paid millions of dollars for such performance!) Every day, he gave it his very best. Some days he was better than average, other days below average, yet they were all the best he had on any given day. So too with us. How often have our chemistry experiments failed en route to success (11)? Regardless of the circumstances, the attitude at Chemists Without Borders is “Keep moving forward,” “I will, until,” as so beautifully described in DH Groberg’s The Race (12). Also, there is a common expression in Glasgow, Scotland: “You never know the minute.” Things can change in an instant and the unexpected can be fraught with challenges and rich with opportunities at the same time. Fortunately, in our kind of team environment, others have the strengths when we happen to lack them. We embrace change, whether expected or not, for none of our aspirations is inside our comfort zone. It is essential to ensure that we do have all the necessary strengths at hand. In Chemists Without Borders, an all-volunteer organization, it is similarly essential that all key positions are supported by a deputy competent to take over if necessary. 20 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Errors of the Third Kind Statisticians also have important things to teach us at Chemists Without Borders. They refer to two types of errors (13). With errors of the first kind, or false positives, one concludes something is true when in fact it is false. With errors of the second kind, or false negatives, one concludes something is false when in fact it is true. In 1957, Allyn W. Kimball, a statistician with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, proposed a different kind of error to stand beside “the first and second types of error in the theory of testing hypotheses”. Kimball defined this new “error of the third kind” as being “the error committed by giving the right answer to the wrong problem” (14). At Chemists Without Borders, we must constantly beware of errors of the third kind, i.e., getting the right answer to the wrong question. In hindsight, the problem of arsenic in drinking water in Bangladesh is partly a result of people’s having asked, “How can we provide water that lacks cholera and typhoid, diseases that are transmitted on surface water?” instead of, “How can we provide water that is safe to drink?” No one seemed to have analyzed the underground water enough to see what else might be there. Analysis of water has become an important component of Chemists Without Borders’ work, and we are always seeking cheaper, easier and more reliable ways to do that. Other questions we ask at Chemists Without Borders include: Is there a bigger question that would subsume this one? What and where are the big humanitarian problems to be solved? How can we, as an intelligent, educated group of people, make the biggest contributions to solving these problems? What have we forgotten to address? Who, outside of our own circle, can see our efforts with new eyes? Again, Szent-Györgyi’s words apply: Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different. It is as easy to be distracted by the interesting at Chemists Without Borders as anywhere else. Sometimes, when an experiment yields poor results, we focus too much on what went wrong instead of on the original question, which was, “How do we get from here to there?“ Another useful approach, is to imagine that the goal has been reached, to stand there and then to look back at how you might have gotten there. That path is often different from the path looking forward. Maslow’s Hammer This idea is attributed to Abraham Maslow (The Psychology of Science, 1966, page 15 and his earlier book Abraham H. Maslow (1962), Toward a Psychology of Being): “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail (15).” The risk is that we may treat everything as a chemistry problem because we’re chemists. We are more than chemists, however, and that’s where opportunity lies. We are chemists with many interests. We are indeed Chemists Without Borders. We have networks of family, friends and associates in the hundreds. These people cover a huge number of diverse occupations, so we can potentially bring any resource that a problem might require. What an opportunity! 21 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Collaborative, Not Competitive Chemists Without Borders is a collaborative organization, not a competitive one. If somebody else goes before us and solves a problem before we get to it, we celebrate! We seek to complement and catalyze the work of others, and sometimes to be an umbrella for them. Our focus is on the village. This perspective has an impact on conflict resolution. There are always conflicts. Some are for the better, some are not. When objects rub against one another, physics and chemistry are involved; so too, with people. In Chemists Without Borders, we assume that everyone is working for the best interests firstly of the people “in the village,” and secondly of Chemists Without Borders and its participants. We assume, therefore, that there is no ill intent in anyone’s behavior. We do care about everyone’s feelings, although sometimes people’s feelings are in conflict. Sometimes it seems fair to one and all, and sometimes, not so much. The more we can learn about building relationships and understanding social styles, the more productive and calm things become (16). Jazz versus Symphony Chemists Without Borders operates in small, flexible teams, with redundancy built in as much as possible to compensate for volunteers’ uncertain schedules and availability. In a former occupation of Bego’s, there was a special corporate event where the president was outlining the direction in which they were going and the mechanisms by which they would get there. In the process, he showed a short film of an orchestra with a conductor, implying that was how the operation would run, as it always had done. Bego relates, “I had a small team of coworkers around me at the meeting. We looked at each other with disbelief. To us, successful projects were not managed like an orchestra, but played like a jazz ensemble.” Everybody is on the same team, all going in the same direction, with a very clear end in sight. There are rules of procedure, there are moments of special contact where things must align, and people have the freedom to accomplish the goal whichever way works best within the rules. Sometimes they are collaborating with one another and sometimes not, nevertheless focusing on the goal. Chemists Without Borders is indeed run as a jazz ensemble.

People Volunteers “There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.” - Lt Col James Doolittle, USAAF Chemists Without Borders was formed with the intent of being an all-volunteer organization. It seems impossible to do justice to the applause our many volunteers, past and present, deserve. The commitment and heart our volunteers have shown is summa cum laude, of the highest distinction. Finding willing volunteers was initially difficult because the organization was still developing potential projects. Much of the work early on was infrastructure 22 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


building, so that as the organization grew, there would be processes and procedures that could scale with the growth of the organization. Many chemists were interested in volunteering and were looking for a project that they could carry out “in the field”. Prior to having a working project in place, however, it was very difficult to ask volunteers to perform duties other than chemistry such as fundraising or clerical tasks. Currently, with several projects in place, it is much easier to pair a willing volunteer with a project that can utilize the volunteer’s chemistry skills. It is essential to understand that volunteers cannot be treated the same as paid employees, and without support from the organization, volunteer turnover can be high. The opportunities for leverage, for instance, are different; no one is relying on you for their livelihood. Most volunteers are working in their spare time, and may not have as much time to devote to a project as a paid employee or a retired person. Obviously, there are countless projects in which Chemists Without Borders could become involved. We lack all the resources necessary for all these potential projects, so our approach is simple: for any idea to become a project, it must have a project leader. Therefore, we look for project leaders. We then support the project leader in building the necessary team or teams to fulfill the project goals. This is a human resources function, illustrating our need for a diverse set of skills. It is exciting to have a huge pool of potential volunteers for any and all aspects of a project. The possibilities seem endless. The bottom line is this: All the many volunteers past and present who have been part of Chemists Without Borders have done an extraordinary job of collaboration and accomplishment. From those in the early days, as shown in the chronology above (see Figure 1), to the present, the dedication and commitment of all these wonderful volunteers has been very humbling. All measure of thanks is owed them. (See Acknowledgments.) Promote, Promote, Promote In a recent piece in C&EN, “Chemjobber” addressed the challenges of moving between academia and industry: “Crossing the great divide: As tempting as it is, moving between industry and academia requires a shift in perspective (17).” There is a similar shift in thinking required in moving from industry, academia or government into public benefit work like Chemists Without Borders’. There are necessary shifts in mindset for each and every one of us. Fundamental to that mindset is that we keep our eyes on the goal, on “the village “. Here is an example. Despite its actual spelling, some people think the word “sales” is a four letter word. Yet whatever we may call it, most of us are promoting or selling something some of the time every day. We advertise our own ideas, and those of other people. “Have you seen the latest movie with…” “Let’s meet at the Poisoned Pigeon for lunch.” “Eat your carrots, Mary!” We may, in fact, be good at it, as long as it’s not called “sales”. See also Chemistry Voices: Bego Gerber (18). In Chemists Without Borders, promotion is a key part of the job. As mentioned above, our power is in the network. Tapping the network involves promoting, enlightening, enticing, inviting, referring, begging, leading other people to join 23 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

the team and make a difference. How? Find out what the volunteer wants, then show them how participating with us can fulfill that want. We are in the Information Age, the new Millennium. We have seen entrenched dictatorships toppled owing to the capabilities of social media. How shall Chemists Without Borders capitalize best on these ever-changing resources?


Skills At some point just about every skill you can think of will be valuable, but not all will be needed at the same time. Hence the need to build the network now so that people are on call when the need for them arises. Although the name Chemists Without Borders indicates our focus is on humanitarian chemistry, it is important to involve other fields of expertise to make the organization run smoothly. Such issues as fundraising and accounting, legal matters, recruiting, promoting, and running the nonprofit organization require much more than chemistry. Chemists Without Borders recognizes this and includes volunteers with all sorts of expertise that can be essential in running a nonprofit organization successfully. It is especially gratifying that volunteers do take on so many tasks, and even when they don’t know how to do something, they go and learn of their own volition. Many an enterprise has failed owing to its having poor foundations. The foundations may seem more than adequate at the beginning, but as things grow, the foundations may no longer be up to the task. Instead of becoming more efficient as the organization grows, it becomes progressively less efficient until it is too big for the necessary improvements to be made. To avoid this, Chemists Without Borders employs certain tools that can be utilized effectively at any level in the network. An example is the use of RACI matrices (19). Nobel laureate Melvin Calvin emphasized using the right tools for the job; better to design and create the right tool than to use the wrong one. “Just Give Me a Lab and Let Me Do My Work.” As scientists, we may not be in the “people business”, per se, but if we wish to have any impact at all, we must communicate effectively with others. This is especially true for Chemists Without Borders, which is really as much of a marketing organization as it is a scientific organization - our business is in mobilizing chemists and their networks to achieve humanitarian goals. Though chemists are the base of our operations, we can only accomplish our mission once our volunteers’ networks are mobilized. Within each chemist’s network there are people who fill the gaps that we may lack as analytical scientists. There are salespeople, artists, social workers, teachers all within our networks, all seeking to make the same positive differences in the lives of those in need. Understanding what some people call Social Styles, can be very helpful in working with such different kinds of people. The verbal and body language we use to communicate with our web designer is different than the language we use to communicate with the developer of an analytical chemistry method. 24 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


These communication shifts are necessary especially when we move from the inner circle of our base, many of whom are detail-oriented, into the secondary circle of our networks, where we find many more who are relationship-oriented, or bottom-line-oriented. While analytical people find it harder to answer how they feel about something, rather than what they think about something, relationship-oriented people tend to be the very opposite. People with all of these social styles are necessary in reaching our humanitarian goals, yet special effort and knowledge are required for communicating effectively among these social styles. Many scientists may find this topic of social styles to be new, and even fascinating, territory. A grasp of social styles has had a favorable impact on both the professional and personal relationships of our members, and certainly on achieving the kind of humanitarian impact we are seeking. These relationships remain keys to success in many areas including ours in Chemists Without Borders. “The Meaning of a Communication Is the Response It Gets.” Here is another enlightening way of looking at how we communicate effectively: “The meaning of a communication is the response it gets.” It seems obvious in retrospect. If I say something to somebody and I get a reaction from them that is quite unexpected, it probably means that what I meant wasn’t what the other person understood. There is an old expression: “I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” At Chemists Without Borders, we aim to put the onus not on the listener to understand, but the on the speaker who is trying to relay a message. There is not much point in my speaking in Klingon if you’re listening in Na′vi, or to be more realistic, for me to speak English when you listen in Bangla. If I want you to understand, I had better start communicating in a way that produces understanding. Behavior In our meetings at Chemists Without Borders, whether face-to-face or online, we strive to ensure a safe environment by: Respecting Confidentiality Participating Fully Listening Actively Taking Turns Speaking Respecting All Points of View Showing Positive Regard Being Open and Constructive Leading by Example We seek to edify and bring out the best in one another. These practices have allowed us to engage in productive dialogue with a minimum of conflict. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we do it all perfectly well. We aim to be bold, 25 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

polite, kind, and to ask for what we want, not what we think we can get. Dream big, then dream bigger! The Casablanca Perspective


“…, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” - Rick Blaine to Ilsa Lund This famous line can be reused by us. Compared to the circumstances in which the people we aim to help are living, the kinds of interpersonal issues that can arise for us in Chemists Without Borders are typically trivial. Sometimes we lose perspective. Information Management Chemists Without Borders has found it imperative to ensure that all information and intellectual property of the organization is stored in a secure central repository with excellent backup protection. Everything goes here, even what seem like trivial ideas. If work is done at, say, one’s home computer, the work is immediately transferred to the central repository for protection, and so that it can be accessed by others. The risk is that when volunteers are no longer active, for whatever reason, the information on their computers and cell phones becomes inaccessible, sometimes permanently. We sadly lost two senior members of the team to illnesses, and discovered how crucial it is to have all data secured. It has been essential for us to look at where we want our organization to be in 10-, 5-, and 2-years’ time, and to use tools which can survive the growth. The decisions made early on tend to have long-term impacts, and are often hard to change. Consider that our railroads have the same gauge as the Roman chariots of 2,000 years ago (20) Delegate, Delegate, Delegate! To achieve Chemists Without Borders’ vision, very clearly there are not enough hours in the day for a handful of people to handle everything. It is essential, therefore, that processes be in place and the culture be in place that catalyze delegation. You may have heard stories of people who were so overwhelmed with “fires” they had to extinguish, that they didn’t have the time to learn fire prevention. If some fires are going to be left unattended owing to a lack of time to attend to them, we at Chemists Without Borders have found value in choosing a couple more to let burn uncontrolled. This yields the time to learn how to prevent so many fires in the first place. If anybody says they don’t have time, they may make time available by delegating some of their work. Remember, there are some 20 million people to tap into! There is a tendency to think that the training of delegates is too time-consuming. If it takes too long to train someone, delegate some of the training. The Chemists Without Borders view is that there are already innumerable issues to address which we are not addressing. Our strategy is to develop 26 Grosse; Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise To Solve Humanitarian Problems Volume 1 ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

processes and systems that can be easily replicated. At the beginning, it is true that all work and teaching must be done by the small group, but as they delegate, more and more teachers come online, freeing the initial group to devote time for another round of delegating.


Duplication With delegation comes duplication. To build sustainable networks, the information and methods that are shared need to be applicable to everybody. We may have a special way of doing something with special equipment we have, but if you can’t do it too, it’s not sustainable in our network. To build the network, we teach teachers to teach teachers to teach. For example, getting clean water to the people of Bangladesh has always been a distribution issue in addition to a chemistry issue. In teaching school teachers and high school students about the hazards of arsenic in drinking water, and how to test for arsenic, we empower them to teach others, and have a broader impact. There is a direct line between the person in the field and all the other members of a team connecting them to the same sources of information. For example, in many parts of the developing world, the latest software is not available. Some people may be using software that can handle .doc documents but not .docx documents. Therefore, we create documents with .doc extensions to ensure their compatibility. When everyone can use .docx, we will advance to .docx. If it can’t be duplicated, don’t do it.

Conclusion Working with Chemists Without Borders is a way for chemists to make a unique contribution despite the sometimes perceived gap between their day-to-day chemistry and the needs of the underprivileged. To the extent that chemistry is involved, good, but that’s a very limited vision. Where are the biggest humanitarian needs, where can we have the largest impact, and what particular assets might we have to achieve that? To accomplish our ends, chemistry is only one of the valuable skills. We need a flexible mindset. We are more in the people business than we originally imagined. Fortunately, all the skills necessary are readily acquired with a little steady effort, the slight edge. Just about anyone and everyone is welcome at Chemists Without Borders as long as they are committed to the mission of solving humanitarian problems. This is a wonderful team of people. Do come and join us!

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The History and Mission of Chemists Without Borders - ACS

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