ACS 2019 National Election Ballot Information

President-Elect—will be elected by a vote of all members of the Society

• H. N. Cheng
• Carol A. Duane

District IV Director—will be elected by a vote of members of District IV, of which Georgia is a member

• Rigoberto Hernandez
• Lisa Houston

Item to approve changes to Constitution & Bylaws—must be approved by the members of the Society:

Over the many decades, the ACS governing documents developed some structural complications. At the Spring National meeting in Orlando in 2019, the ACS Council overwhelmingly approved the Petition to Streamline the ACS Governing Documents [Constitution Articles I-XIX, Bylaws I-XIV, and Standing Rules I-IX], which will reorganize the fundamental governing documents of the Society: the Constitution and Bylaws, and create a third document: Standing Rules. These three documents will function as a hierarchy. The Constitution should (and does now, this will not change) define the Society; the Bylaws should (and do now, this will not change) authorize portions of the Society to have certain official actions; and the Standing Rules should (and will) operationalize the units of the Society to perform their authorized functions—this is the new document.

The changes were overwhelmingly approved by ACS Council and the ACS Board of Directors. The Petition will become effective when the proposed changes to the Constitution are approved by the Membership of the Society. We recommend that all members vote in favor of this petition which represents the most substantive changes since 1948 to the governing documents.

The position of the executive committee of the Georgia Local Section is to approve the proposed change to the governing documents, which we believe will better allow the organization to respond to the needs of its members.

The Georgia Section was nominated for fourteen ChemLuminaries this year, and of those, we took home six awards!

From the 2019 Past Chair, Ajay Mallia

In 2018 ACS-GA made a dramatic impact on it’s members by focusing on ACS strategic goals and core values. ACS-GA section held 60 different events that reached over fourteen thousand participants. Because of the incredible activities, the Georgia local section has been selected as a finalist for fourteen ChemLuminary Awards. Of those, we won six ChemLuminary awards!

The following are highlights of the 2018 year:

• NCW reached 9422 attendees (292% increase over 2017) from 76 K-12 institutions (280% increase over 2017, 36 high schools, 15 middle schools and 25 kindergarten-elementary schools). NCW goodies, including celebrating chemistry giveaways, were given to 8517 students at chemistry demonstrations which we held at various colleges and universities (505 attendees), and one local science center (~400 attendees).
• CCEW committee organized four different events (two high schools, one museum and one college) that had 960 participants attending (1400% increase over 2017). HS students submitted poems based on the CCEW theme.
• Our monthly meetings (a total of 517 participants attended these 10 meetings) were designed to relate chemistry principles to the real world that our members encounter. We invited people who have started their own businesses, we included non-technical topics (interplay of chemistry and art), we learned about flavor chemistry and held a science café to attract the public. At one of our meetings, we collaborated with ACS international activities and invited the Franco-American Lectureship awardee, Dr. Pileni, from France. We also celebrated meetings honoring Charles Herty and Percy Julian. Events like Kennesaw Mountain Hike and Bond-B-Que were organized to increase attendance from younger generation chemists.
• Herty Medal Undergraduate Research Symposium was organized to leverage the Herty Award to impact undergraduates and diversity. At HMURS, 46 undergraduates students from 12 institutions presented their work.
• Georgia Research Symposium was held in conjunction with 50-60 year honoree award luncheon. We combined these to foster intergenerational communication and support for chemistry research in the Georgia section
• Chemistry Olympiad had 875 students from 33 schools participate
• WCC organized six events including STEAM Expo, Ladies Lunch and When Science Meets Scents
• MAC organized 4 events: including STEM Panel Discussion on African-American Males in STEM: Superheroes or Endangered, networking and Percy Julian Awards
• YCC organized two events: YCC career Panel, NCW themed science café
• Collaborating with Georgia Gwinnett College student affiliates; the collaboration organized 18 different activities that had 2496 attendees participate. These activities included workshops, outreach at local schools and chemistry demonstrations.
• The local section supported eight high school students in project SEED program. Five Georgia Section SEED Fellows attended the ACS National Meeting in Boston and presented their research. Section members also participated in Science Coaches program collaborating with five high school chemistry teachers to enhance high school students' science skills.

The following awards were earned by the Georgia Local Section at the 21st Annual ChemLuminary Awards

• Outstanding Community Involvement in NCW
• Best Overall Local Section Minority Affairs
• Fostering Interactions between Local Sections and Student Chapters
• Outstanding U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad
• Outstanding or Creative Local Section Younger Chemists Committee Event
• Outstanding High School Student Program Award