BIOTECHNOLOGY SECRETARIAT STEERING COMMITTEE
Room 346
E. Morial Convention Center
Sunday,
April 6, 2008
The meeting was opened by Secretary-General,
John Finley at 8:15 AM with self-introductions by those present (see
attendees list below). The minutes were approved without discussion.
The Treasurer’s Report was also approved.
The website needs updating.
John has been looking for someone to help Andy Berks keep up with the
website. The group discussed how to attract more people to the website
including a blog, video, podcast, and inclusion of symposia content.
The website may need to be relocated to somewhere away from the ACS
server to gain more room for additional content. Bill Suits, Gopal Coimbatore
and Andy will work on a proposal to update the website.
The symposia for New Orleans
were discussed.
Sharon Shoemaker and Gillian Eggleston (CARB)
put together a symposium on Integrated Bioprocessing of Lignocellulosic
Biomass for Liquid Biofuels and New Innovations for the Sugar Industry:
A Symposium honoring Margaret Clarke which will culminate with a tour
of the first cellulosic ethanol plant in the US in Jennings, Louisiana.
The tour has been organized by Greg Luli and Verenium.
The theme of the Philadelphia
program will be Chemistry of Health with subthemes in Drug Assay, Drug
Discovery and Drug Design.
Guenther has coordinated 15 symposia
on Drug Discovery with CINF, MEDI, TOXI and COMP.
The 2009 Spring ACS National
Meeting will be in Salt Lake City where the theme will be Nanoscience.
The sub-topics are to be worked out later. Paul Weiss, Editor of Nanotechnology,
will be the Theme Chair.
The 2009 Fall ACS National
Meeting will be in Washington, DC where the theme will be Globalization
of Chemistry – Energy, Environment, Education and Economics. The Multidisciplinary
Program Planning Group (MPPG) is still working to identify a Theme Chair
with Mary Moore (mkmoore@eastman.com) leading the effort. A non-ACS person
that is well-connected in Washington, DC may be the best choice.
The 2010 National Meetings
will be in San Francisco where the proposed theme is Green Chemistry
for a Sustainable World and Boston where the proposed theme is Chemistry
for the Prevention and Detection of Diseases.
The mechanics of the Multidisciplinary
Program Planning Group (MPPG) were discussed. The MPPG is charged with
selecting themes and planning Society-wide thematic and multidisciplinary
programming for ACS National meetings. The MPPG is composed of one representative
from each ACS Technical Division, one from the Divisional Activities
Committee (DAC), one from the Committee on Science (ComSci) and one
from Meetings and Expositions (M&E). A smaller Steering Group with
twelve members has also been created to lead the effort. This group
is made up of the three Committee representatives (DAC, ComSci and M&E)
and representatives of the five Divisions who contribute the most programming
to ACS National meetings (determined by the average attendance at that
Division’s program sessions at the previous four ACS National meetings)
and four Division representatives chosen by vote of the full MPPG.
At this time, the five largest Division members include INOR, ORGN,
POLY and MEDI. Each Division’s Chair, Chair-Elect and Program
Chair are invited to attend MPPG meetings. Guenther (CINF) was among
the latter group of elected representatives. It was felt that BTEC needs
a representative in the MPPG as opposed to relying on having one of
our group voted in. MPPG meets at least once per year and at P2C2.
Funding has been designated
for Divisions that do thematic programming. The MPPG has staff support
(3 people now) for advertising, marketing, etc. The themes/topics for
the national meetings are partially determined by the location/geography.
However, ACS Division Staff has begun attending Division meetings (especially
the larger Divisions) to gain knowledge to take back to MPPG for possible
themes.
The landscape has changed for
Secretariats. Our niche may be to serve as conduit/network through the
BTEC Steering Committee meeting and website for information on and communication
of Divisional programming. We need to find a way for BTEC to be more
effective and a more significant contributor.
New Business – Bill Suits is looking for up and coming individuals for MARM. He also reported on boutique meetings based on emerging technologies taking place outside of the National Meetings. These meetings provide a revenue stream and attract industrial sponsors.
The meeting was adjourned at
9:30 am.
Attendees:
Anna Wilson (CHED)
John Finley (AGFD)
Fred Heineken (BIOT)
Lisa Nash (PETR)
Sharon Shoemaker (BIOT)
Guenter Grethe (CINF)
James Stivers (BIOL)
Kenny Wong (BIOL)
Gopal Coimbatore (ENVR)
Bill Suits (MARM)
Buddy Ratner (POLY)