Councilor Talking Points, exec. sum.

St Louis Local Section Councilor Donna Friedman, just back from in front of her computer screen, where the national Council Meeting was hosted virtually, has provided us with the Councilor Talking Points (CTP) summary of Council and Board actions.

Herewith an executive summary of the summary, a curated selection of topics that might be of most widespread interest.

1. Candidates for President-elect and Directors were selected. You’ll hear more about them in C&E News as election time (October) nears.
2. Pending approval by the Board of Directors, national committees have been harmonized, with terms of service set at three years, with a maximum of two successive terms. A fresh perspective is nice. But so is experience and expertise. We’ll see how this works out.
3. The Committee on Local Section Activities has been granted the authority to step in when local governance fails. Possible interventions include appointing an interim executive committee or facilitating a Local Section election. I guess some Local Sections aren’t as devotedly run as ours. Who’d’ve thought it?
4. The base dues rate for 2022 has been reduced to $160/year from the current $175. Wait, what? Reduced?
5. Our core values now number four, up from the previous three. With the addition of Equity, we now value Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Respect.
6. The set of four core values has become a strategic goal as well, bringing our strategic goals to five.
7. Budget and Finance reported a net from operations of $61 million, which was almost $20 million higher than the budget. Revenue rose while expenses were about flat, compared to 2019. This was attributed to strong revenue performance from the Society’s Information Services units (CAS and ACS Publications) and COVID-19 related impacts that saved more than they cost.
8. National meetings continue to be virtualized. The Spring 2021 Meeting will held virtually, live, April 5-16, followed by two weeks of on-demand access. There will be 120 live scientific sessions per day, with live Q&A and visibility of other attendees in the room. The expense of attending a virtual national meeting is significantly lower than in meatspace: reduced to $99 for ACS Members and $29 for students, and a 100% reduction in the costs of travel and lodging. To date, 8,724 abstracts have been accepted.
9. In Board of Directors actions, “As proscribed [sic] in the Standing Rules, the Board confirmed the Council’s approval of the Petition to Harmonize Committee Structures, Processes and Terms….” “Proscribed?” Well, any way you say it, that de-pends the second point above.

As usual, if any of the above items piques your interest, you are urged to seek a bit more detail in the full CTP document.