Executive Committee Meeting Minutes November 2020

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Nashville Local Section Executive Committee Meeting

November 14, 2020 9:00 – 10:35 am

Meeting held via Zoom

Present: Mike Stone, Amanda Carroll, Jennifer McKenzie, Preston MacDougall, Judith Iriarte-Gross, Robert Wingfield, Leslie Hiatt, Madison Dunn, Ruth Woodall, Cosmas Okoro

Meeting Minutes were recorded by Amanda Carroll

• Elections- We have a full ballot although everyone is running unopposed. Ballots will be sent out on November 16 and voting will end on November 28.
• Membership- We had 700 members in September and out membership is steady overall. We have the largest section membership in the state.
• SERMACS- We plan to send a delegation to the Fall 2021 SERMACS to make a bid to host SERMACS 2026, or possibly SW/SE joint meeting in 2025 if they still need a location. Stuart and Preston were involved in planning previous SERMACS meetings and we will seek guidance from them in the bid and planning process.
• There is a need to add new people at the committee level so we can get more people involved in our section leadership.
• Jennifer proposed giving funds to universities to use for student registrations for the virtual national meeting. She suggested block grants of $290 which would cover 10 student registrations to be disbursed by the department chairperson or the student chapter advisor. There would not be a presentation requirement for students receiving the funds due to Covid restrictions preventing some students from doing research. We could possibly do a Zoom meeting for students prior to the meeting to share conference etiquette and advice and possibly after to have students share their experiences. There was discussion of holding a research symposium but this was tabled due to everyone’s hectic schedules and timing of the national meeting being at the end of the semester. We do not want to place additional burdens on students’ time during the end of the semester. We could possibly try to do a symposium in early October for students that have presented research at any scientific meeting within a 12 month period.
• Amanda is planning an alternative chemistry careers panel she received funding through an IPG for. If you have speaker suggestions please send them to Amanda. The event is tentatively planned for February. The event will not require as much funding since it will be held virtually.
• The awards ceremony will be held in February.
  1. We could possibly hold a high school teacher panel at the awards ceremony.
  2. We can invite the science coordinator to speak.
  3. We should invite the Chemistry Olympiad student from the section that received High Honors on the national exam (Jason Zhang).
• The ChemLuminary awards are scheduled for December. We are finalists for three awards.
• Jennifer is looking for speakers for a technician panel for the national meeting.
• Mike sent the certificates to the 50, 60, etc. year members for 2020. We need to plan some type of recognition ceremony for the 2020 and 2021 50, 60, etc. members in 2021.
  1. 2020 50 Year Members: Larry Marnett, James Neilan, Donald Wilhoyte
  2. 2020 60 Year Members: James Hutchinson, Curtis Wilkins
• We have a section deadline of January 31 to submit information and events to FORMS for our annual report. The ACS deadline is February 14.
• At the January meeting we will discuss the budget, updates to the website (have budgets for different options), and the possibility of a research symposium in October.

Amanda made a motion to adjourn, Preston seconded and the vote carried. The meeting ended at 10:35 am.