Duties of the Secretary

ANNUAL DUTIES AND APPROXIMATE DEADLINES

SECRETARY, ACS DIVISION OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY

(prepared by M.J. Clarke, April 15, 1998)
I. Duties of the Secretary (DIC Bylaws §III.2.b):
It shall be the duty of the Secretary to keep a record of the proceedings of the Division and of the Executive Committee; to maintain a list of members; to send to members such notices as the business of the Division may require, and to carry out all the duties outlined in the Constitution and Bylaws of the SOCIETY. He/she shall submit a report to the Division at its annual meeting. At least two weeks before each regular meeting of the SOCIETY, the Secretary shall send to each member in good standing abstracts of papers to be presented before the Division at the meeting and, from time to time, he/she shall forward to each member any such newsletters or other items of information deemed desirable by the Chairman or Executive Committee of the Division for maintaining interest in inorganic chemistry. The Secretary shall also maintain a Procedural Manual. This Procedural Manual shall spell out the detailed responsibilities for all officers, members of the Executive Committee, and Chairmen of Committees, and shall describe time schedules and methods for maintaining continuity, among other responsibilities.

(§III.5.b) The term of office of the Secretary shall be three years or until his/her successor is notified of election. The term of office of the Secretary­Elect shall be one year, after which he/she shall assume the position of Secretary.

(§V.1.g) Tellers Committee. The Secretary of the Division shall be the Chairman of this Committee, and he shall appoint two other Division members to serve on this Committee until the close of the calendar year. (This committee certifies the annual election, which the Secretary runs and then counts the ballots.)

II. Budget for the Secretary

The DIC normally provides a travel budget ($1200 in 1996) and a function budget ($1200 secretarial/supplies and $600 www/computer in 1996, $600 total in 1998) for the Secretary.

III. Chronology of Duties

The timely functions of the Secretary are:

Time Table for DIC Secretary
JANUARY/FEBRUARY
1. Begin Secretary’s Annual Report, usually due sometime around March 15. The Division will not receive its annual allocation until the Annual Reports are submitted.

2. Make Arrangements for the Saturday night Executive Committee Dinner to be held at the Spring National ACS Meeting. (~30 people, $40/per)

3. Contact the DIC Treasurer to get the annual allotment of funds to provide an assistant to the Secretary. Allotment in 1996 was $1,750/year ($1200 secretarial/ $550 for www), but was $600 in 1998.

MARCH

1. Send Meeting Agenda, time, place, and any relevant enclosures (such as minutes of the last meeting, reports, etc.) to all the Executive Committee members for the Executive Committee Meeting at the Spring National ACS Meeting. Include dinner information and RSVP forms as appropriate. Councilors should arrange themselves for Alternate Councilors to replace them. Prior to the meeting a mailing that includes some yellow cards that allow an Alternate Councilor to represent a Councilor at the Council meeting. Bring the yellow card to the Exec Comm meeting, sign it as the authorized signer, and give it to the Alternate. He/she will have to present it to enter the Council meeting.

2. Invite Divisional Award Winners to the Saturday night dinner. The list is printed in the Preliminary Meeting issue of C&EN.

3. Write Social Hour Sponsors (currently Mike Strem, Strem Chemical; Barry Arkles, Gelest, Inc.; Joe Richmond, Springer) and invite them to the Saturday night dinner.

Also determine whether they want to update their ad pieces in the May Newsletter.

4. Send Subdivision membership requests (returned with ballots) to the ACS Membership Department in Columbus for updating subdivision membership lists.

5. File District of Columbia Tax Form, which will be sent to the Secretary by a DC law firm (William J. Butler, Esq., 888 17th St. NW #1000, Washington, D.C. 20006; ph: (202) 298-6161). Filing is done in alternate years. There is a $25 annual corporation fee, which the Secretary can pay directly and get reimbursement from the Treasurer.

APRIL

1. Write up the minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting and circulate by e-mail.

MAY

1. Prepare Newsletter and send to ACS for inclusion with the “separates” (the blue book of Abstracts). The current contact person at ACS is Mr. Julian Oteyza.

2. Send out Room reservation and Social Hour Request Forms. These forms will be part of a tabbed, spiral-bound book that you should receive from ACS in late April or early May. The rooms required for the Fall meeting are: (1) The Saturday PM Executive Committee Meeting. (2) The Tuesday afternoon Divisional Business Meeting (usually held in one of the session rooms immediately following the last talk of the afternoon). (3) Social hour from 6-8 PM on Sunday. (4) Social hour from 6:30-8:30 PM on Tuesday. Both social hours are held in conjunction with Poster Sessions.

3. Order Separates for the Divisional membership. The order form is in the spiral-bound book. Order 25 extra copies for the Secretary.

4. Order Plaques and Pins for the outgoing Chair and, if necessary, outgoing Treasurer, Secretary, or Program Chair. The order form will be sent to you by ACS.

JUNE/JULY

1. Make Arrangements for the Saturday night Executive Committee Dinner to be held at the Fall National ACS Meeting. Check with Inorganic Synthesis people.

2. Write to our social hour sponsors (currently Mike Strem at Strem Chemical and Barry Arkles at Gelest, Inc.) to determine whether they want to update their ad pieces in the Ballot Newsletter. Also invite NSF Program Director for Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry.

AUGUST

1. Send Meeting Agenda, and any relevant enclosures (such as minutes of the last meeting, reports, etc.) to all the Executive Committee members for the Executive Committee Meeting at the Spring National ACS Meeting. Include dinner information and RSVP forms as appropriate.

2. Contact the Secretary of Inorganic Syntheses and provide him/her with details about the Saturday night dinner at the Fall Meeting. We invite their editorial board members to attend the dinner, at the expense of Inorganic Syntheses. Ask the Secretary to provide you with a count of dinner attendees by whatever deadline you require.

3. Write to our social hour sponsors (currently Mike Strem at Strem Chemical, Barry Arkles at Gelest, Inc., Joe Richmond at Springer) and invite them to the Saturday night dinner. Consider inviting the NSF Program Director for Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry.

4. DIC Fall Membership Meeting. Note that for any business conducted at this meeting (such as dues increases), there is always a quorum because of bylaw VII.4. “The members who are present at any properly called meeting of the Division shall constitute a quorum for the conduct of business”.

5. Get the Slate of Candidates from the Chair-Elect (who is the Chair of the Nominations Committee) for the Fall election, to be approved at the Executive Committee Meeting. Prepare post-dated letters to the candidates requesting the biographical sketches that will be in the Ballot Newsletter. Note: Receipt of these bios is one of the major bottlenecks in getting the election underway! You should arrange to send the bio requests immediately following approval of the slate of candidates.

6. Arrange with ACS concerning the production of the Ballot Newsletter. Contact Ms. Wendy Torosian. If the printing and mailing is to be done by ACS in Washington (my recommendation), establish deadlines. If the printing and mailing is to be done locally, contact your print and mail facilities and arrange Nonprofit Mailing permit.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER/NOVEMBER

1. Prepare Ballot Newsletter once all biographical information has been received.

2. Monitor the election process: Make certain that the Ballot Newsletter gets printed and mailed, that a procedure is established to count ballots (including verification of DIC and Subdivision membership), and establish a Teller’s Committee to certify the election results. The members of the Teller’s Committee must be DIC members; most Secretaries have used three or four of his/her inorganic colleagues.

3. Write to our social hour sponsors (currently Mike Strem at Strem Chemical, Barry Arkles at Gelest, Inc. and Joe Richmond at Springer) to determine whether they want to update their ad pieces in the January Newsletter.

DECEMBER

1. Organize Teller’s Committee and Certify Election results to ACS.

2. Notify Election winners and losers. Form letters are in the files. Note that each receives a list of documents.

3. Update the List of past successful and unsuccessful candidates, and the list of symposia.

4. Prepare New DIC Stationery for the Division. Two reams of letterhead is sufficient, but this has been done recently by simply making the disk version of the letterhead available to the Chair, Chair-Elect, and Treasurer.

5. Prepare Newsletter and send to ACS for inclusion with the “separates” (the blue book of Abstracts). Julian Oteyza is the abstract book editor, and is in charge of producing

separates for divisions that want them. You should get the “separates order form” from the agenda book and send it to him. In addition to printing separates, Julian also mails them to division members (upon request), so a “label order form” needs to be done at the same time.

6. Room Reservation and Social Hour Request Forms. These forms will be part of a tabbed, yellow, spiral-bound book (National Meeting Program Agenda Book) that you should get from ACS in late November or early December. It tells deadlines for ordering things for national meetings, such as separates and committee meeting rooms. These books are generally mailed to program chairs (not Secretaries) by meetings dept. staffer Latisha Best (l_best@acs.org). Be sure to request it.

The rooms required for the Spring meeting are: (1) The Saturday PM Executive Committee Meeting. (2) Social hour from 6-8 PM on Sunday. (3) Social hour from 6:30-8:30 PM on Tuesday. Both social hours are held in conjunction with Poster Sessions.

Paula Groves (p_groves@acs.org) is the manager of meetings, and you should get the “request for committee meeting room” form from the agenda book and send your request to her.

Try to stick to their deadlines as much as possible, because they are firm. The ACS departmental fax number is (202) 872-6128. Any of the above forms can be sent to that number.

7. Order Separates for the Divisional Membership. The order form is in the spiral-bound book. Order 25 extra copies for the Secretary.