Approved Minutes 09.09.06
American Chemical Society's Division of Chemical Information (CINF)
Executive Committee Meeting
Saturday, March 25, 2006, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA
1:00 - 5:15 PM
The Executive Committee was called to order by Chair, Osman Güner, at 1:05 PM. The agenda and several reports were distributed.
Those present for the meeting were as follows:
Executive Committee voting members:
Dr. Osman Güner, Chair 2006
Ms. Erja Kajosalo, Chair Elect 2006
Ms. Eileen Shanbrom, Past Chair/Nominating Chair 2006
Ms. Svetlana Korolev, Secretary 2006-07
Ms. Patricia Kirkwood, Treasurer/Finance Chair 2005-06
Ms. Bonnie Lawlor, Councilor 2004-06
Ms. Andrea Twiss-Brooks, Councilor 2006-08; Constitution, Bylaws & Procedures
Ms. Grace Baysinger, Alternate Councilor 2003-05
Dr. William Town, Alternate Councilor 2006-08 (excused)
Dr. Alan Engel, Membership Chair 2004-06
Dr. Terry Wright, Program Chair 2005-06
Committee Chairs and visitors:
Dr. Guenter Grethe, Awards Chair 2006-08; Biotechnology Secretariat Liaison
Dr. Philip Barnett, Past Careers Chair 2006-08
Ms. Susan Cardinal, Education Chair 2006-08
Mr. Graham Douglas, Fundraising Chair 2006-08; Subscription Manager 2004-06
Ms. Leah Solla, Program Assistant Chair 2005-06
Ms. Beth Thomsett-Scott, Publications Chair 2006-08
Dr. Svetla Baykoucheva, Chemical Information Bulletin Editor 2006-08
Ms. Pamela Scott, Awards & Program Committees Member, invited guest
1. Introductions (Osman Güner)
Beth Thomsett-Scott, Publications Chair 2006-08, was introduced.
a. Approval of the minutes of the previous meeting.
The minutes of the Fall 2005 Executive Committee meeting were accepted as written.
b. Comments from the long range planning meeting held earlier today
· Erja Kajosalo and Pamela Scott will attend the ACS training on how to create a division strategic plan on May 19-20 or June 16-17, 2006.
· Guenter Grethe will represent CINF in the ACS initiative for thematic programming and long-range program planning.
· Three CINF liaisons were appointed:
1. Beth Thomsett-Scott for ACRL,
2. Erja Kajosalo for ASIST,
3. Susan Cardinal for SLA.
· Andrea Twiss-Brooks volunteered to gather information from the CINF functionaries on their memberships in professional organizations.
· A new person to oversee a CINF liaison program will be appointed at the next meeting in San Francisco.
· A Coordinator for the next Tri-Society symposium will be appointed by the Program committee. CINF will be responsible for the 2010 meeting.
· A “Thank you” letter will be mailed to the CINF outgoing officers by a CINF Past Chair and to the committee members by a committee chair at the end of the year. Andrea Twiss-Brooks will create a letterhead template.
2. Division Business
a. Annual Report Review (Svetlana Korolev)
The 2005 Annual report was submitted to the ACS Committee on Divisional Activities by the deadline, February 15, 2006. Prior to the deadline, the report was sent to the Executive committee members for a review and comments. Eileen Shanbrom wrote a cover letter with the 2005 CINF highlights. No other comments were made at the present meeting. Svetlana Korolev was thanked for an excellent job.
Action item: A Division Open Business Meeting will be scheduled for a Monday afternoon program (4:00-4:30) at the next ACS National Meeting in San Francisco.
b. Regional Meetings Review and Plans (Osman Güner)
· Leah Solla and Elizabeth Brown, CINF affiliate member, is organizing a symposium on open access publishing at NERM 2006.
· The CINF Education committee is seeking collaboration with the ACS Division of Chemical Education, who has a “Regional Meetings” committee, for setting up an information booth at regional meetings (or at a National Chemistry Week).
Action item: Sue Cardinal will follow up with a regional meeting coordinator of the Division of Chemical Education.
· Leah Solla attended a session at the Program Planning & Coordination Conference (P2C2) with a Regional Meeting Chairs group, who solicited goals and concerns from the divisions on programming at regional meetings.
Action item: Leah Solla will follow up with Regional Meeting Chairs group in order to get information on how to improve participation in CINF programming at regional meetings.
· Collaborating with local SLA sections that have a strong presence on the east coast, new advertising channels of scholarships, and more programming for students and recent graduates were suggested as additional venues for CINF participation.
c. BTEC [Biotechnology Secretariat] (Guenter Grethe)
BTEC will meet on Sunday, March 26, 2006. Thematic programming in order to increase collaboration between divisions is on the agenda. Patricia Kirkwood verified that CINF would continue paying $100.00 BTEC dues in 2007.
d. IO Informatics Scholarships (Guenter Grethe)
Unfortunately, IO Informatics will discontinue its scholarship sponsorship after this ACS meeting in Atlanta. IO Informatics is a small company with a focus on biology. Six applications were received for the ACS meeting in Atlanta. The panel of judges included: Bill Town, Osman Güner and Guenter Grethe. Five recipients were selected:
1. Lorant Bodis Laboratorium für Organische Chemie, ETH Zürich
2. Barun Bhhatarai Chemistry Department, Clarkson University
3. Cheng Chang Department of Pharmaceutics, University of Maryland at Baltimore
4. Xiao Dong School of Informatics, Indiana University
5. Monika Rella Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Leeds.
All recipients will be recognized at the CINF luncheon.
Action item: Guenter Grethe will try to find another sponsor (even if less number of scholarships will be provided).
e. CIC & CINF Collaboration (Guenter Grethe)
CIC is the Chemie-Information-Computer division of the GDCh, the German Chemical Society. A full day CIC & CINF symposium titled “Cyberinfrastructure in Chemistry, Information and Education: New Emerging Technologies” will be organized at the next ACS meeting in San Francisco. It is the first instance of international collaboration between the ACS and the German Chemical Society (GCS) at the divisional level.
The next meeting of a CIC-CINF group will be held at Stanford University, May 2006. Twelve people, including six people from CINF, will participate: Andrea Twiss-Brooks, Bartow Culp, Eileen Shanbrom, Erja Kajosalo, Grace Baysinger, Guenter Grethe and Osman Güner. The CIC-CINF group membership will be formalized. It will consist of the permanent/founding members from CINF: Andrea, Bartow, Eileen, Grace and Guenter and the rotating members: Chair, Past Chair and Chair Elect. The group will discuss a chemical information resource center.
After a brief discussion, the Executive Committee voted for allocation of $5000.00 in order to support CIC-CINF collaboration.
Action item: An article about CIC-CINF collaboration will be written for “Skinny” after a meeting in Stanford.
Erja Kajosalo will ask Bill Town to write an article about CINF-Yahoo! group for “The Skinny.” Osman Güner will post a link for “The Skinny” at cinf-yahoo.
f. CINF Archvist/Historian post (Osman Güner)
Osman Guner reported that Val Metanomski, CINF Archivist for many years, has notified him that he will be stepping down from that position this year.A discussion then followed on the future of the CINF archives. Pamela Scott reported that during the 2004 ACS meeting in Philadelphia, she and Val Metanomski met with an archivist at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) to discuss the possibility of CHF taking over the CINF archives.CHF expressed a willingness to do so at no cost to the Division.It was agreed that if the Division wanted to move forward on this, CINF should box the materials to be archived along with a table of contents for each box and ship them directly to CHF.
After a brief discussion, the Executive Committee recognized the significant work that Val Metanomski has performed in the meticulous maintenance of the Division archives. They agreed that Val’s invaluable work must be preserved by a reliable source to ensure that the results of his efforts remain available to future generations of CINF members.There being no further discussion, the Committee voted unanimously to designate the Chemical Heritage Foundation as the official Division repository.Eileen Shanbrom will work with Val Metanomski to ensure that all appropriate materials are sent to CHF – ideally before the next ACS meeting.
Action item: Materials to be archived need to be prepared and sent to CHF by July 1, 2006.
The Executive Committee then discussed how to appropriately recognize the significant work put forth by Val Metanomski on behalf of CINF, not only in his role as archivist, but also in the many other capacities that he filled throughout a lifetime of service to the Division.The Executive Committee unanimously voted to award Val with lifetime membership in the Division.A presentation will be made ideally at an appropriate venue if at all possible rather than by simply sending a plaque in the mail.
Action item: Eileen Shanbrom will take responsibility for identifying an appropriate venue for presenting Val Metanomski with the CINF lifetime membership award.
The Executive Committee voted for Bonnie Lawlor’s appointment as the CINF Interim Archivist 2006.
Andrea Twiss-Brooks volunteered to consult with Rick Williams, CINF webmaster, regarding CINF electronic archiving.
Action Item: Svetlana Korolev will post a list of archival materials at cinf-yahoo.
3. Committee and Officer Reports
a. Awards (Guenter Grethe)
· Herman Skolnik Award – The nominations are due June 1. Three nominations, including two re-nominations from last year, have been received so far.
· Lucille Wert Scholarship – Two nominations, including one re-nomination, have been received. Olivia Sparks was selected to get the 2006 scholarship. Olivia Sparks will be invited for the ACS National Meeting in San Francisco provided her travel expenses up to $1,000 are reimbursed by the CINF Fundraising Committee.
Action item: Guenter Grethe will revise the Lucille Wert scholarship application requirements as follows: elimination of a transcript of undergraduate studies and reducing three letters of references to two.
· Meritorious Service Award – Bonnie Lawlor and Joanne Witiak were recommended by the Awards committee and approved by the Executive Committee to receive the 2006 Meritorious Service Award.
· IO Informatics Scholarship – see section 2.d. above.
· Membership - Svetlana Korolev will be the Assistant Chair.
b. Careers (Phil Barnett)
· The Executive committee was asked to look into the possibility of getting public access for SANDRA from the Beilstein Institute.
Action Item: Phil Barnett will forward his correspondence on the SANDRA matter to Osman Güner.
· A careers symposium will be organized at the ACS National meetings in Atlanta and San Francisco in order to cover east and west coast audiences. Then it will be organized at its usual interval at every third National meeting.
· ‘Careers’ webpage – will be re-organized and hosted at the new CINF web site.
Action Item: Phil Barnett will transfer ‘careers’ materials to Rick Williams.
· Membership – Randall Ward is the new Careers Chair 2006-08. The Assistant Chair needs to be appointed by 2007.
c. Council (Bonnie Lawlor and Andrea Twiss-Brooks)
The agenda is extremely light. The following items are for Council action in Atlanta:
· President–Elect: The Committee on Nominations & Elections has identified four nominees for the office of 2007 ACS President-Elect: Bruce E. Bursten, Richard Eisenberg, Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, and Matthew V. Tirrell. Council will vote to select two candidates who will run for office in the Fall of 2006. The four nominees will answer questions at the Town Hall meeting scheduled for Sunday, March 26, 2006 in the Hilton Atlanta Hotel, Ballroom D from 4:45pm - 5:45pm.
· The Committee on Committees will have an oral recommendation to Council. There are no specifics in the Council Agenda Book as to what committees will be discussed.
· Council will vote on the recommendation from the Committee on Budget and Finance with regard to the 2007 membership dues (an increase of $5.00 - from $127 to $132).
Action item: The CINF Executive Committee supported the recommendation for an increase in ACS member dues for 2007 from $127 to $132.
· Special discussion topic is whether or not membership in the ACS should be more restrictive, less restrictive, or stay the same.
Bonnie Lawlor noted that she had attempted to get clarification from the Council on the concept of broadening ACS membership. The concern is that if the definition of ACS membership is broadened it has the potential to increase the financial liability of Divisions with regard to invited speakers at national meetings. The response was that the concept is just for discussion and that all ramifications of such action will be thoroughly analyzed before the definition would ever be changed.
Bonnie Lawlor informed the Executive Committee that she had been elected to the Council Policy Committee after completing two terms on the Committee for Nominations and Elections.
d. Education (Susan Cardinal)
· Membership – Sue Cardinal is the new Co-Chair 2006-08. Song Yu, Co-Chair 2006-08, could not attend due to an injury.
· Programs – A symposium “Mentoring in Chemical Information” is organized by the CINF Education Committee (Pamela Scott is the organizer) at the present ACS meeting in Atlanta. Bartow Culp was invited by the ACS Division of Chemical Education to co-organize a symposium for the ACS meeting in San Francisco.
Two sessions on ‘information obstacles course and case studies’ and ‘teaching students about plagiarism and copyright’ are being organized by Leah Solla and Bartow Culp for the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE), July 30-August 3, 2006.
· Membership drive – The Executive Committee voted for authorizing the CINF Education Committee having a membership drive campaign that will offer a one-year “Division Affiliate” membership for the speakers and attendees of the CINF programs at BCCE and for the consultants of the CINF Education committee.
Action item: The Education committee will organize a CINF membership drive at BCCE, July 30-August 3, 2006.
Svetla Baykoucheva will send 50 copies of the Chemical Information Bulletin to Silvia Lee (or Bartow Culp).
· Regional meetings - see section 2.b. above.
· Workshop - The Education committee is redesigning a workshop in order to address the information needs of course instructors (rather than just librarians). New modules, i.e. for chemical engineering, will be incorporated over the summer (Patricia Kirkwood and Judith Currano are working on this project). The Chemical Information Instruction Center is being reorganized too.
Action item: Sue Cardinal will post information on the Committee on Professional Training (CPT) guidelines at CHMINF-L.