2010 ANNUAL REPORT FROM THE HISTORIAN
MIDLAND SECTION OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
JANUARY 20, 2011
Committee Members
Wendell L. Dilling, Historian
Robert E. Kohrman, Assistant Historian
Jennifer A. Walton
Summary of 2010 Activities
Storage of the Midland Section's archives during 2010 was continued in the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.
During 2010 numerous documents and items were added to the archives: (1) 2009 Annual Report. (2) Minutes of the Board of Directors’ Meetings, 2009. (3) Web Site Information, 2009 (2 parts). (4) The Midland Chemist, 2009, Vol. 46, No. 1-6. (5) Election Materials for 2010 ACS Midland Section Board of Directors. (6) Nonprofit Corporation Information Update (2009). (7) 18th Annual Spring Science Education Recognition Dinner program booklet (2009). (8) 11th Annual ChemLuminary Awards program booklet, 8-18-09. (9) Fall Scientific Meeting program guide, 10-10-09. (10) Green Chemistry Leader to Speak in Midland flyer, Dr. John C. Warner, 10-20-09. (11) SciFest 2009 flyer, 10-31-09. (12) Chemistry – It’s Elemental, Sci-Fest Halloween Faceoff, Saginaw Spirit vs Windsor Spitfires booklet, 10-31-09. (13) Salute to Excellence for Saginaw Spirit Hockey Club, 10-31-09. (14) Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, 2009. (15) 2009 Midland Section ACS Pictures (CD). (16) 19th Annual Spring Science Education Recognition Dinner program booklet (2010). (17) 1973 letter from D. R. Petersen to L. B. Forman requesting consideration of the Midland Section as the host for a future Central Regional ACS Meeting. (18) Midland Section “Responsibilities of Section Officers and Functions of Section Committees,” 2nd Edition, 1974. (19) Minutes of the Board of Directors’ Meetings, 1978 (Feb, Mar, Apr, Oct, Dec only). (20) 1982 Proclamation of Chemistry Week by Mayor and City Council of Midland. (21) 1982 Program for XVI Organosilicon Symposium at Northwood Institute. (22) Award to Mid Michigan as the outstanding Technician Group in its size class for 1992. (23) Award to Mid-Michigan as the outstanding Technician Group in its size class for 1993. (24) 1993 Executive Declaration of Chemistry Week by Governor of Michigan. (25) 1993 Proclamation of Chemistry Week by Mayor and City Council of Midland. (26) 1993 Proclamation of Chemistry Week by Mayor of Mt. Pleasant. (27) 1997 Special Tribute for National Historic Chemical Landmark from Michigan State Senate. (28) 1997 Michigan Senate Resolution No. 54 in Recognition of the 10th Anniversary of National Chemistry Week. (29) 1997 Executive Declaration of Chemistry Week by Governor of Michigan. (30) 2001 Certificate of Excellence for Best Activity or Program in a Local Section Stimulating Membership Involvement. (31) 2003 ChemLuminary Award for Best National Chemistry Week Contest. (32) 2003 Award for Greatest Community Involvement in Chemists Celebrate Earth Day. (33) 2005 ChemLuminary Award for Outstanding Performance by Local Section Medium Size Category. (34) 2005 ChemLuminary Award for Chemists with Disabilities Inclusion. (35) 2006 ChemLuminary Award for Outstanding Performance by a Local Section Medium Size Category. (36) 2006 ChemLuminary Award for Local Section/Division Interaction. These additions were reported to the Board of Directors (see Report to Board of Directors attachment).
The staff of the Clarke Historical Library prepared an updated index of the materials in the Midland Section Archives (1919-2010) (see attachment for revised pages). Copies of this index are held at the Clarke Historical Library and by the Section Historian and can be found on the Administration – Board and Committee Materials – Administrative Group - Historian –Archives index, 2010.doc [and Archives index (MC), 2009.doc] pages of the Midland Section web site (http://midlandacs.org/index.php?page=board-and-committee-materials).
The outstanding performance award, received by the Midland Section for 2007, is on display at Central Michigan University (see Report to Board of Directors attachment).
A contribution of $100.00 to the Clarke Historical Library was made as a token of thanks for keeping the Section’s historical records during 2010 (see Expenses section below and Report to Board of Directors and other attachments).
The feature titled "In Past Issues of The Midland Chemist, 40, 30, 20, and 10 Years Ago This Month" was continued in each issue of The Midland Chemist. This feature highlighted past activities of the Midland Section (see Report to Board of Directors attachment and other attachments).
The 2009 Historian Annual Report and the 2010 Report to the Board were submitted for addition to the Section web site (see attachments) and several other additions and changes for the web site were submitted (see attachments). Problems of non-receipt of some Section e-mail updates were resolved (see attachments).
Issues of the reporting of vote counts in Midland Section elections, how to handle replacement of directors who resign, and increased technical programming were addressed by the Historian (see attachments).
Poster papers on “Chemistry Merit Badge, 1911-2010”, “Chemists and Other Scientists as Senior Athletes”, and “2009 ACS Director-at-Large Election – How to Elect Two Candidates with Each Being Elected by a Majority of the Voters” were presented at the Dayton Central Regional ACS Meeting and the Fall Scientific Meeting (see attachments). The poster (display) on Chemistry Merit Badge was also presented at SciFest. Letters to the editor on the 2009 ACS Director-at-Large Election topic were published in Chemical and Engineering News and The Midland Chemist (see attachments). Discussions on this and related topics were held with the national Committee on Nominations and Elections at the Boston National ACS Meeting on August 23, 2010, and others (see attachments).
The Midland Section will host the 2013 Central Regional ACS Meeting. The Section Historian continued working with the Chemistry Department Faculty at Central Michigan University to determine if they could host this meeting. A positive decision has been made, and Dr. Philip Squattrito will serve as the General Chairman (see attachments).
After considerable discussion over several years, the Section Historian was able to convince the faculty at Alma College to host the 2011 Fall Scientific Meeting. Alma has never hosted the meeting in the 65-year history of the meeting. A decision has been made to hold this meeting in Alma (see attachments).
The Section Historian was asked to oversee the selection of two nominees from the Midland Section for designation as ACS Fellows. Mike Owen and I were selected as the nominees. Both of us were selected for the honor by the national committee (see attachments).
Information on the awarding of the Midland Section’s Outstanding College Chemistry Teaching Award to Community College teachers was sent to Bonnie Charpentier and Harry Unger (see attachments).
Clarification concerning the sponsorship of the Fall Scientific Meeting and SciFest by the Midland Section of the ACS at Central Michigan University was sent to the campus newspaper, CM Life (see attachments).
Comments concerning the ACS’s Public Policy Statement on “Global Climate Change” were sent to several people responsible for the revision of this statement in 2010 (see attachments). The Section Program Chair was encouraged to bring a speaker to Midland for a public lecture concerning the uncertainties in the anthropogenic global warming theory (see attachments).
A letter to the editor of Centralight, a magazine for Central Michigan University alumni and friends, on the subject of “chemical free food” was published in the summer 2010 issue (see attachment). This information was also sent to newscripts at Chem. Eng. News (see attachments).
In a similar vein, a letter was sent to Time magazine commenting on the phrase, “Foods raised without chemicals.” (see attachments).
Expenses
Binding of Annual Report, Board of Directors Meeting Minutes, Web Site
Information, and The Midland Chemist for 2009 (7-29-10) (see attachments) $ 19.98
Contribution to Clarke Historical Library for 2010 (requested 10-22-10) 100.00
Total 119.98
Budgeted 150.00
Future
Documents from 2010 will be added to the archives in 2011. Storage will be maintained so that the information is available to Section members in the future.
Attachments
(See following pages.)
1-11-10
To: Bob.Kohrman, Jennifer.Walton, Frank.Boles, Marian.Matyn
From: Wendell Dilling <>
Subject: 2009 Annual Midland Section ACS Historian Report
X-Attachments: :Macintosh HD:777900:Historian Annual Rep#1322B6.doc:
Bob, Jennifer, Frank, and Marian,
Attached is the electronic portion of the title report. Some of the attachments are missing because they are not available in electronic form. If you would like to see any of them please let me know. Thanks to each of you for your parts in making the archives of the Midland Section secure and available to those needing to see them and helping with the work of the Historian Committee.
Marian, You do not need to put this report in the archives because it will be part of the entire Section Annual Report, which I will give to you later this year.
Wendell
------
Wendell L. Dilling e-mail:
Department of Chemistry Phone: 989-774-3268 (o)
Central Michigan University 989-631-1621 (h)
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859 FAX: 989-774-3883
1-8-10
To: Angelo.Cassar
From: Wendell Dilling <>
Subject: Historian report for Mid Sect Ann Rept
Cc:
Bcc:
X-Attachments: :Macintosh HD:777900:Historian Annual Rep#1322B6.doc:
Angelo,
Attached is the 2009 Annual Historian Report. This is just the part available in electronic form. I will send to you a paper copy of the report which has all the attachments, many of which are not available in electron form or at least in electronic form that I can easily put into the attached Word document.
Wendell
2-17-10
To: Angelo.Cassar
From: Wendell Dilling <>
Subject: 2009 Midland Section Annual Report
Cc: John.Blizzard
Bcc:
X-Attachments:
Angelo,
You prepared a very nice looking Midland Section Annual Report. You obviously spent a lot of time preparing it.
I will need a paper copy of the report for the archives. Will you supply the paper copy? A color copy would be nice (look better) as you have a lot of color photos in it. If you can not supply the archive copy I can make a black and white copy. If you like, you can supply an electronic copy of the report on a disk that I will add to the archives, but it will likely not be readable in 20 or 100 years. The paper report also needs to be bound. If you would like the report bound in a special way, please do so. Otherwise I will have it bound in the standard way that has been used for other recent annual reports.
I note a problem with the historian section of the annual report. You have either deleted or moved all of the attachments that directly followed the main part of the historian report, but left the references to these attachments in the part you did retain. Thus anyone reading that section will not be able to find some of the attachments referred to at all and other attachments not easily as these (or items derived from or related to them) are used in other sections of the report, but they are not tied directly to the historian report.
Wendell
From: "John D Blizzard" <>
To: "'Wendell Dilling'" <>,
"'Cassar, Angelo'" <>
Subject: RE: 2009 Midland Section Annual Report
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:20:58
Question, can we not use an electronic version of the report for archives?
John
2-19-10
To: "John D Blizzard" <>
From: Wendell Dilling <>
Subject: RE: 2009 Midland Section Annual Report
Cc: Angelo.Cassar
Bcc:
X-Attachments:
John,
Please note what I said in the note to Angelo:
If you like, you can supply an electronic copy of the report on a disk that I will add to
the archives, but it will likely not be readable in 20 or 100 years.
I meant, and should have said, you can (also) supply an electronic copy. I did not mean instead of a paper copy.
One of the e-mails that I had attached to the historian report that Angelo deleted from the final report deals with this subject. Below I have printed the reply from Frank Boles, Director of the Clark Historical Library where the Midland Section Archives are housed, to a question related to your inquiry. My direct answer to your question is no, we can (should) not use an electronic version of the report for the archives instead of a paper copy.
Wendell:
You're asking one of the hottest questions within the archival community
right now. the real answer is, we aren't sure. Rapidly changing formats
and platforms are creating havoc in efforts to maintain digital
archives. Unfortunately there really is no "universal format" that you
can dump data into and be sure that 20 years from now you will still be
able to read it. Efforts to create a universal format have not only
proved difficult but also have foundered on "formatting" questions for
the document -- you don't just want text you want it to look like the
original document. Similarly, you don't just want the contents of a
spreadsheet -- to understand how it was used you also have to be able to
mimic the functionality of the spreadsheet software. It would be totally
inappropriate for a historian to complain that an organization 25 years
ago failed to make "simple" calculations re data if it turns out that
those "simple" calculations couldn't be done in the software database
package available at the time!
Tough situation, because in the end we are going to have to save data
electronically and we know it, but paper still has certain virtues that
cannot be denied.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: Dilling, Wendell Lee
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 12:00 PM
To: Boles, Frank J.; Matyn, Marian J.
Subject: Electronic archives
Frank and Marian,
Do you think material in electronic form (CDs, floppy disks, flash
drives, etc) will be readable 10, 20, or 100 years from now? I have
had disagreements with people who do not think that we need archives
in paper form. Thanks.
Wendell
8-4-10
To: Marian.Matyn
From: Wendell Dilling <>
Subject: Additions for ACS archives ready
Marian,
I will have the additions for the ACS archives ready next week and will be ready to do the annual inspection. I could bring the material (more than usual) over next Monday or Wednesday afternoon (Aug 9 or 11). Is either of these times OK with you? I will not be at my CMU e-mail until next Monday. Before then (or at any other time) I can be reached at .
Wendell
8-4-10
From: "Matyn, Marian J." <>