February 14, 2008

Dear Janet:

I am pleased to contact you on behalf of the Younger Chemists Committee of the ACS and bring you information about some of our current programs and activities.

First of all, the YCC is sponsoring several events at the Spring 2008 ACS National Meeting in New Orleans that may be of interest to the members of the BMGT Division.  We have planned symposia entitled “The Chemistry of Alcohol” and “Government and Science: The Effects of Politics and Funding on Science and Technology.”  We feel the subject matter of both of these symposia might appeal to a wide variety of ACS members and we hope that many in your Division will be able to attend.

Our committee is also dedicated to exploring innovative ways of engaging younger chemists in the activities of the Society.  For example, our electronic newsletter distribution includes more than 20,000 recipients. To receive the newsletter, members can simply send an opt-in e-mail to yccnews@acs.org. The YCC also hosts two online communities in order to provide a forum for discussion on items of concern and importance to younger chemists. These communities are hosted through Facebook and Google Groups, and are linked to the YCC web page (www.acsycc.org). We also have a section on our website that “spotlights” younger chemists.

In addition, we have been sharing our experiences with these online communities with the ACS web presence team to support the Society’s web development efforts. YCC has also been taking part in the ACS pilot of CollectiveX, a web collaboration tool. We find that this electronic portal increases communication and collaboration among our own committee members.  With that being said, if your division is interested in using Collective X as a communications platform, we would be happy to share our experiences with you and the officers of your division.

I look forward to working with you and BMGT in the future.  I feel that it is worthwhile for us to examine how your divisional programs within BMGT relate to younger chemists and how our constituency might be able to contribute to your efforts.  Of particular interest to us is in highlighting the efforts of younger chemists in the profession that are leaders in their field. Please let me know if I (or the YCC) can be of any service to your Division.

Sincerely,

Michael “Mick” Hurrey

YCC Chair