CHEMICAL CONSULTANTS NETWORK ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2001
The
Chemical Consultants Network (CCN) is a topical group of the
Philadelphia Section of the ACS that has also been recognized and
supported by the National AIChE. It was organized in December 1994, and has held monthly meetings since February 1995. It is run by a Steering
Committee consisting of its elected officers, committee chairs and two
members at large. We believe that CCN is the first and only organization for consultants within the American Chemical Society. The name “Chemical Consultants Network” was adopted to reflect the purpose of the group which is to enhance members’ opportunities to use their professional expertise as consultants.
MISSION: To form a volunteer organization to support members in
expanding the meaningful use of their expertise, by:
2001 SUMMARY:
CCN held ten monthly meetings with attendance in the 20 to 45 range. During the year, membership remained flat at
an estimated 366 individuals. Part of this flattening, when compared to significant growth in previous years, is due to the effort
of the membership committee to keep our directory up to date. On the other hand, we continue to attract new members at our monthly
meetings as well as directly through our website.
The membership is about 60% chemists and 40% chemical engineers. Most members reside in the area between Wilmington, DE, and Princeton, NJ, although there are a few US members from as far as Florida, Oklahoma and the West Coast. In addition, we now have international members residing in Canada, UK, Australia and Japan. Meeting notices are published in the publications of the Philadelphia, Delaware, Princeton and Trenton ACS Sections, and the Philadelphia Section of AIChE monthly newsletter.
The CCN website ( www.chemconsultants.org ) continues to provide member data for all interested in CCN member skills, meeting notices and other information about CCN in an attractive, user-friendly format. An additional purpose of the site is to function as a self-service consultant resource for potential clients. More than 150 of our members have information about themselves on the site, which receives an average of 120 visits per day. Many members have reported inquiries and jobs that originated from the website.
In addition to the website, a paper directory, that includes key words about each member's specialties, is distributed to all members and currently contains information on over 350 chemists and/or chemical engineers. An updated version of the printed directory was mailed to the membership this Fall.
MEETINGS
Ten meetings were held in the evening, usually the second Wednesday of the month, at the Cynwyd Club in Bala Cynwyd, PA or at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (formerly the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.) They consisted of a social hour, a dinner, a business meeting, and a talk. The October meeting was held jointly with the Delaware section of AIChE and the November meeting was held jointly with the Philadelphia ACS.Five Steering Committee Meetings were held to plan for future meetings and discuss ways to improve the CCN.
| Date | Topic | Speaker |
| Jan 10 | Workshop on Designing Effective Promotional Literature | John A. Alexander |
| Feb 14 | Retirement And Estate Planning Strategies For The Self-Employed | Roger Singer |
| Mar 14 | An "Old Economy" Chemical Startup: Successes, failures, and growing pains | Peter Joyce |
| Apr 11 | Marketing for Chemical Consultants: the Web and Beyond | Jim Shulman |
| May 25 | Consultants and outsourcing: The outsourcer and outsourcee’s perspective | Panel Discussion |
| June 14 | Annual Picnic - at the Cynwyd Club | |
| Sep 13 | Success in Consulting and Life – It’s Your Choice: Concepts for personal and consulting success | Don Koestler |
| Oct 13 | Expert Witnessing | Richard Safferstein |
| Nov 16 | Microbial Genome Sequencing: Insights into Physiology and Evolution | Claire Fraser |
| Dec 12 | How To Handle A Difficult Client | Peter Lantos |
OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES:
Michael P. Bigwood served the second of his 3-year term as Chair. Treasurer and Secretary were William Retallick and Wolf Karo, respectively,
serving the second of a two-year term for each office. Robert Haluska, is serving the
first year of his second term as Member-at-Large.
On the Fall ballot, William Retallick was re-elected as Treasurer, Ed Smith was elected for a two year term as Secretary and James Holton
to a two year term as Member-at-Large.
Committee chairs were Janet and Stanley Bell (Meeting Arrangements), William Reuter (Publicity), Mark DeLuca and Norman Santora (Webmasters), William Golton (Website) and David Vahlsing (Membership). The Steering Committee also serves as the Nominating and Program Committee. All committee chairs serve on the Steering Committee.
MEMBERSHIP:
In March/April 2001, a telephone and email effort was made to contact members who had paid the CCN website fee in prior years but not for the current year. Of 52 members contacted, 22 promptly paid and other indicated they would. A small number advised that they had since decided to retire or had taken full time positions and no longer wished to keep an active CCN web site. After a reasonable period of time for receipt of late dues, all names scheduled for removal from the CCN web were circulated within the CCN steering committee for final approval prior to removal. This culling was made in order to present a more accurate membership count, to save on mailing expenses and to prevent dead end inquiries from occurring which would otherwise detract from the quality of the CCN website. A similar Membership review will be conducted again in the Spring of 2002. Renewals of 2002 memberships has been unusually brisk this year which suggests that the state of the US economy may be causing an increasing interest in the CCN.
PUBLICITY:
The text of our weekly ad in C&E News was revised to emphasize the professional affiliation of the CCN members to ACS and/or AIChE.
The ad ran 34 times in 2001.
FINANCES:
In 2002, CCN continued its policy of charging dues to members who want to have their own webpage on the CCN site - $25 for ACS and/or AIChE members, $35 for non-members. The dues are used to pay for the website and publicity, and to complement the annual ACS and AIChE grants that supports program and mailing expenses. There are approximately 150 dues paying members in the CCN. In addition to the support from the Philadelphia ACS, the National office of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers also provided funding in 2001 to help with program, publicity, web site expenses, mailing expenses, guest speaker dinners and supplies and equipment.
PLANS FOR 2002:
Ten monthly meetings will again be scheduled. One will be held jointly with the concurrent meeting of the Philadelphia ACS in November. The success of the joint meeting with the Delaware Valley Section of AIChE will probably lead to more such meetings
A membership review will be conducted once again in 2002.
We will continue to consider means of improving the CCN and it's services. The website will be updated regularly and publicized more effectively. Dues will be collected from CCN members to support website activities and member web pages and we will again apply to the Philadelphia Section of the ACS and the National AIChE for financial support. We will continue to work with ACS and AIChE officials at the local and the National level to improve services for and recognition of consultants
Respectively Submitted,
Michael P. Bigwood, Chair