Chemical Consultants Network Annual Report 1997

CHEMICAL CONSULTANTS NETWORK ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1997

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 chairmen, 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:

• Advising and training via talks, seminars and workshops.
• Providing a networking environment via monthly meetings and distribution of the database.
• Establishing and maintaining a database of the membership and of the members' areas of interest
• Maintaining a website for the benefit of its members.
• Developing and implementing a publicity program

1997 SUMMARY:

CCN held ten monthly meetings with an average attendance of nearly 40 members and guests. During this year, membership grew from 160 to 215. (In the three years of its existence, CCN has grown from 24 to 215!) The membership is about half chemists and half chemical engineers. Most of them reside in an area from Wilmington, DE to Princeton, NJ, although there a few members from as far as Florida and the West Coast and Oklahoma. 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's website is now a much more refined site that provides member data for all interested CCN members along with 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. The site was visited more that 300 times in each of the last few months and we have been advised by members that consulting assignments have resulted.

In addition to the web site, a paper directory, which includes key words about each member's specialties, is distributed to all members and currently contains information on 215 chemists and/or chemical engineers.

MEETINGS:

Ten meetings were held, usually the second Wednesday evening of the month, at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. They consisted of a social hour, a dinner, a business meeting, and a talk. One of the regular meetings was held jointly with the Philadelphia IEEE Consultants Network and two were joint with the ACS Philadelphia section. Five meetings of the steering committee were held in 1997.

CCN 1997 PROGRAM:

Date	Topic	Speaker
Jan 15	Ideas for Leveraging Your Expertise	Dr. Marc Halpern
Feb 20	Online and Beyond: Electronic Retrieval of Information,	Marjorie L. Hill
Mar 12	How to Grow Your Organization without Spending a Dime on Advertising	Edward Eisen
Apr 9	Living and Working in Asia	Don & Sandy Vahlsing
May 14	How to Keep the Money You have Earned	Steve Gillingham
June 11	Picnic - at Bill Golton’s Home
	Summer Break
Sep 10	Starting up a Small Business	Chuck Whitney
Oct 8	Barriers and Bridges	Emmet Robinson
Nov 13	The Future of Chemistry	Dr. Charles C. Price
Dec 17	A Profile of Chemical Consultants and Consulting	Dr. Marc Halpern

OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES:

Committee chairs were:
Tom Happ (Meeting Arrangements)
Open (Publicity)
Mark DeLuca (Webmaster)
Bill Golton (Website)
The Steering Committee also serves as the Nominating and Program Committee. All committee chairs serve on the Steering Committee.

FINANCES:

IN 1996, CCN instituted $25 dues to pay for the website and publicity, and to complement the annual ACS grant of $500 for program and mailing expenses. Only paid up members will be listed on the website. 78 members were paid up by late 1997. The National office of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers also provided funding early in 1997 to help with program, publicity and web site expenses.

PLANS FOR 1998:

Ten monthly meetings will be scheduled. Results of the recently completed comprehensive survey of the CCN membership will be considered for means of improving the CCN and it's services. The website will be updated regularly and publicized more effectively. $25 dues will be collected from CCN members to fund this service and we will again apply to the National AIChE for financial support as one of their topical groups, in an amount equal to what we request from the Philadelphia section of the ACS. 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

David H. Vahlsing, Chair