metrics for achieving each. Very briefly, the goals are to provide indispensable resources, engage the global community, affect world challenges, communicate chemistry, advocate for the profession, and maintain financial health.

Today’s chemistry enterprise faces pressures of globalization, increased competition for research funding and the ever-growing influence of new information technologies. To respond and lead, ACS must position itself through strategic thinking and planning. We believe ACS Strategic Plan for 2008 and Beyond will help us achieve this end. The complete text of the plan, as adopted by the Board, is available at www.acs.org/strategicplan.

In 2007, ACS also completed a review of the Society’s governance and its Constitution and Bylaws to ensure that the Society has a governing framework that best enables us to meet member needs and remain a world-class organization. During this review, ACS volunteers and staff made significant strides toward improving ACS governance structures, policies and procedures. Certainly, changes to an organization as successful as the ACS are never made lightly, and it will take some time to see the final outcomes of the many reforms underway. But we believe that, as a result of this governance review, ACS will be much better positioned to fulfill our vision.

In addition, the ACS Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF), one of the nation’s largest private chemistry

philanthropies, completed a major review of its programs. With assets approaching $600 million, ACS PRF represents one of the Society’s most significant financial commitments to the scientific community and, more importantly, advances our fields of science in ways that no other organization can accomplish. It occupies a unique and critical niche in the chemistry enterprise.

As a result of this review, the ACS PRF developed a set of modified grant guidelines driven by its new vision statement, which commits the ACS PRF to “support innovative fundamental research, advanced scientific education, and the careers of scientists to aid in significantly increasing the world’s energy options.” The Society is also considering three new ACS PRF programs that will promote innovation, multidisciplinary research and the participation of minorities and women in the petroleum sciences. We anticipate that implementing these changes will allow the fund — which has supported nearly $500 million of energy-related research in the past 50 years — to have significant and lasting impact in the years ahead.

 

ACS rejuvenates its Web presence Perhaps the most visible and exciting change is our new Web site. Over the past three years, we have been developing a new Web presence based on hundreds of user tests, surveys and focus groups. In sum, members told us that finding

information in one place is a top priority. The result is www.acs.org.

Unveiled in September, www.acs.org is the global hub for chemistry and other scientific disciplines that involve chemistry and chemical engineering. The new site provides more intuitive access to information from the world’s largest scientific society. That bounty includes cutting-edge science news, subscriber access to the Society’s suite of 36 peer-reviewed scientific journals, job listings and career services, podcasts and other resources. All ACS information and services are grouped into ten categories, which simplify navigation across the site. In addition, an improved search engine helps users quickly find out about meetings, society programs, peer-reviewed research and other topics. So whether you are an ACS member, a policy maker, a journalist or science teacher, you will find that ACS has a lot to offer — and now it’s all easy to find.

As the Web site evolves, ACS plans to add social networking tools, a searchable membership directory and other features.

In conjunction with the launch of this new Web site, the Society consolidated its career-related offerings to better meet the needs of our members seeking employment in a globally competitive environment. As a result, all ACS resources for jobseekers are now available at www.acs.org/careers.

This “one-stop” online center integrates our services into an ACS Careers suite, allowing quick access