By Madalyn Radlauer
Why get involved in the Silicon Valley ACS Section? You can network & make connections, build your leadership skills, enhance your professional development, engage in your community, and give back to your community.
In 2021, our section adopted a Strategic Plan to help us organize and prioritize our efforts in serving the chemistry community of the Silicon Valley region. In the September 2023 Executive Committee (ExComm) meeting we discussed and adopted a revised Strategic Plan to better reflect our current efforts and future goals.
We have established a new set of roles within the ExComm, those of “Goal Champions,” two for each goal. These positions will be filled by Alternate Councilors and Councilors and will involve overseeing section activities that fall under the goal, recruiting volunteers to help run those activities, reporting on the progress towards the goal during ExComm meetings, and leading prioritization of activities under the goal.
The purpose of the ‘Goal Champion’ position is to ensure that we have a strong connection to our Strategic Plan and to give Alternate Councilors and Councilors more direct agency in section activities. We will soon publish a list of the ‘Goal Champions’ on our website and encourage you to reach out to them if you would like to get involved with any of the activities falling under their goal.
We welcome feedback (as always) on the updated Strategic Plan and would be very excited to have any of our members become more involved with the strategic planning process or with the goals and activities described below. We hope that you find our vision, mission, and goals inspiring and motivating and we look forward to welcoming you to our many section activities.
Updated Strategic Plan
VISION: Building and sustaining connections through chemistry in Silicon Valley region.
MISSION: Engaging the chemistry community by providing professional development, educational opportunities, networking and recognition, and serving as a resource for fundamental, innovative, exciting, and fun chemistry to our diverse broader community through education and outreach.
| Goals | Activities |
|---|---|
| Enhance professional development opportunities | BACS; YCC networking; Career days; Interviewing/Resume Workshops; Dinner meeting networking; Leadership opportunities in local section governance; Support for career transitions |
| Deliver and communicate engaging events and outreach | Technical talks; Trivia nights; PopUP chemistry; Book club; CCEW; NCW; BASF; Monterey Bay regional activities; Sustainability projects; STEM-related experiences (performances and tours), Newsletter; Website; Social media; Connections with other communities and societies |
| Support STEM education | Teach the Teachers; Bubble Grant; NCURS; Paving the Path; Project SEED; Science Fair; David Parker Award for Excellence in Chemistry; US Chemistry Olympiad |
| Recognize excellence in science and reward volunteers | Mosher, Ottenberg, and Radding Awards; Annual picnic and award ceremony; Teacher Scholar Award; Salute for Excellence; ACS Fellow nominations |
| Provide sustained leadership to achieve strategic goals and ongoing responsibilities of the local section | Executive and financial committees; ExComm meetings and minutes; Nominations and elections for leadership positions; Representation on the ACS Council; Managing of strategic goals by Goal Champions |
Acronyms used in our Strategic Plan: SVACS = Silicon Valley American Chemical Society; STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math; BACS = Bay Area Chemistry Symposium; YCC = Younger Chemists Committee; CCEW = Chemists Celebrate Earth Week; NCW = National Chemistry Week; BASF = Bay Area Science Festival; NCURS = Northern California Undergraduate Research Symposium; SEED = Summer Experiences for the Economically Disadvantaged
About the Silicon Valley ACS Section
Our local ACS Section was formed in 1954, incorporated in 1955 as the Santa Clara Valley ACS Section, and renamed the Silicon Valley ACS Section in 2017. It includes five California counties: San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey. Its neighbor and former parent is the California Section, headquartered across the San Francisco Bay. SVACS is in the ‘large’ category of ACS local sections, with ~2,000 regular members and ~1,000 community associate members (3,154 total as of September 2023).
