Help Us with the CHAS Strategic Plan!

TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) version

• You do not need to commit to anything; you can just comment as you please.
• If you’d like to participate, we have openings on the task forces for various areas.
• We need input on the CHAS mission, vision, and values.
• We would also like input on four areas of focus:
  Education, Outreach, Membership Services, and Organization.

The details

The ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety (CHAS) is creating a new strategic plan this year to help determine how we should move the division forward over the next five years.

Rather than locking a dozen people in a room for a weekend to write the plan, we thought it would be more egalitarian to ask the membership to contribute. You need not volunteer for anything—you could just comment on draft documents–but we will be providing opportunities to volunteer also.

We’re using a platform called ProofHub to manage our strategic planning. All documents are hosted on ProofHub—all you need to do to view one is to enter your email address. You do not need an account, nor will giving your email address add you to a ProofHub mailing list or do anything other than keep track of your email so that your comments can be properly attributed to you.

To get details on the strategic planning process, try viewing this document.

The first thing we would like is member comment on is the CHAS mission, vision, and values. The mission and vision are very brief, and they have not changed since the last plan. The values are new, but they are closely modeled on the ACS values. Try logging into ProofHub and commenting on the mission/vision/values.

A strategic plan also normally includes an “environmental scan,” sometimes called a “SWOT analysis” (for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). This allows us to look at the space around CHAS and identify areas where we can contribute and others where contributing might not be so productive. We’ve decided to use the ACS’s Strategic Plan Change Drivers analysis for CHAS rather than create a new one. Take a look! (Note that this link is a download link rather than a commenting one.)

When commenting on the mission, vision, and values, consider the following:

• Do the mission, vision and values statements read well to you?
• What wordsmithing opportunities do you see in them?
• Do the ACS change drivers reflect CHAS’s work?

We have identified four areas of focus for the plan, with associated (tentative) goals:

• Education: Provide authoritative technical information and mentorship to the chemical professions.
• Outreach: Advance & promote CHAS as the prime source for authoritative technical information and mentorship in chemical health & safety.
• Membership Services: Provide communications and services enabling CHAS members to maximize the value of their association with CHAS.
• Organization: Build a sustainable organization capable of supporting the CHAS mission, vision, and values.

We are looking for volunteers to serve on task forces to flesh out these areas, identifying specific objectives for CHAS and brainstorming ideas for projects to achieve those objectives. If you’d like to volunteer for one of these task forces, email me at dkuespert@pm.me with your interest, and a task force leader will get in touch.

We’d also love to hear your ideas for CHAS! What emerging opportunities or challenges do you see for CHAS over the next five years? Drop ideas in the comments to this document.

As stated in the longer explanation of the project, I’d welcome your input on any issue related to CHAS, especially ones of diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect. Please feel free to contact me privately at dkuespert@pm.me.

Best regards,

Dan Kuespert, PhD, CSP

CHAS Chair-Elect, 2022