There are two ACS National Meetings scheduled every year, one in the spring and one in the fall.
Monday and Tuesday are full days of the Exposition in the convention center. CHAS and CCS (Committee on Chemical Safety) co-sponsor a booth in the exposition; volunteers from both groups staff the booth (see “Booth Sign-up POLL” below for how to sign-up).
At most national meetings, Monday evening is the CHAS reception and social, usually from 5:00 or 5:30 until 7:00 or 7:30 PM. CCS members are welcome at the CHAS reception and all other activities. CHAS may partner with another division, most frequently SCHB (Small Chemical Business) or CHAL (Chemistry and the Law), as co-hosts of the social event. A co-hosted social may occur on Tuesday evening if our partner has a specific reason to hold it then, such as honoring a keynote speaker or award recipient from a Tuesday symposium.
On Monday night, SciMix is held from 8-10 pm. CHAS usually has posters in the massive SciMix poster session. All members are invited to submit a poster to this event; to do so, submit an abstract as part of the technical program. The division always tries to have some presence at the ACS Sci-Mix, but has recently experimented with “daytime” poster sessions that is scheduled and co-located with the technical talks. When the poster session is scheduled with the technical sessions, poster presenters will be invited to re-post their poster during the SciMix sessions as well.
The schedules for the national meeting and for CHAS/CCS are quite full, especially during the key days of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, when meeting attendance is the greatest.
CHAS PROGRAM – The CHAS technical program is reflected in the ACS technical program (available at www.ACS.org) and a 2-page summary trifold is made available on http://www.dchas.org approximately one week prior to the meeting. This trifold, titled “CHAS-at-a-glance” provides information regarding the workshops, technical symposia and social events for the meeting. Paper copies are made available at the CHAS Booth in the Exhibit Hall and CHAS technical session information table.
The CHAS technical program usually begins on Sunday afternoon. The CHAS Program Committee tries to avoid scheduling any technical symposia on Monday morning to avoid a conflict with the CCS membership meeting, but sometimes the “even programming” rules force CHAS to have a session on Monday morning. At a minimum, there are usually CHAS symposia scheduled for Monday afternoon and all-day Tuesday, although lately we have programmed through Wednesday afternoon. Almost all CHAS symposia are co-sponsored by CCS.
CHAS WORKSHOPS – CHAS usually offers between two and six workshops at every national meeting. Those workshops take place on the Friday and Saturday before the meeting. Interested persons can obtain information and sign up through the www.dchas.org website. Members of CHAS and partner groups (CSHEMA, CHED) can attend these workshops for a discounted rate.
CHAS EXEC COMMITTEE MEETING – On Sunday, the CHAS Executive Committee meeting and breakfast takes place from 8:00 a.m. until noon. All members, especially those interested in becoming more active in the division are welcome to attend the DCHAS EC meeting. The meeting agenda is posted on www.dchas.org approximately one week prior to the meeting. As there are many other Sunday morning activities, it is not unusual to see people coming and going throughout the meeting.
Keeping in mind that many CHAS volunteers are also active on the Committee for Chemical Safety (CCS), we note that the CCS Full Committee Meeting is on Monday morning at 8:30 AM with breakfast starting at 7:45 AM and runs until noon at the latest. If there are working task forces or other CCS working groups who need to do some specific work, CCS may have a working lunch after the full committee meeting. In light of this overlap, CHAS avoids programming at the same time as this meeting where possible.