2000: Past Meetings

The following is a summary of previously held meetings in 2000 listed in reverse chronological order.
November 28, 2000
Tuesday
Topic: “Repositioning ACC&CE”
A working session for ALL members to discuss the future of the organization. The program for the November meeting will have the Association members functioning as a “Committee of the Whole” to discuss how to reposition the organization. Bill Swartz will lead a discussion regarding the results of several committee efforts to define options and how they would affect future operations.
All of the work to date has been in committee format. We have now reached a point where all of the members need to get involved. This is an opportunity for you to learn more about the process and what suggestions have been made. Nothing is now final. We want your ideas before we finalize a proposal to take to the organization as a whole for consideration and a final general vote.
Among the subjects to be discussed will be what limits, if any, should be placed on potential membership. Should we accept all scientific and engineering graduates? Should we become a general consulting organization? If so, should we form divisional groups? Is the CHI system still the best way to help clients find consulting expertise? If we expand membership limits, should the name of the group be changed? These are a few of the topics that will be on the table at the meeting.
Another subject that will be discussed is our Internet presence. Should we make any major changes? How could it be more important to you? Do you feel it is helpful in your efforts to find clients?
All of these possible changes are too important to ignore. The work is currently underway considering ways we might reposition the organization to better serve the membership and expand our member base. We hope that as many members as possible will attend the meeting and contribute their ideas to help make the process more meaningful. The November meeting will be a good time to get things on the table and see how the group feels about change and the future direction of ACC&CE. If you are unable to attend, e-mail your ideas now!
October 24, 2000
Tuesday
Topic: “Annual Meeting: Status and Future of the Organization”
Speaker: Dr. David Armbruster, President, ACC&CE
The Annual Report of ACC&CE will be presented by the President as he completes his term in office, summarizing the status and future of the organization. He will include discussions on the web based directory, web site efficacy, the Membership Initiative, membership benefits, the Mentor Program, the financial condition and revenue sources, the Reorganization/ Repositioning Program, Clearing House Inquiries, the Newsletter, the meeting program and attendance history.
Dr. David Armbruster is president of the consulting firm of Armbruster Associates, Inc., founded in 1982 and located in Summit, New Jersey. His firm serves worldwide clients in the chemical and allied industries with acquisition studies, business planning, expert witness, marketing and technology commercialization consulting services, contract research and development, educational programs in radiation (UV/EB) curing, and markets a product line of UV curable specialty chemicals. His background in the chemical industry spans 35 years, 17 years in the corporate world with Rohm & Haas Company and Celanese Chemical Company (now Hoechst Celanese) and 18 years in the world of consulting and entrepreneurship. He is a Charter Member of RadTech International and included in other memberships are the American Chemical Society, Licensing Executives Society, and the New Jersey Group of Small Chemical Businesses (founder and Vice President/Chairman Emeritus). Dr. Armbruster received his PhD in Organic and Photochemistry from the University of Cincinnati and his BS in Chemistry from Xavier University.
September 26, 2000
Tuesday
Topic: “The Challenges of Editing the Newsmagazine of the Chemical World”
Speaker: Madeleine Jacobs, Editor-in-Chief, Chemical & Engineering News

Chemical & Engineering News is the official weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. Madeleine Jacobs, Editor-in-Chief, will discuss the numerous challenges of producing this magazine: planning and selecting stories, ensuring accuracy, maintaining balance and objectivity, meeting unrelenting deadlines, packaging the information so that it is appealing to read, coordinating the efforts of 44 reporters and editors in seven news bureaus around the world, and being responsive to readers. C&EN also publishes Chemical & Engineering News Online, a fully interactive, value-added web edition. Jacobs will talk about the additional challenges posed by publishing in the electronic world.

Biographical Information
Madeleine Jacobs is the first woman to be appointed editor (and editor-in-chief) of Chemical & Engineering News magazine, the weekly newsmagazine of the chemical world published by the American Chemical Society for its members and other interested professionals. The magazine, with its staff of 44 people in seven news bureaus around the world, celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1998. The current audited circulation is about 148,000.
Jacobs majored in chemistry at George Washington University and graduated With a B.S. in chemistry with honors and distinction (Phi Beta Kappa in her Junior year) in 1968. She carried out graduate work in organic chemistry for a Year at the University of Maryland before joining the staff of C&EN in 1969. There, she was an assistant editor and writer both in the Washington, D.C., office of C&EN and on the West Coast, where she covered 10 western states. She worked at C&EN for three years.

During her government career, Jacobs received more than three dozen awards For outstanding science writing from national organizations. She returned to Chemical & Engineering News in 1993 as managing editor. The magazine had not had a managing editor for 10 years, and she has spent the last seven years rebuilding and reorganizing the staff for greater flexibility and efficiency. She became editor in July 1995. Among other accomplishments as editor-in-chief, Jacobs has overseen the redesign of the magazine, the expansion of the editorial staff into the Pacific Rim, and coordinated marketing and advertising efforts which have led to an increase in advertising revenues (63% since 1993). In 1998, she also conceived of and coordinated C&EN’s 75th anniversary celebration, which included a special issue (January 12, 1998), a symposium on the challenges for chemistry in the new millennium (March 22, 1998), curriculum materials for high school chemistry teachers based on the special issue (introduced August 1998), a public event to honor C&EN’s Top 75 Contributors to the Chemical Enterprise (August 23, 1998), and a gala black tie, invitation-only dinner to honor the Top 75 and C&EN’s Top Corporate Supporters (August 23, 1998). The magazine introduced a fully interactive Web edition–Chemical & Engineering News Online–on August 24, 1998.

Please join us on Tuesday, September 26th. Invite a colleague or friend who may be interested in attending.

 

June 27, 2000
Tuesday
Topic: “The Challenges Facing a Successful Consultant”
Speakers:
David W. Riley, Ph.D., #591
Martin Goffman, Ph.D., #698
Efrem H. Zaret, Ph.D., #757
The June meeting should help our members be more successful consultants. The program will feature three long-term members explaining how they have been successful in facing challenges in their practice.David Riley, who is a member of Council and an expert in plastic fabrication, will talk about several assignments where his effort lead to successful products and also how his work helped win a case in litigation. Finally, he will discuss his first effort as a consultant and how it helped turn a client loss situation into a profitable one.

Martin Goffman, our second speaker, is a previous member of Council and the owner of Martin Goffman Associates, a privately held research, development, and consulting organization. Marty will introduce his consulting practice, explain how he got started and how he has adapted to change over the years. He will discuss getting his first client, expanding the business, and when to turn away work. Advertising, marketing, the web, and networking as ways to increase the business will be included in his presentation.

Efrem Zaret, the Association Secretary and an experienced consultant in the areas of commercial development and regulatory affairs, will then discuss how to handle the peaks and valleys in our practices. Most of us have faced this problem. Efrem will explain how he has worked through several such situations and expanded his activities as a result.

In addition to the actual presentations, there should be ample time for questions and discussion with the group as a whole. Plan on a lively and informative evening that will have immediate application in your consulting practice.

 

May 25, 2000
Thursday
Topic: “Creating and Managing Strategic Alliances”
Speaker: Gene Slowinski, Ph.D.
Joint meeting with THE NJ GROUP OF SMALL CHEMICAL BUSINESSES To compete effectively in today’s business environment, firms are using strategic alliances to link their resources with those of other world-class corporations. They are replacing the “not invented here” syndrome with the “invented anywhere approach”. Unfortunately, less than 50% of the alliances between large and small firms survive 4 years. Dr. Slowinski’s 18 years of study of over 300 alliances has led him to identify key best practices in alliances. He has also developed a set of simple, but powerful management tools and metrics, which many firms are using to increase the value of both their individual alliances and their alliance portfolios. He will describe these tools and metrics and illustrate their application in actual alliances.You will learn: how firms have used alliances to change the nature of competition in their industries, The Alliance Framework ™ a structured approach for creating technology based alliances, how Wall Street values a firm’s portfolio of alliances, tools, metrics, and management techniques for implementing alliances, special problems in collaborative R&D alliances, early warning signs of trouble and techniques.

Gene Slowinski is the Director of Strategic Alliance Research at the Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University and a managing partner in the Alliance Management Group, a consulting firm devoted to the formation and management of strategic alliances. Prior to forming the Alliance Management Group, he held management positions at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Bellcore, and Novartis Corporation. In addition to a Ph.D. in Management, Gene holds an MBA, and a Masters Degree in the sciences.

 

April 27, 2000
Thursday
Topic: “Career Choices, Career Transitions and Retirement Behavior of ACS Mature Chemists: Selected Findings from the ACS Mature Career Chemist Study”
Speaker: Dr. Janice I. Farkas

Joint meeting with the CHEMICAL CONSULTANTS NETWORK Last spring the American Chemical Society surveyed a representative sample of ACS members aged 50 to 69 to gain a greater understanding of the maturing chemist professional’s needs as he or she approaches retirement. For some, the path has been negatively dictated by the labor market’s downsizing, mergers and/or consolidation over the past decade leaving little time for extensive retirement planning, for others choices include consulting as post-retirement employment and whole new career decisions. Lack of time or lack of information to plan for retirement may potentially leave some older individuals facing with financial concerns or medical coverage needs which might have been met had the proper time element been met. This study asks how are mid and later-career chemical professionals have fared over the past decade and throughout their careers.

Nearly 40% of the ACS population is aged 50 or older. The preliminary results from that data suggest that labor market participation and retirement differs at older ages by educational attainment, sex, and number of employers over the chemist’s career. Women, on average, are working later, have had more employers, take slightly more hiatuses, and are less likely to draw a pension when at ages 50 to 69 than mature men chemists. The presentation will address these differences in men and women chemists’ retirement plans and retirements given their life course trajectories and employment patterns. It will examine the many paths to retirement and one’s satisfaction with their retirement. Additionally, this presentation will discuss the mature chemists’ post-retirement employment behavior. Of particular interest is the choice of consulting as a career, including economic data therein. From this study, we hope to inform maturing chemists of paths to successful retirement. And ultimately how ACS can effectively support chemists through their various career transitions.

Dr. Farkas obtained a Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography with a minor in Gerontology from Pennsylvania State University in 1994. She is presently Assistant Professor at Pennsylvania State U., Delaware County Campus, where her research interests include caregiving and retirement policies. She also is serving as a consultant for the American Chemical Society to provide statistical and data consulting for the mature chemist retirement project. She has numerous publications and presentations relating to women in the labor market and the status of older women and men in the workplace and in retirement.

March 28, 2000
Tuesday
Topic: “Death, Taxes and Lawsuits”
Speaker: Gary F. Danis, P.E., Esq.
Cooper, Rose & English, LLP
Unlike death and taxes, economic damage to a consultant from unwelcome involvement in a lawsuit is avoidable. The presentation will include a freewheeling discussion, led by Gary F. Danis, about methods that consultants use to reduce the risks from being sued.Gary F. Danis is a Partner with the firm of Cooper, Rose & English, located in Summit, NJ. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in chemical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and received his law degree in 1976 at Seton Hall University School of Law. Mr. Danis has over 20 years of managerial background in the chemical industry, having served as Vice President for Plant Operations, and as Director of Engineering and Regulatory Affairs for the Millmaster Onyx Group of the Gulf Oil Corporation. Following a career in the chemical industry, he currently specializes in the practice of environmental and regulatory law.
February 22, 2000
Tuesday
Topic: “The Intellectual Property Act of 1999: Implications for Consultants and their Clients in the Chemical Industry: How can Industry Prevent Cyber-piracy”
Speaker: Charles E. Miller, Ph.D., J.D.
Senior Partner, Pennie & Edmonds LLP
The recent Intellectual Property Act of 1999 has many implications for the Chemical Industry. Dr. Miller is uniquely qualified to explain how it might affect our clients in the Chemical Industry. It also can be a factor in protecting intellectual property we may have or may develop ourselves. Dr. Miller will show us how to take advantage of new innovations and ways to make creative ideas profitable.In the area of e-business he plans to discuss at length how domain names, and the piracy thereof, is now a major battle area for intellectual property and the internet. Recent changes in the patent laws now tilt the field back toward the trademark owner. This should make it more difficult for people to capture potential domain names and hold them hostage. Charles will tell us how to approach such situations and prevent the loss of valuable property.

Intellectual property is facing a period of major changes. It is essential that consultants learn more about the subject. Our clients will need help in this area and we need to understand it better. We need to know when to call in the experts.

Dr. Miller received his BS in Chemistry from Columbia University. He then received MS and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia as well. After working for a short period as a chemist, he attended NYU and received his J.D. in 1970. While attending Law School, he worked in the Law Department of predecessors of AlliedSignal and Hoechst Celanese Corp. For the past twenty-eight years he has been at Pennie & Edmonds, one of America’s oldest and largest nation-wide, full-service intellectual/industrial property law firms specializing exclusively in patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and legal activities related to these areas of specialization. Dr. Miller has been a partner at Pennie & Edmonds since 1978.

This should be a very informative meeting for all of our members, guests, and visitors. We hope to see you there.