The Finance Committee is charged with developing the annual budget for the ACS Division of Chemical Education (“the Division (GovPro)”) and overseeing this budget and other financial concerns of the Division. This committee also sends recommendations to the Division Executive Committee ("ExCom") on financial matters such as the budget, the investment policy, audit practices, ongoing and new expenses, and ongoing and new income-generating activities.
In 2025, the Finance Committee begins its 8th year with new guidelines to provide better continuity in leadership and better representation in its members:
1. The chair now has a 3-year term, renewable for three terms. Prior to this, the immediate past chair of the Division served as the Finance committee chair for a one-year term.
2. New committee members always are welcome! If you are interested, feel free to attend or to contact one of us. Committee meetings are open, except for those on matters such as personnel.
3. The Committee meetings now are held regularly throughout the year and well prior to the meeting of ExCom (to be able to forward financial documents for approval).
Currently, the Finance Committee uses the term “GovPro” or “the Division (GovPro)” to refer to the Governance/Programming part of the Division. This new terminology acknowledges the fact that the Division has several entities, e.g., the Exams Institute, 2YC3, and the Board of Publications.
- Met virtually twice (Sept 2024, Feb 2025) since the ACS 2024 Fall meeting.
- Held an onboarding meeting for three new members, Jan 2025. This is the third year of doing onboarding, and we plan to continue this practice.
- Updated documents (agendas, minutes, supporting documents) in Dropbox
- Monitored our investments, a subcommittee talked regularly with our investment advisor
- Appointed a Committee Vice Chair who will take over as Chair in 2026.
- Reviewed CHED 2024 strategic plan and discussed budgetary implications, all with an eye toward better supporting our members
- Started several discussions to be reported on the consent agenda of the Fall meeting. See future plans.
Our next Committee meeting is scheduled in San Diego, in-person, with a Zoom hookup. Other than the usual financial reports from the Board of Pubs, Exams, 2YC3, and the BCC, we also will receive the first draft of the 2026 budget from the Treasurer. At this meeting, we'll also continue discussions of (1) the role of Committee Minutes and whether, going forward, AI would be of help to us, (2) the salary structure of paid employees in the Division, (3) a recommendation to ExCom about a possible reallocation of funds, as proposed by a working group of the CHED strategic plan, and (4) a discussion and possible recommendation to ExCom about the ongoing costs of the DivCHED website.
Using an AI Assistant for Committee taking Minutes of our meetings
What would (and would not) we want the AI Assistant to do for us?
If the Finance Committee came up with a recommendation, this might be useful information for note-taking in all DivCHED committees. At the moment, though, we do not have a first choice (or any choice, for that matter).
A related question: Do other DivCHED committees have any interest in the activities of the Finance Committee, that is, would folks on another committee want to read our Minutes?