Our mission remains the same: The Finance Committee develops the annual budget for the ACS Division of Chemical Education (“the Division (GovPro)”) and recommends it to the Division Executive Committee ("ExCom") for approval. The committee also sends recommendations to ExCom on financial matters such as the investment policy, travel reimbursement policies, audit practices, ongoing and new expenses, and ongoing and new income-generating activities.
In 2025, the Finance Committee began its 8th year with new guidelines to provide better continuity in leadership and representation of its members:
1. The chair has a 3-year term, renewable for three terms. Prior to this, each immediate past chair of the Division served as the Finance committee chair for a one-year term.
2. New committee members are welcome! If you are interested, feel free to attend or to contact one of us. Committee meetings are open to all, except for those on matters such as personnel.
3. The Committee meetings are held regularly throughout the year and well prior to meetings of ExCom, so as 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 (May 2025, July 2025) since meeting in person at the ACS 2025 Spring meeting. The agenda items were complex and included (1) working with the Biennial Conference Committee (BCC) to develop recommendations about how to allocate the $213K overage from the 224 BCCE, (2) working with the Board of Publications (BoP) to develop recommendations about how to allocate the transfer of $1.5 million in assets to GovPro. In both cases, recommendations were sent to ExCom.
· Documents (agendas, minutes, supporting documents) were archived in our Committee's Dropbox folder.
· A subcommittee talked regularly with our investment advisor, monitoring our GovPro investments.
· A Committee Vice Chair has been appointed who will take over as Chair in 2026. The current Chair will remain on the Committee for one more year, but stay in the background, only assisting as appropriate.
One more virtual meeting is scheduled in late July to finalize the 2026 budget and to recommend it to ExCom. Thus, the BIG upcoming agenda item for the Finance Committee is to work on the 2026 budget.
In addition, the Finance Committee will this fall (1) discuss a possible Reserve Emergency Fund for the Division, and as appropriate, develop a proposal for ExCom, and (2) discuss specifically the process of Committee budget requests and, more generally, discuss how to use Division funds to better support our members.
See previous sections. Several recommendations from the Finance Committee are likely to appear on ExCom's next agenda, all of which connect in some way to the 2026 budget.
As the out-going chair of the Finance Committee, I would like to express my gratitude to both the current and the past committee members, many of whom are members of ExCom and the entities that are a part of the Division. To a person, you all have been terrific in your dedication to making the Division run smoothly, well, and in support of our members. Thank you!