Being an active member of an ACS Student Chapter provides many benefits for the student such as increasing the quality and number of professional contacts, developing leadership capabilities, building career knowledge, and increasing the opportunities to experience tours and technical presentations.  Recruiting and keeping members is one of the most important endeavors for any student-run organization.  Once students have joined, there are many ways to keep them involved in the chapter. Knowing the members' needs is important. Many students need tutoring and so are willing to go to tutoring sessions. It is also important to be flexible. There should be several chapter meetings at various times. Each one could occur twice a week at various times so that the students are more likely to be available and attend at least one of them. The time that the members put into the chapter should be worth the effort. The meetings and activities should be interesting and worthwhile. If attendance is declining, requesting that chemistry professors give extra credit for participation in chapter activities can be very fruitful. The use of social media helps keep the members engaged. Using a combination of mass e-mails, on-campus bulletin boards, LMS, and classroom announcements helps to spread information about activities. Providing successful chapter activities is a great way to keep the members interested and engaged. Field trips give students the chance to spend time together as a group away from the campus. Providing an opportunity for travel to a regional or national meeting has helped to motive the Chapter to successfully fundraise toward a goal. Chapters should also take advantage of ACS grants which are a great way to direct energy around their mission. <br/>

Leading a successful ACS Student Chapter

249th National Meeting (2015)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.