New York Section Chair woman Dr. Jill Rehmann asked Dr. Hiroko Karan to chair the committee in February 2006 and charged her to review the section strategic plan for the next five years. She also indicted that her major interest and concern as Section Chair is increasing Industry-academe relations and younger chemist’s participation in section activities. LRPC met three times during the 2006 at St. Joseph’s College, Brooklyn, N.Y.

The first LRPC meeting was held on Friday, April 28, 2006.

This was a partly organizational meeting for the committee with a new committee Chair and members. At this meeting, membership of the committee was confirmed. It was agreed that the committee always includes the past and the present chairs and the chair- elect in the committee membership to have continuity among the immediate past, and the present Section chairs and chair elect in the committee membership to have continuity and better communication between the section Chair and the committee.

The committee was also asked to review the appropriateness and timeliness of the current NY Section strategic plan. A copy of the following documents were distributed to members who were asked to review and give their input at the next committee meeting:

1. Present ACS NY Section strategic thrusts
2. 2004-2006 ACS Strategic plan and ACS vision statement
3. NY Section 2005 goals and Assessment and 2006 Goals that appeared in the 2005 section annual report

The second meeting was held on Friday June 9, 2006.

After reviewing the section strategic thrusts and the 2005 Chairs’ goals and assessment report, the committee recognized that the Section had addressed and implemented activities for most of items indicated in the current Section strategic thrusts, except for increasing minority and young chemist’s participation to the NY Section activities. The Section’s minority affairs and young chemists committees have not been as active as the women chemists committee which also addresses a special interest group of chemists.

At this meeting, the Committee advised the Board to highlight every opportunity available to minority and young chemists to participate in the NY section activities.
The committee also advised the Board to distribute to or call the attention of Sub-section chairs to the NY Section Strategic thrusts so as to plan their activities to better implement the Section'sstrategic thrusts.

The committee discussed whether the current NY section strategic thrusts should continue to be the Section strategic plan for the next 3-5 years and withheld recommendations since the committee was informed that the ACS National office will publish its 2007 -2009 strategic plan in the fall 2006. The committee thought the future Section strategic plan should be in accordance with the new ACS strategic plan.

The third meeting was held on Friday November 10, 2006.

At this meeting a copy of the draft 2007-2009 ACS Strategic Plan was shared with members. The committee reviewed both the ACS future strategic plan and the current NY Section strategic plan and composed the following recommendations to the Board:

1. Keep the current NY Section strategic plan for the next three years as it is supportive of the ACS National strategic plan for 2007-2009
2. Set goals of the Section for the next two years based on the mission and strategic plan of the NY section and pursue and achieve the goals such as:
a. Create methods of how to attract new members
b. Review activities of the section committees and the term of the chair of each committee
c. Consider instituting a committee similar to the ACS committee on committee to keep track on Section committee activities and management
d. Form a consulting team which consists of the past Section Chairs to continuously utilize their expertise
e. Conduct a survey to identify areas of expertise of NY section members

To implement immediately one of the most workable goals, the committee made a motion to the board at the November 10, 2006 Section Board meeting that the incoming Section Chair (2007) leads a review for all section committees for its activity status and the term of the committee chair. In the event that the committee chair’s term which is stipulated in the Section by-laws has expired, the Section Chair rotates the chair’s position. This motion was approved by the Board. This is the first step toward implementing one of the Section's goals. In consultation with the Section Chair, the LRPC will plan to recommend other goals to the Board in 2007 and have their approval.

Respectfully submitted by
Hiroko I. Karan
LRPC Chair
2/5/07