The ACS Network

Are you in the ACS Network? It is getting better and better all the time. To register for the network all you have to do is to log into the ACS web page www.acs.org. Then log in to the site. If you have not logged in you can register to log in. The ACS has information about you including your ACS membership number name and address. Once you have logged in the scroll down the home page til you see ACS Network. Click on that and you will see another page that says access the network and voila there you are.
Once there you can complete your profile, add a photo of yourself and scroll the members who are already in the network and invite your friends to be part of your network. At this point I have no idea what you do with your network but at least you will have it for future use. There are now discussions which you can join or start.
I have been playing a game called Chemical History. You add names of people or things in history starting with the last letter of the last post. At least that were the original rules. There have been deviations from this. But it is fun to do. There is a discussion about"Chemist Celebrate Earthday" which is coming up soon There are other ongoing discussions about the Stimulus plan about Obama plans for science, about science in general about the upcoming ACS meeting in Salt Lake City etc. If you don't see anything you want to respond to, you can start your own discussion.
Les McQuire has asked the members of the Executive Committee to investigate the network and see how it can be improved. I am going to throw this out to you to help make the network better.
Here is his notice to us:

Try the following:

Log in to the Network via the ACS Home Page.

Click on one of your Divisions or your section (i.e. North Jersey). This pulls up a lot of names, try clicking through the list (click "next") it can very slow to pull up the next 10 people. What is your experience? What happens if you switch to 50 or 100 names per page.

Pick someone you know and invite them to join your network. How quickly does this happen?

Use the search feature, pull down the "governance" option: there are multiple duplication of positions and I feel too many classifications (Chair-elect, Chair etc). Pick one of the categories and search. Is it clear why the search found the people it did (I think people are unsure how to classify themselves).

Play with the network for a few minutes - any comments, does it work well?

I think his could be a very useful tool for ACS and our members but we need to know about and address any issues.

If you have any problems with this network you can post your comments to this blog. We can help to make it better.

Jeannette Brown
NJACS Publicity Chair