I am writing this message on election day. I hope all have had a chance to exercise your constitutional right to vote. Of course, I mean, vote in the Silicon Valley local section election for the section’s Executive Committee members. In the coming days, you will receive an email with the voting procedures. Last year, 156 of our section members voted in our elections. That is about 10% of our membership. I realize that the elections are often uncontested, but we still value your input and would love to see these numbers increase.
ACS local sections depend on their members. We are a volunteer organization and we rely on volunteers to do all the fun activities that we do. There are opportunities of many different types—coordinating the selection of the Teacher Scholar award, providing mentoring and hands on experiments at local schools, helping to run the local section’s chemistry olympiad program and of course getting involved in the local section governance. Everyone is welcome to attend our monthly Executive Committee meetings which are held both over zoom and in person at either Stanford or San Jose State University. If you are interested in getting more involved, please send me an email (chair@siliconvalleyacs.org). We are reviewing our various committee assignments, and there are openings at all levels and in all areas.
In other news, ACS is hosting a membership drive called the Compete, Grow, Win campaign. If you renew your membership, or switch from Community Associates to ACS member before December 11, you will receive a 20% discount on your membership fees. Be sure to enter code CGWC20. In addition to the personal savings, we will receive a $15 commission for each new member. Please see pages 1-2 of the November 2026 issue of the newsletter for more details.
Respectfully submitted
Natalie McClure
