Dr. David Armbruster was elected to his second year as President of the association at the 71st Annual Meeting in New York City on October 26. After dinner he made his 1999 Annual Report. He reviewed the past year, summarizing the financial situation and relating it to the total number of members. He presented the Game Plan for the year 2000. The keynote was his mission statement for the new fiscal year: To Facilitate The Formation And Growth Of Chemical Consultancies. He cited the association's needs for advancement and highlighted major topics as described below.

Priority One is to increase the membership. This is imperative for providing the income to support some of the other goals. This goal was assigned to all members under the direction of William Swartz's Marketing Committee. Dr. Armbruster will issue a Membership Campaign Initiative. In it he will call for two key elements for achieving this goal: expanding the scope of eligibility for membership; and increasing the emphasis on the understanding of the package of benefits coming from membership. The pool of prospective members will include not only chemists and chemical engineers but also those in fields allied to chemistry, including materials science, biology, environment, biotechnology, medical, legal and other specialties.

Dr. Armbruster complimented Bill Swartz's committee for preparing the new membership brochure, which was designed to be more emphatic in stating the advantages of joining the association. It will be the tool for aggressively marketing the association to prospective members.

Armbruster charged the membership to actively seek and approach prospects. A member who identifies a prospect should send the name to the association office together with the address and phone number. Linda Townsend will then send an information package to the prospect and Council will handle the follow-up. Armbruster set a goal of 125 members by October.

Priority Two in the Game Plan is an increase in the usefulness of the web site www.chemconsult.org. Stephen Duerr's internet committee will arrange for more links with additional internet sites. Content will be continuously improved. Progress will be measured by an increase in the frequency that internet users visit (hit) the site and an increase in receipt of consulting leads (CHIs) by way of the web site. Goals for these are 100 hits per day and 25 CHI referrals per month. Armbruster complimented Steven Duerr and his Internet Committee for their great work building a quality site and expects that further refinements will realize the effectiveness goals.

Priority Three is better support for new members, through the Mentor Program. Volunteer mentors Armbruster, Coleman, Hay, Riley and Weinberg are ready to advise individual new members and act as resources for building and improving their consulting practices. Dr. Armbruster called on all members to participate in this program.

Priority Four is using the newsletter The Chemical Consultant for distribution and promotion beyond the membership. Armbruster announced that there have been discussions of advertising by non-members and the possible reciprocal publicity this can generate. Dr. Armbruster outlined the association's coming participation in the November ChemShow under the chairmanship of Meyer Rosen. He referred to the presentation of the symposium How To Be A Chemical Consultant In The Millennium in which ACC&CE members John Bonacci, John Barb, Robert Bockserman, Angelo Tulumello and Elliott Weinberg will make presentations.

Dr. Armbruster finished by listing all the dates for monthly meetings for the coming year, including joint meetings with The Chemical Consultants Network and the New Jersey Group of Small Chemical Businesses. Innovations in scheduling will include 2 luncheon meetings, one in New York and one in New Jersey.

The following is quoted from an article in the September 2nd, 1999 issue of The Alchemist, the news magazine of Chem Web, Inc., based in London, England as written by Brian Rothery, the editor. We thank Dan Kruh (member #830) for making the contact and stimulating this excellent coverage.

"According to outsourcing theory, a business 'should do what it does best and outsource the rest'. This maxim is based on the concept of core competencies, or fundamental tasks, which one should not outsource, and on the identification of those competencies which are cheaper and better to outsource. The latter include occasional expertise which may not be readily available in-house, or which is too expensive to maintain. Perhaps the chemicals industry above all can use outsourced skills, such is the range of expertise which it may have to call upon. For many of its requirements there may be a consultant who will not just resolve a problem, better and faster than could any person within an organisation, but who will also bring new ideas to bear on a process.

Such consultants however need peers, a forum for discussion of mutual problems, referrals and cross-referrals and, not least, the stimulation that can be found within a corporate structure. This was the motivation for 29 chemical consultants meeting on March 2, 1928 at the Chemists' Club in New York, to adopt a constitution, code of ethics and bylaws, and to form The Association of Consulting Chemists & Chemical Engineers (ACC&CE).

The association has its headquarters in New Jersey and holds monthly meetings around the country. It publishes an eight page bi-monthly newsletter The Chemical Consultant.

The ACC&CE's most visible activity is its booth at the biennial Chem Show. This year its presence in the show at the Javits Convention Center in New York City, November 16-18, will be heightened with a symposium titled 'How To Be A Consultant In The Next Millennium'. Interesting subjects to be dealt with include: chemical toxicology, procedures for handling new chemical products, and the shortage of chemists and chemical engineers. A glance at some speakers' advance notes suggest that the association believes that there is a growing anti-science, anti-technology climate world-wide, which is resulting in the shortage of academic candidates 'for the strenuous training as chemists and chemical engineers'. One speaker wants to 'spread the word on the joys and accomplishments of chemical practitioners to get more students interested in pursuing careers in that most basic science of all the sciences - chemistry!'" ACC&CE's web site is at http ://www. chemconsult. org/

Chem Show booth manager Meyer Rosen reports that he was assisted by 20 volunteers at the Javits Center in New York on November 16, 17 and 18. This team made contact with an estimated 300 of the show attendees. They garnered 61 leads for consulting services, new members and others. The new edition of the ACC&CE membership and other association literature was on display. Copies of The Chemical Consultant newsletter were available in the booth and in the Press Room. The ACC&CE internet web site was represented in a full-color loose-leaf version of the membership directory prepared by Executive Secretary Linda Townsend.

Five members made presentations in a symposium How To Be A Chemical Consultant In The Millennium. Thanks go to John Bonacci, John Barb, Robert Bockserman, Angelo Tulumello and Elliott Weinberg for preparing their manuscripts (available on request) and speaking before packed meeting rooms on November 17.

Rosen sends thanks to the following for their help in manning the booth at the show: Robert Manley, Kelvin Domovs, A.O. Zoss, Gerard Gizinski, Elliott Weinberg, Dave Armbruster, Anthony Metzner, Peter Hay, Richard Cowell, Richard Ehrenreich, Donald Brillhart, Donald Lorenz, Dan Kruh, Charles Conway, Richard Schauer and Angelo Tulumello.

Meyer Rosen (member #808) is the co-author with David B. Braun of a new book The Rheology Modifier Handbook - Practical Use & Application. It contains facts on food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and household/industrial applications. It describes information on 20 different types of rheology modifiers manufactured by 26 worldwide companies.

The authors have greatly assisted researchers in the selection of a rheology modifier for a specific application. They have researched the technical literature of numerous suppliers, contacted them for current information, formulations and recommendations, and pared the list of candidates from hundreds to a few dozen.

Part I reviews rheology fundamentals. Part II presents details on the products available from 26 companies for over 1000 commercial products, arranged alphabetically by chemical type, supplier's name and trade name. Part III focuses on the selection of suitable rheology modifier candidates. It covers supplier's recommendations and pertinent regulatory issues. Part IV is a formulary containing 227 starting formulations designed to show which rheology modifiers are recommended for various applications and how they are incorporated into a formulation.
We congratulate one of our members for this contribution to applied chemistry.

Networking is the process of building and using connections for a knowledge bank of people so that they have a way of easily reaching one another. A consultant needs to have a way of generating a constant flow of consulting opportunities. For that his or her skills and availability must become known. Correspondingly a consultant must have ready access to prospective clients and their interests and needs. The consultant also needs similar access to resources for filling certain clients' needs where his own resources are lacking. The goal is to have a client's problem solved.

Consulting is a demanding profession, especially when the consultant is a sole practitioner. The professional consultant is most often a specialist in some field and may not yet have learned the "people skills" needed for networking. In previous employment he or she may not have needed to develop the attitudes and skills for finding clients and establishing bonds of trust and credibility with strangers. He must learn on the job as a small business person how to do these things for himself. That is where networking is needed. Self-education comes primarily be diligent practice but there are educational resources in the form of mentors and literature.

Mr. Kevin Donlin, of Drake, Beam, Morin, Inc. spoke well on this subject at the association's monthly meeting in September, 1998. He left us with the motto: "If you're not networking, you're not working". James Cabrera and Charles Albrecht, Jr., officers of the same company, cover this important subject in detail in their book "Lifetime Career Manager". In Chapter 15 they set out a six-step process and expand it with explanations, anecdotes and useful advice on honing one's networking skills.

"Saying goodbye to the Lone Ranger mentality" is the title of an early chapter of another book "Power Networking". This gives a flavor of the style of the book. The authors, Sandy and Donna Vilas, conduct workshops in sales, marketing and networking. Their book is full of exercises, examples and quotes from other sources. Among its inspirational and clever sections are many different ideas to encourage the self-help student to begin and continue the practice of constantly making and refreshing contacts with the nodes of their network.

These are just two of many books on the subject you will find in your public library or bookstore. Browse, read and choose. Respond to a colleague when mentoring is offered.

The internet can lead a searcher to the whole world of periodicals and refereed journals. Links within the following two sites can lead to other sites accessing specific publications. Some publications may allow free access to specific abstracts and articles. Others may charge for access to a complete article or require taking a paid subscription.

Guest speaker was Ira S. Herman, tax director of the firm Herman Yula Schwartz & Lagomarsino, PA. He gave a thorough presentation, using his digital projector, of the ins and outs of the different kinds of business structures and corporations. His focus was on the tax implications of choosing one of the various official designations: C or S Corporation, Parternship, LLP, LLC and so on. He was adept at including the audience as he answered questions on accounting, taxes and liability in a lively fashion.

Dr. David C. Armbruster, President of the association, delivered the Annual Report to the membership. See the complete report above, STATUS OF ACC&CE.

Dr. Michael Block, editor of the ACS publication CHEMTECH, spoke on the planned overhaul of this publication that was started in 1970. Block said that the overhaul includes changing the name to Chemical Innovation, reflecting the sweeping changes taking place in the world. Using charts of statistics of the changing face of chemical industry and education, Dr. Block urged practitioners trained in chemistry and chemical engineering fields to be ready to adapt to the trends that are already evident. These are: chemical companies switching to new businesses like biotechnology; companies outsourcing functions and services like research, marketing and purchasing, with related early retirements and layoffs; companies using more temporary and contract employees; small, nimble companies being formed to handle the above functions, alone or in flexible alliances; and an increased global flow of business and information.

Dr. Block ended with a quote from the late genius of management consulting W. Edwards Deming "It is not necessary to change. Survival is mandatory."

It is time to say "Happy New Year". Year 2000 may be the last of the 20th century or the first of the 21st. The century depends on whether you start counting with one or with zero. Some say it couldn't be zero because there was no such year.

What is important is that the decade of the "oughts" is going to continue the profound transitions already taking place. This newsletter is going to try to reflect the changes and emphasize the importance of technical consulting in dealing with this change.