Programming Ideas

Public Outreach

Earth Day

Help out with a Chemists Celebrate Earth Day event

National Chemistry Week

Help out with a National Chemistry Week event

Host a Program-in-a-Box

The Program-in-a-Box kit has everything you need to host your event. Treat your attendees to valuable networking activities, an informative live webinar broadcast, and an opportunity to be part of a live Q&A with the webinar presenters. Don’t forget to order some treats to enjoy during the viewing!

Professional Development

Plan a symposium

Organize a scientific symposium or poster session featuring research done by chemists in your section

Organize a career seminar or panel discussion

Invite ACS Career Services to give a career seminar on resume preparation or interviewing, or invite diverse panel speakers to share their paths to traditional and alternative chemistry careers

Tips for organizing a panel

  1. Start planning early, the first people you invite may not be available for the event.
  2. Make a list of different people from each branch of chemistry. This way, if the first industrial chemist you invite cannot attend, you have a list of other industrial chemists as backup.
  3. Contact the panel members a week or two before the event to confirm. Make sure they are ready to attend the event, and that they know what time the event is.
  4. Make sure at the event there is a moderator with questions ready. If the audience doesn’t ask questions, someone needs to.

Industry or government lab tour

Tour a local company or plant, or check out the action at a government lab. Don’t have a government lab in town? Visit a local art museum and couple the visit with a talk on art preservation, restoration, or authentication.

Social Events

Tour local breweries and wineries

Hold a meeting at a local brewery or winery and have the brewer/vintner talk about the chemical process of making beer/wine

Sporting games

Organize a social event centered on sports, such as holding a golf tournament, ice skating outing, or a friendly game of soccer, volleyball, or softball. You can also plan an outing to see a professional sports team in your area!

Trivia nights

The Northeastern Local Section YCC and the Philadelphia Section YCC put together AWESOME trivia nights! Download their materials and tailor the slides/flyers/questions to your Section.

Northeastern Section Trivia Materials.zip

Philadelphia Section Trivia Materials.zip

Local social mixers

Plan a social mixer at your favorite local watering hole or beat the heat with an Ice Cream Social