Social media: A big topic at #ACSLI 2012-guest blog post by George Ruger

 2012 American Chemical Society Leadership Training Institute Ft. Worth, TX

#ACSLI attendees wearing purple.
What's with all the purple peeps? A number  of people were wearing purple and the student leaders from the Younger Chemists Committee (YCC) track had on purple ribbons-so someone said "let's get all the purple people together for a picture".
Sure made for a nice picture!
Photo courtesy of George Ruger, Mid-Hudson ACS.

GUEST BLOG POST BY George Ruger, Councillor and Immediate Past Chair, Mid-Hudson ACS

At this weekend's ACS Leadership Institute in Ft. Worth, TX, over 300 ACS Leaders got together to meet each other and learn some new skills.  Most of the attendees are newly elected Chair-Elects from their Local Sections.  However, there were also Division Officers, Career Consultants, and student leaders.  Each of them had their own track during the Institute.  Helping out with the activities were ACS staff and members of the Presidential Succession and Board members.    

Social Media was a big topic this year.  With a new layout to the ACS Network, demonstrated over lunch on Friday, to talk about LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter among others, the subject was discussed in sessions and by the attendees in their own small groups.  One change from a few years ago- most attendees do not need to return to their rooms to update their status or view documents.  No, they have a new way.  Using their phone apps, they can do almost anything on their phones that someone can do on their computer.  While this is not new, it does seem to be used by a very large portion of the attendees.  Having that ability used to be an advantage.  Now, not having it feels like a disadvantage. 

While most of the more than thirty members in attendance at the Tweetup 
(#ACSLI ) were there more for the social part than the media part, there was an interest in learning new ways to communicate to other groups of people, including their local sections.  Some attendees were veterans, and were leaving comments on twitter before or during the event.  Others added it to their list of things that they want to learn about.  While only a few of the newbies might actually be converted, at least everyone seemed to be having a good time.  #ACSLI   #IYC+1 -George Ruger

Here's how the ACS Leadership attendees communicated about the Tweetup using the hashtag: #ACSLI

pidgirl Jennifer Maclachlan 

Fill us in: what's happening at #ACSLI?@gruger04 @JosephSabol @CMcC_ACS@carmendrahl @topherrooney @raygarant@mobrien_ACS

21 Jan 

in reply to ↑

@gruger04George Ruger

@pidgirl @JosephSabol@CMcC_ACS @topherrooney@raygarant @mobrien_ACS@laurenkwolf @KatieChemist Hoping to start 9pm hotel lobby #ACSLI

mobrien_ACS Mark O'Brien 

It's official. Tweeting up at whiskey and rye at #acsli twitpic.com/8a5sd2

Via Twitpic: photo courtesy of Mark O'Brien

21 Jan Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

Photo courtesy: George Ruger

Photo courtesy: George Ruger

Photo courtesy: George Ruger

Photo courtesy: George Ruger

Photo Courtesy: George Ruger

Are you an ACS Member heading to #pittcon? If yes, please save the date and join Jennifer Maclachlan (@pidgirl) and George Ruger (@gruger04) at our conferee networking session called: How can we sustain our chemistry outreach beyond #IYC2011?