An anonymous commenter notes that the ACS bylaws only allow unemployed members to waive their dues for 2 consecutive years. While I suspect that those 2 years might be able to cover most unemployment circumstances for many members, this Great Recession is marked by high numbers of the long-term unemployed (6 months +).
Why not extend ACS unemployment benefits to 3 years?
I can't imagine that this would cost a lot of money (maybe I'm wrong.) Isn't this exactly what you'd want from ACS? I think it's a good idea. What do you think?
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Considering that the ACS is re-launching J. Combi. Chem and starting ANOTHER new journal, I highly doubt they're interested in not collecting dues for a longer period of time.
ReplyDeleteLike many other people around the chemical blogosphere, I will probably let my ACS membership expire when I no longer need to subject myself to conference posters/talks in order to pad my resume and try to network for jobs. I simply don't feel that the ACS provides enough benefit to justify Madeleine Jacobs making almost $1 million as the head of this "non-profit"
Interestingly, the link that CJ posted to the ACS website, and where the two-year limit is posted, is no longer functional (as of 10:40 PM, EST on Aug 30).
ReplyDeleteSeems to work for me, but slowly. Weirdly, the image that was on the ACS Careers website that leads to the document is broken. Who knows.
ReplyDeleteAnother suggestion would be:
ReplyDeleteOPTIONAL subscription to C & E News. If you don't want to read the rag, then why pay for it? This might help their journalists to understand what the real priorities of ACS members are (like finding a real job).
I let my ACS membership lapse 3 years ago because i did not want to go through the usual trouble of charging it to my credit card and then asking my employers for reimbursment (and then waiting a month to get the check from my institute). I realized that the ACS membership is not worth the minor nuisance, that I do not miss reading C&EN that much, and that I hate to go to ACS national meetings. Hearing about 1 million salary for top execs of ACS and the ridiculous pricing schemes for the online journal subscription just cemented my conviction that ACS is quite like labor unions taken over by the Gambino family.
ReplyDelete"ACS is quite like labor unions taken over by the Gambino family."
ReplyDeleteThey don't seem to care at all about most chemists.