Vice President's Critical Assessment - 2003
INTRODUCTION
According to the Unions bylaws (S6.32) the Vice President
shall submit to the Bureau biennially a critical assessment of the programs
and projects of all IUPAC bodies, the so-called Vice Presidents
Critical Assessment (VPCA). In essence, the purpose of the assessment
is to initiate discussions of measures to be taken to improve the quality
of the work carried out within and by IUPAC. However, reading of the
minutes from meetings years back indicates that many VPCAs filled this
function to a rather limited extent, conceivably because critical observations
and good proposals for improvements often were embedded in large sections
of positive descriptions of ongoing activities, which drew most of the
attention and naturally diluted the critical comments.
In recent years, however, the VPCAs have been more focused and dealt
with more specific problems that were regarded as important to solve
in order to move the Union in the right direction. This problem-solving
approach was, for instance, a characteristic feature of Professor
Joshua Jortners assessment, which contained a critical analysis
of how the scientific work of the Union was performed, and Dr.
Alan Hayes assessment, which analysed the relationship between
IUPAC and the chemical industry, and the activities carried out by the
Unions Standing Committees. This change of approach has obviously
benefited the Union, because in far less than a decade, ideas first
outlined in VPCAs were debated and adopted to such an extent that they
paved the way for organisational changes.
The changes were considerable; during a fairly short period of time
IUPAC was transformed, from a Union with fixed Commissions with a long
lifetime and a rather static membership, to an organization with short-term
project groups established after international peer review of project
proposals. The transition was complete by January 1st last year (2002),
and IUPAC is now operating in a restructured fashion, according to the
so-called project-driven system.
Some people say that the restructuring looks good, but ask what the
benefits are from all the recent changes. That is an appropriate and
valid question, which cannot be answered properly before the development
of IUPAC is observed and analysed in the years to come. However, we
know one thing for sure: The restructured IUPAC will only be able to
fulfill its objectives and live up to the expectations of the global
chemical community if chemists from around the world are actively engaged
in addressing important global issues involving chemistry. The best
guarantee for IUPACs success is therefore solid recruitment of
good and dedicated chemists to all the Unions activities.
Successful recruiting is not done by chance; planning and strategy
are paramount to succeed in engaging the right group of competent volunteers
in IUPAC activities year after year. A critical factor in this endeavour
is good contact with the chemical community world wide, particularly
with the countries that are members of IUPAC. This requires close
and vivid communication with both the formal members of the Union,
the so-called National Adhering Organizations (NAOs), and the chemical
societies in member countries where the chemical society is not the
NAO. Several relevant questions therefore surface: Are the communication
and interaction, in particular with the NAOs in the member countries,
good enough? Is the information supplied by IUPAC about ongoing
activities and the result of its work in various media and in various
connections adequate? Are the member countries satisfied with the role
they and their chemists play in various IUPAC bodies, and are individual
chemists from around the world eager to participate in IUPAC activities?
Some indicators suggest that the answer to most of these questions
is no. Based on this observation it seems reasonable to state that the
future success of IUPAC depends on improvements of the Unions
interaction and communication with its stakeholders, whether the matters
under consideration are related to the advancement of research in the
chemical sciences, promotion of chemistrys services to the society,
improvement of education in chemistry, or initiatives to advance the
public appreciation of chemistry. Consequently, IUPACs success
in the future will be intimately connected to the quality of the Unions
communication strategy and practises. This point of view is shared by
others, as borne out by discussions and consultations with other IUPAC
officers, Bureau members, chemists involved in other IUPAC activities,
and chemists outside IUPAC. On this basis I decided to focus on communication,
in the broad sense of the word, in my vice presidents critical
assessment.
<Download
full text of the VPCA, pdf file-39MB>
> See also the
Vice President's column as published in CI
July 2003.