History
Committee on Technician Affairs
Committee Establishment
In 1964, the Committee on Technician Activities (CTA) was established as the result of recommendations by an ad hoc Committee on Technician Activities chaired by William G. Young, Dean, UCLA. The first CTA Chair was Dr. LeRoy Clemence, from Abbott Laboratories in Chicago. A complementary committee, the ad hoc Committee on Technician Education (CTE), was established at the same time, with Dr. Carleton Roberts of Dow in Midland, Michigan as Chair. The CTA was generally charged with developing technician professionalism. The CTE was charged with addressing technician education.
The work of these committees was just getting started well in 1967 when Ken Chapman joined the staff and began serving as Staff Liaison to both committees. (Ken had been a member of the CTE; its principal work was performed in the summer of 1966 and published in 1967.)
Symposium in 1967
The CTA had determined that a key element of bringing technicians into the Society was to encourage them to give technical papers in their own symposia. The first such symposium, a one-day session, was held in Chicago at the Fall 1967 ACS National Meeting. Dr. Carl Roberts served as the symposium chair for a half day, and Dr. LeRoy Clemence chaired the other half-day.
The CTA symposium attracted Dr. Roger Adams, considered by many as the father of organic chemistry and a professor at the University of Illinois. During a break, Carl asked him what he thought about the papers. Dr. Adams replied, "These papers are more interesting and are better presented than most of what we have in the Organic Chemistry Division."
The Beginning of Local Technician Affiliate Groups
The CTA also began encouraging establishment of Local Technician Affiliate Groups (TAGs) in ACS Local Sections. At that time, only full or student memberships were available in ACS and technicians were not considered. However, most Local Sections had an "Affiliate" category of membership to enable high school teachers to be associated with the Society; thus the CTA encouraged technicians to become Local Section Affiliates.
Several TAGS were established by 1970, with Akron, Delaware, Rochester, and Kanawha Valley being the most active. By the early 70's, pressure was being exerted by TAG leaders attending the Tech Symposium to have their own meetings and the National Conference of Chemical Technician Affiliates (NCCTA) was established as a subcommittee of CTA.
Development of Division of Chemical Technicians
About 1972, the NCCTA asked to take over the symposium and did so under the tutelage of CTA. CTA also obtained approval of a large budget increase (committee budgets typically are small) to enable NCCTA leaders to help Local Sections start TAGs. The NCCTA provided technician leadership training at 1-2 day sessions during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. These efforts led to formation of the Division of Chemical Technicians (TECH) in 1991 ("Probationary" status) and 1994 ("Full" Divisional status) and the NCCTA was dissolved.
American Chemical Society Membership
During the ‘70s, CTA led the charge to open ACS membership. There has always been a portion of Society membership who favors a narrow, elite membership policy. This group was at a crest in the early ‘70s. However, the Society was deeply chagrined when the Membership Committee turned down an application from a recent Nobel Laureate and became more responsive to the movement to open membership in the late ‘70s.
Affiliate Membership
CTA worked with the Division of Chemical Education to open up "Affiliate Membership" in the late ‘70s. This "Affiliate" category was particularly directed toward chemical sales people, teachers, and technicians. Continued work and pressure by CTA finally resulted in procedures that enabled technicians to become full members of the Society.
About CTA Chairs
Most CTA Chairs have been industry chemists. Bob Carver from DuPont was the first technician to chair the committee. In the 1990’s, Fritz Kryman became the first educator to chair the CTA.
The CTA has had periods of relatively low level activity and periods of high activity levels, like all ACS committees. However, it has steadily pushed forward the concept of technician professionalism and helped to prepare technicians to become leaders in the ACS for the benefit of both ACS and technicians.