Lunkhead Ideas
Crazy Ideas to Transform ACS
ACS needs more Lunkhead Ideas!

"Lunkhead Ideas" entered the ACS lexicon
during the ACS Local Section Summit in May
2006.  
Val Kuck said that some great ideas are
initially seen as "Lunkhead Ideas" - stupid and
crazy.

Val described the first lunkhead idea as the idea
of holding a mini-symposium in place of a
traditional monthly meeting in North Jersey.  
While many of the section leadership felt that
this would fail they were willing to give ACS
volunteers a chance and voted to support the
idea.  That mini-symposium was a huge
success and became a model that is at the core
of North Jersey's technical program and the
section's ties to the areas chemistry community.


The volunteers and Leaders having lunkhead
ideas are the Heroes of ACS because they will
build the future ACS.  The ideas are "lunkhead"
not the volunteers!

We all need more Lunkhead Ideas.
Definition of "Lunkhead":
dunce, dunderhead, numskull, blockhead, bonehead, lunkhead,
hammerhead, knucklehead, loggerhead, muttonhead.

These words are used to express a low opinion of someone's intelligence  

more definitions and even more definitions.
Some other Lunkhead Ideas that Transformed ACS:

National Chemistry Week

SciMix at National Meetings

Innovation Program Grants (IPG) - some successful programs funded by IPG

Many successful Lunkhead Ideas resulted in Local Sections winning ACS ChemLuminary Awards.
Tell us about your Lunkhead Idea, how you would like to transform
ACS or ask for more information about successful ACS programs.
New ideas pass through three periods:

1) It can't be done.

2) It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing.

3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

                                                                             Arthur C Clark
Your Name:
Your E-mail Address:
Your Phone Number:
Comments:
and one that will:

Incorporating sessions featuring past Heroes of Chemistry Awardees into the technical program at
National Meetings.  The Heroes of Chemistry program is a program of Corporation Associates and
has now recognized many leading chemists whose work has significantly impacted society.

At the Fall 2007 (Boston) National Meeting the
Division of Medicinal Chemistry is organizing a
session featuring Heroes of Chemistry working in the Pharmaceutical Industry.

Corporation Associates will work with appropriate ACS Divisions to organize a Heroes session at
each Fall National Meeting.  Which area will be highlighted in Philadelphia in the Fall of 2008?
and another one that will:

Advances in Chemical Sciences Symposium

A joint symposium sponsored by the RSC and ACS to be held in Cambridge on March 30th, 2007.  
In some ways this is like the original Lunkhead Idea of Bench to Pilot Plant in NJ - an opportunity to
show the ACS and our members that it is possible to have a high quality symposium close to our
members at minimal cost.  The standard North Jersey committee approach is being used so that
ACS will also make contacts in multiple companies and introduce a group of industrial chemists to
volunteering in the ACS.
Naming Challenge:
What do you call an idea that did not quite work?
We need to celebrate these failures as without them we will never have any Lunkhead Idea successes.