As this is being written we are packing to go to a meeting - the Fall ACS Meeting in Las Vegas - where we hope to see many of you. This is a meeting-intensive time of year. We have just returned from having a very popular booth at the ChemEd '97 Meeting in Minneapolis. There were several hundred teachers at this meeting, many of them high school teachers. While we did not talk with everyone, we did talk with a lot! We were able to get their ideas about the Journal as well as our software and CD-ROMs. We listened as they told us which columns they like most, about having special pointers to articles of value for high school teachers, about how they need to find things fast when they have a break between classes or grading.

Emory Howell was at ChemEd '97 too, and presented a workshop for teachers. This was a very good session, particularly because the participants shared a lot of their ideas and insights. We were able to introduce previews of the new Classroom Activity insert cards at this meeting - both at the workshop, where we got detailed feedback (participants actually did the activity so we got a blow-by-blow account), and at the booth, where teachers seized copies, anxious to try this first one with their students. We learned at least two things: information about how to integrate the activity is important, and frequent appearance of Classroom Activities is desired - like once a month! We can't promise an activity each month, but we will try. Notice that Activity #2 appears in this issue.

Another Transition, Another Meeting

In early August a significant meeting took place at Journal House, to mark the transition of the role of Publications Coordinator from Kenneth Emerson to Richard Schwenz. Both Ken and Richard were in Madison, as was Jerry Bell, the chair of our Board of Publication. They spent two very busy days, partly in learning what all of us do but then examining current Journal practices to see how they might be done more simply or more economically or more in harmony with subscriber requests. You should not see any big - changesour goal is that things will just hum along as usual. In the next few months there will be some changes in the production of reprints and improvement in their quality, all designed to make you happier.

Needed: One Set of Journal Issues

Since the beginning of this year when his tenure as Secondary School Editor began, Emory Howell has set up a very effective operation. With the able help of his assistant, Caren Daniel, he has a busy and active office. He has been helping to develop articles of interest to high school teachers and has signed up new feature editors.

In looking through manuscripts, Emory frequently needs to check articles that have appeared previously in the Journal. He is able to do this for recent articles, but anything before Volume 41 (1964) - when his personal set begins - is a problem.

This is where you can help. Many of you have prized Journal collections; some even date back to its founding in 1924. Sometimes these sets become available, so if you know of one please tell us. It would be grand if there could be a complete set for the Secondary School editor, which could move with a change of editors; something to acknowledge this special donation would certainly be done. Or, if you have issues to spare between 1924 and where Emory's own set begins in 1964, he would welcome receiving these issues and would certainly put them to good use. Should you want it, our Publications Coordinator has information about the valuation of Journal sets and can provide it for tax purposes.

Our Printer Goofed: Confusion!

Just as this issue was going to press, we learned that there is a problem with the September issue. The issue looks really good - what could be the problem? Well, it is one of omission and thus hard to spot: the special insert card that accompanies the JCE Software abstract and explains how to obtain the software was left out by our printing company. It is still sitting in their plant!

How do we fix this? Since the abstract makes little sense without the information about how to obtain the software, and since the information about how to obtain the software is confusing without its accompanying abstract, we are doing the most sensible thing we can think of. We have postponed the JCE Software abstract and insert card that were scheduled for this issue and we are reprinting last month's abstract, this time with the insert card that accompanies it!