Welcome to the first issue in our 75th year. At this very significant juncture, we have tried to rethink the Journal to make it even better for you, our readers. This means that we are introducing some very special new features such as Viewpoints and we are adding refinements to existing features. The inauguration of JCE Online+ is also a birthday present, JCE Classroom Activities is another - one that was delivered early. You can expect more birthday surprises throughout this year of celebration.

Recipient of Grant Funds

We are happy to share with readers some very good news. The Journal has just learned that the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation has funded our proposal for support of the Viewpoints series. Viewpoints, described in more detail in its formal introduction by Glenn Seaborg on page 13, will require special efforts on the part of its editorial board, authors, and reviewers, as well as the editorial staff. The grant will allow us to develop this series of special manuscripts, providing for extra help in the editorial office, additional color pages, additional materials for JCE Online+, and a special CD-ROM with the Viewpoints articles. The CD-ROM will include supplementary materials related to Viewpoints articles, such as animations that cannot be represented in the print medium. This is not the first instance of support from the Dreyfus Foundation. It was Dreyfus funding that first put the Journal online in 1995 and that helped support the founding of JCE Software in 1988.

JCE Online - On Paper!

An anomaly, a contradiction in terms? No, a new page in the print Journal that debuts this month (p 126). Here in print, Jon Holmes (who edits JCE Online) will tell you what is new in the online world. This new page will announce in print what is happening in the online part of the Journal's operations, functioning in a way similar to the JCE Software abstract page. This month you can learn about a new article on JCE Internet by Giles Henderson and Christine Liberatore, "Animated Vibrational Modes of Triatomic Molecules", as well as three submissions that are in open review. Yes, you can be a reviewer of papers in open review; and we hope you will be. The JCE Online page is a place worth checking out every month, and the JCE Online is a Web address that we predict you will use more than once a month.

Be a Charter Subscriber

Have you logged on to JCE Online+ yet? If not, you should make sure to do so as soon as possible - there is a trial period through the end of January 1998. Of course you will find all of the print Journal, its supplementary materials, and abstracts of all articles, all in attractive PDF format - but maybe you were hoping for that. What you might not expect is the wealth of other materials such as JCE Internet; articles in open review; dynamic, interactive articles (that cannot be captured on the printed page); detailed information about all our software, videodiscs and videotapes, CD-ROMs; the Chemical Education Resource Shelf: a Software Support Center.... The list of features goes on.

So, try it out. We are sure you will like it and we are also sure that you will send us your feedback. Become a Charter Subscriber (http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/Plus/Subscribe /) and set the trend: subscribe before the end of March 1998. While we can't put your name up in lights, we will publish it and the names of all Charter Subscribers in these pages and online.

The Journal Ambassador Challenge

In honor of our diamond anniversary, Jerry Bell (the chair of our Board of Publication) has issued a challenge to all readers: recruit more subscribers! You can read Jerry's message on page 22, but the challenge is this: if you bring in six years of new or gift subscriptions, you will receive a one-year subscription to Print/Online+ (to be used as an extension to your own or as a gift); if you bring in twelve years, you will receive a three-year subscription equivalent. The names of our Diamond Ambassadors will appear in these pages and online.

There are other ways, too, that you can be a Journal

ambassador. And it is becoming the thing to do - to distribute Journal materials. We have heard from many of our subscribers, asking for materials to use at workshops, take to regional meetings, incorporate as a resource into courses for teachers. We have sent them copies of JCE, JCE Publications/Software Catalog, and other materials. We print extra copies of the popular Classroom Activity series so we can send you copies to use in this way.

If you need materials, let us know and we will be happy to send them to you. We have set up a special wall calendar that we use just for sending materials to our Ambassadors. Let us know how we can help you spread the word about the Journal.