logo2-ccdg-1The Chicago Chromatography Discussion Group—reorganized and back after a four-year hiatus—is committed to promoting an interest in -and providing a forum for- the exchange of information in all areas of chromatography.  CCDG offers a program of luncheon or dinner meetings which cover advances in the many facets of chromatography. Our courses in gas and liquid chromatography provide outstanding basic and advanced training through lectures and hands-on experience.  Visit this page often to find out more about our upcoming events.  Please join our mailing list by sending an email to chicagochromatography@gmail.com.

Year-end Evaluation

Dear Sirs and Madams:

I am happy to report to the CCDG board and membership that the CCDG remains operational and functional. The five main goals gleaned from several conversations for the reconstitution of the organization to be considered a success were discussed at the May 18, 2015 meeting in Wood Dale. Briefly, those were:

  • Install officers, board members, and committee chairs;
  • Schedule and execute a Basic LC Training Workshop;
  • Execute at least 4 dinner meetings with lecturer;
  • Attract additional corporate sponsors;
  • Maintain and improve the CCDG web space;
  • And grow membership to 50 members.

Officers, Committee chairs, and Board
At the May 18, 2015 meeting, all officers and board members (listed in the left margin of this document) were re-elected and installed for a second year of service. Committee chairs were reappointed and accepted which included the Communications Chair (Michael Cwik), Corporate Sponsorship Chair (Jerry Shkolnik), Programs Chair (Denise Anderson), Membership Chair (Adam Kowalewicz), and LC School Chair (Michael Woodman).

Basic LC Training Workshop
This activity is perhaps the most important for the survival and reason/purpose for the organization. Mike Woodman, LC School Chair, coordinated a school on April 26-28 using the services of Merlin Bicking, Ph.D., a noted facilitator of this type of workshop. We attracted 7 students from across Chicagoland, Iowa, and Michigan for a total of $5475. The location was obtained in exchange of 1 student tuition for the host facility. Instruments were donated by area vendors (ThermoFisher, Waters, and Shimadzu) and the food costs and instructor fees were reasonable.

Dinner Lectures
Under the leadership of Denise Anderson and Shelly Krause, CCDG hosted three dinner lectures in September, November, and March. Two dinner meetings held at Roosevelt University were attended by approximately 45 people each. The 2015 speakers were Robert Shirey of Supelco who lectured about optimizing SPME for a variety of applications and Tim Ruppel of PerkinElmer who discussed the testing requirements for cannabis testing. Both events were held in the Alumni Hall at Roosevelt University in Schaumburg, IL and catered by their on-campus food service vendor for a reasonable fee. The March meeting attracted approximately 45 attendees to hear Rick Lake of Restek talking about getting the most out of LCMSMS separations and development time. The lectures were sponsors by Gerstel, Zyomic Technologies, and LabSource, respectively.

Corporate Sponsors
The number of corporate sponsors remains at 10. We were not able to add any additional corporate sponsors this year. However, we were very successful at attracting sponsors for our dinner/lectures.

Maintain the CCDG Web Space
Under the leadership of Michael Cwik, Communications Committee chair, a web master was maintained and a web site, www.chichrom.org has remained up to date with improvements. One significant improvement is the video archive of our dinner meeting which has attracted almost 800 views so far. The web space was coordinated with marketing efforts using EventBrite and ConstantContact.

Membership
On May 18, 2015 CCDG membership has grown to 59 dues paying members. At the time of the preparation of this document, we have 68 dues paying members. So far the best recruitment tools have been workplace solicitation by our board members and night lectures attendees.

Conclusion
Starting with a vision of resurrection, the CCDG is currently a functioning on-going concern. Although the CCDG had overall a successful year, we fell short on a couple of goals. As President of the organization, I am recommending the following challenges for CCDG in the coming 2016/2017 season:

  1. Install a slate of officers and committee chairs at the May 2016 Annual meeting.
  2. Fill the vacant slot of GC School Committee Chair.
  3. Schedule one GC School.
  4. Finalize plans for the LC School at least 3 months prior and recruit a minimum of 12 attendees.
  5. Schedule 4 meetings with dinner and lecture attracting an average of 60 attendees each.
  6. Increase the number of corporate sponsors from 10 to 12 sponsors.
  7. Maintain the relevance of the CCDG web space and add at least one additional element of useful content.
  8. Increase the number of dues paying members to 100.
  9. Develop a web-based project management tool such as BaseCamp site.
  10. Develop project checklists for each of the important functions and events to prevent details from slipping through the cracks.

I would like to personally thank all of the officers, committee members, and members for their efforts to make the CCDG a success. Building on these successes will ensure that the 2016/2017 season will be even more successful than the last.

Joseph Jones
President, CCDG