The Midland Local Section Got Bigger
New year, new challenges and opportunities. The Midland Local Section has historically encompassed five mid-Michigan counties, Midland, Bay, Saginaw, Gratiot and Isabella. As of January 1, that changed. The ACS began an evaluation of members in unaffiliated counties in 2023. The Local Sections Activities Committee (LSAC) petitioned the Council at the Fall 2025 ACS National Meeting in Washington, DC. The Petition for Changes in Local Section Territory sought to assign over 600 unassigned counties to 82 local sections. Approximately 1000 members lived in those unassigned counties. In Michigan, the lower peninsula north of Midland consisted of unassigned counties. In the now approved petition, areas on the northwestern side were added to the Western Michigan Local Section. Areas in the northeastern lower peninsula are now part of the Midland Local Section. The formerly unaffiliated areas in the eastern UP are now part of the Upper Peninsula Local Section.
This swells the Midland Local Section from five counties to 21 counties. The Midland Local Section now consists of Alcona, Alpena, Arenac, Bay, Cheboygan, Clare, Crawford, Gladwin, Gratiot, Iosco, Isabella, Midland, Montmorency, Ogemaw, Oscoda, Otsego, Presque Isle, Roscommon, Saginaw, Huron and Tuscola counties(original colored red). The land area of the section will increase from 2900 square miles to over 12,400 square miles. The farthest driving distance from Midland was about 55 miles. Now the farthest reaches of the section are over 175 miles away. The fifteen added counties contain only 22 members and associates. The members added are not proportional to the area added. The counties are largely sparsely populated areas with chemists even more sparse.
Michigan is home to six other local sections. These are Detroit, Western Michigan, Michigan State University, Kalamazoo, Huron Valley, and Upper Peninsula. Michigan counties are part of local sections shared between two states. These include Toledo, Northeast Wisconsin, and St. Joseph Valley local sections.
Enlarging the section creates the challenge of providing services to those counties. We are working to identify opportunities to serve the new communities while trying to drive membership and engagement. The Midland Local Section has a proud history of service and recognition of excellence. Two spring programs, the Midland Local Section Awards and the Chemistry Olympiad, are examples of programs where we are scrambling to make connections and offer opportunities to the newly added counties. The ACS now assigns members to a local section based on their address. This is, however, just a suggestion. Members get to choose their local section. The Midland Local Section has members living outside the ACS geographic boundaries. While we encourage all ACS members to be active in their local section, we welcome all that want to remain loyal to Midland after leaving the area.
