My Royal Society of Chemistry annual subscription letter just arrived. This is a good time to think about Interest Group membership, if you are a member of the RSC you can join several interest groups for free, however disappointingly many people fail to take advantage of this opportunity.

Interest Groups are scientific networks run by members for their community. Each group is themed around a specific area or application of the chemical sciences. They organise an annual series of events to cater for both their members and the wider scientific community. These events vary from: multi-day conferences and workshops to training events.

The Chemical Information and Computer Applications Group (CICAG) is one such group (Group number 86), you can find out more on the CICAG website.

The storage, retrieval, analysis and preservation of chemical information and data are of critical importance for research, development and education in the chemical sciences. All chemists, and everybody else who works with chemical substances, need tools and techniques for handling chemical information.

CICAG works to:

• Support users of chemical information, data and computer applications and advance excellence in the chemical sciences
• Inform RSC members and others of the latest developments in these rapidly evolving areas;
• Promote the wider recognition of excellence in chemical information and computer applications at this level

This year CICAG has been involved in a workshop on Computational Tool for Drug Discovery, 2nd Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Chemistry, and the 20 Years of Rule of Five Meeting. In addition CICAG has supported the Sheffield Cheminformatics Meeting, Dial a Molecule, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Intelligence for Automated Investigations for Scientific Discovery network and the In Silico Toxicology Networking Meeting. In addition to other outreach activities.

RSC CICAG publish a regular Newsletter which keeps members in touch with the Group's activities and includes articles, reviews of interest, news and events.

If you would like to join the group you can do so by adding interest group 86 to the last page of the renewal form and returning it to the RSC or you can make a request to join a group via email (membership@rsc.org) or telephone (01223 432141).