AAPG Site Search | Home > Leadership > House of Delegates > The Delegates' Voice FEB 2001 > History
|
The
Delegates' Voice |
February, 2001 |
|
Birth of the House of DelegatesTaken from House of Delegates History 1970-1995, George R. Gibson and Herbert G. Davis, editors (minor editing by Pat Gratton) Much of the early history of the House of Delegates was gleaned from Ed Turner’s well-documented “History of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 1965-1991.” As early as the 1960s, there was a need for a legislative branch which would allow Affiliated Societies a stronger voice in AAPG affairs and this became one of the rallying points for reorganizing the constitution. A committee formed in 1964, under George V. Cohee, prepared a revised constitution. Another committee, a year later, headed by W.P. Moran, advanced a few steps further toward that goal. This committee, in 1968, was replaced by a “Presidents’ Committee,” composed of Frank B. Conselman, Ben Carsey and Michel T. Halbouty. Under this committee, a new constitution was proposed, in which a powerful House of Delegates was instituted, which has final authority on most major items of legislation, except constitutional amendments. House Delegates are elected by AAPG members in local US Affiliated Societies and International Regions. The number of representatives for each Society or Region is fixed by a prorated scale based on the total number of AAPG members within the Society or Region’s area. Turner, in his History of AAPG, made the comment: “With a strong Executive Committee, Advisory Council and House of Delegates in place and working, it is difficult to realize that just a few years ago important business would wind its way through the Executive Committee and Business Committee to an Annual Business Meeting held on the last day of the Annual AAPG Convention. These votes cast by the remaining AAPG conventioneers determined the final decisions. This ridiculously outdated system plumbed its nadir at the San Francisco Convention in 1962, when only twelve members were on hand for the meeting. It was not long after, that studies were initiated which led to the corrective measures embodied in the new Constitution.” The Business Committee was convened on Sunday, 9:00 A.M., April 13, 1969, in Dallas, Texas. John A. Taylor, Chairman, presided. Present were 133 committee members, of which 89 were District Representatives and 44 were Alternates. This was 75.38% of the total membership of the Business Committee and was a clear indication of what a Sunday meeting could do to increase attendance. ürank Conselman, Chairman of the Constitution Revision Committee, presented a report recommending the approval of the proposed revised Constitution and Bylaws as published in the January 1969 Bulletin. One item important to the House of Delegates was enlargement of the Executive Committee, by adding the Chairman of the House of Delegates. He also commented that the legislative authority is proposed to be concentrated in the House of Delegates (counterpart of the then current Business Committee), because of the expressed desire of District Representatives for legislative authority. From the founding of AAPG in 1917 to 1969, business of the organization was run from Tulsa, elected by the AAPG members from a one slate ticket of nominees. While this was very efficient when the Association was in its infancy, it became obsolete when the number of members increased. This type of management was governing from-the-top-down. This led to amending the Constitution, so that the governing could be from-the-bottom-up; in other words, government by the members of AAPG. Are You Aware That
|
In this issue …Constitution and Bylaws Committee Officers Columns: Committee
Reports: Important
Dates: Facts:
|
|
Files with the .PDF suffix represent Portable Document Format files, viewable using an Adobe Acrobat¨ Reader software. Adobe offers a free run-time license to users, the software can be downloaded at the Adobe Web site. |