Section and Regional News
Delegates, check this section of The Delegates Voice to find out what is going on around the Association. Check the AAPG Website for more information.
Section Meetings
All of the sections have given very positive reports on their meetings this year – record attendance; good student turnout; good industry support; excellent presentations and high spirits.
Attendance figures for each Section Meeting, with Delegate’s Breakfast attendance in parentheses.
| Eastern | 319 |
(27) |
| Mid-Continent | 400 |
(23) |
| Rocky Mtn. | 700 |
(35) |
| Southwest | 409 |
(29) |
| Pacific | 1,004 |
(22) |
| Int'l-Paris | 1,902 |
(32) |
Gulf Coast Section Update
As most of you are aware, two Hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, devastated much of the Louisiana and Mississippi coastal region, affecting somewhere between 800 and 900 members. To the best of our knowledge, no members lost their lives, but many have been displaced. All of the large companies operating out of New Orleans have successfully relocated either to Lafayette or to Houston. The University of New Orleans, home to one of our Student Chapters was particularly hard hit, but all students have been successfully relocated to other schools.
The GCAGS is surveying as best they can their members to find out what types of support is needed and ways to stay in contact. The New Orleans Geological Society is not expected to resume meeting until mid-2006. Many of the NOGS members relocated to Lafayette and Houston so those two societies are including them in their activities. The HGS delegate group has made a special effort to invite NOGS delegates to attend their delegate meetings.
AAPG Support for Hurricane victims
To see all that AAPG is doing to help Katrina and Rita victims, check out the following web address: http://www.aapg.org/katrina.cfm .
Also, the Message Board on the AAPG web site is going to be used as a communications point for the dispersed network that is in the process of reconnecting. Brett Hampton, President of the New Orleans Geological Society said that many of the active players in NOGs have been in touch, but they are looking to connect with others. The NOGs office is intact, but their Web site is down so they are going to use AAPG as their Message Board.They are planning to mail a newsletter in January and meet in February. However, they have to find a new place, since the Fairmont suffered major infrastructure damage and will be out of commission for about a year.
Financial Support
AAPG is prohibited by law from making contributions directly to individual members, even for the purpose of support in the face of a major disaster. So too is the Foundation. AAPG, through its affiliation with the OTC has made a contribution to the American Red Cross.
Additionally, the Executive Committee, under the leadership of Clint Moore, has investigated how to provide support and relief to those members who need it. The most plausible solution is to form a separate Limited Liability Corporation with the aim of receiving donations from AAPG members and providing relief funds to those who most need it.
There are two potential drawbacks to this approach. First, AAPG still does not have a full understanding of how many individuals have been impacted, or how severe the impact was. Secondly, contributions to an LLC would not be tax deductible.
Please let Clint know of your support and/or concerns about setting up an LLC for the purpose of providing relief to our members.