Letter from the Chair
General Comments
Since the last issue of The Delegates’ Voice I have talked with delegates, at section meetings, in Houston, TX and Pittsburgh, PA, as well as at the International Conference and Exhibition (ICE) in Cape Town, South Africa. During these meetings several issues were reviewed by yours truly; Scott Tinker, our President; and Rick Fritz, our Executive Director. These included, but were not limited to, a very successful Student EXPO that was held in Houston at the GSA and GCAGS meetings; visits to the Regions by Scott et al where the need to recruit new student and non-student members is very necessary for AAPG’s growth; and proposed Bylaws changes that will be discussed in Denver next June.
Student EXPO
Feedback from the Regions and Sections confirm the need for AAPG to support as much student involvement as possible and to continue with the “grass roots” membership drive. At the recent GSA/GCAGS meeting in Houston, the Student EXPO was populated with about 300 undergraduate and graduate students and around 38 sponsors. Both the student and sponsor numbers are new records for this event. Feedback from students and sponsors told us that both were satisfied with the venue and the recruitment/interview process. The next EXPO is planned for September 2009 in Houston, Texas.
Membership Initiatives as of November 20, 2008
Vicki Beighle, Member Services Manager reports:
1. Graduated Dues
- Currently there are 1,107 members utilizing lower dues (197 are new memberships).
2. Corporate Memberships
- Two companies are participating with signed contracts, they are PetroChina (159 participants); and Petronas (81 participants and still recruiting).
- Rosneft has confirmed their participation and are anticipating a signed agreement.
- An agreement has been prepared for PTTEP (100 memberships); Carol McGowen, Sections and Regions Manager, will meet with company representatives.
- MOL has requested a trial access to PUBS INTERNET (including GIS-UDRIL); DataPages have agreed and will set up a 30 day access.
- Seven other companies have expressed an interest.
3. Membership Marketing
We have aggressively begun pre-show advertising, via e-mail and postcards, inviting members to visit our booths, as well as potential members to join. We began a promotional campaign this year of offering ‘prizes’ as an ‘incentive’ to bring potential members to our booth; these drawings are helping. For members who come by to visit, their name is entered in a drawing for a $100 AAPG Bookstore Gift Certificate. Non-members that apply to join (at the meeting) are entered in a drawing for a touch iPOD. This has been very well received.
We have also begun charging list prices for our publications at meetings; giving members a discount to those who are entitled. This has been very well received by the membership, as shown by the following summaries.
- In previous campaigns:
- ATCE-SPE Meeting 2008 – 57 applications
- Rocky Mtn Section/COGA Meeting – 19 applications
- Summer NAPE 2008 – 21 applications
- GeoIndia 2008 – 97 applications
- In most recent campaigns:
- GCAGS/GSA October 2008 – 16 applications
- AAPG/ICE – 2008 Cape Town, South Africa – 37 applications
- Eastern Section 2008 – 1 application
- SEG annual 2008 – 42 applications
We are in contact with the Houston Geological Society (HGS) membership representatives, hoping to work out an agreement to contact each other’s non-members via e-mail. After comparing the data of both lists, we have 4,281 members of AAPG that do not belong to HGS (of these, 3,904 have e-mail addresses). HGS has 1,752 members that do not belong to AAPG (of these 1,654 have e-mail addresses). Note, AAPG and HGS are protecting their e-mail lists; it is cost effective for both organizations to utilize electronic communication. We have offered to send an e-mail to our members, on HGS behalf, if HGS will reciprocate. HGS has given AAPG permission to mail their non-AAPG members; AAPG will contact these individuals via postcard or e-mail and track the success of responses or applications.
We are contacting members with delinquent dues. This is the 4th year AAPG has hired an outside contractor for collection of dues, and our 3rd year with Inalink Corporation.We are very pleased with the results.
For future plans, we are reviewing placing advertisements in several international publications.
A Student & Faculty Survey has been distributed to all AAPG student members with e-mails (4,354) and 1,035 faculty members (those who have listed Education/College level as their employment affiliation). The survey was open through December 3. As of this date over 200 faculty and almost 600 students, have responded to the survey.
4. Membership Committee Updates
Conference Calls.
- Committee manager, David Hawk, hosted the first conference call for new committee chairs, co-chairs and vice chairs on November 3. Discussion focused on proposed bylaw changes and significance of this committee’s mission and overall importance, value and contribution to the organization.
- Natasha Rigg, Membership Young Professionals, hosted the first YP conference call on November 18. Focus was clarity of mission statement and assignment/creation of sub-committees and their responsibilities. Goals for the current year were discussed, brainstorming ideas set forth, and future needs and planning.
5. Membership Update
As of January 15, total membership was 32,748 compared to 32,408 at this time last year.
Please remember that membership recruitment can be easy. Just ask if one is a member, if not do they want to be a member, and if they don’t want membership, ask why and let Headquarters know why.
In closing, I look forward to seeing and visiting with many of you next Spring in Midland, Texas and Ventura, California at the Southwest and Pacific Section Meetings, respectively. Then on to Denver for the Annual Convention and Exhibition (ACE).