Officers
Mid-Year Challenges to Delegates: With Request to “Join the Army”
It is mid-year for the AAPG. We just recently had the traditional mid-year HoD Leadership Meeting with great ideas and discussions. I thought this would be a good time to update you on progress towards my goals as Chair.
You may remember (I hope) the areas of my focus are:
“Energizing” the Delegates to become pro-actively involved as communicators to their Affiliated Societies, Sections and Regions and help step up recruitment of new AAPG Members.
Continue efforts to make the AAPG membership application process “more welcoming” for the applicants and efficient for both the applicants and the Association.
I have used the traditional Delegates’ Breakfasts at Section Meetings and the ICE Meeting in Milan to spread my views and encourage Delegates to be more active.
The Datapages staff from Tulsa Headquarters has now conducted six well-attended webinars for Delegates, to familiarize us with the AAPG’s Search and Discovery, Datapages and GIS-UDRIL digital resources. I continue to think these resources, and specifically dynamic features such as the streaming videos of Discovery Thinking talks, can be a recruiting tool. These videos demonstrate the personal and human side of the exploration process. Why don’t you check this out yourself by attending a webinar and perhaps use your knowledge for an announcement or even a live demo at your next local society meeting? I feel several of these streaming videos can effectively be training films for young geologists.
The Delegates’ Handbook is now in a semi-final edit process and will be distributed in 2012, hopefully bringing attention to the multiple roles Delegates are called to play and bring a bit of consistency to application processing throughout the Association.
A specific new initiative in membership recruiting is beginning (see Valary Schultz’s article in this issue). Valary, as the new Chair of Member Recruitment and Retention, says she “needs an army” to attack the membership issue. I believe her “army” is us, the members of the House!
The EC approved actions I mentioned in my last column, notably publishing the name of AAPG Member applicants and sponsors on the website as soon as the Tulsa Membership Department vets the application. See Vicki Beighle’s article in the October EXPLORER (page 56). This simple change should speed up processing time significantly!
Elsewhere in this issue of The Delegates' Voice you will read about the proposed “Membership Simplification” Bylaw amendments coming to the House in Long Beach as a result of an EC resolution. Please read carefully the discussion occurring in the Constitution and Bylaws Committee.
Tulsa Membership continues a process to review their historic files to identify Associates who appear to be qualified as Active Members so we can develop initiatives to get them to upgrade. We hope this project will be completed by Long Beach.
Finally, I am most encouraged by the November EXPLORER article (page 46) announcing “Young Pro Takes Seat as Youngest Delegate”. Hats off to the Canada Region for pro-actively embracing Young Professionals and to Ryan Lemiski for following through on his desire to participate. Ryan would barely be an Active Member under the former three year experience requirement for Active Membership, let alone a Delegate and a Member of the HoD Resolutions Committee. I call this development “A Welcome Change!”
AAPG must continue its “change process” to be more “inclusive”, instead of focusing on “exclusion” if we are to achieve our strategic goals.
Thanks to all Delegates for your hard work in 2011, especially those who have volunteered to serve on committees. We have made progres,s but there isstill much to do!