Officers
House of Delegates Mid-Year Meeting
The 2012 HoD Mid-Year meeting took place November 30-December 2, in Boulder, Colorado. I was out of the country and not able to attend, but Sarah Stanley (Newsletter Committee) kindly filled in and captured the minutes of the meeting. Steve Sonnenberg gave a talk about the Niobrara oil play in the Denver Basin on November 30. Many of the delegates arrived early and were able to attend this very interesting talk. On Saturday morning, Randy Ray (HoD Chair) opened the meeting with an overview of the planned schedule. One of the highlights of the agenda was the inclusion of a proposal for a new AAPG division that was brought forward from the Executive Committee for HoD discussion.
Ted Beaumont (AAPG President) gave the president’s report, which focused on the theme “it’s all about science.” He emphasized his goal of fostering science within AAPG and focusing on membership growth. These two areas are interconnected; we need to grow membership to promote science among the geologists of the world, and we can grow membership through our commitment to promote science in the geoscience community. Ted highlighted the dramatic changes that have occurred over the last few years. He discussed the increase in natural gas production in the USA and how this may allow for energy independence by 2020. For this to happen, we will all need to be up-to-date on the new drilling and completion practices that are evolving. This presents AAPG with a great opportunity to grow our education and science programs as well as our publications. Ted also mentioned the growth of the Imperial Barrel Award competition. It is now the highest cost item for AAPG. It is strongly student driven and has been a very good mechanism to get students involved in the petroleum industry – many of the participants have gone on to jobs with the majors.
The second presentation was from David Curtiss (AAPG Executive Director) who supported President Beaumont’s theme by stating that the principal mission of AAPG is to promote science, and asked how we can better educate our membership in this information-driven world. Two challenges that he put before the group were to develop our young professional leadership and expand the cooperation between AAPG and the AAPG Foundation. David also discussed the update of the AAPG website.
Editor Stephen Laubach presented a recommendation from the AAPG Executive Committee to recognize a new Petroleum Structure and Geomechanics technical division under Article VI, Section 2 of the bylaws. Details are provided in his article in this issue of The Delegates’ Voice.
Jeff Lund presented a history of AAPG governance with discussion on how it may evolve in the future. Details are in his article also included in this issue.
Andrea Reynolds presented the report of the AAPG Advisory Council Technical Divisions Ad-Hoc Committee. The report included an overview of the current divisions, their different structures, and how they interact with sister societies. Suggestions for other technical divisions (beyond the proposed Petroleum Structure and Geomechanics division) were also mentioned.
David Hawk (Chair of the Nomination and Election Committee) presented the four candidates that have been identified for election to the HoD committee. Paul Britt and David Dolph are candidates for HoD Chair. Dan Billman and Mark Rainer are the candidates for Secretary/Editor. The candidates’ biographies are included in this edition of The Delegates’ Voice.
Steven Goolsby’s (Chair, Constitution and Bylaws Committee) presentation generated discussion on a number of topics: Whether the regions can set up sections with affiliated societies similar to the US; some suggestions on membership simplification for candidates with greater than 10 years’ experience; a proposal by the South Texas Geological Society to stagger the terms of their HoD members to improve participation; and a proposal from Vicki Beighle to change the reference in the Bylaws to collection of delinquent dues. Vicki’s proposal and the proposal for the new Petroleum Structure and Geomechanics division are included in this issue, and will be brought forward for vote at the annual meeting in May.
Ed Rothman (Chair Resolutions Committee) mentioned some affiliated societies that have been delinquent in sending HoD representatives, and his concern that some of the smaller affiliates may dissolve. He also mentioned a petition by the Ghana Institution of Geoscientists to become an AAPG affiliate.
Two proposals from the AAPG Executive Committee were presented as new business for discussion. The first was a proposal to designate members “who have not reached the age of 36 or have up to 10 years of experience in the industry” as Young Professionals. The second was the above-mentioned proposal for a new AAPG technical division. The second day of the meeting was spent discussing both proposals with a considerable discussion around HoD representation based on technical division as a compliment to the current representation based on affiliated societies.
It was a very interesting meeting with discussion of a number of new and interesting topics. Please read the detailed articles on the major issues up for discussion and vote included in this issue of The Delegates’ Voice.