Growing the Organization:Partnering for Success and Personal Enrichment
by John Dolson AAPG Vice President
AAPG is doing a lot these days to stimulate growth and new membership. As we prepare for Leadership Days in February and Long Beach in April, the main topic of discussion always reverts to how to add value locally and grow globally. Positive steps already undertaken include:
- a streamlined, online application process
- a proposal for the HOD in April on a graduated dues structure based on ‘ability to pay’
- ways to add monthly value locally. This includes but is not limited to:
- this newsletter!
- opening our first International office in London to facilitate meeting activities
- a plan to form Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) in each Region comprised of HOD members and leaders in industry and academia that set the business plan for the year. Incidentally, this model was adopted years ago by the Asia/Pacific section and has work wonders there.
- more small annual Regional meetings without exhibitions that focus on topics of local interest. Examples include the Mallorca carbonate workshops in Europe in 2005, a Russia-specific conference dealing with challenges in exploration (2007) and a proposal for an Arctic conference (2008).
- translation of AAPG volumes into other languages. AAPG Memoir 88 is nearly finished being translated into Russian by the Russian Geological Society.
- generating monthly meetings and talks by partnering for success with affiliated or sister societies.
I’d like to focus on partnering for success with some examples from Russia. No company or volunteer organization like AAPG can grow without individual effort. Particularly when jump-starting new efforts (like here in Russia), a large number of volunteers are needed to keep things going. In parts of the European region, monthly talks are successfully held with affiliated societies, as they are routinely in the United States in our sections. But in many of our regions, affiliated societies are either lacking or fairly dormant.
This is what it is like here in Russia, a country with the largest petroleum resources in the world and one of the largest geoscience work-forces but where AAPG has been nearly inactive since inception. The situation is further complicated by the simple fact that Russia has almost no functional geological societies dedicated to open technology transfer and cooperation. Recently, however, we just approached the 200 mark (in one year) of new students and are beginning to get traction on increased active membership.
Mixing it up with Istvan Berczi, Steve Veal and student leaders for a night of food and music at the Dolson residence, Moscow.
How? By partnering with EAGE and SEG to host monthly, high quality meetings for not only the geological community but the universities, interest is now high in joining AAPG. More importantly, we now have a number of volunteers taking a leadership role in organizing these activities. To get just a small glimpse at the enthusiasm of these young students, go to these websites: http://aapg-gubkin.ru/eng/, http://msu-aapg.narod.ru/.
My concern is sustainability, but I think that is coming. My SPE colleagues tell me sustainability took 5 years to obtain here and required a strong member base. We have still not reached the point where enough active members are fully engaged to take the burden off a handful of people making these events happen. We lack fully organized sub-committees and a strong network between major cities like Moscow, Tyumen and St. Petersburg. But by partnering with EAGE and SEG, we have greatly increased the number of volunteers and pool of speakers.
What will it take? Based on watching SPE grow rapidly in Russia, it takes finding those dedicated volunteers and then making the whole process fun and personally rewarding. Our talks are followed by a reception and usually a dinner for the speaker and students, industry and university leaders. A night out monthly makes the effort fun and something to look forward to. For me, the personal benefit has been profound. I now have contacts across Russia, personal involvement in three Universities, including active roles advising faculty on curriculum upgrades, and a host of new friends to go to dinner with monthly after the talks. Our monthly ‘lunch and learns’ at the University are drawing 40-60 students for pizza and a lecture (funded by the company providing the talk). Companies have hundreds of highly skilled potential speakers both internally and arriving monthly for consulting. It is a strong pool to choose from once the process is in place to draw these speakers in, and then make the evening enjoyable and memorable for them.
Perhaps the most important reason for me to do this that I find it a simple way to ‘recharge my batteries’. By building these new friends, I gain new perspective on the business here, emerging technologies, and get a monthly reminder through students of why I joined this profession. More selfishly perhaps, it has also given us a great handle on which students we might want to hire into our company!
Companies actively involved with these meetings now include Shell, Chevron, Exxon, Ryder-Scott, Lukoil, Rosneft, Ryder-Scott, TNK-BP, Schlumberger, Petro-Alliance, and others. We hope the list grows.
So, I urge you to ‘recharge your batteries’ and work with your sister societies or affiliates to make things happen monthly. Organize talks, seminars and social events. It pays off professionally, but most of all, personally.