President’s Message
This will be my last missive to you all as President of the Region, as my term of office comes to an end on June 30th, when Istvan Berczi will assume the "mantle."
It has been a privilege as well as a pleasure to have served this past two years and I know that the Region will continue to grow under Istvan’s direction.
APPEX this year was held at a new venue, the Royal Lancaster Hotel, and proved to be successful. For 2008 Mike Lakin will become Chairman and we are hoping that it will be possible to attract some new blood to the committee, as well and more, and major, companies to the exhibition. Mike takes on this role when his term as Vice President of the European Region comes to an end, also in June. The European Region has accepted the APPEX committee’s invitation to automatically participate on its organising committee so that APPEX will form part of the Region’s annual activities as the conference grows as one of the world’s key international business forums for buying, selling and trading upstream opportunities. - Feel free to contact Mike Lakin (mikelakin@envoi.co.uk) directly if you would like to know more, or to offer your services to the APPEX committee for 2008.
As luck would have it all of the Council were able to meet at the Annual Convention in Long Beach in April and we also took the opportunity to gather together all of the European House of Delegates members who were present.
It was at about this time that Elkie Lonnkvist, of Bristol University (UK), offered to assume responsibility for Students and Student Chapters in the Region. We were so pleased to welcome Elkie on board as she brings fresh ideas and the Region closer to the student population. Elkie is already working on our current list of Chapters with a view to contacting them and establishing who the new Chairs are. At Long Beach, as you may have read, the new annual Student Barrel Award competition was won by the team from the University of Aberdeen, one of our Chapters. Congratulations to them and indeed to Imperial College London who were second.
The Executive Committee has suggested to the Regions that each of them establishes a Regional Advisory Board comprised of companies, universities and societies within the Region. The European Region has a plethora of each of these and thus a gathering of all of them might be some what large! Nonetheless Council is looking at ways to implement the idea so that we can and do receive the right sort of advice on our programmes.
One of the first will be to seek suggestions and advice on the nature of APPEX, to be held next year, 2008.
This edition of the newsletter is put together and edited by Hugo Matias for the first time, he having taken over from Carol Lucas who is returning to the USA. We welcome Hugo, whilst at the same time thanking Carol for her energy and foresight in establishing our Newsletter- a first amongst Regions and Sections.
As I write, the prospectus for Athens (November 18-21st) is being put together and more detail appears elsewhere in this newsletter. I do urge you to attend as the Technical Programme committee has had considerable success in putting together a programme of challenging and educational oral and poster presentations. This is due to the large number of abstracts submitted and we thank all those who sent in their papers. Additional facts regarding the conference include:
- 348 oral and poster presentations – 5 concurrent oral presentations, 40 full-day poster presentations
- 5 short courses; 5 field trips
- Featured Speaker Luncheon (John Underhill, Speaker) (Monday)
- Exhibitor-Sponsored Luncheon (Tuesday)
- Closing Ceremony (recognizing “Most Challenging Presentation”) and Celebration (Wednesday)
- Golf (Sunday)
In addition to this programme Athens is a most historic city and the conference centre well placed to host it where you will meet geoscientists not just from Europe but from around the world.
Council hopes to arrange such events every two to three years within the Region bringing members and those of adjacent regions, and indeed sections along too. The nature of the Athens meeting is different in scope to what are described as international meetings in that it is the Region that shares the risk and benefits with Tulsa. It is a new and untried model and for it to be a resounding success, as we want it to be, we need your support. Do please arrange to be there!
May I also entreat those of you who do have a little spare time to consider volunteering to assist in organising an event, or student meeting, or even standing for office.
Finally may I ask you to give Istvan Berczi, our new President, the same support that you have given me during my tenure of office. It has been much appreciated.
Thank you all
John R. V. Brooks
President, European Region