VERN STEFANIC
EXPLORER Managing Editor

AAPG Seeking Meeting Volunteers

Volunteers, both from the professional and student ranks, are needed in New Orleans to help work at the AAPG annual meeting.

As in past years, organizers are seeking students to help in a variety of ways, and for members to be technical session judges.

 Technical Session Judges

Judges are needed to help determine the winners of the Matson, Braunstein and SEPM, EMD and DEG best paper/best poster awards.

Volunteers will be asked to judge and evaluate one or more oral or poster sessions. They also will be invited to attend the complimentary Judges' Breakfast, and will receive a New Orleans logo pin and a certificate of appreciation suitable for framing.

To volunteer, or for more information, contact Sandy Hensley, AAPG convention department, telephone -- (918) 560-2641; fax -- (918) 560-2684; or e-mail -- shensley@aapg.org.

 Students

Student volunteers are needed to help in several areas of operations, including the slide center, information center, short course administration, poster sessions, and advance registration.

Students receive free registration for a half-day of work, or full registration, a free lunch and a $25 AAPG Bookstore gift certificate for a full day of work. Work can be split in shifts so you can attend sessions and exhibits.

To volunteer, or for more information, contact Michael Ledet, telephone -- (504) 593-7483

What to do?

On behalf of AAPG and the New Orleans Geological Society, welcome to New Orleans. In addition to attending the outstanding Technical Program, redesigned Prospect and Property Marketplace and Commercial Exhibits at the convention, here are some ideas for making your stay enjoyable.

Eat

Commander's Palace, Bayona, Emeril's, The Bon Ton, Palace Café, P&G (for Poboys), Camillia Grill, Breakfast at Brennan's, Original Ruth's Chris (for steaks)

Drink

(coffee or spirits)

Lucy's, Ernst Café, Café du Monde, Napoleon House, PJ's on Frenchmen St., Crescent City Brew Pub, Royal Blend on Royal St., Hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's, Daiquiris anywhere

Be Merry

Dance at Tipitinas, Blues at the Wax Museum, Cajun Dance at Michaul's, Cruise the Mississippi with Author John Barry, Jazz at the Aquarium with Preservation Hall Quartet

Boogie on Bourbon Street!!

Have a great time in historic New Orleans!

Erik P. Mason

After you've done something 84 times, what new is there to offer? Get ready for New Orleans. The 85th AAPG annual meeting, which begins April 16 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, will offer convention goers a variety of new twists on familiar traditions.

"The volunteers of the Convention Committee have been working hard for months and months to come up with a meeting that would be something special for all of our members," said meeting general chairman Erik Mason.

"We wanted to be able to say, 'We put the "New" in New Orleans.'"

Among the "new" offerings at this year's annual meeting:

• This year's poster format will be "interactive," with authors giving short, scheduled oral presentations, to small, informal groups followed by brief question-and-answer periods.

• An aggressive approach to the "Prospect & Property Marketplace," (see March EXPLORER), which has resulted in a higher profile and priority for the segment, and the committee hopes will lead to the biggest number of exhibitors and participants in AAPG history.

• For the first time, computer-assisted presentations featuring PC-based projection (PowerPoint) have been encouraged.

• Exhibitors in the International Pavilion and the Prospect & Property Marketplace will have their prospects displayed on an enhanced Web site (located at petroWEB.com).

• A special Youth Activities Summit on Education, designed to coordinate as well as encourage educational outreach activities in the geosciences, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 15, in the New Orleans Hilton.

And if pre-registration figures are any indication, the April 16-19 meeting promises to be one of the larger gatherings for an AAPG annual.

New Orleans' pre-registration hit the 4,595 mark -- and more were yet to be added at EXPLORER press time. By way of comparison, last year's San Antonio pre-registration total was 3,993; Dallas (1997) was 3,212.

The exhibits hall looks to be among the largest in AAPG history, too, and Mason and the meeting organizers were hopeful that number would continue to climb.

(And to help make the exhibits hall even more inviting, a "mini-breaker" will be held there from 4:30-6 p.m. Tuesday, offering attendees soft drinks, wine, beer and snacks as they tour the hall.)

Once again, meeting with AAPG will be SEPM (the Society for Sedimentary Geology), offering a full slate of technical presentations plus its own business meeting-luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 18, at the New Orleans Marriott. Speaking will be Bill Hay, professor of paleoceanology at GEOMAR Marine Geological Research Institute of Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany.

Hay's talk is titled "Earth -- Planet of Many Faces."

The AAPG meeting theme is "Marching Into Global Markets," and Mason said the meeting will provide a showcase setting for a city that has been important to the development of the oil and gas industry.

"New Orleans has played a pivotal role in our industry's history," Mason said. "So many of the technological and interpretative innovations that are used around the world started here through activities in South Louisiana and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico."

Although there are many activities that begin on April 15 and early on April 16 -- short courses, field trips, the K-12 summit and various entertainment events -- the meeting officially opens at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, April 16, with the opening session. That gathering will feature an official welcome from Mason; the presidential address of M. Ray Thomasson; and the annual honors and awards ceremony.

Immediately after the ceremony will be the traditional Icebreaker party in the exhibits hall.

This meeting marks the seventh time AAPG has held its annual meeting in New Orleans. Previous annual meetings were held there in 1930, 1938, 1965, 1976, 1985 and 1993.