DIRECTOR'S CORNER

By RICK FRITZ

Workshop Studies Goals and Tactics

The Energy Minerals Division (EMD) was started in 1977, and the inaugural meeting of the EMD was approved by the AAPG House of Delegates on June 12. EMD's first business meeting was conducted by President Loyd Carlson on June 13, 1977, in Washington, D.C.

The EMD was formed as a forum for professional development in energy minerals, unconventional hydrocarbons, energy economics, geothermal energy and geospatial information.

VISIT THE EMD WEB SITE

The Division of Professional Affairs (DPA) was started in 1965, and the first chairman of the AAPG Professional Standards Committee was John A. Taylor. The executive committees were not formed until 1968, with the first DPA president being W. Dow Hamm.

A key part of the DPA's mission is to provide profession recognition and development through peer reviewed certification.

VISIT THE DPA WEB SITE

The Division of Environmental Geosciences (DEG) was unanimously approved at the House of Delegates meeting June 21, 1992, in Calgary, Canada. The first DEG business meeting was held June 22, 1992, with the first president being named as Bernold M. Hanson.

Its primary mission is to educate the AAPG membership and the general public about important environmental and conservation issues that affect petroleum/energy minerals exploration and production.

VISIT THE DEG WEB SITE

AAPG's President Pete Rose has called fiscal year 2005-06 "The Year of the Divisions."

As a result, the first joint Division Workshop was held in Dallas on Aug. 5; officers from all three Divisions were present, as well as Pete Rose and past-president and Advisory Council chair, Pat Gratton.

The meeting's purpose was to review the strategic plan for each Division and define their goals and tactics.

AAPG has three Divisions: the Energy Minerals Division, the Division of Professional Affairs and the Division of Environmental Geosciences (see box).

In the workshop's first stage we examined each Division and defined its current reality, e.g., what is the membership of each Division, and what is the value produced by their association?

This was a good exercise with remarkable focus of the significant contributions of each Division. For example:

• Even with the advent of state certification, DPA certification remains an important part of professional development and support.
• The EMD Web site is a significant tool for energy minerals information and professional interaction.
• DEG's Environmental Geosciences journal is a valuable peer reviewed publication.

Once the current reality was defined the second stage was to note how that reality is different from the ultimate goals of each Division. That process allowed us to ask ourselves, "How do we reach those goals?" This "strategic how" is critical to building the "tactical -- what, who, when and where" of an overall business plan for the Divisions.

I cannot describe the details of the tactical plans at this time, as each Division leadership is in the process of reviewing the results of the workshop. Once reviewed, each Division will modify its current business plan.

However, I will note the following three key categories we discussed:

• How do we solicit new members?
• How do we develop new products and services to increase the value of each Division?
• How do we fund current and new products and services?

The final stage of the workshop was to define a set of deliverables based on the strategic plan. For example, the leadership of the Divisions agreed to immediately request funding from the AAPG Foundation. As a result, in their meeting on Aug. 21-22, the Foundation Trustees approved $18,000 to fund two EMD publications and $22,000 to support the DEG Environmental Geosciences journal this year.

The workshop was an exciting opportunity for all three Divisions to work together on strategic goals. The Divisions are important to AAPG and provide a significant value to our membership.

Editor's note: If you would like to join any or all of the Divisions, please contact Norma Newby by e-mail at ; or by phone at 1-918-560-2613 (toll free at 1-888-945-2274 ext. 2613.