PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

By Steve Sonnenberg

New Committee Has Busy Agenda

STEVE SONNENBERG
2003-04 AAPG President

I want to thank Dan Smith and the members of the 2002-03 Executive Committee for their hard work and leadership. This year's committee will continue the carryover programs of the previous committees and also initiate some new ones.

This year's agenda will include:

• Promoting professionalism.
• Enhancement of student programs.
• Increasing intersociety programs.
• Increasing public outreach.
• International development.
• Budget planning.
• Creation of a new long range plan for AAPG.

One of my themes this year will be to promote professionalism.

One of the purposes of AAPG listed in the constitution is "to inspire and maintain a high standard of professional conduct of its members." I hope to increase member awareness of our professional responsibilities.

This topic will be addressed in a future column.

Students are the future of AAPG, and thus need to be cultivated and nurtured.

The AAPG committees that currently focus on students include the Visiting Geologist Program, Academic Liaison, Student Job Fair, Mentoring, Youth Activities and Student Chapters.

The VGP offers speakers to universities and colleges on a worldwide basis. These speakers generally give a technical presentation along with distributing information about the benefits and programs of AAPG to both students and faculty.

The Academic Liaison Committee serves as a liaison between AAPG and the academic institutions.

The Student Job Fair Committee promotes and coordinates the various job fairs (in Houston and Norman, Okla.), and is helping create new ones at various section and region meetings.

We also are working with sister societies (SEG, SPE) to create a Virtual Student Exposition. The student chapters of AAPG are now located at over 120 universities worldwide. These student chapters help students develop leadership skills and promote professionalism.

Our Mentoring Committee promotes mentoring of students and young professionals by more experienced professionals. I will be charging these various committees with new responsibilities, and at the same time try to minimize overlap between committees.

We have many opportunities for intersociety programs. We hope to finalize plans for the Geoscience World (digital intersociety publication project) and Virtual Student Exposition projects this year.

I will be exploring the development of other programs that are a direct benefit to our membership and the geoscience community.

Public outreach is very important to AAPG in several ways. An improvement in the overall image of the petroleum industry will help with current and future exploration and development activities.

The public needs to understand worldwide supply and demand of petroleum. In addition, attracting students into the petroleum profession is critical to maintain a viable petroleum industry.

Significant membership growth will take place in the international arena. AAPG is developing several initiatives internationally. We are creating new prospect/property fairs (e.g., APPEX London) and hosting or co-hosting numerous international conventions.

One of our new agenda items will be to investigate opening some international offices (budget permitting). We are exploring sharing office space with one of our sister societies.

The topic of budget and finance is one of the most important to AAPG members. We will be moving toward more cost savings programs if the overall economy continues to soften. I am reorganizing the budget and finance committee to ensure the long-term financial stability of AAPG.

Finally, I will be working with the Advisory Council in creating a new long-range plan for AAPG. One of the primary functions (as stated in the Bylaws) of the Advisory Council is long-range planning. In the past, special ad hoc committees have conducted the AAPG long-range plans.

These are a few of my agenda items for this year. Please contact me if you want to get involved!