AS PRINTED IN THE FEBRUARY 2001 ISSUE

Team Leaders 'Spread the Word'

By Walter Grün

Allow me to introduce myself as one of these proud AAPG Service Team Leaders (STL).

It was more than two years ago when AAPG’s Executive Committee decided to establish the Service Team Program as a response to the increasing international AAPG membership. The idea behind this program was to better serve the needs of members far away from AAPG headquarters – and, no doubt, there was also the intention to increase the membership in foreign countries.

My friend Bruce Lemmon (former head of AAPG’s International development) gave a clear definition of an AAPG Service Team and you can read it in the “AAPG Service Team Operational Guidelines & Resource Book,” the bible of every STL.

In short, it is the duty of an AAPG Service Team to be “the hands, feet, eyes and ears of the Association in specific countries or multi-country ‘focus areas,’ acting as an extension of headquarters’ operations in delivering products and services to members and the broader geoscience community around the world, as well as collecting feedback for AAPG staff, committees and international Regions to act upon.”

In 1999 I was appointed one of the first STLs by then-president Ray Thomasson. Since then Bruce and I visited several countries in my focus area in order to spread AAPG’s gospel.

It was no waste of time and money. In most of these countries AAPG’s membership didn’t exceed five, although there was great interest in becoming a member and participating in AAPG activities.

The main problem in all these countries was the lack of money. A monthly salary of a university professor equals the annual dues of an Active AAPG member.

---

Consequently we developed the “AAPG Student Membership Program.” Due to a fund, which was fed by companies like Schlumberger, Landmark and mainly by BP, I was able to pay the membership dues for needy students. As AAPG is not permitted to pay the dues of its members, the Austrian Geological Society as an affiliated society to AAPG took over the administration of this fund.

In the last two years 340 students in 13 countries took advantage of this AAPG program. Eight AAPG Student Chapters were established in five countries, and we expect the establishment of additional five chapters within this year. In this way we are able to support a young generation of outstanding geoscientists. Now we are supporting the future of our science and of our profession on an international basis.

Each Student Chapter is headed by a local faculty sponsor who must be an Active AAPG member -- which creates severe financial problems.

This was discussed in the International Liaison Committee last year during the AAPG annual meeting in New Orleans. As a result, Merrill Shields, wife of Ray Thomasson, inaugurated a ‘First Ladies Fund’ designed to encourage wives of past presidents to sponsor the establishment of students chapters -- especially in countries where AAPG is just beginning to make its presence known.

Support also came from Chris Heath, who annually donates a significant amount for paying membership dues of faculty sponsors. This “Chris Heath Fund” is open for everybody who wants to foster the internationalization of our Association.

But how to support all the others who are willing to become a member and can not afford it? I don’t see a solution, unless, we can convince charitable AAPG members to take on a “godparenthood” for these colleagues.

---

During our cooperation with colleagues in Central and Eastern Europe we have been confronted with the request to help to close the gap regarding the lack of AAPG BULLETINs in the libraries of universities and institutions. I was proud to learn that our BULLETIN always was one of the most demanded scientific publications in the former communist countries. If an Internet–connected member wants to get rid of his BULLETIN paper copies – here is a place.

There are plenty of other AAPG programs available to serve the needs of these countries, including:

 The Distinguished Lecture Program -- a majority of Central and Eastern European countries participated in the past and they are looking forward to this year’s tour of Brad Prather.

 The Visiting Geologists Program just started to go international and I am convinced we will find enough Western European AAPG members who are willing to visit the exciting Eastern part of our continent and its universities crowded with skilled and enthusiastic geoscience students.

The foundation for all these activities are the Service Team Leaders of their countries.

At present there are 15 active in Central and Eastern Europe, all volunteers who agreed to spend their time for our Association. They are valuable multipliers in both directions and they should, sooner or later, become the backbone of the AAPG regions.