How AAPG Domestic Sections & Conventions are Organized
Survey Discussion from Sections Committee Meeting
AAPG Annual Meeting, Long Beach, CA – April 2, 2007
SUMMARY
Section Governing Bodies
All six Domestic Sections elect an Executive Committee to conduct the routine business of the Section throughout the year. In addition, four of the six sections have a separate governing body that meets once or twice each year. The two Sections that do not have a separate governing body have unusually large (13 & 15 member) Executive Committees. The other four Sections have smaller (4 & 6 member) Executive Committees.
Officers of the Sections typically include a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. The Rockies Section substitutes a President-Elect for the Vice President, and the Pacific Section adds a President-Elect and Past President to the four more traditional officers, for a total of six. The Gulf Coast Section adds the General Chair of the annual convention as a fifth voting member. The Rocky Mountain Section and the Eastern Section include the Past President as an honorary, non-voting officer. The Southwest Section recently designated their Past President as their Advisory Council Alternate.
The Eastern Section is the only Section that recognizes their Advisory Council Representative as a voting member of their Executive Committee. The Gulf Coast Section allows their two Advisory Council Representatives to attend Executive Committee meetings and offer motions, but does not allow them to vote.
It is unclear as to how some of the different Sections actually elect their officers, but four of the six Sections set up their officer rotation and convention city rotation such that the President is always elected from the society that hosts the annual meeting.
The Mid-Continent Section usually elects all of their officers only from the larger societies that host meetings, but occasionally an officer is elected from a smaller society. The officers are elected from the Council representatives. The Section has an officer rotation and each officer is elected for two years. Thus, each person who is elected has an 8-year officer obligation. The officer rotation is set up in such a way that commonly both the Treasurer and the President are elected from the convention host society.
The Eastern Section allows every member of the Section who attends their annual meeting to vote for officers on a paper ballot. Votes are counted and the election results are announced at the annual business luncheon. The Section uses a 4-officer rotation, so only the office of Treasurer is a competitive election with the other officers moving up each year. The Advisory Council representative is elected by ballot sent from HQ every three years to all members of the Section.
The Rocky Mountain Section also uses an officer rotation, so each person has a 4-year obligation. The elections are set up in such a way that the President is a member of the society that hosts the annual Section meeting, like the Mid-Continent Section.
The Southwest Section also sets up the officer rotation such that the President always is a member of the society that hosts the annual meeting. However, they do not have a four-officer rotation. Three officers serve one-year terms and the Treasurer serves a two-year term.
The Pacific Section is the fourth Section that sets up their elections and conventions such that the President always is from the society that hosts their annual meeting. Like the Southwest Section, all Pacific Section officers serve a one-year term except the Treasurer, who serves for two years.
The Sections that have a separate governing body in addition to their Executive Committee elect those members from the affiliated societies in the Section. In general, only one person is elected from each society, although the Mid-Continent and the Eastern Section allow additional members from larger societies.
The Eastern Section is the only Section that ties their governing body directly to the national House of Delegates by having all HOD members serve on their Eastern Section Council. The Pacific Section is the only Section that has the Society Presidents representing the societies, but they serve on an expanded Executive Committee, not on a separate governing body like the Eastern Section Council. The Rocky Mountain Section also has an expanded Executive Committee, consisting of their officers plus one member elected from each society.
Section Annual (or Biennial) Conventions
Five of the six Sections host an annual convention. The Mid-Continent Section holds a meeting every two years. The Mid-Continent Section currently uses a four-city rotation to match their officer rotation, but is considering a switch to three cities with a fourth “floating” city in the rotation. The Rocky Mountain and Southwest Sections commonly hold meetings in larger cities, so not every affiliated society is involved as a host.
Conventions in the Gulf Coast also are dominated by larger host societies in Texas and Louisiana locations, with few meetings in Alabama or Mississippi. The Pacific Section holds meetings in several California cities and adds Anchorage, Alaska approximately every four years.
The Eastern Section has no set rotation. Instead, the Section attempts to rotate meetings among Appalachian, Illinois and Michigan basin cities and their various affiliated societies. Eastern Section meetings have been held in 20 cities in 10 states, plus Ontario, Canada and Washington, DC.
Profit Split
Profit from meetings is split in various ways among the Sections. All Sections rely on an Affiliated Host Society to organize the meeting, and reward them with differing percentages of the profit, ranging from 65% in the Mid-Continent to only 15% in the Pacific Section. The Southwest and Eastern Sections split profit 50-50 between the host society and Section; the Rocky Mountain Section gives 40% to the host society and divides 10% among the 10 non-host societies each year. The Pacific Section gives 1% to each of the six non-host societies. When Anchorage hosts a meeting, the Pacific Section gives them 25% of the profit.
All Sections except the Mid-Continent retain at least 50% of the profit from a meeting, led by the Pacific Section, which retains 79% (69% when Anchorage is the host). The Mid-Continent is re-evaluating their 65-35 split in profit.
Although the percentage of profit retained by the Pacific Section appears to be quite high compared to other Sections, it must be kept in mind that the Pacific Section commonly has a meeting co-host, and profit splits change dramatically when non-AAPG co-hosts are introduced into the equation. The Pacific, Eastern, Rocky Mountain and Gulf Coast Sections all have co-hosted meeting with trade groups or other professional societies.
The Pacific Section has co-hosted meetings with the Society of Petroleum Engineers and with the Geological Society of America. In these cases, the initial split of meeting profit is based on the percentage of registrants from both groups. When the Eastern Section co-hosted a meeting with the Eastern Region of SPE, the initial profit split was 50-50 between ES-AAPG and ER-SPE; the second split was 50-50 between ES-AAPG and the local society host.
When the Rocky Mountain Section co-hosts a meeting with a trade association, the profit split is based on registration percentages, i.e., how many from each group attend the meeting, similar to the Pacific Section model. When the Gulf Coast Section co-hosts a meeting with a group of professional landmen, the profit split is negotiated upfront.
Recognition of National Officers, Officer Candidates and Divisions
Organizers of Section meetings vary dramatically in their recognition of national officers, officer candidates and AAPG Divisions during their meetings. Although input from Domestic Section Committee members was incomplete during the recent meeting, it appears that only the Eastern, Southwest and Mid-Continent Sections commonly organize an Opening Session during which the three Division Presidents and the National AAPG President are given the opportunity to speak. Officer candidates, however, are at least introduced at all Section meetings, but not all Section meetings allow these candidates the opportunity to speak to meeting attendees. Those Sections who do provide time for candidates to speak, do so at either an opening session or all-convention luncheon.
Not all Sections recognize the various AAPG Divisions in their technical programs. Most reported that if enough appropriate abstracts are submitted by potential speakers, and if someone on the technical program committee takes the initiative to organize them into an EMD or DEG session, those sessions will be scheduled. However, only the Eastern Section appears to pro-actively recruit papers that can be organized into EMD or DEG technical sessions. Perhaps this is because the Eastern Section appears to be the only Section that judges EMD and DEG papers separately from other papers, and offers a Best Paper Award for speakers in both EMD and DEG sessions.
Division luncheons are scheduled in some Section meetings, but not in others. Most Sections seem to prefer an All-Convention luncheon to individual Division luncheons, or an All-Division luncheon, like the Eastern Section hosts. Again, there appears to be a lack of communication between the Division Councilors in a Section and the local organizing committee. If the Divisions desire more recognition at a Section meeting, then the individual Division Councilors must become more involved in the planning of the meeting.
APPENDIX: Input from Section Presidents & Committee Members
| Section: | Mid-Continent |
| Executive Committee: | Four officers and Past President |
| Officers: | President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer Elected from Council and generally elected from convention host societies; occasionally from small societies (note that many smaller society leaders are not AAPG members). |
| Terms of office: | Two years, each office; 10 year obligation if complete rotation |
| Officer rotation: | Yes, generally. President elected from convention host society. |
| Governing body: | Yes, have a 14-member Council from which officers are elected. |
| Representatives: | Elected by societies; one from each society, possibly a second based on population, not usually the same persons as HOD representatives; representatives to Advisory Council and Divisions are invited, non-voting members |
| Committees: | No standing committees |
| Staff: | None |
Legal address: |
|
| Website: | None current |
Insurance: |
|
| Foundation: | No |
| Teacher Awards: | Yes |
| Student Awards: | Yes, indirectly by matching local society awards. |
| Honors & Awards: | Honorary Membership; Distinguished Service |
Annual Section Convention |
|
| Frequency: | Biennially; this poses continuity challenges |
| City rotation: | Yes; historically four cities to match officer rotation, currently changing to three cities and possible ‘off-site’ year. |
| Profit split: | 65% to host society, 35% to Section (under review to include all societies) |
| Society Host: | Yes |
| Co-hosts: | Some (SEPM, KIOGA, etc) |
| Standing Committee: | No |
| Opening session: | Yes |
| National platform: | Yes, usually opening session, sometimes all-convention luncheon |
Awards ceremony: |
|
| All-convention luncheon: | When appropriate, with Opening Session |
Division luncheon: |
Some, or an SEPM luncheon |
| Division sessions: | Some |
| Division awards: | No |
Use national abstracts: |
No |
| Section: | Rocky Mountain |
| Executive Committee: | Fifteen members. Four officers (Past President does not vote; Advisory Council Rep is not a member) plus one rep elected from each of 11 affiliated societies |
| Officers: | President, President-elect (oversees Standing Committee on Conventions), Secretary-Treasurer, Secretary-Treasurer-Elect (entry position) |
| Terms of office: | One year, each office; 4 year obligation |
| Officer rotation: | Yes. President from host society each year |
| Governing body: | The large Executive committee |
| Representatives: | See above |
| Committees: | Standing Committee on Conventions |
| Staff: | Financial Administrator/Auditor (CPA); paid position, stipulated in By-laws |
Legal address: |
|
| Website: | Being built; linked to 11 affiliated societies |
Insurance: |
|
| Foundation: | |
| Teacher Awards: | |
| Student Awards: | |
| Honors & Awards: | |
Annual Section Convention |
|
| Frequency: | Annual |
| City rotation: | |
| Profit split: | 40% to host society, 50% to Section, 10% to other affiliated societies (they contribute Explorer ad space, send members, etc) |
| Society Host: |
|
| Co-hosts: | Have held joint meetings with trade association; income based on registrations, costs are negotiated. Have held meetings hosted by 3 societies, which is beneficial to smaller societies who could not host independently. |
| Standing Committee: | |
| Opening session: | |
| National platform: | |
Awards ceremony: |
|
| All-convention luncheon: | |
Division luncheon: |
|
| Division sessions: | Invited Divisions to hold technical sessions |
| Division awards: | |
Use national abstracts: |
|
| Section: | Gulf Coast (updated 25 July 2007) |
| Executive Committee: | Transacts business of an emergency nature between meetings. Any busi¬ness so transacted shall be subject to ratification by the Board of Directors at its next regularly scheduled meeting
|
| Officers: | President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Executive Director |
| Terms of office: | One year, each office with the exception of the Executive Director which is a paid position |
| Officer rotation: | The GCAGS President, the Secretary and the Treasurer are from the convention host society. The VP is from the next year’s convention host society. |
| Governing body: | Board of Directors: meets twice a year to conduct routine business. The Board of Directors is composed of one representative from each member society (13) and the President, Vice-President, General Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, and Past President. 19 total (Secretary and Treasurer are non-voting members) Advisory Council Reps (2) serve as ex-officio, non-voting members of the GCAGS Board of Directors, may present motions. |
| Representatives: | Each member society shall designate a representative to the Board of Directors and in the event the chosen representa¬tive cannot attend any given Board of Directors meeting, an alternate representative shall be appointed by the member society to attend and vote in the absence of the representative. The representative, when practicable, shall be an officer or past officer of the society he represents. |
| Committees: | Honors & Awards, Finance, Historian, Publications, Publicity, Student Grants, Transactions on CD ROM and the Continuity Committee - set up to replace several previous committees |
| Staff: | Convention Manager (Bruce Lemmon, 5 yr. contract); Webmaster (part-time), Executive Director (part-time) |
| Legal Status: | 501 (c)(6) |
Legal address: |
|
| Website: | www.gcags.org Link to member societies, advertise upcoming events, capture convention best practices |
Insurance: |
From AAPG |
| Foundation: | |
| Teacher Awards: | Outstanding Educator, Teacher of the Year GCAGS has recently decided to award two grants totaling 15K (10K and 5K respectively) to faculty doing research on Gulf Coast Geology. |
| Student Awards: | GCAGS sponsors a program of financial aid for worthy college and university geoscience students pursuing research in the Gulf Coast region. |
| Honors & Awards: | Don R. Boyd Medal, Distinguished Service, Honorary Membership |
Annual Section Convention |
|
| Frequency: | Annual |
| City rotation: | Dominated by Texas/Louisiana cities, not AL or MS |
| Profit split: | 35% Host Society / 65% GCAGS |
| Society Host: | Have discussed jointly hosted meetings by several small societies in the eastern Gulf. |
| Co-hosts: | Landmen Society; negotiate split upfront |
| Standing Committee: | |
| Opening session: | |
| National platform: | |
Awards ceremony: |
|
| All-convention luncheon: | |
Division luncheon: |
|
| Division sessions: | |
| Division awards: | |
Use national abstracts: |
|
| Section: | Southwest |
| Executive Committee: | Four officers |
| Officers: | President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer Added Past President as their Advisory Council alternate |
| Terms of office: | One year, each of three offices; 2 years for Treasurer |
| Officer rotation: | President is always from host city for convention; no set rotation |
| Governing body: | Yes, separate Board |
| Representatives: | Delegates from each affiliated society have a vote; committee chairs can attend, not vote. Presidents of Societies are not on the Board. House of Delegate reps are not necessarily on the Board. |
| Committees: | |
| Staff: | None |
Legal address: |
|
| Website: | |
Insurance: |
From AAPG |
| Foundation: | |
| Teacher Awards: | |
| Student Awards: | Provide as many scholarships as possible as long as student’s topic falls within the geographic area of the section |
| Honors & Awards: | |
Annual Section Convention |
|
| Frequency: | Annual |
| City rotation: | |
| Profit split: | 50% Host society, 50% Section |
| Society Host: |
|
| Co-hosts: | Have held jointly hosted meetings by several small societies (Fredericksburg meeting). May consider holding convention in neutral city with all societies participating. |
| Standing Committee: | |
| Opening session: | |
| National platform: | |
Awards ceremony: |
|
| All-convention luncheon: | |
Division luncheon: |
|
| Division sessions: | |
| Division awards: | |
Use national abstracts: |
|
| Section: | Pacific |
| Executive Committee: | Six officers plus Presidents of 7 Affiliated Societies = 13 |
| Officers: | President, President-Elect, Past President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer. Adding Newsletter Editor-in-Chief to By-laws as an elected, voting position. |
| Terms of office: | One year, each of five offices; 2 yrs for Treasurer |
| Officer rotation: | President is always from host city for convention |
| Governing body: | The large 13-member EC |
| Representatives: | See above |
| Committees: | |
| Staff: | Paid accountant and one part-time person to maintain publications/library. Looking into a financial advisor position. |
Legal address: |
Yes, a P.O. Box in CA |
| Website: | |
Insurance: |
From AAPG |
| Foundation: | |
| Teacher Awards: | |
| Student Awards: | |
| Honors & Awards: | |
Annual Section Convention |
|
| Frequency: | Annual |
| City rotation: | |
| Profit split: | |
| Society Host: | |
| Co-hosts: | |
| Standing Committee: | |
| Opening session: | |
| National platform: | |
Awards ceremony: |
|
| All-convention luncheon: | |
Division luncheon: |
|
| Division sessions: | |
| Division awards: | |
Use national abstracts: |
|
| Section: | Eastern |
| Executive Committee: | Four officers plus Advisory Council Rep; five voting members |
| Officers: | President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer Past President is an honorary, non-voting position Archivist and Editor also do not have a vote |
| Terms of office: | One year, each office |
| Officer rotation: | Yes; four year obligation |
| Governing body: | Eastern Section Council |
| Representatives: | House of Delegate reps from each affiliated society |
| Committees: | Standing Committee on Future Meetings (current, 2 previous and 2 future annual meeting General Chairs). Senior member is chair of committee. Very active Honors & Awards Committee |
| Staff: | Added “Gatekeeper” duties to Archivist (5 year position), with small annual compensation, rather than hiring an Executive Director |
Legal address: |
Not yet; would have been that of an Executive Director |
| Website: | Yes; hosted and maintained by Appalachian Region PTTC |
Insurance: |
From AAPG |
| Foundation: | |
| Teacher Awards: | |
| Student Awards: | |
| Honors & Awards: | |
Annual Section Convention |
|
| Frequency: | Annual |
| City rotation: | Four key cities, 3 basins, no set rotation |
| Profit split: | 50% Host society, 50% to the Section |
| Society Host: | Always an affiliated society |
| Co-hosts: | Have held joint meetings with SPE; first profit split was 50% to SPE, 50% to Section; second split 50-50, host society and Section |
| Standing Committee: | Yes; see above |
| Opening session: | Yes, includes awards ceremony |
| National platform: | Yes, AAPG and Division Presidents; officer candidates |
Awards ceremony: |
With opening session |
| All-convention luncheon: | No (except when co-host is SPE) |
Division luncheon: |
Yes, commonly an All-Division luncheon |
| Division sessions: | Yes; EMD and DEG sessions |
| Division awards: | Yes; presentation and service |
Use national abstracts: |
On a few occasions |
Please forward details to