Dear AAPG members in Asia Pacific,

I tried to capture our important events in 2006 and give you an overview of what we plan to do this year. I probably miss some information here but I can update it at any time. Thanks to the blog system and Rovicky who make this media available for us. I’m looking forward to hear your comments, wishes, suggestions for AAPG Asia Pacific activities.

Regards,
Herman Darman
(AAPG Asia Pacific Region President)

2006 Activity Review:

1. Distinguished Lecturer / Visiting Geologists Program
• Craig Shipp visited Indonesia, Brunei, East Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand
• Herman Darman visited Indonesia and Brunei (some other VGP visits were not reported)

2. Conference / Meeting
• April: Open exhibition booth in Geoasia conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• June: Open Exhibition Booth in IPA-SEG conference in Jakarta, Indonesia
• September: SEAPEX-AAPG student leadership conference in Jakarta
• October: Joe Lambiase (AP vice president) gave an opening speech in the APG conference, India
• November: AAPG International conference in Perth, Australia.
• December: Display an AAPG Poster in IAGI meeting in Riau, Indonesia

3. Student Chapters:
• China: setting up 1 new student chapter
• India: setting up 2 new student chapter
• Malaysia: setting up 1 new student chapter. 2 students attended the SEAPEX-AAPG student leadership conference in Jakarta
• Bangladesh: sending 2 students to AAPG Perth conference
• Australia: incorporating PESA student chapters, they will be treated the same as AAPG student chapter.

4. Others:
• Publication pipeline: sent books to Bangladesh
• Web site: new web-site for AAPG Asia Pacific region, linked to AAPG website.

2007 Planning

1. February: Leadership conference Lee Chai Peng (Geological Society of Malaysia president) to represent us. John Kaldi (AAPG AP past president) to attend the Advisory Council meeting, also representing Asia Pacific region.
2. March: Peter Lloyd to give VGP /Regional Distinguished Lecture in Indonesia, to reach remote universities
3. April: Display a poster in SEAPEX conference, Singapore; Craig Shipp to give Distinguished Lectures in Japan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
4. May: Malaysian Student chapter will organize a field trip.
5. September: Circum Pacific Energy Conference in China
6. Others:
   • Preparing more VGP / Regional DL program
   • Preparing Regional Advisory Council
   • Set up student chapters in Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan