Make the Big Time Where We Are 69447

As a senior in high school, I was introduced and recruited by a successful college football coach. His name was Frosty Westering and he coached at Pacific Lutheran University. Coach Westering led his team to three National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic Division II championships and one NCAA Division III championship. His teams also made it to the national championship game four other times and the national playoffs 20 times. His career coaching record was an impressive 305-96-7 (75.6 winning percentage) and his teams never had a losing record. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005 and is one of only 14 college football coaches to win more than 300 games, but what made Coach Westering more than just a coach was the life philosophy he shared with all his players.

Coach Westering authored a book and its title aptly describes his life philosophy, Make the Big Time Where You Are. I wonder if this title doesn’t also describe what the AAPG should seek to achieve. The best way I know to articulate his philosophy is to tell one of his stories.

Made to Order Perfectly

Frosty and his wife were vacationing and happened upon a small diner for breakfast after their morning walk upon the beach. They placed their order and when the food arrived, he could tell it was perfect. He had ordered “extra-crisp bacon, eggs sunny side up, and toastie toast.” He called the waitress over and told her he wanted to tip the cook. The waitress awkwardly replied that no one tips the cook, only the waitress. He replied that she would also be tipped but he also wanted to meet and tip the cook. After some more good-natured back and forth, the cook appeared at his table and they shared a discussion. The cook said, “Frosty, I want you to know you’ve made my day. No, you have made my week; actually, you’ve made my job. I take real pride in preparing every order just as it’s desired – every little request. I get paid a good wage, but I have never had anyone, let alone a customer, tell me I was doing a good job. This tip from you is really special. I am going to frame it.”

Frosty replied, “You’re a real pro, you take pride in your profession. Whether others recognize it or not, continue to give it your best shot and enjoy the trip – ‘make the big time’ where you are.”

Unsung Energy-Security Providers

We, as petroleum geologists, are not too unlike this cook. We work in the background to provide energy security to the world. Rarely are we recognized for our efforts, but we love what we do and we do it with pride. We love the hunt to find something new, to discover it, and to produce it. We love the creativity and knowledge our scientific career requires.

Yet, our industry is vilified. It is characterized as “capitalistic” and as damaging to the environment and our climate. This is especially hurtful because we became geologists because we love the Earth and earth science. We are forced to decide between defending our profession and informing others of how important our jobs are to their health and standard of living, or to avoid confrontation with activists and remain quiet and under the radar. This effectively creates an existential challenge for us professionally and for the AAPG. Some will say we should be loud and proud advocates; others will say, “Let’s just focus on the science and stay out of politics.”

Going on the Offensive?

We know we are a shrinking member organization, but a proud professional society. We want to protect and project our legacy and to earn a tip like the cook from society for good petroleum service. To be relevant and sustained, however, we must ask ourselves if we need to open our aperture to allow our knowledge to inform other subsurface geology applications.

Instead of being a smaller, shrinking organization, should we fight back?

We have already been doing this with our divisions for years, especially the Energy Minerals Division and Division of Environmental Geosciences. These divisions, publications, and others bring content to our members. We see high turnouts for webinars on geothermal and orphan wells. We are doing what we need to do, yet should we do this with more gusto in an effort to grow our membership and resilience?

Petroleum will be a constant and a foundation no matter what, but it can also be a transferable learning vehicle.

According to American Geosciences Institute data, approximately 3,500 students graduate with a geoscience degree in the United States each year and only about 5 percent go on to careers in petroleum or mining. Sixty-five percent work in environmental areas and 20 percent work in engineering related fields. Five percent of 3,500 graduates is only 175 prospective members. This pipeline of prospective members, although U.S.-only data, is not sufficient to sustain the AAPG long-term. Should we leverage our divisions to target the other 95 percent of geoscience graduates?

Planting Our Goalpost

These and other financial considerations are dilemmas with which the AAPG leadership have been wrestling in recent months. The conversations are real and so are the sensitivities. The good news is that we have found sustaining common ground in our three-year strategy. The Executive Committee, with the assistance of the Advisory Council, landed on the following visions statement, a statement that defines how we measure success:

We deliver relevant and useful quality content and data for professional enrichment, learning, and research, while advocating and advancing the economic application of the science of geology, especially petroleum, subsurface, energy, and environmental geology. Additionally, we connect our global members with other members, companies, and academia to foster professional success.

This vision statement defines us as being focused on the economic application of the science of geology, yet it includes petroleum, subsurface, energy, and environmental disciplines. It also distinguishes us from other professional societies.

Conclusion

With this directive, the AAPG knows how to make the big time where we are. We have a road map to our state of heart, and we can lay down our factional swords and lean into our common focus. We don’t have to worry about whether we are petroleum geoscientists or geothermal geoscientists or carbon sequestration geoscientists. We are all about the economic application of subsurface geology. We can help each other to deliver the energy security our world needs, and I am profoundly confident the AAPG members can agree we need to be the best organization we can be.