AAPG's Middle
East Region's second Executive Committee took office July 1, after the
first committee established the governance and bylaws of the region from
2000-02. Their first meeting was Sept. 15. Steady and solid progress is
what characterizes the region.
The Middle
East is AAPG's smallest international Region, with a mere 1.5 percent
of AAPG total membership — but relentless efforts by Middle East representatives
allowed a tremendous growth of more than 30 percent in the Active members
within the last four years. In fact, the Region had only one House of
Delegates representative and it is now slotted for four!
An example
of membership growth during the last four years is the addition of 54
new members in Saudi Arabia, 15 in United Arab Emirates, six in Qatar
and three in Oman.
One more helping
factor is that national, international and service companies increased
their presence in the Region; membership figures in the Middle East
are certain to increase.
To foster membership
growth, initiatives in Oman allowed for the establishment of a new geological
society named "Geological Society of Oman" (GSO), and another one in
Bahrain named "Bahrain Geoscience Society" (BGS). Many of the executive
committee members of these societies are active AAPG members who are
keen on providing their increasing members with services.
Services
The Middle
East Region is blessed to gain support of national companies such as
Saudi Aramco and international service companies such as Halliburton.
Such support allows for membership growth and for services to reach
our members seamlessly.
During 2002
we received more than four AAPG Distinguished Lecturers and Executive
Committee members. Such services and support help Middle Eastern geoscientists
tap into resources and allow them to grow technically.
Conferences
such as the Cairo conference in 2002 and the upcoming Geo (March 8-10)
are great. Such conferences allow AAPG and the Middle East Region committee
to meet with as many members as possible — and deliver state of the
art papers, posters and technology as close to their work as possible.
Such meetings
also allow for coordination and communication between region-resident
societies, such as those in the Gulf area. Most of the services that
AAPG provides in the Middle East come to the members through their local
societies, hence our stress on inter-region society cooperation and
coordination.
Regarding societies
in-the-making; hard work is being spent in Kuwait to establish a new
geological society, and similar work is just starting in Syria and Qatar.
More to come on this subject!
Looking Ahead
What's the
Region's goal for the next three years?
In one word:
Growth.
In two words:
Membership services.
The more Active
members we succeed to enlist, the better we will be, since they will
contribute to our regional activities as well as the AAPG international
activities. As contrasted with the last three years where we focused
on the Arabian Gulf region, now we will expand to cover more countries
in the Middle East.
We realize
that growth comes from outstanding efforts to provide current members
with services. Services help members convince other geoscientists to
join AAPG and their local chapters — and this virtuous cycle continues.