Finis: Closing Out The Year Inventory
Volunteer work should always be fun
Volunteer work should always be fun — and
this year, I think the Executive Committee has had some fun, working
with this headquarters staff, this Advisory Council and the House
of Delegates.
Please log in to read the full article
Volunteer work should always be fun — and
this year, I think the Executive Committee has had some fun, working
with this headquarters staff, this Advisory Council and the House
of Delegates.
We also got some work accomplished — all the more
possible because we were having fun!
That work included:
- The
budget, always a priority, has been keenly adhered to, and additionally
we have cut losses in more operating areas this year. This resulted
in paying back more of the monies we borrowed during our 1998-2000
lean years, and still provided incoming president Dan Smith with
a healthy base for operations next year.
- We
are very proud of delivering the AAPG publication digits to members
with their dues — but better yet, we are so excited about beginning
the work toward a complete geo-publication aggregate with all of
our geoscience sister societies!
Additionally, we committed to faster, timelier publishing of
papers, continuing the high quality peer-reviewed publishing we
are renowned for, and also publishing more popular geology books
to assist with our public outreach initiatives.
- We
provided the forum for members and companies to show and sell more
prospects and properties worldwide with the advent of APPEX Houston
(AAPG Prospect and Property Expo) and APPEX International.
-
We have reached out to members with our GEM program (May EXPLORER)
and our Publications Pipeline (January EXPLORER).
- We
are creating a series of GeoTours, as a response to member requests.
- AAPG
started a Member Registry for consultants and job hunters. We are
compiling an extensive member survey, to see what else we might
add to our "to do" lists!
- Continuing
to respond to member needs for technological training, we have contributed
to the establishment of three more Technical Training Centers (TTC)
in London, Calgary and Vienna.
- With
a desire to increase communication, we have set up an AAPG committee
for the TTC directors to exchange programs, ideas, budgets and business
plans.
- Our
student chapters and student members have grown enormously this
year as we have reached out to students all over the world. VGP
lectures have almost doubled with 60 in the United States and 57
in 30 other countries.
We have had two very successful Student Expos and are working
toward a worldwide Virtual Student Expo!
We are, thanks to the brainstorm of Halliburton's John Gibson,
working toward worldwide corporate sponsorship for student membership.
And we conducted the first ever Summit on Teaching Petroleum Geology
(thank you, Hannes Leetaru!), which may lead to an AAPG publication
on that very important theme.
- We
have set into motion not only a strong membership drive, but we
also have conducted a Summit on Ethnic and Gender Diversity within
AAPG.
- Our
newly formed International Regions have developed Country Contacts
and Team Leaders that will continue the drive for membership, service
growth and student members.
- Members
of the Executive Committee have succeeded in visiting every section
in the United States and every International Region this year in
an effort to strengthen communication and encourage the use of services.
- Another
member service we soused out this year, thanks to Jean Lemmon's
Ballot Committee, was the means to electronically ballot (as well
as regular mail) so that all members can more readily participate
in AAPG governance.
- We
formed an historic and long overdue alliance with the Geological
Society of America, and have plans for many cooperative efforts
— this is complementary to the stronger cooperation and interaction
we have been developing with SEG and SPE, inaugurating this year
joint Distinguished Lecture programs and (partially) reciprocal
memberships.
- Committees
have been strengthened and revitalized with a huge "new member"
campaign conducted by M. Ray Thomasson.
Many members need only to be asked to contribute —
and sometimes we have failed to do so. This year we asked many and
often! And our reward has been profound.
So now I will move back to the trenches with you.
Thanks for all of the suggestions, conversations, volunteer work
and incredible ideas!