Good news: Any member can support the future of geosciences at any time of the year, thanks to the convenience of online donations to the AAPG Foundation.
Better news: The Foundation’s online donation process has been enhanced to provide a quick, user-friendly experience.
Best news: The easiest time of the year to support the Foundation is right now.
“When you’re renewing your dues – or even paying them for the first time as a new member – that moment is the perfect opportunity to include support for the AAPG Foundation,” said Foundation Chair Jim McGhay.
Dues season has long been an expedient time for AAPG members to contribute to the Foundation. That support in turn goes quickly and directly toward maintaining the historical programs and developing activities that help define AAPG’s place in today’s geoscience profession and energy industry.
“It’s so easy to simply ‘round-up’ your dues,” McGhay said, “or for those able, to add generously with a designation on your dues statement to support our programs and efforts to ensure geoscience excellence.”
Those programs, approved by the Foundation Board of Trustees and administered by the AAPG Programs Team, include such popular and important offerings as:
- Grants-in-Aid, which provides more than $250,000 annually to help geoscience graduate students continue their education
- L. Austin Weeks Undergraduate Grants, which benefit not only undergraduate geoscience students around the world, but also student-led geoscience organizations
- The Distinguished Lecture Program, bringing world-class, often cutting-edge science, technology and concepts to professionals on a global basis
- The Sustainable Development in Energy Competition, currently under way, challenging student geoscience teams around the world to conceive and develop projects that improve the quality of life for thousands of people
- The Visiting Geoscientist Program, where industry veterans offer practical career advice and insights to geoscience students at colleges and universities around the world
- The Deana and Paul Strunk Military Veterans Scholarship Program, helping U.S. military veterans (and their families) who seek a post-service career in the geosciences
- The Teacher of the Year and Inspirational Geoscience Educator awards, which shine a spotlight on excellence in geoscience education – and help promote the importance of creative, innovative geoscience education
- Engagement beyond the AAPG universe, such as support for the Geoscientists without Borders program, which assists geoscientists and their teams in collaborating with multidisciplinary and community-based partners on projects that result in humanitarian benefit to the community.
And that’s just the start.
But the bigger point is this: All of the above, and more, are supported by the AAPG Foundation, which can do those things only via members’ support of the Foundation.
Also, having many members give even a little in a given year as they pay their dues is sometimes better than having just one member give a lot. One thousand $100-donors can be just as important as one $100,000-gift.
“Of course, we’ll take both,” McGhay smiled, “but as I reminded those who attended our recent Trustee Associates’ receptions (in San Antonio and Abilene, Texas), we need lots of donors to maintain our ‘public’ charity status. In other words, from that perspective, it’s very good for the Foundation to have many people engaged rather than just a few carrying the ball.
“Besides,” he added, “when more provide support, to us that means more people are able to share in the satisfaction and pride in helping to ensure the future of geosciences.
“It’s good for the Foundation, it’s good for the geosciences and it’s good for AAPG.”
When Steps Become Strides
Mid-year is always a busy time in the Foundation calendar, and this May is no exception.
For starters, nearly 1,000 applications for Grants-in-Aid and L. Austin Weeks grants are currently under review by their respective committees. Those names are expected to be announced in the next 30 days, along with the recipients of the MVSP, TOTY and IGEA honors.
The DL program continues to be available online for global viewing; the Sustainable Development in Energy Competition winners are being determined; and the Foundation trustees are developing ways to enhance two-way communications.
“We want to tell our story about our efforts, our programs and the work that our supporters are doing,” McGhay said, “and we want feedback from our audience on what we need to do better.
“Honestly, I believe that people should only support us if they believe in our mission and our programs,” McGhay continued, “and if they feel like we are having a positive impact on the geoscience community, the education of geoscience students, geoscience research, outreach and education to the general public about the roles and impacts of geoscience to the lives and well-being of communities.
“And if interested parties are not sure about our effectiveness,” he added, “then they should help us by suggesting what we can be doing better!”
Coincidentally, when McGhay speaks of the importance of using the dues season as a way to get started, even in small ways, in supporting the Foundation, he’s telling a personal story.
“Years ago, I first supported the Foundation in small amounts, and I gave because it was a way to ‘pay it back’ for the many people that had helped or encouraged or mentored me as a student or in my first few years as a geologist,” he said. “Many or all of these folks were supporters of the AAPG Foundation or my university foundation.
When he became more established in his career, and he, too, started to mentor or encourage students and young professionals, “pay it back” became “pay it forward,” because he realized he was “helping the cause.”
“My support of and participation with the Foundation today is more directed at helping create a greater impact on individuals and communities within the profession and with society in general,” he said.
“I’ve gotten great satisfaction in each of these stages, mostly a feeling of ‘doing good,’ of feeling like I’ve had a small positive impact on some individuals,” he said, “and it has afforded me the opportunity to get to know and interact with and become friends with some of the most fantastic people in our profession.
“In some ways I think I’ve gotten more joy and growth as a person and a professional from my support and participation with the Foundation than what I’ve been able to contribute,” he said. “And these days it’s a lot of fun, too.
A Reminder: It Matters
McGhay and the other Foundation trustees have a fast response when asked why support is important.
“What we’d like for AAPG members to remember is that, for the students, our impact may be just that small bit of help that they need to keep going and keep them interested in geoscience,” McGhay said. “But that’s important. It’s those young kids who, after being exposed to geoscience educational efforts that we support, might truly be the future of the science.
“We hear those stories all the time,” he said, “and that is something to celebrate.”
To the industries that depend on geoscience, he added, “we help continue the flow of knowledgeable, engaged professionals for their businesses.
“We make it possible to share and communicate science,” he said. “Contributions to the Foundation directly help make the profession better.”
Finally, this is a crucial time for the profession.
“The geosciences are truly a critical, perhaps unrecognized component of our societies, our technologies, our welfare in general,” he said, “so our assistance with education – be it college-level students or K-12 young students, with outreach to the general public or with assistance to teachers and professors – with research, or by assisting those other groups or programs that have the ‘boots on the ground,’ we may just be assisting with the support of a great many lives in positive ways.”
That might seem like a heavy load to shoulder.
“But maybe many of our members like a challenge,” McGhay smiled. “They certainly have so far. And we like going toward a better future with them.”
And on the Foundation website, joining the journey is just a click away.