The assisting of AAPG members facing career transition issues was a major concern of attendees at the AAPG Leadership Conference and of the AAPG Executive Committee, which met following the gathering in early February.
The Executive Committee approved several items to assist displaced geologists, including a special no-cost, two-day Career Transition Workshop at the upcoming AAPG annual meeting in San Antonio.
The Executive Committee also approved in principle providing tuition-aid funds for the five Mid-Career Training Centers AAPG and the AAPG Foundation already has supported with donations of over $278,800.
AAPG funds will allow the
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to offer courses ranging from geologic software and workstation use to general computer training at greatly reduced costs.
The Leadership Conference, formerly known as AAPG Day, attracted 96 attendees from leadership positions in the association. Concurrent breakout sessions focused on association activities concerning career transition issues, member services, meeting 21st Century Report goals, publications and inter-organizational coordination issues.
In a luncheon address, AAPG President Richard S. Bishop spoke of growing technologies that are creating a commonality of interest between disciplines and organizations. He urged the association leadership to "develop an organizational structure in which the average member finds it easy to create a multi-society product, such as a publication or a conference."
He also noted that there is a high recognition that inter-organizational cooperation "helps us all."
The Executive Committee, in addition to approving an eighth concurrent session in San Antonio to accommodate the special Career Transition Workshop, took action on a number of items, with major actions including:
- Approved co-sponsorship with the Asociacion Mexicana de Geologos Petroleros of an international conference Oct. 10-13 in Veracruz, Mexico. The conference theme is "Revitalization of Mature Exploratory Provinces," and the meeting will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the AMGP (see March 99 EXPLORER story on page 38).
- Approved a policy statement concerning the Policy on Tax Reform Issues. The policy statement appeared as a part of questionnaire that appeared in the November 1998 EXPLORER. The statement on tax reform issues basically states that the industry should be freed of onerous taxation.
The November questionnaire inquired of the membership the appropriateness of the association making statements concerning tax issues.
The AAPG Ballot Committee reported that only 669 (2.23 percent) of the questionnaires that was sent out to about 30,000 members were returned. Those respondents, however, overwhelmingly felt AAPG should have a policy on taxes, with 528 choosing "yes," 124 choosing "no" and 17 abstaining.
- Approved the formation of a committee of AAPG leadership to meet with the leadership of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and SEPM, to "identify areas of possible cooperation" and to recommend specific actions, along with implementation plans to each Executive Committee.
- Instructed the AAPG staff to prepare cost scenarios for providing the BULLETIN on compact disks on a quarterly basis versus regular printed copies.
- Approved recommendations from Barry Katz (Research Committee), Jeffrey Yarus (Publications Committee) and Nahum Schneidermann (Standing Technical Program Committee) concerning the manner abstracts should be handled for the annual and international meetings.
The accepted proposal calls for a dual abstract system to be instituted, in which each potential speaker would submit a "standard," 250-word abstract in camera-ready form that would be used for paper selection and program development. Following acceptance of the paper, each presenter will be asked to submit an optional extended abstract in electronic form, which would be published in electronic format (CD or Internet).
No paper copies of the extended abstracts would be published.
- Approved, with three abstentions, the endorsement of the World Assessment Methodology used by the U.S. Geological Survey. The final results of the assessment will be announced in June 2000.
- Set the registration fee at $350 for the AAPG conference to be held July 11-14 in Istanbul, Turkey. (See March '99 EXPLORER story on page 39.)
- Approved the awarding of the AAPG Certificate of Merit to the late Leslie Escoffery, for his efforts to assist AAPG's international efforts, especially in the conferences held in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1993 and 1996.