As I write this article, your Executive Committee is meeting in Tulsa to review the 2015-16 business plan, the current long-range plan and receive an update from Past President Lee Krystinik on the 2014-15 Ad-Hoc Committee on Governance, which is expected to report to the Executive Committee in October.
Krystinik’s committee of nine includes three members from each of the 2014-15 Executive Committee, Advisory Council and House of Delegates – and their charge was to review the current AAPG governance and provide advice to the Executive Committee on the best type of governance for AAPG going into our second century.
The last significant changes to the Association’s Constitution and Bylaws were in 1969-70, under the guidance of then-immediate past president Frank Conselman.
The first month of my presidency was focused on committee appointments and ensuring all committees include a Young Professional as a chair, vice chair or co-chair.
I have had great support from all of the current or newly appointed chairs on this initiative, and I’m quite confident that this will instate the integration of the Millennial Generation – AAPG’s largest demographic group, all born between 1980 and 2000 – into AAPG leadership; after all they are the future of our great Association and they are ready to serve.
My other push in my first month was to work with the staff to build a procedure, initiated by the House of Delegates Resolution Committee on the formation of Technical Interest Groups (TIGs) and Special Interest Groups (SIGs), to allow interested individuals, groups or current committees and Divisions to apply to become a TIG or SIG.
I think this is one of the most exciting initiatives that we have undertaken since the formation of the Regions. It allows for much greater flexibility than a standing committee, which can have a maximum of 10-12 members, and much less bureaucracy than a Division, which has a formal organizational structure and is accountable to both its membership and the Executive Committee.
TIGs and SIGs can be about any technical or non-technical theme or subject matter, and will provide an interested group with flexibility to pursue adding an infinite number of interested members.
This opportunity will be grounded with a new AAPG Web-based infrastructure that will be powerful enough to allow the TIG or SIG to achieve real results, which can be measured in the form of future technical sessions, fellowships, conferences/workshops, publications and other scientific endeavors.
So, if you have a topic that is of burning interest to you, and you find others in AAPG who share your love and passion to discuss, present or publish on those topics, why not look into forming a group?
I also am attempting to be the first AAPG president to use social media to connect with members.
You may recall in July, I ended my EXPLORER column with “follow me on Twitter @AAPGPresident.” Well, if I had done a P10-P90 distribution on the number of followers I would have by the end of the month of July, I would have vastly below the low portion of the predicted range (read: a dry hole!).
I had four followers by the end of July, with one being David Curtiss – so really I had three; David is very social media savvy, and for a year I’m his boss, so he made the right decision to follow AAPG President.
Of course, I know the majority of the membership are not social media savvy, due mostly to being part of the Baby Boomer generation – but the vast majority of you have smart phones, and in today’s world social media is the way many professionals communicate and stay up to date on what is trending in our industry and our science.
So I’m hopeful that with this reminder, my followers by the end of September will more than double to 10!
Finally, next month, I’ll turn this column over to our Editor, Mike Sweet, to discuss some of the exciting things that AAPG is doing with respect to our flagship publication, the BULLETIN, and upcoming publications.
And again, remember, you can follow me on Twitter, at twitter.com/AAPGPresident.