As I have met with delegates and AAPG leaders around the world, there has been considerable discussion about what AAPG is, or should be. There are many who believe that AAPG is, and should remain, an association that stands for professionalism and ethics.
This harkens back to one of the key purposes of founding AAPG in the first place. One hundred years ago, there were many charlatans promoting drilling opportunities based on anything but science. AAPG was founded, in part, to serve as a community of professional petroleum geologists, with a key emphasis on professionalism.
Many members see AAPG as a scientific association. Indeed, AAPG sees itself largely as a scientific association. One of the Association’s strategic goals is to be the premier scientific association for petroleum geoscientists.
When I joined AAPG several decades ago, being able to access quality geoscience papers was one of the key values to my membership. AAPG’s technical programs and publications, short courses, Datapages, UDRIL and Search and Discovery go a long way in meeting that strategic goal. However, the amount of information available to all on the Internet makes it easy for any geoscientist to access quality geoscience papers without being a member of AAPG.
Still others see AAPG as a social organization where they can meet with their colleagues. To them, the value of AAPG is in the social networking opportunities it offers at conferences, field trips and education events.
AAPG faces a number of challenges as we move into our Association’s second century. We can’t afford to be everything to everybody, which means we will need to be selective in the types of services we continue to offer our members. Knowing how the members view the Association will help the EC prioritize the services we offer.
Instead of regaling you with my opinion, I have asked for the opinion of several hundred past, present and future leaders of the Association – 88 responded. The first question they were asked, was to rate what they consider to be principal value of AAPG membership.
At first glance, it appears that our leaders are nearly equally divided that AAPG is a social, scientific and professional association. However, when asked how they view AAPG, the answer was overwhelmingly that they view AAPG as a professional and a scientific association.
When reviewing the comments, which are available on AAPG’s website, it becomes apparent that what our respondents value about professionalism does not lie in the area of ethics and professional standards, but in the ability to network with like-minded professionals.
These networking opportunities allow our members to discuss the science, and to become aware of business opportunities.
They do not view these networking opportunities as social functions, although they often revolve around social settings such as receptions and icebreakers.
What does this survey tell us about the types of services AAPG should focus on providing to our members? As I read the comments provided by those who responded to the survey, it seems that AAPG should primarily focus on two main areas: continue to provide high quality scientific content to our members and to increase opportunities for our members to network with their professional peers. Ideally, we can address these two priorities together.
Our annual meeting (ACE) and our international meetings (ICE) provide high- quality scientific content and professional networking opportunities. However, we can host more regional Geosciences Technology Workshops (GTWs) and Hedberg conferences. These types of smaller conferences can also provide excellent scientific content and professional networking opportunities.
Another priority for the Association leadership should be to leverage Search and Discovery as a means to bring professionals into AAPG. Search and Discovery is an incredible resource, and free to all geoscientists.
We must look for ways to make Search and Discovery, along with our other online scientific products such as Datapages an invaluable service to our members. Not only will this be a direct benefit to our members, but a service to all geoscientists that can help us grow our membership base.
I believe that by focusing on these priorities we will go a long way toward making the AAPG the Association that advances petroleum geoscience.
What do you think? You have an opportunity to let us know by taking the same survey that the AAPG leadership took by visiting www.surveymonkey.com/r/LeadershipSurveyJanuaryExplorer. We look forward to your comments and opinions.