The Division of Professional Affairs (DPA) represents Certified Petroleum Geologists and is involved with professionalism, leadership, ethics, education and current political matters. DPA has over 3,100 members and is a leader in many AAPG efforts, including our new office in Washington, D.C. (GEO-DC), and many other initiatives.
We often are asked by non-members what DPA does for them -- or given the excuse the membership forms are too time-consuming to complete.
I can now say we have several new and compelling reasons to join.
• If you are a licensed geoscientist in Alabama, Texas, Kansas or any other state that requires professional development hours (PDH) or continuing education (CEU), DPA has a new category of membership termed Board Certified Geologist, which also requires these hours.
Soon we will have a form online at the AAPG Web site available to all DPA members to track activities that qualify for these hours. With this easy-to-use form, DPA member geoscientists can keep track of pertinent educational activities. Members can then apply to DPA for Board Certified Status, or forward this form to applicable state licensing boards.
We currently are “beta-testing” this product, and Rick Ericksen has submitted this form to the Licensing Board in Texas for its review.
We especially invite AAPG members who are not DPA members but who are licensed in states requiring continuing education to join the DPA and take advantage of this service.
To speed the process, Mike Party led an initiative to simplify our membership application form. Those are now available -- and they should help qualified geologists more easily join our division.
• For the last several years DPA has provided seminars on topical subjects at the annual conventions. We recognize the need for AAPG and DPA to fill training and continuing education voids in the industry, and soon we will offer courses on a variety of technical subjects at AAPG Section meetings with reduced prices for DPA members.
DPA realizes members have time constraints at the annual convention, and we hope that by moving some technical training courses to the Section meetings we can provide another tangible benefit to membership at locales closer to home.
We will continue to have DPA sponsored seminars at the annual and international conventions, and we’re proud to have Scott Tinker delivering his presentation on ethics this fall in Perth, Australia, at the upcoming International Convention and Exhibition.
• I urge all of you to read “Washington Watch,” which is Don Juckett’s monthly column in the EXPLORER concerning our GEO-DC office.
Events in Washington directly affect our industry, AAPG membership and potentially your job, whether you work in the United States or internationally.
At this writing, U.S. politicians are again practicing demagoguery about gasoline prices while pretending the adverse atmosphere they created is not a major factor in the problem. DPA is presenting our AAPG position papers and stressing support for:
- Access for drilling in an environmentally sound manner.
- Common sense environmental regulation.
- Funding for geologic and engineering education and inclusion of geologic history concerning global temperatures, CO2 and climate change in the models used to predict the future (incredibly this is not done today in the computer models).
Don is doing an excellent job of keeping AAPG informed on pending legislation and allowing AAPG to provide accurate scientific data to our elected representatives and other interested parties.
If you are interested in political issues and agree or disagree with our positions, then join DPA and get involved. In our cyclical petroleum industry, many jobs have been lost due to apathy by geologists who chose not to get involved locally, nationally and politically. DPA will not be apathetic during this business cycle, and we will advocate for your profession.
We also will work closely with Don, and I look forward to this year serving DPA as your president.
Finally, I want to thank Deborah Sacrey, DPA’s immediate past president, for working with me during the learning process that is the president-elect job. I intend to work closely with new president-elect Tom Ewing to keep our many initiatives moving forward during the coming year.
Please contact me with any DPA issues, questions or concerns you may have during this year at 4600 Greenville Avenue, Suite 160, Dallas, Texas 75206; or by