Wow! What a great meeting we had in
Calgary in June. Many kudos to
Convention General Chair John Hogg and
his fellow committee people — even if they
did break Houston's 2002 attendance
record! (Editor's Note: Sacrey is from
Houston.)
The DPA Executive Committee and
Advisory Board met on the cold, blustery
Saturday before the kickoff of the
convention. It was a good day to be
inside, in meetings, and much got
accomplished during this session.
First, and foremost, was the almost
unanimous agreement to help AAPG fund
the GEO-DC (Washington office). The nod
was given to appropriate $50,000 per year
for three years of DPA monies. A board of
governors is in place to help find a
director to work in the office, which we are
renting within AGI's space in Washington,
D.C.
This board of governors comprises the
current and immediate past presidents of
AAPG; the current DPA president; the
chairman of the DPA's Government Affairs
Committee; five other AAPG members,
who will have alternating two- or three-year
terms, appointed by the four
permanent positions mentioned
previously.
Thus, the first board of governors
consists of Pete Rose, Pat Gratton, Carl
Smith (DPA's Governmental Affairs
Committee chair), Reggie Spiller, Lee
Gerhard, John Armentrout, Ray
Thomasson, Jim Gibbs and myself.
There already are a half dozen or so
resumes for the director's position that
have been sent to headquarters, so work
has begun to evaluate potential
candidates!
The DPA board also voted to create a
new membership category called Board
Certified Member. A Board Certified
Member will be required to earn 20
Professional Development Hours (PDHs)
per year and attend an ethics presentation
or course. We are hoping this will be
phase 1 of getting a level of membership
that eventually would have a "leg up" on
registration in any state in the country.
Phase 2 would be working with the
National Association of State Boards of
Geology to prepare geoscientists for the
test and maybe even be able to
administer the test (long-range wish list!).
At least for now, the board certified
member would report their PDHs each
year when they pay their dues. One would
be able to go to the DPA Web site and get
into their account to do the reporting.
We are still working out the details for
all of this, and Bob Shoup is working on
the wording for the bylaw changes to
account for this membership level — but it
is moving forward!
Professional Development Hours would
be counted as follows:
- .33 PDH — Lunch or dinner technical
presentations.
- .33 PDH — Convention talks.
- .50 PDH — Convention poster
sessions.
- 1.0 (per hour of instruction) —
Continuing education courses.
- 2.0 PDH (per hour of instruction) —
Field trips.
- 3.0 PDH/year — Professional
committee service.
- 4.0 PDH/year — Professional service
as committee chair or officer.
The requirement of 20 PDHs per year
should be easy for most of us, as we all
love to go to technical presentations!
Another monumental meeting was held
in July with representatives from large
independent oil companies, service
companies and major oil companies,
along with leadership from DPA, SPE,
SPEE and AAPG President Pete Rose, to
discuss the practicality of certification of
reserves evaluators.
The overall consensus was that
"certification" is an extremely broad term,
and most likely NOT feasible, considering
the gamut of technical expertise needed
for the evaluation of reserves.
What was decided, however, was there
was a dire need for training and
education!
It was resolved that the move forward
would put emphasis on establishing a
series of courses that would cover
everything from SEC definitions to
exercises regarding mapping and
calculation of hydrocarbons in place. All
the companies involved, as well as the
organizations represented in this meeting,
resolved to contribute to this training
program. The result would be a better
educated geosciences community that
would get "certificates" for attending and
passing the coursework, but not
necessarily would become "certified"!
It was an outstanding meeting with a
lot of positive energy and commitment.
Dan Tearpock was asked to take this
initiative back to the Exploratory
Committee on Reserves Evaluation and
help redirect its study.
Thanks to all who attended and gave
their valuable insight!
AAPG President Pete Rose in early
August invited the Executive Committees
of all three Divisions to Dallas for a
Division Summit (see Director's Corner). He has decided that this is the
"year of the Divisions." Executive Director
Rick Fritz chaired the meeting, which
focused on issues of branding
(recognition), membership and grants
from the Foundation.
It was an interesting and enjoyable
day, and I believe much was gained in the
exercises that Rick had us work through.
There is a surprising amount of synergy within all the Divisions and a lot of great
ideas were shared about providing more
services to our membership.
It dawned on me during that meeting
that I was the first female president of
DPA. I decided to ask divisions manager
Norma Newby to research some
statistics on the female membership in
the various Divisions, and she came up
with:
- EMD has 1,263 members, 131 of
which are female, for a total of 10.37
percent of its membership.
- DEG has 1,437 members, 200 of
which are female, for a total of 13.91
percent of its membership.
- DPA has 3,182 members, only 140
of which are female, for a mere total of 4
percent of its membership!
My question (and challenge!) is, why
aren't more women geoscientists
members of the Division of Professional
Affairs!? I know that about 40 percent of
DPA's membership is listed as
consultants or independents, but I know
a lot of women consultants — so that
shouldn't be a show-stopper!
Ladies out there — JOIN THE DPA — I
know you are "certify-able"!