Being a member means belonging to something larger than yourself. You’re a member of a family, a community, a nation.
And for most readers, you’re also a member of AAPG.
Reasons for joining AAPG are many and varied.
If you are seasoned by years of experience, you were probably told by your supervisor or mentor to join AAPG as a young professional. It’s what you did, and there was no need for protracted analysis or evaluation. You can’t expect to be a successful petroleum geologist without being a member of the largest professional association of petroleum geologists. Sign up already!
Others join AAPG because they like a good deal. I’ll confess – this was my motivation for joining early in my career. Email was becoming mainstream, the World Wide Web was in its infancy, but if you wanted to know something and didn’t have easy access to a library, you needed to build and maintain a professional reference library of your own. AAPG members get discounts on all AAPG titles as well as on meeting registrations. This doesn’t require higher math: it makes perfect sense to join.
Still others are attracted to AAPG because they like a good time. Getting together with others who share your interests is a strong reason to join an organization, and – let’s be honest – an established culture of celebrating when we’re gathered does make it an enjoyable experience.
No matter your reason for joining – and the reasons listed above are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive – what makes AAPG such a unique organization is that we’re focused on connecting science, specifically the geosciences, to the business of finding and producing hydrocarbons.
It’s a unique business, where titans of industry in Houston and London watch carefully the outcome of meetings in Vienna. And those gathered in Vienna are closely monitoring the actions of large, medium and small companies in Midland, and making decisions accordingly.
It’s a business where fortunes can still be made or lost in the service of providing the planet with the energy resources it so desperately needs.
Being a petroleum geologist is a noble profession.
How AAPG Helps
Supporting you in this endeavor is why AAPG exists. And at each stage of your career we’re seeking to provide you with opportunities and experiences that help you succeed.
As a student geoscientist we want to help you build your network and connections in the industry, provide you with services to find that first job, and offer you opportunities to learn alongside your fellow geoscientists as well as showcase your work and abilities by presenting at conferences and workshops. You’re beginning to build a personal professional brand and AAPG can help you do that.
Early career geoscientists are looking to accelerate their professional development and learn to identify and create opportunities for themselves and their employers. It’s time to focus on building and expanding your network, hone your theoretical knowledge with practical experience, and teach others what you know. And if you’re looking to develop your leadership skills to position yourself for career growth, there are few opportunities better than working as an AAPG volunteer leader. Leading peers who themselves are volunteers, rather than employees, requires true leadership.
In our cyclical business it’s important to build a resilient career. And AAPG can help you do that by helping you stay current as our science evolves, technology improves and old and emerging plays develop. You’re connected to your business and science by attending events, networking and engaging.
One of the distinguishing characteristics of our profession is how few of our members actually retire. While they may slow down their level of professional activity, they’re still connected, they’re still engaged, and our legacy members are still learning. At this stage of your career, AAPG helps you stay connected to your professional network as your peers also leave full-time employment, provides updates on how the industry is evolving and offers opportunity to share your wisdom and knowledge.
Next Generation AAPG
And just as our industry and profession is constantly changing, evolving in response to new realities and new opportunities, so too must AAPG evolve and become more dynamic to ensure that what we’re providing you is, in fact, relevant. So, we’re innovating, trying some new things.
As this arrives in your mailbox, AAPG Europe is conducting a brand new “Next Generation Deal Making” workshop, designed by and for early career professionals, in conjunction with APPEX Global 2018 in London. And President Sternbach highlighted at the beginning of this issue the purpose and promise of our new super basins conference to be held later this month.
New events, new opportunities to deliver value to you and be ever more relevant to your career.
Throughout your career, at every stage, AAPG is a professional node that keeps you connected, keeps you informed, keeps you engaged.
It’s something special. It’s AAPG.