The Immeasurable Rewards of Volunteering
Professional and social peer networking was rated one of the highest membership values associated with the AAPG in a recent poll and is one of the primary reasons I have stayed an AAPG member for almost 50 years. Many of the great scientists of our past could not have succeeded without peer collaboration. Charles Darwin is quoted as saying, “It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise the most effectively have prevailed.”
My wife and I were recently on a walk and passed several dark and empty office buildings. Those buildings were well lit and full of employees before COVID. We both wondered if life would ever return to the old “normal.” She commented that the only reason the department she supervised retained the best nurses in the region was that they worked in close proximity with each other where they could interact and collaborate in treating their patients. Collaboration was the key. I immediately thought of the results of the recent AAPG membership poll.
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Professional and social peer networking was rated one of the highest membership values associated with the AAPG in a recent poll and is one of the primary reasons I have stayed an AAPG member for almost 50 years. Many of the great scientists of our past could not have succeeded without peer collaboration. Charles Darwin is quoted as saying, “It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise the most effectively have prevailed.”
My wife and I were recently on a walk and passed several dark and empty office buildings. Those buildings were well lit and full of employees before COVID. We both wondered if life would ever return to the old “normal.” She commented that the only reason the department she supervised retained the best nurses in the region was that they worked in close proximity with each other where they could interact and collaborate in treating their patients. Collaboration was the key. I immediately thought of the results of the recent AAPG membership poll.
I enjoy working remotely and using online software for AAPG meetings and I have met some wonderful and interesting people this way. We have accomplished a lot with these meetings, but the meetings can be frustrating because it is harder to connect through a computer monitor than it is when you meet face-to-face.
There is no better place to interact face-to-face with a large number of your geoscience peers than at one of AAPG’s large conferences. Conference social events are great venues to interact with your peers informally and to find out what they are doing in your area of expertise and employment. This often leads to the discovery of new scientific and technical innovations you can use to advance your education and career. The more interaction you have with your peers, the more likely it is you will glean that one kernel of wisdom that will spark one of your own ideas and lead you to business or scientific success.
Unfortunately, many of the people who attend our conventions miss out on one of the great opportunities it provides to meet more of their peers. Those opportunities are the business meetings and social events for the volunteers working on behalf of AAPG. Many of our committees and governance groups have face-to-face business meetings during the conventions. If you are on an AAPG committee, on the Advisory Council, in the House of Delegates, in the leadership of a division, or in any of our many other volunteer groups working to help AAPG, you will likely meet some of your peers in person during a convention. Formal and informal social events are often organized around these volunteer groups, which are also great venues to interact with other volunteers. I have found that these volunteer events have led to lasting friendships with some of the outstanding business and scientific leaders in the geosciences.
So, the bottom line is that volunteering is sometimes worth its weight in gold. There is a reason many of us have continued to volunteer to help AAPG for many years, sometimes decades. There is personal satisfaction in that you help promote the science and business that you love, but the rewards of personal and close interaction with your peers often far outweigh anything else. Such collaboration can be priceless. Amy Poehler said, “Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your world.” I agree.