What Will Be Our Legacy?
If someone told me when I joined AAPG as a junior member that I would become president, I would not have believed them. Yet, life often brings unexpected honors and rewards. I consider this a great honor to serve the members and many colleagues as I start my term as president of AAPG.
Over the past year I have learned a lot about the organization, its amazing history and many influential members. AAPG is full of committed professionals who choose to devote their time and money to give back to the organization that has provided invaluable professional experiences, technical learning, networks, friendships and a strong foundation for geoscience professionals.
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If someone told me when I joined AAPG as a junior member that I would become president, I would not have believed them. Yet, life often brings unexpected honors and rewards. I consider this a great honor to serve the members and many colleagues as I start my term as president of AAPG.
Over the past year I have learned a lot about the organization, its amazing history and many influential members. AAPG is full of committed professionals who choose to devote their time and money to give back to the organization that has provided invaluable professional experiences, technical learning, networks, friendships and a strong foundation for geoscience professionals.
My year as president-elect passed quickly and I want to thank my colleagues on the Executive Committee – Past President Deborah Sacrey, House of Delegates Vice President Ken Mohn, Vice President-Regions Said Al-Hajri, Vice President-Sections Lorena Mascarelli, Treasurer Rebecca Caldwell, Editor Matt Pranter and Secretary Sarah Barnes – for being so diligent in this year’s activities and helping to guide the organization. It has been an honor to work with all of you learning the processes and governance of AAPG. I also want to welcome President-Elect John Casiano, Vice President-Regions Maria Mutti, Editor Daniel Minisini and Secretary Andrea Reynolds to the Executive Committee. We have a lot of work to accomplish in 2025-26.
The Next Three Years
I would like to lay out what I believe should be our legacy for AAPG and its membership for the next three to five years. With the guidance of AAPG Executive Director Tom Wilker we are finalizing a rolling three-year strategic plan from which AAPG will operate. This plan will guide the future executive committees to maintain a focused organization for future geoscientists and provide a framework to guide future leadership. Hopefully this will be a requirement for all executive committees to keep our organization on strong financial ground and provide a meaningful value proposition to our members and the public.
Some highlights of the plan are:
- Improve and modify the Imperial Barrel Award program – this is AAPG’s capstone event for all future geoscientists.
- Maintain a balanced budget with quarterly checks (plan versus actual) to the membership – the key to keeping the organization sustainable.
- Engage faculty and geoscientists in university programs – new learning modules as well as training for current students and young professionals by leveraging the fund of knowledge of AAPG members as visiting faculty, mentors and advisers.
- Modernization of the IT systems, as well as developing an AI platform for all the AAPG publications. This has the potential to be a significant revenue stream for the future.
- Address change in the Bylaws that are either prohibitive to AAPG growth or governance - these will be discussed through the HoD.
These are just a few of the objectives we will outline and rank in importance to be accomplished over the three-year plan. Each incoming committee member will have roles and responsibilities aligned with the plan and as new things are added, future leadership of AAPG will have a strategic plan to follow. In the same manner I will ask all the regions and sections to develop their own three-year plans that will dovetail with the AAPG plan. I believe this approach will provide all members with a voice and better understanding of where AAPG is headed. I will be sharing this in August at the IMAGE 2025 conference and will look forward to your feedback.
For myself, the legacy I would like to build is one of technical excellence, financial competence and education leadership. I will look forward to working with all the members and welcome their input and insight. The goal is to provide the members with a compelling value proposition of being an AAPG member.