From the President- September 2010

John Tubb, Jr.
A New Start…A New HGS Year.
By the time that you read this Bulletin we will be two months into my term in office. I am looking forward to this year as we are planning on it being a very active one!
 
We started off with TechnoFest on July 22nd. Deborah Sacrey and her committee of Jim Grubb, Bonnie Milne, and Rene Mott put together an expanded program this year. In the past TechnoFest had exhibits on display from 3:30-7:00 p.m. This year TechnoFest had a luncheon with a guest speaker, morning and early afternoon oral sessions, and ended with a late afternoon exhibit session. This will be the model for future TechnoFest conferences.
 
On September 8-9 HGS — PESGB will hold their 9th International Conference on African E&P at the Westchase Marriott. Al Danforth and his committee have worked hard to put together this two-day program of talks along with technical posters and exhibits from sponsoring companies. This conference alternates yearly between Houston and the PESGB of Great Britain. All booths for this event were sold out by June!
 
Frank Walles and his committee will present their Applied Geoscience Mudstones Conference on February 7-8, 2011. This conference has been hugely successful in the past and promises to be again next year. It centers on mudstone system characterization to help improve exploitation of U. S. Gulf Region mudstone “Shale Gas/Oil” reservoirs. Make sure and save the date for this one.
 
In addition to the above major events, we will have our usual technical talks (4-6 times per month), continuing education offerings, and social events (Guest Night, Skeet Shoot, Golf, Tennis, and Shrimp Peel). The national AAPG Convention will be in Houston in April 2011. Steve Levine and his committees are hard at work on convention planning. All of the above activities are made possible by the large number of dedicated volunteers. We have 47 committees manned by about 125 volunteers. We are always in need of new volunteers. If you would like to participate, contact Sue Pritchett, Volunteer Coordinator, at pritchettsue@gmail.com.
Increasing the HGS membership is a goal for this year. Increasing the membership is easy to say, but it is devilishly difficult to accomplish. We have approximately 3626 members at the present time, down from a high of 5500 members in 1991. Encourage your friends and coworkers to join HGS. The dues for the year are only $24 which is a tremendous bargain. My wife and I cannot go to the movies for less. Our society is the best networking tool in the industry. We don’t want you to miss a thing!
The HGS sponsors two scholarship funds: the Calvert Memorial for graduate students and the HGS Foundation Fund for undergraduate students. At the GCAGS Directors’ meeting this spring, the Directors approved a $10,000 matching fund for both of these scholarships. The HGS Board has also approved to match $10,000 for each of these funds. The scholarship funds have until June 30, 2011 to raise the $10,000 in order to be eligible to receive both matching funds. This means that if you donate $100 to either scholarship fund, they will receive $300. This is a tremendous way for the scholarship funds to increase their total endowment. This can be achieved by going to the HGS Webpage and clicking on Donate to the HGS Scholarship Funds. In this section you can donate money to either or both of the scholarship funds. Let’s all get behind this very worthwhile endeavor of making more money available for scholarships.
Laissez les bon temps rouler