Happy New Year fellow geoscientists and HGS Members! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year’s break and had a chance to recharge. In keeping with the theme to rebuild our technical community hosting in-person events, we have an exciting spring planned for the Houston Geological Society as we move into our 100th Year of the Society.
Right “out of the chute” and to start the new year, on January 9th our General Dinner Meeting promises to be an interesting and informative event. Dr. Jeff Dravis will present a talk titled “Tropical Trade Wind Models from Caicos Platform, SE Bahamas: Applications to Cretaceous Limestone reservoirs Around the Ancestral Gulf of Mexico”. Jeff and his mentor Dr. Harold R. Wanless, instructor at the University of Miami, are likely the two of the most knowledgeable geologists regarding the Caicos Platform. They have run over 30 field seminars for industry groups to the Caicos. Personally, I have made several field trips to the Caicos with Jeff and Hal and I learn something new each trip. If you work carbonates, desire to do so, or just geologically curious, January 9th is a “Must Attend Event”. Our evening will be held at the Norris Conference Center beginning at 5:30pm with our Social and Networking time. For additional details and registration see the HGS Bulletin or the HGS Weekly Announcements.
As an additional comment on the study of modern carbonates, in November Jeff, Hal and myself made a short field trip to observe a couple of meadows of stromatolites in the Schooner Keys offshore Eleuthera in the Bahamas. Jeff first discovered and documented these meadows in his University of Miami Master’s Thesis in 1976. It was a great trip and my first opportunity to see stromatolites “in the wild.”
January 20 HGS Continuing Education Short Course.
“Deepwater Sedimentary Systems: Science, Discovery & Application”. For registration & details see the HGS Bulletin or HGS Weekly Announcements.
On January 23 our first North American event will be an evening seminar entitled, “The State of Private Equity in Oil & Gas”. Mark Hamzat organized a similar event a couple of years ago and it was well attended. This event promises to be equally informative. For registration and details see the HGS Bulletin or HGS Weekly Announcements.
February 8 Environmental & Engineering will hold its dinner meeting Craft Republic, 5:30 to 9:00 “Environmental Testing& Monitoring at Carbon Capture &Sequestration Sites”. For registration and details see the HGS Bulletin or HGS Weekly Announcements.
Our Premier Event in February is the HGS Annual Scholarship Night on the 13th. This is our fundraising event for future HGS Scholarships and the event where we award Scholarships from both the HGS Foundation and the Calvert Scholarship fund to deserving undergraduate students and graduate students from several universities. Please support the future of our profession by buying a couple of tickets or a table for this evening event. For registration and details see the HGS Bulletin or HGS Weekly Announcements.
Additional 2023 events include:
Guadalupe Mountain and Delaware Basin Field trip March 23-26
GeoGulf 2023 (formerly GCAGS) April 23 to 25
HGS Shrimp Boil May
Grand Canyon Raft Trip June 1-8. Accepting wait list reservations.
As we head to into the spring, we continue to make progress on other points of our Three Point Plan.
Increasing Membership.
We have been gradually adding new members over the last few months. Some revisions to the online registration process are being implemented. These modifications will streamline website renewal memberships and new applications using our website. Please continue to encourage your work colleagues and service company contacts to join our society. Remember, your service company contacts may join as associate members.
Financial Sustainability.
We continue to make progress on the goal of financial sustainability. Critical to achieving this goal is to have a thorough, in-advance understanding of all the costs associated with running individual events. One component of this involves the administrative staff tracking their time and as it applies to individual events. Achievement of our financial sustainability goal requires membership support and active participation by the membership in the society-sponsored events as well as active solicitation of sponsors.
The Board and I thank you for supporting your geological society with your membership and your participation in the scheduled events.
Keep up the great work!
Walter S. Light, Jr. - President