Welcome to the Centennial Year for the Houston Geological Society!
by Paul Britt
This is the centennial year for the Houston Geological Society. It is truly an honor to serve as President in this celebratory year. This year’s goal is to continue last year’s progress toward a sustainable future for the Society while bringing back the events that have been successful in past years. Highlights of this year’s plans are described below.
JOIN US FOR EVENTS!
The Centennial is being marked by a 100th Gala on Saturday, October 7th, and by a special issue of the Bulletin documenting the Society’s history. The Gala will be a grand event, open to all, and details are available elsewhere in this issue. I look forward to seeing many of you there. We have a full slate of General Dinners and Lunches lined up due to the efforts of our Vice President, Linda Sternbach, beginning with the September dinner meeting on Monday, September 11th. We are bringing back the General Lunches with the first on Wednesday, September 27th, downtown at the Petroleum Club. The Environmental and Engineering Meeting is on the second Wednesday of every month, in September it is the 13th. The North American and International Dinners are still in planning, so watch for more details to be shared soon.
Mark your calendars for these other upcoming events:
The Student Expo on September 18th and 19th is expected to have a sell-out crowd. Extra special thanks to our sponsors of this event. The GESGB-HGS Africa Conference will be held on September 20th and 21st in London.
Centennial Gala will be held on October 7th. Golf Tournament will be held on Monday, October 16th Continuing Education Virtual short course on Reservoir Volumes using PVT is scheduled for Friday, October 20th. Saturday, December 9th is the return of the Sporting Clays Shoot after a several year hiatus.
Submit your favorite geological photos or art work to the “Geology is Beautiful” art contest, winners to be featured on the Bulletin cover, the Website, and/or at HGS meetings and events throughout the year. The contest ends December 1st, so don’t wait! See page 23 for contest details.
• In planning is the ever-popular Guest Night, so watch for future developments, as is a conference on Geothermal in Texas. For all of these, see the calendar for details, and read the Bulletin for developments.BECOME A SPONSOR!
Our sponsors, both companies and members, make many of our events possible. Beginning with this Bulletin, we are acknowledging sponsors from the individual member and up. In addition, we are revising the advertising rates for the Bulletin and Website, and we are offering a sale on business card ads in the Bulletin. For the HGS’ 100th year you can get a business card add for $100 that includes publication in 10 issues. I encourage everyone to run their business card, because these ads get attention. New ad rates for everything else will be available by the October Bulletin.
EXCITING UPDATES TO THE BULLETIN!
We are instituting a new process to make getting your Bulletin easier. The email notice that you receive for this issue included a one-click button that takes you straight to the Bulletin without having to log into your account, and another click downloads it.
When I need to do a literature search for a new project or field, more often than not, I find an article from a local society bulletin. The Editor and I would like to see the HGS Bulletin be a go-to reference for technical content in Southeast Texas. In order to achieve that, we are seeking technical articles, but especially type field descriptions, type logs or type stratigraphic columns at the field level that we can publish. Many of you have either a type section or type log of fields that you have worked or are working, and I would ask that you consider publishing those. These are often a one-page item, not an in-depth article, and are generally not proprietary. For the non-petroleum geologists, what about a shallow or near surface stratigraphic column by location, surface geology of the Houston area, groundwater studies, or other articles of geological interest. Consider this a call from your President for technical articles and content.
OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES THIS YEAR
The HGS office lease is up later this year, and we are reviewing the options. In consideration is taking it virtual, a logical option given the large geographic Houston area. Not having a physical office could result in savings of over $30,000 per year. There are numerous items including furniture in the office that may come up for sale to members. A committee has been convened to review the options A CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS.
The Society runs on volunteer efforts, and as can be seen in the committee list at the beginning of this Bulletin, there are some vacancies, and every committee can also use help, so please consider what interests you and contact the committee chair of your interest, the office, or me if interested.
In closing, it is truly an honor to be President in the Centennial year. Having served as the AAPG President in their centennial year, the significance is not lost on me. We are looking forward to an exciting and dynamic year for the Society, and a return to normalcy, made better by everyone’s participation. I look forward to seeing all of you at the next HGS event!