From the President | September 2022

From the President | Walter Light, Jr.

Greetings fellow members of the Houston Geological Society and welcome to the start of a new business year for the HGS. I am honored to serve and represent you and our geological society as we approach our 100-year anniversary in 2023.

This year promises to be an exciting one, after two previous years of destruction and disarray caused by the Covid pandemic. For the first time in nine years, we have elevated oil prices and for the first time in fourteen years we have elevated natural gas prices. Elevated commodity prices of metals such as copper, nickel and lithium will also move that part of our profession forward.  As the year progresses and companies’ coffers are replenished, I expect these elevated commodity prices to restore enthusiasm for the oil and gas and mining industry. On the ground swell of this enthusiasm, I see this year as one in which we collaborate to reignite the fire and restore vitality of our profession and our professional society.

I have created a three-point plan for our society to achieve these goals.

1.) We must all work together to increase our total membership. We must encourage our long-term members to renew their membership. We must also collaborate to bring in new members by encouraging our peers at work to join. In addition, we must connect with group E&P managers to encourage their entire team to become members.

2.) We must work diligently to rebuild our professional community. We will accomplish this by once again and routinely offering in-person technical and social events. There is no substitute for in-person networking and sharing a meal to make new friends and contacts and to build long-term business and personal relationships. To this end we have scheduled our first in-person dinner technical presentation in two years for September 12th. The dinner presentation will be held at the Norris Conference Center located in City Center. This event promises to be an interesting presentation by Art Berman, one of our own members. Art will give his well-researched view on supply / demand issues, global politics, commodity pricing and his view of the future of our profession. In addition to the September Dinner Technical Presentation, we will once again run the Golf Tournament, scheduled for October 17th. If you are a golfer, please sign up for this event. If you have a company or work as a consultant, consider sponsorship of this event. Sponsorship/advertising is a great way to get your name out there. Please refer to the HGS website for additional details on these and other events.

3.) We must intentionally work to improve our financial stability. Our society financially suffered as a result of a steep decline in membership during the Covid years and a lack of in-person technical events. We did host one social event in May of each of the last two years. The Shrimp/Crawfish Boil was well attended and highly successful. I am confident if we successfully execute points 1 and 2, improvement in our financials will follow.

I encourage you to help us achieve the objectives of our 3 Point Plan. Sign up, encourage others to renew or join and participate/volunteer in our society events. If you have a company or work as a consultant, considering advertising on the website/bulletin, sponsoring an event or participating in a vendor corner at our technical meetings.

Thank you for your membership and active participation.

Walter Light, Jr.
HGS President 2022-2023