President's.Column By Mike Graul  The China Syndrome 2009
 

Before we get to the reviews and forecasts of our esteemed president and the GSH Board of Directors for 2008 - 2009, I thought you might want a peek behind the silicon curtain, into the murky world of geophysical politics, group dynamics, and other matters usually discussed in hushed tones by seismic conspiracy advocates.

 

Shortly before the June meeting of the old and new GSH boards, it was reported that the SEG was closing the Geoscience Center at the Tulsa headquarters. This came as a shock and surprise to committee chairs deeply involved with matters associated with this educational facility. Tom Fulton, Lisa Buckner, Hermes Malcotti, Bob Wyckoff, John Delaughter are but a few of the chairs or co-chairs of such committees as the Youth Education, Museum, or Historical Preservation that were neither consulted nor advised of the rather sudden and surreptitious closing of a facility that had hosted over 18,000 school children over the past several years. The GSH Board went to threat level Orange.

 

The 5% Rule. Deep in the bowels of the SEG Constitution is Article XVII, Member Review, which states that the members may overturn any decision by the SEG Council, the SEG Executive Committee, or any other committee, if such action is supported by 5% of the active members of the SEG. This is our version of the court of last resort. In order to implement this procedure with regard to the unilateral decision to close the Geoscience Center, the GSH board set about to form an electronic petition in which active members of the SEG, who are also members of the GSH (a total of approximately 775, representing nearly 10% of the SEG active membership) could express support for the cease and desist order with a mouse click on the GSH Website.

 

The basic purpose of the petition was to prevent re-Gistribution of the Geoscience artifacts and museum pieces before an alternative plan could be investigated. A plan that would certainly include consideration of Houston as the home of the Geoscience Center. As it turns out, more traditional political techniques were invoked to halt further final and irrevocable closure activities. A flurry of e-mails, telephone calls, and backroom bargaining brought all participants to an agreeable course of action, in which a Task Force,. charged with investigating various solutions to the preservation of the function and purpose of theGeoscience Center, would be formed. This is now underway, and will include key members of the GSH. Your input through these pages will be welcome.

 

But, the plot sickens ... Just when we thought it was safe to leave the building (think of Jack Lemmon, after avertingthe melt down - maybe) here comes the SEG Governance Review Committee (GRC) with some startlingly progressive recommendations for changing the way the SEG is governed, and how its members will be represented. (You can guess who's going to take the biggest hit if their hope and change recommendations are implemented.) The details must and will be published before the annual meeting in October. Key changes involve dissolution of the main governing body, the SEG Council, as it now stands, and replacement with bring it up before a vote by the full active 12 representatives, more in keeping with membership. our growing global community. The GRC considers the present Council ineffective and "too USA centric". For the moment, the GSH is represented on the Council by four active members (Last year we had five, but a way was found to reduce thatnumber). The District (3), in which we reside, is defined as "Southeast US - Texas, Oklahoma, and east to the Atlantic Ocean", and is represented on the Council by an additional nine members, bringing the total for the District, including the GSH, to 14. This is the largest district representation byfar - as well it should be, in consideration of the number of active members. That nonsense would be terminated, however, reducing the representation to one (1) - more in line with the spirit of Globalism. Oh, incidentally, the new 18-member governing body (12 district reps plus the 6-member ExCom.) would have their expenses paid, four times a year, to attend meetings in various places around the world. Care to guess who will be covering these costs?

 

Threat Level Red. OK, maybe it's time to think of the 5% rule our geophysical founding fathers put into the constitution to protect the membership from such foolishness. Nope. The GRC has thoughtfully recommended that Article XVII, providing for recourse by the members, be stricken from the SEG Constitution, thus leaving the members at the mercy of the freshly minted Global Council.

 

What can you do? First, if you are eligible, but you are not an Active Member of the SEG, now is the time to become one. Actives differ from Associates in that they can vote and they can petition; they can throw open the window, and shout, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this any more!" Secondly, read the GRC recommendations, when published, and let us know how you would like your current representativeS to vote when this is brought before the Council - as it now stands. Thirdly, should the recommendations of the GRC be adopted - against your will- stand ready to sign (electronically or physically) a petition to stop the movement, and bring it up before a vote by the full active membership.Alright, now that we've journeyed into Global Politics, let's look at the local level, and what your GSH Board has to say about the previous year of activity. We'll set the tone with 2008 - 2009 President Frank Dumanoir

 

With the new 2009-2010 term starling in a few days, it's time to reflect on what was accomplished in the past year and what was left for the incoming board to pursue if they so wish. As you can see with these officers' summary reports, we have revived the idea that part of our responsibility to you is to give an accounting of the previous term.

 

The past year has seen a complete reversal of the fortunes of the oil industry and by extension the geophysical industry. Like many professions in this severe downturn, we have not been spared the layoffs reminiscent of the previous oil busts.

 

The GSH is navigating through the current downturn and continuing to provide our flagship technical events. The technical program this past year was outstanding. Between the Technical Lunches held at two locations every month, the early morning technical breakfasts, the Spring Symposium and the DISC we have had ample opportunity to witness the resiliency of our industry and the continuing development of new techniques in acquisition, processing and interpretation.

 

The" social events" (Sporting Clays, Golf Tennis, Salt Water Rshing Tournament) have attracted many participants and the hope is that we will be able to maintain the generous corporate sponsorships that help build our scholarship annual contribution. This year, your society contributed $16,000 to the Hugh Hardy Scholarship fund.

 

The GSH also provided feedback to the SEG on the initiatives they proposed. There was strong concern that some of these would have dramatically recast the governance of the SEG and reduced the voice of associated societies like the GSH at the annual council. We hope this helped spark continuing discussion on this important issue for GSH as well as SEG members.

 

The Museum and Outreach committees continued to do an excellent job through the hard work and dedication of several volunteer members. The grass roots effort at reaching young people is paramount to presenting our profession as a worthy and enriching one to pursue. In the same way,the museum committee helps preserve our heritage. Very recently your society has jumped in to try and save the artifacts at the SEG in Tulsa and to see what can be done to extend the Youth Education Center which the SEG recently decided to shut down. You will be hearing more from the incoming board on this in the near future.

 

This new term will see the first expanded board with two 1st and 2nd VP's (one of each is a VP-Elect). This will provide more help for these positions as well as facilitate the transition from one year to the next. You have elected an outstanding group of colleagues to run the GSH this next year. I hope they will get the same support the previous board has received and I encourage the membership to communicate with your ideas and suggestions to help the GSH meet your expectations.

 

We have started work on a much needed revamp of the website - and yes - make it easier and less frustrating to do online reservations to our events!

 

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not, once again, ask you to maintain your membership, but also to encourage your colleagues to become members. This will continue to be a focus of the new board and they are already at work to roll out some initiatives to grow our society.

 

First Vice President's Report for the 2008-2009 GSH Term - Bill Fahmy
As my term concludes I want to say thanks for electing me your first Vice President. It was an honor and great pleasure to serve you. As your First Vice President I was able to set up 9 technical luncheons (with one interruption due to Hurricane Ike) and to organize the SEG/EAGE DISC which featured Dr. Patrick Corbett. However, the major part of the job revolved around organizing the 2 day annual Spring Symposium. This turned out as quite a success as we honored Dr. Frank Levin. All this was possible due to a wonderful committee that I was able to form through suggestions from various members of the board. You should know that they handled most of the logistics while I did most of the worrying. Finally, I want to thank several people for making my job easier. Special thanks go to Marvin Taylor for his outstanding job handling the Technical Breakfast. Thanks also to the volunteers who organized the Special Interest Group Meetings

 

This past year (2008-2009), my duties consisted of taking monthly notes at Board Meetings, and distributing them for review and placement on the GSH website. With the help of our new (and continuing) Membership Chair, David Hammer, membership numbers were tracked and we maintained membership of around 1200. Elections went smoothly and we successfully voted on and brought in the new Board of Directors for the upcoming 2009-2010 term.

 

The society held six social and sporting events between August 2008 and August 2009. Revenues from these events help to defray the costs associated with technical events sponsored by your society, and also to fund scholarships sponsored by your society. Those events were:

 

Sporting Clays Tournament - The event was held August 23, 2008 at the American Shooting Center. 285 members and guests participated in this event. This event provided a $4549.66 overage to the society.

 

Tennis Tournament - The event was held September 26, 2008 at the Houston Racquet Club. Fifty-two members and guests participated in this event. This event provided a $7818.00 overage to the society.

 

Honors and Awards Banquet - The event was held May 7, 2009 at the Lakeside Country Club. 94 members and guests participated in this event. This event incurred a net cost of $1270.73 which was covered by the society.

 

Golf Tournament - The event was held May 11, 2009 at the Kingwood Country Club. 364 members and guests participated in this event. This event provided $8843.69 overage to the society.

 

Annual Meeting and BBQ - The event was held May 21, 2009 at the Jax Grill. 51 members and guests participated in this event. This event incurred a net cost of $2,220.25 which was covered by the society.

 

Salt Water Fishing Tournament - The event was held June 20, 2009 at the Tackle Box Storage and Fishing Spot Marina in Texas City. At the time of this report, final accounting is still being prepared. Approximately 60 members and guests participated with positive net revenue to the society.

 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the event chairmen for their diligent efforts that truly made these events possible. Without their hard work and the many volunteers that helped them, these events would not have been a success. I would like to express my personal appreciation for their efforts. So to that end, to Steve Mitchell and Dietrich Landis (Sporting Clays), Marvin Taylor (Tennis), Steve Davidson (Honors and Awards), Jim Moulden (Annual Meeting), Dennis Sump (GoIf,) Bobby Perez (Saltwater Fishing), and their many volunteers, please accept my sincere thanks. And in closing, I would like to thank the many companies and individuals who provided generous sponsorship for these events.

August 2009  

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