Board of Directors’ Message

Declining membership and advertising revenues resulted in a need to reduce costs which resulted in many changes over the past couple of years. The most significant was the decision to discontinue printed editions of the RECORDER (except for the GeoConvention April issue). This resulted in a significant cost savings from eliminating printing and mailing costs. We have also looked for ways to increase revenue through advertising on the CSEG homepage and RECORDER. In 2018/2019, Ruth Peach (volunteer) contacted over 50 companies which resulted in a handful of advertisers for the RECORDER website. This task has now been handed over to Alyssa Middleton who will be our new contact person for advertising. We appreciate the continued support of these companies who have advertised with us as it was a critical element in supporting the CSEG through these trying times.

Prior to 2019, past editions of the RECORDER were saved in PDF format and accessed through the RECORDER archives on the website. Elizabeth Atkinson (former Director of Communications) has been tirelessly converting these to HTML format for ease of use and better searching, with original PDF formats kept for printing purposes. Converting the RECORDER to a digital format has enabled us to publish more current news and to release articles in a more timely fashion. Check out our blog on the RECORDER website at https://csegrecorder.com/blog/. It includes abstracts for our most recent papers as well as short blogs not on the RECORDER. Other current articles and upcoming events are also communicated via social media such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Links to these sites are on the CSEG homepage. Please check them out!

As you may have noticed, we changed our bimonthly newsletter format last fall. Thanks to Jim Racette and Alyssa Middleton for implementing this change which resulted in a significant cost savings as well a more user friendly and visually appealing format. We currently have one slot open for advertisers on our bimonthly newsletter. If interested, please contact Alyssa Middleton at alyssa.middleton@cseg.ca.

Our Communications Committee has also initiated a review of our CSEG.ca (homepage) website to determine if it meets the needs of our members and investigate ways to make it more user friendly. This could result in a complete revamp of our entire website (over time) or (most likely) tweaking our current website. Last year, inter-site navigation was implemented so users are now able to access the RECORDER and Journal sites easily from the CSEG website.

Communications is represented on the CSEG board by Andy Williams (Director of Communications) and Marie Hong (Assistant Director of Communications). There are 3 committees which fall under this department:

1. RECORDER Committee – Brian Schulte is our Chief Editor and oversees work done on the RECORDER. This committee handles all RECORDER content which includes soliciting, writing and reviewing articles in addition to maintaining the blog on the RECORDER website. As a cost cutting initiative, volunteer and past communications director Elizabeth Atkinson has taken over formatting RECORDER issues, thus eliminating formatting costs for each issue.
   In the past few years, the individual workload has increased for our shrinking pool of volunteers. This has led to a change in the RECORDER structure and number of annual editions. There will now be 4 online and 1 print edition for 2020. We will be adding an Assistant Editor role to aid the Chief Editor and serve as a backup in times when the editor is unavailable. We will also create an Assistant RECORDER Format Editor. In order to maintain our high-quality content and deliver issues on time, it is essential to grow our pool of volunteers at the RECORDER. If interested in volunteering or contributing articles, please contact Brian Schulte at editor@csegrecorder.com.
2. DMC (Digital Media Committee) – Jason Schweigert is the Committee Chair of the DMC. They are responsible for distributing the content (mainly Recorder and Journal) through postings on social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) as well as blog content, archived RECORDER article conversion to HTML format and updating the CSEG calendar. Like the RECORDER Committee, they are also composed entirely of volunteers who work hard to keep the social media postings current. If you are interested in helping out, please contact Jason Schweigert at jason@bjv-3ddesign.com.
3. Journal – Satinder Chopra is the current Journal Editor. The Journal is a technical journal which is published once a year and can be accessed from the CSEG website. It is with sorrow that we have lost Larry Lines recently as he was a tremendous inspiration in the geophysical community and we will sorely miss his work with the Journal.

Finally, from the Communications perspective, what can you do to help the CSEG continue to deliver quality RECORDER/Journal articles and promote geophysics across Canada?

• Volunteer: Most of our work is accomplished through volunteers and we would not be able to survive without them. We are working on creating a section on our website for volunteers, but in the meantime, please contact Alyssa Middleton at the CSEG office (alyssa.middleton@cseg.ca) if you wish to help. We appreciate any help you can give - even if it is on a short-term basis.
• Advertise: We thank our past and present advertisers on the CSEG website and RECORDER. They have supported us over many years and we appreciate their support during our current downturn. We have advertising spots on our CSEG homepage, as well as the RECORDER and our bimonthly newsletter. If you wish to advertise, please contact Alyssa Middleton at alyssa.middleton@cseg.ca.
• Contribute articles to the RECORDER and/or RECORDER blog. If you do not have the time to write a full article, then you can submit short blogs which can also be posted on other social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter). Please contact Brian Schulte at editor@csegrecorder.com if you wish to contribute.

Thank you to all our volunteers on the various communications committees who are tireless in updating and improving the CSEG, RECORDER, Journal websites and the social media efforts of the DMC. Without you, we would not be able to distribute articles and keep the CSEG alive.

Your Communications Committee:

• Andy Williams (Director, Communications)
• Marie Hong (Assistant Director, Communications)
• Brian Schulte (Chief Editor - RECORDER)
• Jason Schweigert (Digital Media Committee Chair)
• Satinder Chopra (Journal Editor