Executive Message

A year ago when I submitted my executive report, it was the one part of the job that I knew I wouldn’t miss when my term came up in March of this year. The last two years on the executive were very rewarding and I want to thank all the executive members for their dedication to the CSEG society. My anticipated departure however has been delayed by another year. In 2010, Pratt Barndollar the assistant director of finance was transferred out of the country and had to resign his position on the executive. I was asked to continue for another year and I humbly accepted the offer. While it means I will continue to be responsible for reports in the recorder, I am excited to work with the new executive and hopefully things will be somewhat easier after two years experience on the committee. I welcome Glenn Malcolm to position of assistant director, and his financial knowledge and contributions have already been of great assistance.

2010 was anticipated to be a very challenging year financially for the CSEG. I’m sure you are tired of hearing of the GeoCanada convention, and the impact it would have on our financial revenue but it was a very important item when we did the budget for last year. Revenue from the convention was predicted to drop by approximately $130,000 from the previous year. After carefully scrutinizing all of our expenditures we ratified a budget with a predicted deficit of $169,595. After an extraordinary effort by the 2010 convention committee we were happily surprised to actually to realize over $233,000 in profit from the convention ($78,443 over budget).

Another pleasant surprise, and what I believe to be a fairly good indicator of industry health was higher than anticipated advertising revenue in the RECORDER. This revenue exceeded our budget by over $32,000. The bottom line was a palatable 2010 deficit of $43,332.

One of the final tasks of the outgoing director of finance is to prepare the 2011 budget. This was considerably easier than in 2010 because of the anticipated revenue for this year’s convention. We were able to maintain all of the programs and services from 2010 make a donation to the foundation and are still on track to achieve a balanced budget. While it is still early, the first quarter of 2011 appears to be on track.

Finally, I appeal to all of our members to get involved in the CSEG. I only now understand the magnitude of contribution that this society and its volunteer members make to our industry. There are endless opportunities available, and I assure you it will be a rewarding and enjoyable experience.