Presidential Column

This is my first column as President of the CSEG. My intention is to make use of this column to update the members on issues that the executive is currently dealing with. The executive meets once a month (except July and August) and as your elected representatives, we deal with all business pertinent to the CSEG. In reading the Annual Report that was published in last month’s issue of the Recorder, you can get the big picture of what was done over the last year. As the year goes on, it seems appropriate to update you on the on-going business. There is another column in each issue of the RECORDER, written by another member of the executive: the Executive Message. It gives each one of us on the executive a chance to address the membership at large once during our term.

Some of my columns might be relatively short; some might deal more in depth with particular issues. A lot of what we deal with on the Executive is straightforward on-going business. On some occasions, an issue might be strictly confidential and will not be addressed in this column. As a general rule, this column is where you can get an update of the ongoing item of business of your CSEG executive, and therefore of your society.

On March 25, the last meeting of the 2007/2008 executive was held. The incoming executive members were also invited to participate in order to get acquainted and ready to come in as full-fledged members at our next meeting scheduled for late April.

Finances

The financial statements for February were reviewed and approved. Each month, our Finance Director will have reviewed the financial statements with our accountant and our Office Manager, and ensured that all is in order prior to our executive meeting. The Actuals are compared with the Budget, and any deviations are scrutinized. The budget was prepared in late 2007/early 2008 based on requests from all committees. Our goal is to have a budget with a modest surplus. Any additional income is used in one of a few ways: keeping a safe reserve fund for operating in very lean years, planning some discretionary expenses (computer upgrades at the office, implementing the new membership database, etc.), or substantial transfers to the CSEG Foundation as we have done in the past. Some suggestions were made and discussed regarding proper accounting practices for expense approval. These will be implemented right away. Some discussion will take place over the next few months regarding the financial reporting that the executive committee would like to see from the social committees.

SEG / CSEG

Regarding the relationship between the CSEG and the SEG, a few points were briefly mentioned, and the coming months will give us a chance to review any specific proposal and work on particular undertakings. We would like to sell SEG books in our office in Calgary, we hope to implement this in 2008. The SEG has revamped their web site (www.seg.org) and are now in a position to offer a lot of flexibility in what is offered to the members. One option is to have the SEG host our online publications. Further discussion will be ensuing in the coming months. A meeting between the SEG President and President Elect with the CSEG Past President, President, and Vice President is in the planning.

Member's Survey

Doug (now Past President) has prepared a report on the members’ survey that we conducted in December 2007 and January 2008. The results of the 650 entries that we received have been compiled. Doug circulated a preliminary draft of his report at the meeting, and will present a summary of our findings at the Technical Luncheon in April, with the full report published in the May issue of the RECORDER.

Convention

A new joint committee between the CSEG and the CSPG was born this past year: JACC (Joint Annual Convention Committee). Doug has worked constantly this past year to ensure that this agreement was signed to ensure a continued joint effort between the CSEG and the CSPG for our joint annual conventions. More details will be provided on how this committee works later. A brief report was presented on the state of the 2008 C3Geo Convention. All indications are that this will be a record on all fronts for our annual conference: number of exhibitors, space occupied by the exhibits, number of abstracts submitted and sponsorship. We are confident that the attendance will reflect the same trend.

CFES

The CFES will meet in June in Halifax. Doug has graciously accepted to represent the CSEG at that meeting. He will bring continuity since he was attending the meetings this past year. Don’t know what the CFES is? A portion of each CSEG member dues goes to the CFES, find out what it is about at www.geoscience.ca.

Website

The CSEG office with the help of the web site committee has been upgrading our software for both our web site, and our member database. It has been a arduous task, that will still be taking up quite a bit of time and effort on the part of our office staff in the coming months. This has been one of the expense/investment that the executive voted on in 2007. This revamped membership database will allow us to finally offer online services to all our members, bringing us in the 21st century. This coming December, you can all expect to be able to renew your membership, update your contact information, pay your dues, and fill out a survey... ONLINE! What an achievement! It has been slow to come, and I am glad to say that it is here now (almost... very soon).

Your executive members are here to represent each one of you CSEG members, do not hesitate to contact one of us on any issues, suggestions, questions that you have.