President’s Message

This is my first article as President of the CSEG so I hope to not disappoint. In looking back at the President’s message of April 2015, Rachel Newrick addressed our tough economic challenges which by the time of this article haven’t yet improved. Some consider it worse now due to continued layoffs, cuts galore and more delays in governmental decisions.

This is not a great time in our history but as I stated in my annual report article, this is a time for us to innovate and influence. So you may ask, “But how?” To repeat myself again, a challenging time represents an opportunity to do things differently, more creatively than ever before. Now is our time to burn the current industry pain as if it is fuel for our challenging journey.

As I write this article two months in advance of its publishing, our society and industry community will have had many events to further our technical knowledge, network and community involvement.

The CSEG DoodleSpiel was a successful event that raised over $6000 for the Foundation Scholarship fund through generous matching by Larry Herd, Foundation Chairman. That scholarship idea and matching was a collective effort of some bright idea generators and sincere discussion to make it happen. Now the Foundation can support student scholarships with that additional funding. That was creative!

The SkiSpree will have happened as well in February 2016 and let’s hope it also was successful in providing safe, family fun along with continued support of the CSEG.

GeoConvention will also have occurred in March 2016 with potential for a reduced fee for the unemployed with a few hours of volunteering along with an additional 50% off unemployed rate through the Foundation Special Project Fund. As many of you know Sigma Exploration has been subsidizing Technical Luncheon costs and membership for those affected by job loss. Those ideas and efforts were creative, innovative and well appreciated by many.

Earth Science for Society will have also occurred by this article’s time which is another event put on by joint funding of the CSEG, CSPG and CWLS. I’ve personally been reaching out to let as many people I can about ESfS and have put up ESfS posters in coffee shops, doctors’ offices, grocery stores, etc. so those who may not be aware can take advantage of this wonderful free educational event.

All these topics mentioned are a result of some very creative and innovative ideas and many personal hours by a lot of wonderful volunteers to make all happen successfully. We have many more CSEG events coming up soon as well.

If you have some innovative and creative ideas, then please bring them up in discussion. Get involved and bring your ideas forward. That is how we all make real change.

As the cost of repeating myself again, the CSEG has a long history of delivering on the technical exchanges, technical training and networking that have put geophysics at the forefront of innovation. The CSEG is also equipped with some of the most passionate and motivated members stepping forward into that challenging future. For the CSEG to survive and flourish, we all must make an investment of ideas, time, advocacy, etc. which are all necessary to continue to deliver the relevance needed for the members and corporate members.