Merry Christmas! I am pleased to have a longer column than I have had the last few months. It is great to be able to share good news with the Recorder readers. A big thanks to all of those who sent in announcements. I hope everyone has a great Christmas season.
ON THE MOVE...
Dave Mackie is pleased to announce to his friends and colleagues that he has joined Enerplus as Senior Geophysicist for the Peace River Arch and Foothills teams. Dave can be reached at 403 298 2691 and dmackie@enerplus.com.
Stephen Beatty would like to announce that he has accepted a position as Geophysics Advisor at BG Group’s office in Reading, UK. Stephen and his family miss their Calgary friends and colleagues, however, they are enjoying the English countryside. He can be reached at +44 118 929 2094 or stephen.beatty@bg-group.com.
Stacey Sudlow (nee Perilli) recently joined Arcis in the position of Data Library/Reservoir Geoscientist. Stacey has over seven years of diverse experience in data processing, field acquisition, operations management, survey design, and sales and marketing. Most recently she has been on staff with Kinetex and Schlumberger – WesternGeco. Stacey holds a Master of Science in Geochemistry from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and is currently pursuing a Masters in Reservoir Characterization at the University of Calgary. She can be reached at 403.781.1443 or ssudlow@arcis.com.
Shminderjeet Bhathal, Geop.I.T, is pleased to announce that he has joined TerraWRX Exploration Consultants Ltd., a fullservice geophysical exploration firm with expertise in international, frontier and unconventional resources. Since August 2009, has been working on a variety of projects in Germany, Chile and the Alberta oil sands. Shminder can be reached at 403-218-1644 or via email at shminder@terrawrx.com.
Vic Urban is pleased to announce to my friends and colleagues that after 16 wonderful years at Probe/Arcis I am now providing seismic brokerage services at Target Data Ltd. (My future is obviously linked to the Kary family.) I can be reached at (403) 819-0103 or at vic@target-data.com.
George Fairs would like to let all of his clients and friends in the industry know that he is now at Divestco. You can contact me at 403-218-6476, Cell: 403-620-4247 or george.fairs@ divestco.com.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...
The RECORDER readers want to know what has happened to people that are working outside of Calgary or have retired from our industry. Drop us a line and let us know how you are doing. CS
Gary Paukert is currently Team Lead for Exploration New Ventures with Talisman Energy Norge AS. I’ve been here in Stavanger for more than three years now, after a year and a half at Talisman’s Aberdeen, Scotland office. Mostly prospecting and drilling for Jurassic/Triassic sands in the Norwegian sector of the southern North Sea. So far I’ve managed to avoid any accidental ingestion of lutefisk, something that’s especially dangerous around Christmastime in Norway. I’ll likely be moving on to another overseas location or back to Calgary in the next year or two.Cheers!
GIVING BACK...
Many people in our geophysical community give unselfishly of their time and resources in volunteer work outside the geophysical community. The RECORDER committee would like to give our members an opportunity to share their experiences and details of the charity that they support. Who knows? Maybe you will inspire someone else to support your charity. CS
Making “A Better World”
By Dave Mackie, Senior Geophysicist, Enerplus
Have you ever thought of traveling and making a difference in the world? I will be leading a trip to Rwanda and Kenya in the fall of 2010 marking the 20th anniversary of A Better World. A number of industry people have travelled with A Better World to both Rwanda and Kenya and for many it has been a life changing experience.
A Better World is a central Alberta based international development organization founded in 1990, supported and managed entirely by a diverse group of volunteers dedicated to improving lives. Our mission is to deliver sustainable foundations needed to improve lives, in partnerships with local community leaders, development organizations and government ministries. We include people from all walks of life dedicated to improving lives without regard to ethnic, political or religious association and work in places such as Sudan, Afghanistan, Tibet, Bolivia, and India, while maintaining a focus on projects in Eastern Africa.
I became involved with ABW through two industry friends – Jim and Gloria Stenhouse. Ever since our family had returned from a 4 year posting in Nigeria with Shell in the late 1990s my wife and I had been looking to volunteer with a group that had connections to Africa. Through Jim and Gloria we went to an A Better World info session and ended up signing up for the next Kenya trip on the spot. We returned home to tell our three children we were going and they said “No you aren’t…unless you take us!”. We signed them up as well. What impressed us about A Better World is that it is run like a small business – accountable and nimble to provide help where and when it is needed without red tape and process.
A year after returning from our first trip to Kenya I became the Project Representative for the country of Rwanda where A Better World had no presence. We have completed four projects and have three other projects ongoing in this intensely beautiful and now peaceful country: a rainwater catchment system at a secondary school in southern Rwanda where the students had to carry water from the valley each day from a contaminated muddy stream to the cafeteria (most secondary schools in Rwanda are boarding), a playground at an orphanage for 100 children, a latrine and connection to the district water supply at another orphanage (the children previously used a rough pile of rocks over a hole for a latrine), and finally we built a house for a widow of the 1994 genocide who has adopted 3 orphans. Three larger projects are ongoing: building a dormitory for 500 girls at Rwankeri Secondary School in northern Rwanda, supporting Umutara Deaf School in north-eastern Rwanda where the children were sharing a few foamies on the floor and the infrastructure is extremely poor, and finally supporting the construction of a daycare for a village of widows so the “mamans” can work to support their children.
If you would like to find out more about helping out, coming on a trip to see what we are doing first hand please visit www.a-better-world.ca or email dmackie@abwcanada.org.
Share This Column