Planned Giving Program

I am very excited to share with the CSEG membership a new initiative that has been in the works at the CSEG Foundation board table for a couple of years, and is just now ready to launch. Our Planned Giving Program is ready to kick off in January, 2017 and I am confident that you will be interested in how it works.

You are already aware of the many great things that your society does for the geoscience community. Are you aware of what the CSEG Foundation does? I’ve had the pleasure of working with the many wonderful Foundation volunteers who share a passion to promote the geophysical science to the public of all ages, provide travel grants and scholarships to member students, promote education in the earth sciences, and to support unemployed members through subsidized training programs, networking opportunities and convention funding. There are too many programs to talk about here, so I encourage you to visit cseg.ca/foundation for a more complete picture of your Foundation.

The great work that the Foundation does is accomplished primarily by volunteers, judicially allocating donated funds from our membership and from our corporate contributors. We use these donations to both operate our programs as well as to grow a solid financial base from which we can use investment proceeds for self-sustained program support.

But let me get back on track to talk about our new Planned Giving Program.

Prior to my recent retirement, I worked in our industry for 37 years and fully enjoyed the science, the business and the colleagues I worked with. I learned so much from those who went before me and who helped me understand how to be successful in our industry through good scientific practice, honesty and integrity. I benefitted from knowing so many of you over the years and I was fortunate to be able to step away to enjoy other interests. As many of you might know, my wife Vicki and I now live in the great southern BC outdoors in the Kootenay Mountains. We remain heavily involved in volunteering activities in everything from the CSEG Foundation to supporting education for children in an orphanage in the Nairobi slums to providing free tax return services to our low income neighbours.

Vicki and I realized that stepping away from one’s career to enjoy our personal passions is a wonderful stage of life. We owe so much to the geophysical community in which we worked for so many years – the Planned Giving Program is one way that we can invest in the future of our industry.

The CSEG has always been the glue that has bound me to my work and to my friends. I was fortunate to be able to serve in many different administrative roles as well as participate in the many social programs that the society offers. Now, as Chair of the CSEG Foundation, I am committed, along with the other Directors, to keep moving the Foundation forward and that means putting in place enough endowment money to run the Foundation operations each year and to grow the funds to hedge against inflation. How are we going to achieve this? With your help…

For those of us who are of a certain age when estate planners come calling, we know fully well that we need to put our affairs in place as we approach our eventual sunset. By including the Foundation as a recipient of a bequest, insurance policy or investments, to just name a few, and establish a named fund for commitments over $100,000 or into a pooled fund, we can move closer to realizing our Foundation’s goals of self-sufficiency. When you include a charitable component to your estate plans, you will minimize the taxman’s long reach and leave more money for your heirs and the organizations you care about. We hope the CSEG Foundation can find a place on your list of worthy recipients of the largest gift of your entire life. Your estate will benefit from this arrangement and you will be giving something back to a worthy organization that has helped you in your path to where you are now.

I have heard from a few of my colleagues that they believe that geophysics is “on the way out” as a significant and relevant field of endeavour, so why should they support it in the future? In my opinion, this can’t be further from the truth. Sure, the science of geophysics continues to evolve at an unbelievable rate, but today it is as vital a component of the earth sciences as it ever was. Lee Hunt, as part of the CSEG Value of Integrated Geophysicist Initiative, published a great RECORDER article in May, 2014 entitled “Estimating the value of Geophysics: decision analysis” in which he demonstrates, in very analytical terms, the value of geophysics in resource plays.

We have a group of distinguished CSEG members who are helping bring our new program to life and if you would like to sit down and learn more, please contact Jim Racette in the CSEG office (403-262-0015) to arrange a time. Thanks also to these visionaries who are guiding this process, many who have been long-time generous annual donors to our programs. We intend to host a few sessions in the near future that will provide you with some information – not a sales presentation, but information so that you can be informed of the options available to you.

This is an exciting new venture for the CSEG – please consider a gift through the Planned Giving Program to help further your society and the science of geophysics.