PESGB December 2017
Plus much more inside
My Final Words
It is that time of year when one President passes the baton to the next. Looking back on the year it has clearly been a year of stabilisation for the Society. Implementation of our strategy, put in place in 2016, continues with our objective to be the number one oil and gas focussed geoscience society in Europe and Africa. Strong focus on costs whilst maximising our membership benefits has been vital. There is no doubt that the membership has been affected by the downturn in oil price and industry activity, however contributions to the Society through sponsorship and event attendance has now bottomed out and begun to rise. This ongoing discipline has put the Society in a good position relative to many of its peer organisations. With 2018 being a PETEX year, when historically income has been high, the future financial standing of the Society looks to be secure.
I am particularly proud of what the Society has delivered this year in terms of high quality membership benefits, from our conferences to our courses and fieldtrips to our networking events – all provided at very low cost. Our Special Interest Groups continue to work hard to deliver tailored offerings and they all deserve our support and praise! The Young Professionals group has continued to be extremely active providing networking events, seminars and the renewed mentorship programme. The recently held House of Commons event was very well received again with excellent debate and discussion.
Our Outreach programme, a key part of our charitable objective of educating the public, stepped up a gear this year with our new GEOLiteracy Festival in April. This involved a series of national outreach events hosted across the country aimed at capturing the interest of professionals and families alike. Professor Ken Lacovara gave a series of highly captivating lectures on unearthing some of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered, including the massive Dreadnoughtus. Many of you attended these events and importantly many of the general public did too, and especially the next generation, with over a thousand attendees recorded over the festival’s duration. More to come on this next year!
We are well positioned as a Society to benefit from the slow but steady recovery in the industry. We are seeking to further enhance our low cost/high quality conferencing capability for the benefit of our membership and hope to further widen our offering on this next year. This is your Society, so please continue to promote it to new (and old) members. Please push internally for continued sustaining sponsorship support from your companies. Every pound of sponsorship goes to delivering our strategy to the benefit of our membership, industry and wider society. We will be issuing a sponsorship catalogue in the New Year which can help you promote the Society within your company or organisation.
This month sees the Granite City Reception being held in Aberdeen on the night of 5th December. Tickets will be available on the door. As in previous years, PROSPEX will be at London’s Business Design Centre on the 13th and 14th December with the President’s Evening on the final night being held at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms near Covent Garden. The cost of tickets to the President’s Evening are £37.50 and there will be the opportunity to bring a friend/partner for £45.
Finally, I’d like to thank the Council this year for their support and energy and a special thank you to the Office team, led by Maria, who have continued to deliver for the Society.
The next President’s page will come from Neil Frewin who takes over as President in January 2018. I much look forward to supporting Neil and the new Council next year.
Keep exploring, learning and innovating!