Chairperson's message for April 2011
It’s April, and Spring is Here – Ready or Not
Before I started typing up this article, I checked the LASPE website and looked to see what previous LASPE chairpersons had written about in previous April Newsletters. I did this because plagiarism is much more efficient than creativity. Of course I would not ever actually plagiarize a previous chairperson’s work. But to quote a good principle: “Copying from one source is plagiarism; copying from many sources is research.”
So, what have previous chair articles talked about in previous Aprils? Mainly 3 things:
1. The SPE’s Western Region Meeting:
The 2011 SPE Western North America Regional Meeting is scheduled for May 7th through 11th in Anchorage, Alaska. This conference will focus on technologies and issues affecting oil and gas fields in the Western North American Region. The meeting organizers have selected presentations that address improving operating costs and efficiency, new oil and gas technologies, and insights on regulatory and climate change legislation that will affect energy supplies. You can learn more about the conference, and register for it, at http://www.spe.org/events/wrm/2011/ .SPE recently announced that the 2012 SPE Western North America Regional Meeting will be held in Bakersfield. The dates are March 19th through 23rd, 2012.
2. LASPE’s Scholarships:
Scholarships represent one of LASPE’s most important activities. The purpose of LASPE’s scholarship program is to encourage students to pursue science and engineering curriculums and to increase their awareness of career opportunities in the petroleum industry. The LASPE awards scholarships to local university graduate, undergraduate students and local high school students.Scholarship criteria and application forms may be downloaded from the scholarship section of the LASPE website, at http://www.laspe.org/scholarship/scholarship.html . The deadline for submitting scholarship applications is April 8, 2011. Decisions on scholarship awards will be finalized in May.
3. The LASPE Golf Tournament:
LASPE’s Annual Golf Tournament is set for May 6th, 2011. Once again the event will be returning to Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills. Tell your friends and acquaintances about this great tournament and please plan to attend. The Golf Committee expects this event to sell out, so don't get left out. More help is needed, too: Interested parties and especially volunteers please Contact Rich Manuel at rmanuel@mindspring.com.
So historically, that’s the big 3 in April topics, but I would like to add one more:
4. The 2011 LASPE Crude Price Challenge:
Rick Finken is once again organizing the competitive event of predicting the price of crude oil, with valuable prizes for those skilled (or lucky) enough to make correct predictions. Details of the competition are to be found elsewhere in this newsletter. The odds of winning are better than the Lotto, and if you win you have the opportunity to claim that it was all based on superior insight and analysis. Besides, it will be fun.
To paraphrase my conclusions from last month’s newsletter: Fun is good. Golf and raffles are good. Fundraising is very good. Scholarships are especially good. Let’s try to have more of all of them!!
Mike Utt
LASPE Chairperson 2010-2011
mikeutt@roadrunner.com
Interested parties and VOLUNTEERS PLEASE Contact Rich Manuel at rmanuel@mindspring.com