Chairperson's message for February 2010
Hello fellow SPE Members-
All board and committee members have been diligently preparing for the 2010 SPE Western Regional Meeting (WRM) in collaboration with the Pacific Section AAPG and Cordilleran Section GSA. On January 19, the Program Committee met at the USC campus to finalize the technical program for the WRM meeting. After couple of hours the committee made a final selection and organized the topics that would best suit the conference. Thank you Dr. Iraj Ershaghi for hosing the meeting. The board appreciates all the work and time you spend serving as the Program/Technical Chairman. I appreciate all those who attended the meeting even with the bad weather conditions that day. The meeting allowed us to finalize and prepare for short course topics/workshops, organizing the agenda for the awards luncheon, and deciding on days, locations and prices for the proposed field trips.
Mark your calendars the WRM will be held on May 27-29, 2010 and the theme is “From Mountains to Main Street”. We will continue to request volunteers as we approach closer to the event. SPE will have a special booth in the exhibit halls that will others to sign up for renewal or new membership. Booth will also contain information regarding SPE. If you would like to volunteer your time to help out at the booth, please contact Brandy Fellers or Bob Visser. I would also like to thank Dr. Jalal Torabzadeh, our WRM Chairperson and our Co-Chairperson Scott Hara for continuing to make all necessary arrangements. We are currently adding new material regarding the WRM on the website at www.laspe.org.
In other news, January 12, 2010, the LA Section's Board of Directors approved a motion to sponsor student chapter dues for members in our area up to $1,000 for the 2010-2011 membership year. The monies would be taken from budgeted Scholarships funds current fiscal year. Rick Finken has calculated and reviewed our student list and found the 518 students in our area could use our sponsorship. Total LA Section support would be $518.
I would also like to announce that during our last board meeting, LASPE appointed Jack Smith as a New Board of Directors member through the 2010 year. Jack has continued to serve as our Scholarship and Science Fair Chairman and does a great job every year. I have also asked Mike Utt, active board member, to serve as the Vice Chairperson for the 2009-2010 year and he has gladly accepted. We will hold the voting on our February board meeting. Tasks include running the monthly Board meetings when I am absent and working with the Chairperson on all section chair responsibilities. He will also serve as LA Section Chairperson starting September 2010 through October 2011 year. Thank you Jack Smith and Mike Utt.
Reminder: nominations for the 2010 SPE International Awards are due by February 15, 2010. Please check out the awards and criteria at http://www.spe.org/about/honors/spe_awards.php. SPE is glad to recognize our fellow SPE members that go above and beyond to make sure that the society remains strong both locally and internationally. The awards enable us to recognize distinguished members and their contributions to the society.
See you all on February 9, 2010, Forum Meeting.
Vanessa Perez
LA SPE Chairperson