Chairperson's message for February 2011
Middle Class?
Where does the Los Angeles Section fit into the big world of the Society of Petroleum Engineers? According to the SPE website, there are currently 178 SPE Sections. As you would expect in our industry, 124 of them (70%) are outside the United States. The SPE has several sections with fewer than 70 members. The absolute minimum number to establish a Section is supposed to be 25 SPE members – but there are actually some Sections smaller than that.
A few years ago when I was touring as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer, I remember one Section meeting where I made my presentation to a total of 5 members. I had the feeling that some of them had been recruited at the last minute to make sure that the meeting wasn’t even smaller. However, they listened politely, asked intelligent questions and I did my best to make sure that I gave as least as good a presentation as if the group had been much larger.
When the SPE organizes its membership contest, it divides the 178 sections into groups by size. The Los Angeles Basin Section has approximately 400 members. That puts LASPE in Group F, for the second-largest size Sections. Group A is for Sections with fewer than 70 members; Group G is for Sections with over 1,000 members.
Let’s see, where would the big SPE Sections be? How about Houston? It seems that every time there is another production company or service company merger, there are fewer jobs in the industry – but more jobs in greater Houston. Many of us have had a job in the Houston area at some time in our careers. After our time in Houston, my wife and I seriously discussed getting T-shirts made that would have said, “We survived 10 summers on the Texas Gulf Coast.”
The SPE’s Gulf Coast Section, headquartered in Houston, has over 11,000 members. I am sure that there are entire international professional societies that have fewer members. The SPE-GCS has meetings almost every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I checked Gulf Coast Section website’s January 2011 calendar [http://www.spegcs.org/en/calendarevents/monthly.asp], and found a total of 18 events during the month. A more typical month here in the LA Basin Section includes only 2 or 3 events: A meeting of the Board of Directors, the monthly Forum meeting, and maybe a Young Professionals gathering or an outreach event. Typically 40 to 60 people attend our monthly Forum meetings at the Long Beach Petroleum Club.
So, does being in the second group by size make LASPE 2nd- class citizens in the world of SPE? That is not true at all. For example, remember that last year LASPE, under the leadership of 2009-10 Chair Vanessa Perez, won the SPE President’s Award for Section Excellence.
Here is some current good news: Three of our LASPE members have been selected to be honored at the Engineer’s Week Awards Banquet hosted by the Orange County Engineering Council (OCEC). They are:
- Mr. Robert Visser, to receive an Outstanding Engineering Merit Award
- Ms. Katy Canan, to receive a Young Engineer Award
- Ms. Leila Rashedi, to receive a Young Engineer Award
We also learned recently that Professor Theo Tsotsis of USC will be receiving the 2011 President’s Distinguished Educator Award from OCEC.
So, congratulations to all three of them! More details about those awards, and the OCEC Banquet, are found elsewhere in this newsletter.
We certainly do not have the large membership of SPE-GCS, or the financial resources that go with those numbers – but we have similar goals (technology transfer, support of students, community outreach) and we have the opportunity to excel.
So how big are we? We are bigger than some, but a lot smaller than the biggest group. How are we doing? Well, (as I have mentioned in this space before) the recent economic situation has put a strain on our budget. What are our opportunities? LASPE has excelled in the recent past, and we have the opportunity to excel in the future. As an example, the LASPE will be working with CiSoft at USC to share relevant seminars to the Western Region Membership via the internet.
Let me close with a news item and a couple of requests:
News:
After struggling with all the issues, the LASPE Board of Directors approved a Section budget for 2010-11 at its December meeting. Some costs were reduced and some additional revenue was identified. The budget is not quite balanced, but it’s only an estimate anyway. On a related note, at the Board’s January meeting we approved a non-budgeted item for participation in OCEC Engineers Week activities.
Requests:
Pay your SPE dues for 2011! It will help us with the Group F Section Membership contest, and you will qualify for the Member rate at your next Forum meeting. (One of our Budget measures is to charge non-Members more for lunch.)
If you are a golfer, please make your plans to participate in LASPE’s annual Golf Tournament on Friday, May 6 at Los Serranos golf course. This is LASPE’s biggest fund-raising event of the year.
Here’s hoping for a successful year for all of LASPE’s activities, large, small and in-between.
Mike Utt
LASPE Chairperson 2010-2011
mikeutt@roadrunner.com