Chairperson's message for November 2009
Message from the
chair. . .Hello Fellow SPE Members-
If you had the opportunity to attend this year’s 2009 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) held in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 4th-7th, 2009, you would have experienced a successful and informative event. ATCE provides the opportunity to attend excellent technical sessions, and for companies to showcase its products and services. The conference was also a great opportunity for networking and sharing ideas with other professionals. There was a great turnout with many people from different expertise from executives, managers, engineers, superintendents, geologists, and educators plus many more. The display rooms included exhibits with a variety of topics from drilling, exploration, fasteners, instruments & control, logging & formation evaluation and the list goes on. LA SPE section sponsored four students from University Southern California (USC) and two students from California State University Long Beach, partially covering the cost of their attendance at the conference.
On November 3, 2009, SPE conducted an outreach event sponsored by the City of Long Beach, Thums and Tidelands Oil Production Company for a group of MESA middle school students and teachers from CSU Fresno. Scott Hara and Rick Finken organized a tour of Thums' islands, and after the tour, everyone gathered for dinner at the Pizza Place located in Long Beach. Several SPE volunteers helped with the tours and talked with the 38 students and 7 teachers and MESA staff about the oil and gas industry and operations. The students headed to the Catalina Island Marine Institute afterwards and we got them off to a great start.
I wish to thank Candra Janova, (YP LASPE Chairperson) for his efforts on conducting the first Young Professional planning meeting (YP) for 2009-2010. YP has fun networking activities planned this year and if you are interested in being part of the YP program or would like more information, you may contact him (see newsletter for contact info).
I would also like to recognize Mike Utt who has been voted in by the Los Angeles SPE board to be our new Secretary for this 2009-2010 term.
In addition to the Annual Charity Golf Tournament, our biggest focus this year will be the 2010 SPE Western Regional Meeting (WRM) in collaboration with the Pacific Section AAPG and Cordilleran Section GSA. The WRM will take place in Anaheim, CA on May 27-29, 2010. Our Chairperson is Jalal Torabzadeh, assisted by Co-Chairperson Scott Hara and Iraj Ershaghi, the Program Committee Chairman. Thank you WRM committee for your time commitment and efforts on contributing to the success of the meeting.
See you all at the forum meeting on Tuesday, November 10, 2009.
Vanessa Perez
Chairperson 2009-2010 season