Chairperson's message for September 2004
A chair with a view . . .
On October 1, Raj Upadhyay will take up the position of Section Chairperson. He is a long time SPE member and has been serving as Section Secretary and Board Member. Raj will have a good overall view of the petroleum industry in the Los Angeles Basin and will get a good sense of which companies are active and which are not. The LASPE Chair gets to know many industry people that would be missed by maintaining a career within a single organization.
In general, serving as a volunteer in any organization takes extra time, but it can be time well spent if it is done right. And done right, it can be a good career move.
I have very much enjoyed my one-year tenure and am pleased with the Section’s accomplishments this past year. Volunteer members who gave their time and energy and enjoyed the effort made these accomplishments possible. Highlights of the year were a successful Forum Program, good elementary school outreach at Mabel Paine Elementary School in Yorba Linda and at the International School in Long Beach, an increase in scholarship awards, continued support of the COMET program, financial volunteer judging support for LA area High School Science Fairs and more continuous updating of our www.laspe.org website. Continuation and expansion of these programs requires funding which has been provided for in the upcoming year by a very successful golf tournament this past June.
A special highlight was the receipt of the Society’s Regional Service Award by Vivian Bust and Scott Hara in recognition of their long and steady service to the Society in general and the Los Angeles Section in particular. This fine recognition was awarded at the Thermal Recovery Conference this past March in Bakersfield.
The last event of the 2003-2004 program year takes place on September 14, 2004 at the Long Beach Petroleum Club. This is our regular Monthly Forum featuring Jim Leslie’s informative talk on advances in composite drillpipe technologies. Successful application of these technologies will reduce string weights and cut costs. Low cost innovations have been a major contributor to increased ultimate recovery in the LA Basin.
The September Forum will also feature scholarship awards to college students at USC and CSULB. LASPE is proud to make these awards and to support both schools’ SPE Student Chapters. Our Scholarship Chair and next Vice-Chair, John Yu, plans to expand the scholarship program next year with better outreach to local high schools to increase their awareness of the availability of LASPE scholarships to students pursuing engineering and science careers.
The Section’s 2004-2005 program year is shaping up. Most of the Forum dates have been filled and our new program chair, Maryam Davari, is working to fill the rest. We have three new board members; Pat Shuler, Scott McGurk and Allan Spivak who will be contributing time and energy to continue past successes.
Thanks to all those volunteers who made this past year so enjoyable. If you are not active in the operations of LASPE, contact us and consider joining in as a community service opportunity and as a good career move.
Rick Finken, 2003-04 Chairperson
Richard_Finken@longbeach.gov