Division of Professional Affairs
Council Meeting
April 8, 2006
Hilton Americas Houston
Houston, Texas
Present:
DPA Executive Committee
Debra Rutan, Chair Councilors and Vice President
Deborah Sacrey, President
Richard G. Green, President Elect
Craig Reynolds, Secretary
Jeffery Greenawalt, Treasurer
J. Michael Party, Past President
Councilors:
Michael Canich, Eastern Section
Jeff Lund, Gulf Coast
Paul Britt, Gulf Coast
Al Jasper, Gulf Coast
Marty Hewitt, International Region
John Armentrout, Pacific Section
Marvin Brittenham, Rocky Mountain Section
Jeff Jones, Southwest Section
Bill Stephens, Southwest Section
Committee Chairs:
George Bole, ad hoc LR Planning
Rick Ericksen, State Registration & Licensing
Jim Hill, Continuing Education
John Jordan, Membership
Bob Shoup, ad hoc committees- Legislators Education CD& Board Certified
AAPG Staff
Rick Fritz, AAPG Executive Director
Norma Newby, AAPG Divisions Manager
Not Present:
Mike Fogarty, Gulf Coast
Rick Nagy, Gulf Coast
Josef Phillips, Gulf Coast
Bill Harrison, Mid-Continent
Dan Reynolds, Mid-Continent
Dave Abbott, Rocky Mountain
Royce Carr, Board of Certification
Carl Smith, Chair, GAC
Minutes
1. Introductions/Announcements (Debra Rutan, Chair)
Called to order at 9:00 a.m.
2. Approval of Minutes, November 12, 2005, Houston, Tx (Craig Reynolds, Secretary)
Motion: Jones moved, Hewitt seconded to approve minutes of November 12, 2005; approved.
3. President’s Report (Deborah Sacrey) See written report
Deborah Sacrey outlined the written report.
Items of significance; Pete Rose’s “White Paper” concerning the Energy Policy Act
GEO-DC Director – Don Juckett, Springfield, VA is doing an outstanding job. He has signed on for 18 months and his potential replacement, Dave Curtis, is already making in-roads in several areas.
Reported that Scott Tinker was funded to attend the Pacific Section meeting in Anchorage and also the Perth Convention.
Reminded those in attendance that the DPA was sponsoring the Women’s Forum on Tuesday during the Houston Convention.
4. President-Elect (Rich Green)
Bylaws Change:
Bylaws changes to reflect board certified level and streamlining of application form
Motion: Green moved; Sacrey seconded to accept all bylaw changes in a mass; discussion; approved.
Green attended Congressional Science Days in Washington, D.C. on March 27, 2006, on behalf of the DPA, which was coordinated by GEO-DC Director Don Junkett.
Green indicated that the congressional members are way behind in oil/gas exploration and industry knowledge. The presence of the AAPG is a necessity at these type events in Washington.
5. Treasurer’s Report (Jeffery Greenawalt)
Financials:
Four areas of financial data reviewed.
- DPA Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2005 – cash balance $39,303l; total assets $824,668 for this same period; total liabilities are $60,783 with a fund balance of $765,850.
- DPA income and Expense statement for 6 mos – income of $31,727
- Updated 2006 Budget – Footnote item #7 details the accounting for the $50,000 funding of the GEO DC office. Special note the $50,000 will be removed at the end of the fiscal year. Footnote item #8 is the $5,000 travel support for Scott Tinker, DPA Distinguished Lecturer
- DPA Investment- fair market value up to $20,595.60 from its beginning balance of $762,570.92 to $783,166.52. The FMC of the Investment Portfolio as of January 31, 2006 is $826,137.48.
Motion: Bole moved, Brittenham seconded to accept treasurer’s report as written; discussion; approved.
6. Past President’s report (J. Michael Party)
Application form(s) – streamlined out on the website. The DPA application now allows for a resume’ to be inserted in several areas for applicant background information.
DPA Speaker at the 2006 Southwest Section meeting in May will be J. Michael Party, talk on “Oil Shales of the United States”.
7. Council Reports
- Eastern Section (Mike Canich)- written report
2006 Eastern meeting – Oct 8-11, Buffalo, NY-- will recommend Scott Tinker as DPA Luncheon Speaker) - The members of the New York State Council of Professional Geologists have expressed dismay with the requirement that a Masters of Geology is the minimum for registration.
- 2006 GCS meeting – Sept 25-27, Lafayette: Joint luncheon DPA-DEG-EMD; speaker Brent Yantis, NASA/University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Talk – “Louisiana View Program in Action: Applications in Remote Sensing for Real-Time Response to Hurricane Katrina” (Paul Britt)
- Rick Ericksen: May 11, 2006 PPTC, Workshop ,Environmental Workshop on Compliance, Jackson, MS
- Al Jasper: Fall meeting – The ETGS presents The Gulf Coast Mesozoic Sandstone Gas Province November 16, 2006, Tyler, Texas (www.easttexasgeo.com) Is it possible for DPA to sponsor- place our logo on program? Please provide information to nnewby@aapg.org.
c. Mid-Continent –see written report – no representatives present
2007 Mid Continent Section Meeting – September 8-11, Wichita, Kansas
d. Pacific (John Armentrout)
2006 Pacific meeting jointly with GSA and SPE – May 8-10, Anchorage-DPA Luncheon speaker, Scott Tinker on Ethics
e. Southwest Section (Jeff Jones, Bill Stephens)
2006 Southwest meeting May 22-24, Midland-see written report
Requested the DPA produce a powerpoint slide presentation to bring ideas back home to the working geologists.
f. Rocky Mountain Section (Dave Abbott, Marvin Brittenham)
2006 RMS meeting – June 11-13, Billings, MT- All Convention Luncheon
g. International Section (Marty Hewitt) – see written report
Item of significance: Canada is trying to broker an associate member of the APPEGGA, the entity that licenses professional geologists, geophysicists and engineers in Canada, to become a member of the DPA.
8. Committee Reports
a. Board of Certification (Royce Carr, chair not present) –see written report
- 18 petroleum geologists and 1 petroleum geophysicist were certified between November 2005 and February 2006. Discussion on how DPA can appeal to the state registered geologists.
- John Jordan questions procedures for the PDH Form. Board Certified Member level effective as of this meeting (April 8th, 2006).
- Rick Ericksen will approach Texas Board of Geoscientists and advance the idea that the print out for thePDH’s be accepted by Texas Board.
Board Certified member must fulfill requirement of 20 PDH’s before they can make application for Board Certified level. At this time no application form is in place- that will be next step to draft a form. Final form will be on the website.
Discussed: Tracking system – acknowledgement form that shows necessary requirements. Promote – how?
b. Continuing Education Committee (Jim Hill)
Discussed “Ethical” talks. What continuing education courses would be of interest to the respective sections. Please send that information to Jim Hill.
c. Governmental Affairs Committee (Carl Smith-chair not present) – written report provided
Item of significance: The Instant Reply Committee was created to respond immediately to proposed legislation. The committee contacts members though email Action Alerts so each DPA member can respond immediately to your congressional leader. Councilors are automatically on committee – watch for “email alerts”.
Lee Gerhard to Chair Governmental Affairs Committee starting July 1, 2006.
d. Membership Committee (John Jordan) – see written report
Discussed steady decline since 2000 – DPA has lost 50 certified members on an average every year since 2000.
A target list was created of 1500 active AAPG members that are licensed geologists in Texas but are not DPA members. This is a good trial group to determine if the PDH reporting could attract them to joining the DPA.
e. Publications (Correlator Editor – Mike Fogarty, not present) no report
f. State Registration Committee (Rick Ericksen) – see detail written report
There have been no changes in number of states with registration or licensure over the past year – 28 states and 1 territory with true practice regulation laws.
Presented an overview with PowerPoint on ASBOG as the testing entity for the DPA. He discussed degree requirements, the development of reciprocity between the states and Memoranda of Understanding. The development of the test for a state is approximately $1000,000 plus a $75,000/year maintenance fee.
g. Committee on Conventions:
- 2006 Houston, April 9-12, 2006 (Rick Nagy- not present – no report)
DPA Awards Dinner, Saturday, April 8th, 2006; 7:00 p.m.; Artista Restaurant; 800 Bagby, Hobby Center Performing Arts, Houston - 2007 Long Beach April 1-4, 2007 (Bob Lindblom, Vice Chair)
Written report provided by Bob Lindblom
h. Ad hoc, Long Range Planning Committee: DPA Procedures Manual (George Bole) See written report
9. Old Business
a. Legislators Education CD(Bob Shoup)
Don Juckett, Executive Director of the GEO-DC is editing the Legislator’s CD prepared by Bob Shoup for the best content and presentation.
b. Professional Development Hour form (Armentrout)
Modifications to be added as follows:
- Ethics course requirement
- End of form inventory of hours for past year, current and carry over hours (so if you exceeded minimum threshold of this years recording).
A target date of June 1, 2006 was established for the form to be activated – six people volunteered to do a Beta test Ericksen, Party, Jordan, Bole, Hewitt and Armentrout.
Previously decided to do a recording of “calendar” year basis; but the State of Texas asks for recording on your birthdate. The idea being that gives a relatively uniform workload for producing reports, crosschecking. The entry for the birthdate will be added to the form that will automatically trigger a report that would consist of a cover letter stating that you have or have not met the minimum requirements for the certification for that year and that there would automatically be that cover letter plus the document that would be the inventory form that would automatically be sent to you electronically. Advantage of using the birthdate is that it spreads the workload out over the year. Individual can always go in and update their own form upload it on whatever anniversary date their agency requires.
Motion: Armentrout moved; Ericken seconded that the form for professional development hours for DPA Board Certification with the three modifications- birthdate; ethics; bottom line inventory for past, current and carryover hours, be approved; discussion; AAPG IT department to determine months last day for scanning; approved.
Tested during June and have out on web for membership mid-July.
- Board Certification:
Suggestion: add Board certified to dues statement membership card. NO additional charge for this level of certification was the consensus of the attendees. - Suggested a way to track time, effort in dollars to see exactly how much more it costs. Monitor – if in future things need to be altered we would have basis to make those changes.
10. New Business
a. Congressional visit (Green)
Propose to send the president elect and chair of Governmental Affairs Committee and DPA pick up expenses every year.
Motion: Armentrout moved, Party seconded, DPA underwrite the attendance to the congressional visit days providing expenses for the DPA President Elect, President and Chair of Governmental Affairs Committee on an annual basis up to and not to exceed $5,000; discussion; amend motion to cover their expenses (not subsidize) for participation in the congressional visit day; Amended motion, Armentrout moved; Ericksen seconded the inclusion of the words “ or invited representatives” to the original motion; discussion; approved; Vote original motion: approved.
The original motion now reads the DPA will underwrite the travel expenses for the three stated DPA members or invited representatives to attend Congressional Visit Days not to exceed an amount of $5,000.
Motion Carried.
- President-Elect Green reported that the Certified Reserve Evaluator position is dead. The AAPG through DPA, SPE and SPEE are still going to work on courses to change the ethics of reserve evaluation. Ron Harrell, SPE, is diligently working trying close the existing loopholes in reserve evaluation.
Date of Next Meeting: Saturday, November 17 - 19, 2006 Dallas, Texas,
Times: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Hotel: Adams Mark Hotel, Dallas, Texas (flyer provided at meeting); reservations 1-800-444-2326.
11. Approval to Adjourn
Motion. Sacrey moved to adjourn council meeting, Green seconded; approved.
Executive Committee Session
Deborah Sacrey, President
Richard Green, President Elect
Debra Rutan, Vice President
Craig Reynolds, Secretary
Jeff Greenawalt, Treasurer
J. Michael Party, Past President
Norma Newby, AAPG Staff
President Sacrey approved the new budgeted item in the amount of $5,000 covering the Congressional Visit Days travel expenses for 2007. This will be a special note to the budget.
Motion: Reynolds moved, Sacrey seconded all business conducted by the DPA Council approved by the DPA Executive Committee. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 1:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Craig Reynolds, Secretary
Norma Newby, Manager, AAPG Divisions