Congratulations are in order for the Corpus Christi Geological Society and all its members as a result of the Awards Program at this year’s Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies. CCGS received a“PROCLAMATION” by the Governing Board for GCAGS as the “2007-2008 OUTSTANDING COMMUNITY SERVICE SOCIETY”. Please see the copy of this proclamation after the President’s Letter in this bulletin.

Our very active member, Frank Cornish received two awards for his paper “Southwest Speaks Lower Wilcox Structural Complex, Lavaca County Texas” co authored by Robert W. Parker. Frank was awarded First Place in the2007 Thomas A. Philpott Excellence of Presentation Award and Third Place in the 2007 GCSSEPM Grover E. Murray Best Paper in the Transactions”. “Way to go Frank”!

Our Texas A & M University Corpus Christi Professor and Research Associate, Dr. James R. Garrison, Jr., placedSecond in the 2007 Gordon I. Atwater Best Paper Award for “The Nueces Incised Valley Revisited: A reinterpretation of the Sedimentary and Depositional Sequence Stratigraphy of Preserved Pleistocene and Holocene Valley Fill Sediments”. This paper was co-authored by Bobby McCoy.

Every member of CCGS should be very proud of these individual achievements, but especially for the 2007-2008 Outstanding Community Service Award because this didn’t happen just this year. This is the result of tremendous outreach efforts on the part of our members over a 20 plus year period starting in 1989 when Pat Nye was President. Pat initiated the BayFest GeoDig, and we have manned a booth at this event every year since. From this beginning our outreach has evolved under the direction of succeeding Boards and Presidents until today when we have the most aggressive programs of any other Society in the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies.

Dr. Thomas McGehee, Texas A & M Kingsville started the “Junior Rock Hound Precollege Outreach Program in the mid 80’s for Kingsville and surrounding areas and brought the idea to CCGS. We then bought books and copies of some of his handouts to create our own Junior Rock Hound program. We now participate in the Corpus Christi informal education educators, a program that has been held annually at the Aquarium and on the Lexington where 400 to 500 educators come by our booth to pick up flyers about the Junior Rock Hound Program and other outreach projects of our society.

To fully appreciate what we have done and why we were recognized by GCAGS, read “Report to the 2008 Annual Meeting of the GCAGS Board of directors” that appears on page 27 in this bulletin.

Those of us who attended our Luncheon Meeting on Wednesday, October 15th were treated to an outstanding, informative and inspiring paper presented by Cathy Farmer of BP/Amoco. What made this speech so inspiring is that it demonstrates what you might call finding a prospect the “Old Fashioned Way.” This huge prospect on the Gulf of Mexico Shelf started with regional stratigraphic and sedimentary studies, then regional 2-D seismic and source rock work that led management to acquire critical leases and conduct a 3-D survey that confirmed the concept. Today, the Bob Palmer, the largest platform rig, is drilling a 28,000 foot test with an AFE in excess of $150,000,000.00 on a sub salt prospect with enormous potential. Cathy pointed out the importance of the team effort involving 10 or more scientists. Cathy, a confident and obviously good geologist and manager is a role model for the type of geologists we need in the future in order to discover, develop and produce the now technically definable prospects with the incredible oil & gas resources in the off shore Gulf of Mexico. She also pointed out that the same rocks should extend on shore, though they may be quite deeper.

This exciting prospect and the way it was found and developed reinforces that the geosciences are alive, and a worthy profession to pursue. It validates the importance of the seeds we are planting through our outreach programs in schools, our scholarships, libraries and community speaking, in an effort to create interest in our profession. Now using this example and pointing to the exciting work ahead for future geoscientists we have the opportunity to again entice our top students to consider studying geology and geophysics and seek careers in our Oil & Gas industry in which people are needed to fill the open positions as our generation retires or becomes dated.

Finally, let me say that although I have not been actively involved in the great achievements of our society, I am extremely proud to be associated with such a dedicated group of individuals. There is no question that we deserve the honor recently presented to us by GCAGS. Each of you should take great personal pride in what you have done to earn this recognition.

I am looking forward to seeing you at the Corpus Christi Town Club on November 19th to hear Peter M. Duncan’s talk on “Aggressively Passive: Microseismic Opportunities Over an Oil Field’s Life.”

Daniel A. Pedrotti
CCGS President