The luncheon meeting speaker this month at the Town Club (Wed. Nov. 20) will be Hongliu Zeng of the BEG. His topic will be “Stratal Slice: The Next Generation.”

There is good news to report this month. Dawn Bissell has volunteered to be the Chairman of the 2016 GCAGS Annual Convention (66th) to be held in Corpus Christi, Texas. The year 2016 happens to be the 40th anniversary of the founding of the CCGS. The CCGS Board accepted her nomination at the September Board Meeting. Dawn will need the support of the entire membership in order to make the convention a success.

The GCAGS Annual Meeting in New Orleans was an entertaining and informative event. Unfortunately, the threat from tropical storm Karen depressed the attendance from the projected 1,000 to 631 (as of October 6). I didn’t see one drop of rain or hardly a gust of wind during the entire meeting. Key highlights from the Board Meeting:

1. GCAGS Awards
   1. $26,000 was awarded for twenty student research grants.
   2. $15,000 was given for two faculty research grants.
   3. The Imperial Barrel Award received considerable support ($5,000) from the GCAGS and corporate sponsors. Applications are due to AAPG December 13, 2013. Shell conducts a Basin Analysis class free of charge. Industry coaches are also provided to universities.
2. The new peer reviewed GCAGS Journal will be given out as a PDF free of charge for two years in order to generate interest. Submissions dropped from 51 last year to 8 this year.
3. The 2014 Annual Meeting will be held in Lafayette on October 5 – 7.
4. Attendance at the GCAGS Annual meetings has been decreasing due to more competition from new meetings.
5. Lack of interest in spouse events, luncheons and and field trips may cause them to be excluded in the future meetings.

We need local papers for the bulletin. I especially would like to have a “Claim to Fame” contribution. This was an idea that Owen Hopkins pushed for and he submitted the first paper in 2011, “1 TCF Prospect turns out to be only 169 BCF & 3.6 MMBO reserves”. The concept is that local geologists submit a short one or two page paper on a significant discovery that they were involved in. These papers will help the younger geologists understand the processes (hard work, management reluctance, land issues, multiple sales efforts, luck, etc.) involved in making a large discovery.

Bob Critchlow
CCGS President 2013 – 2014