PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Membership, Outreach, Mentoring
Nancy J. Wolverson, CPG-11048
nancyjeanw@aol.com
I am writing this in early February 2021 for publication in April. We will have our first Executive Committee Meeting in late February where we will discuss our plans for the year. As you can see from the title of this message, I plan to focus 2021 activities on the following:
1. Membership 2. Outreach 3. Mentoring
The topics I have chosen to focus on during 2021 all revolve around membership. In order to increase membership and retain our current members, we must constantly improve and expand the benefits of AIPG membership to accommodate the professional needs of our members.
Membership
Membership in AIPG has been on a steady decline over the last several years. It has not been dramatic, but we need to address the reasons for the decline and come up with a plan to increase membership in all categories. I have created an Ad Hoc Membership Committee, which will be co-chaired by me, the 2021 President, and Matt Rhoades, the 2021 President- Elect. The purpose of our involvement is to assure two years with a consistent message and activities. We need volunteers to work on this committee and would like to include represen- tatives from a broad spectrum of geoscience specialties, levels of experience, member categories and geography. By the time you read this message, we hope to have a few members on the committee and an initial list of action items. Please consider contacting me or Matt if you would like to help in creation and implementation of a plan to increase AIPG membership in all categories.
Outreach
Outreach is a broad topic, and we will certainly have to nar- row our activities to what can be accomplished within a year. There are many ways to expand the Institute’s outreach activi- ties including meeting attendance, attendance by National at State Section meetings, advertising in geoscience publications and social media, to name just a few. As with our membership activities, the focus of the outreach effort will be on all cat- egories of membership. This effort will need to be coordinated between the Executive Committee, the Ad Hoc Membership Committee, AIPG National and the State Sections. Our State Sections are a critically important resource, particularly in recruiting new members.
Mentoring
The Executive Committee has been talking about initiating a mentorship program for several years. My goal is to set-up
www.aipg.org
a link in the members-only portion of the AIPG website to accommodate volunteer mentors. We will be creating a gen- eral format for each mentor to populate with their education, experience, interests, specialties, etc., to give the possible mentees as much information as possible. Mentees can then contact one or more of the mentors that are experienced in the geoscience specialty or career of interest to them. My goal is to make this as user friendly and useful to the mentees as possible. The mentors will be there as a resource for discussion on education, career, technical aspects of geology and general guidance. The creation of the link on the website will take some time. If you are interested in volunteering as a mentor, please email me and I will contact you when we are ready to create the website link.
As I mentioned above, my focus in 2021 is membership. The outreach and mentoring programs are steps in my overall plan to increase membership by better delivering the message about the advantages and benefits of AIPG membership. It is critical to understand why members join, retain membership and end their membership. Surveys are often used to evaluate these and other topics, but the response is never adequate to give us the broad picture needed. Phone calls, zoom meetings or other forms of communication can be more effective. In the grand scheme of things, the stronger the connection between the Executive Committee and the membership, the better prepared we are to provide the resources needed to attract new members and retain our current members.
If you have made it to the end of this message, you might be just the type of person we need to help the Executive Committee implement the activities planned for 2021. The Ad Hoc Membership Committee will already be active by the time you read this message and the mentoring link on the website will be in the planning stages. I encourage you to email me (
nancyjeanw@aol.com) if you are willing to help.
AIPG’s Mentor Program
AIPG offers a mentor program for aspiring geologists in the many different disciplines.
Be sure to sign up
www.aipg.org/ mentorsprogram.
Apr.May.Jun 2021 • TPG 33
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