EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MESSAGE
United, We Represent our Profession
Aaron W. Johnson, MEM-2783
awj@aipg.org
Fall is upon us in Denver; the Aspens have turned their usual lovely shade of gold, and the first snows of the year are visible on Mt. Adams. For many geologists, late fall marks the end of field season and the transition to more time spent in the office. For others who live in warmer climes, late fall signals the beginning of a more comfortable field climate, often making the work easier. Whatever the case, we geologists, all 300,000 of us, continue to provide resources, ensure health and safety, mitigate impacts, create maps, and do the hundreds of other things we do every day to ensure public health and safety, promote economic growth and development, and minimize impacts on our environment.
For me, fall marks ‘Annual Meeting Season’ the time dur- ing which the professional geoscience organizations hold their annual gatherings, promoting our profession, disseminating new geological knowledge, and considering the future for geologists working here and abroad. In September, AIPG held our National Meeting in Nashville. The Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists (AEG) held their Annual Meeting in Colorado, also in September. In October, the Geological Society of America (GSA) held their Annual Meeting in Seattle. The Association of State Boards of Geology (ASBOG) held their Annual Meeting in Portland in November. The American Geophysical Union (AGU) will hold their Annual Meeting in New Orleans in December. Fall becomes a veritable alphabet soup of meetings of groups with a geological bent.
Fall also is a time when members of these organizations are able to meet and to have meaningful conversations about the challenges that face our profession. Each organization exists to promote a series of discrete, yet related, groups of people and their goals. In most instances, the goals of our professional organizations are complimentary, providing the potential for our professional organizations to work together to achieve our goals.
In addition, many of our organizations have recently under- gone a change in leadership, providing new perspectives on how best to leverage the power of our organizations to address our common goals. As a result, the Directors of our respective professional organizations have recognized a singular, simple truth: the 300,000 members of our profession are most power- ful when we are able to provide a united voice. In truth, if we broaden the definition to include all who study some aspect of the earth system, the size of our profession swells to encompass nearly 500,000 professional geoscientists. As a united group, we have a strong voice.
28 TPG •
Oct.Nov.Dec 2017
As I’ve attended these professional meetings this fall, many concerns have arisen. Professional conduct in the workplace, efforts to do away with professional licensing and registration for geologists, recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce, encouraging young geoscientists to become active participants and leaders in the profession, the future of state and federal remediation project dollars, and a host of other items have arisen at these meetings. Each subject could be the topic of a single column in TPG. Each subject is of intense interest to multiple professional organizations. Each subject underscores the importance of our professional geoscience organizations working together to provide a united message to address these challenges.
To that end, AIPG and AGI are working together to update the message, goals, and objectives, of the American Geoscience Consortium. The Consortium represents the Association of American State Geologists, AGI, and AIPG at the National Conference of State Legislators-Legislative Summit, which is held annually, usually in late July or Early August each year. The NCSL Legislative Summit is an opportunity for the Consortium to reach out directly to state legislators and their staff. This meeting provides to us the opportunity to communicate directly our concerns, to provide state-of-the-art information, and hear the concerns of state legislators from across the United States. Our update will focus on applying geoscience to make the best policy decisions. It is our hope that by providing a united voice focused on providing the best possible geoscience information to decision makers, we will be able to provide valuable information to state government and raise awareness of the work geoscientists do and the challenges that we help to address.
AIPG’s Booth at the Geological Society of America annual meeting in Seattle, Washington in October
www.aipg.org
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