PROFESSIONAL AFFAIRS
AEG trusts that such a captaincy of professional applied geologists could be developed in every state from the mem- bers of this action group’s organizations. Some states already have independent bodies from which such individuals could be approached. Most states would need to have our organizations collaborate with applied geologists to seek the mem- bers of a state’s captaincy.
The third proposal is annually fund- ing a legislative tracking service. [This proposal should not be funded until the first two proposals have been imple- mented to some extent.] Too often the professional community learns very late about an important bill, which may require our support or our request for revision or our opposition. A legislative tracking service provides bill filings and movements every business day for all 50 state legislatures and the federal legisla- tive branch. [Our action group could be informed of bills ahead of paid lobbyists.] This data allows us to seek to support or revise or oppose bills early in the committee cycle. Our applied geologists, as voting state residents, at this early stage can have the most productive and least expensive influence with their own legislators on bills. (AIPG Editor’s note: Dr. Hempen has informed me that AEG’s Board of Directors has now authorized funding of a legislative tracking service (LTS). Two additional services are being reviewed in August 2019 to resolve the best LTS for distributing legislative data to voluntary state captaincies. AEG may be able to contract for a LTS to start pro- viding bill tracking on or about October 1, 2019).
AEG carefully evaluated one tracking service this past summer. A tracking service uses a Boolean Logic search of provided keywords to identify bills of interest. In AEG’s opinion, a professional staff from among an organization of our action group must be involved in receiv- ing the daily bill tracking reports. Paid staff can be available every business day of the year. Volunteers, and particularly applied geologists, may not be available for long periods. The professional staff would: coordinate the contact with the tracking service, pay its invoices and arrange the effective keywords for leg- islative tracking; keep and modify the state captaincy lists and the email lists of committees of our action group’s organi- zations; and, send the tracking service’s daily state tracking information to the appropriate state captaincy and the organizational committees of our action group. In the summer of 2018, one track- ing service was estimated to cost $8,000 to $12,000 annually, depending upon
some search parameters. AEG’s profes- sional staff receiving the tracked bills is estimated to cost $8,000 to $16,000 annually. [46 state legislatures meet annually for differing session lengths. 4 state legislatures meet only in odd- numbered years.] The state captaincy receiving the daily state tracking infor- mation from the professional staff would resolve its importance to their state. The need for three to five applied geologists to be members of the captaincy would assure that at least one of the individuals could act for all. During a state’s legis- lative session, notices on many tracked bills might be received daily, particu- larly early in the session. It should be
Too often the pro- fessional community learns very late about an important bill, which may require our support or our request for revision or our opposition. A legislative tracking service provides bill filings and movements every business day for all 50 state legislatures and the federal legislative branch.
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easy to resolve whether an individu- al bill was important, note worthy or unimportant. Important bills would be alerted to the state’s professional geo- logic organizations for determination of support or revision or opposition to the noted important bill(s). The captaincy would not necessarily lead the legisla- tive approach to the important bills, but would be involved in some capacity. The state’s applied geologists (first proposal) would be sought to request the deter- mined action on the important bill(s) by their contact with their legislators. Note-worthy bills might be followed by the captaincy and the state’s profes- sional geologic organizations until such bills: become important by some action; become unimportant; or, fail to have committee consideration. Respectfully submitted,
Greg Hempen, PhD, PE, RG AEG Past President (2017-2018)
Geologist, Geological Communicator
and Author Killed TPG is indebted to Barb Murphy and the Arizona Geology e-Magazine for this report, for details see: https://blog.
azgs.arizona.edu/blog/2019-08/death- family-sarah-andrews-brown.
Few of us have the talent to bring Geology before the public in as exciting a way as did Sarah Brown, but her life should serve as an inspiration to all of us to engage with the public as effectively as we can for the benefit of our profession, our nation, and the world. Her family has lost three vital and beloved members, and the profession has lost an important champion, --TPG Editor
Sarah (Andrews) Brown, petroleum geologist and author of the Em Hansen mystery series, passed away in a private plane crash along with her husband, Damon, and their son Duncan on 24 July 2019. Sarah’s murder mystery, ‘Fault Line’, was loosely based on Lee Allison’s (former Arizona State Geologist and AIPG John T. Galey Awardee, deceased Aug. 2016) experiences as Utah State Geologist in Salt Lake City leading up to the 2002 Olympics. Through her friend- ship with Lee, Sarah became a friend of the Association of American State Geologists (AASG) and the AZGS and would occasionally visit and regale geolo- gists with stories of murder and mayhem (involving geology, of course). Sarah was an incredible person who led a very full life.
She was the award-winning author, pilot, artist, teacher, and professional geologist who brought the excitement of geology to the public through her mys- tery stories. She adeptly engaged geo- scientist friends in her research, often rewarding them with veiled appearances in her books, sometimes with unfor- tunate outcomes. In her dozen books, geologists, paleontologists, biologists, accountants, and graduate students, among others, were murdered. Her chief alter ego, petroleum geologist turned forensic geologist, Em Hansen, demon- strated that geological principles can be used not only to solve murders and scien- tific problems but also to address social concerns. She painted positive pictures of petroleum, mining, environmental, engineering, and research geologists in industry, the USGS, state geological surveys, and academia.
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