Letter From President

Hello Members,

We have a lot going on and I hope you are able to get out and see your friends and colleagues either at our May 4th Happy Hour at Social Capital (May HH Info), the May 18th technical luncheon (May Luncheon Registration), or at the Annual Golf Tournament May 22nd (Golf Tournament Registration). 

We are through our First Quarter and through our transition to the new Member Management System and Website.  Thank you all for your patience with us while we had difficulties getting the American Express payment option working during Renewals; you should be able to use Amex for any registration now.  Thank you also as we learned how to set up forms for registrations and the changes we made to allow for multiple registrations on a single form. In short, we are making progress and I hope you will begin to see it as well!

The Board met offsite this month to discuss how the OCGS provides value to its members.  We remain steadfast to our Society’s objective to help our members advance their career in geoscience by providing quality, cost-effective educational and networking opportunities. While making the case to my colleagues to join the Society, I realized many folks may be unaware where their member dollars go.  So here goes:

Did you know?

  • Your membership renewal goes towards bringing in out of town guest speakers like Justin Simon, who gave a talk on the Mars Rover last month as well as offsets the “real” cost of short courses and classes we provide locally
  • Your dollars also helps support university students with Field Camp expenses by providing scholarships.  This year we are providing scholarships totaling $5000 to a total of seven students from OSU, OU, and TU

Where else does all the money go?

  • Membership communication and management – we purchased a license to the MemberClicks Platform in 2022 and pay yearly maintenance to continue it.  The OCGS is like any other organization with G&A expenses.  We are committed to utilize the capital we receive as efficiently as we can.  This purchase was necessary to backfill for Michelle Hone who moved full-time to the MCGL; also with the goal of communicating with our membership more effectively
  • Storage – the OCGS has documents and materials that are physically and digitally stored
  • Financial Audits – the OCGS conducted a Financial Audit in 2021 which found no material issues with our books and our processes
  • Annual tax preparation – We file taxes and need help along the way   
  • Sometimes we don’t cover expenses on classes and luncheons and our funds go to offsetting those losses

Your Board is working diligently to keep our Society competitive, strong, and accessible to everybody and we are so excited about the coming years and additional improvements we can make to impact our future, like working to reducing dues in 2024.  In the meantime, let’s get excited about the events on the calendar and the upcoming AAPG Midcontinent Section Meeting coming to the OKC Convention Center in early October – Link to sign up and see festivities here: https://www.aapgmcs2023.org/.

All the best,

Lesley – President OCGS