President's column
In my April column, I talked about how SPE’s Board of Directors uses a Strategic Plan to better prepare for change and the need for responsiveness. While the Strategic Plan is formally reviewed once a year, the board uses it to guide its discussions and decisions throughout the year.
The full board meets three times annually following an early-year meeting of the Board Committee on Finance and Administration. One of the three meetings is held in conjunction with the Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. The other two meetings are held in various locations around the world where SPE has members. The board held its first meeting of 2012 in Perth, Australia, 2–4 March.
At the Perth meeting, the board approved the budget for Fiscal Year 2013 (which runs from 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013). The budget’s operating plan calls for completing a number of important activities, including the following:
Develop the pilot for the PetroWiki, an industry-knowledge website using SPE’s Petroleum Engineering Handbook as a base to which SPE’s global membership can contribute information
Expand the use of mobile technology to meet the needs of our members, including mobile applications for such things as the Member Directory and events calendar, and SPE’s online communities
Organize more than 140 events globally, with a combined budget of more than USD 40 million
Continue to grow our professional and student memberships
Deliver more than 500 in-person Distinguished Lecturer presentations and extend the Distinguished Lecturer program through use of webinars
Hold several technical section webinars
Award USD 560,000 in scholarships and fellowships
Publish more articles about global issues and technologies in JPT
Hold 120 training courses in SPE’s Houston and Calgary training centers and in conjunction with SPE events and as stand-alone courses around the world
Further globalize SPE’s energy education program
Organize summits on key industry issues
Fully implement a new system to improve submission of paper proposals and manuscripts for meetings
Holding our board meetings in different places all over the world gives us an opportunity to meet with local sections, student chapters, and industry leaders in the region. In Perth, we took the opportunity to meet students and faculty at the University of Western Australia. The board also had a very productive meeting with executives from the region.
Fifteen executives from Australia and Southeast Asia met with the board in a 2-hour session in which they gave their views on the issues facing the industry over the next 10 to 20 years and offered some ideas on ways SPE could help.