AASG Executive Committee
2012 Annual Meeting
Brazos Room
Lakeway Resort, Austin, Texas
June 10, 2012
VICKI MCCONNELL:
9:00 a.m. Call to order
Secretary Gillman, please take roll.
Roll call:
President Vicki McConnell – Present
Vice President Bob Swenson - Present
President Elect Harvey Thorleifson – Present
Past President Jim Cobb - Present
Treasurer Jon Arthur - Present
Secretary Joe Gillman - Present
JOE GILLMAN:
President McConnell, we have a quorum.
JOE GILLMAN:
Minutes for the 2012 Spring Liaison Executive Committee were distributed to all members. I received one comment from Don Hoskins, made that change, and they are ready to approve.
VICKI McCONNELL:
A review of the proposed minutes for the Ex. Comm. as submitted is put forth for a vote to be approved.
BOB SWENSON:
I move that we accept the minutes as written.
HARVEY THORLEIFSON:
I second the motion.
VICKI McCONNELL:
The vote is unanimous - The minutes for the 2012 Spring Liaison Ex. Comm. minutes have been approved.
President’s Report – Vicki McConnell
Ex. Comm. has met several times by teleconference and these are informational meetings, not action meetings. They do help the President set the agendas for the actual formal business meetings. We also are able to talk through any issues.
JIM COBB:
We do take votes and take action at these meetings.
VICKI McCONNELL:
We also vote by email and we don’t keep minutes of those either. That is so noted. They are useful and the recommendation is to continue some type of intermittent teleconference meetings.
A couple of things I want to bring up at this meeting are:
· Earth Science Week - AASG/USGS are coordinating to sponsor a “Geologic Mapping Day” during the upcoming Earth Science Week. That will be Friday, October 19th . The theme is “Careers and Training”. There is going to be a whole variety of materials to go into the kits for teachers to sponsor a “Geologic Mapping Day” activity for students. We will be tracking through AGI the feedback from the instructors. Do we always want to have the Friday of Earth Science Week dedicated to a Geologic Mapping Day? AGI’s proposal is estimating $5000 so we are splitting 50/50 with USGS. We are pulling together a lot of material that’s already out there. AGI and GSA put a big brochure together several years ago. That large glossy fold out map will be part of the packet to help teachers. I want to note that when AGI sent the proposal, they sent it as Geomapping Day—I told them again and again that we would only accept “Geologic Mapping Day”.
· Hydraulic Fracturing – Harvey just returned from a congressional briefing on Hydraulic Fracturing that was sponsored by USGS’s Congressional group. We were contacted by USGS to MC this and I couldn’t work it into my schedule so Harvey attended.
Past President’s Report – Jim Cobb
JIM COBB:
I have reported on the Nominations Committee and Awards Committee so you will see that in my report. And I also want to report that I am doing very well and feeling fine!
President Elect’s Report – Harvey Thorleifson
HARVEY THORLEIFSON:
Both Fall and Spring Liaison were very successful. We had 26 meetings in Fall 2011 and 41 meetings in Spring 2012. We want to have quality meetings. We had quite a lot of meetings with appropriations staff and they were good meetings. We had 12 members attend in Fall 2011 and 25 attend in Spring 2012. That is a good average for both meetings. For everyone that attended, it is very much appreciated.
At Fall Liaison, Jim Cobb attended the AGI Leadership Forum on Monday and the rest of us attended the reception. We did attend the congressional visit day. We attended the USGS Coalition reception, but did not have a display.
Our AASG Dinner was well attended. The Pick and Gavel Awards went well with awards to Senator Feinstein and Rep. Moran and there was a great effort by John Parrish to present awards. We are trying to have more meetings with staff of Appropriations Committees as that is part of our strategic plan with our AGI contract. The debrief on Wednesday afternoon is really working well.
Regarding meeting format, we tend to rush from meeting to meeting and from time to time arrive late. In March we went to five tracks, two in the morning, two in the afternoon, and a lunch meeting. The advantage is that it is more manageable. The disadvantage is that we spend less time in the meetings. However, the consensus is having the five tracks.
The Geothermal Contract with DOE is immensely important to surveys across the country. We appreciate Lee Allison’s continued effort with this contract. We are also focused on NCGMP and NGGDPP. We have had really great success with STATEMAP. When these were restored last year, we know this was because of the great efforts behind the scene. Thanks to Jim and Vicki and everyone that has a hand in this!
The President’s 2013 Budget is positive for STATEMAP and we will be keeping an eye on NGGDPP. The hydraulic fracturing and water initiative are also in there and we have expressed our concerns in funding those also. When we met with Appropriations staff, they said they were really impressed that we actually came and met with them and expressed our concerns.
A week after Liaison I conveyed our message to the House Committee on Energy and Mineral subcommittee. Jon Price spoke for SME and I spoke for AASG. This was the subcommittee considering the President’s USGS budget. We mentioned the minerals program, coal, National Groundwater Information Network and it was very fascinating to see how all that worked. There was an intern there that had attended the Pick and Gavel and she spoke about how that connects to us. She is a fellow for AGU. We need to make sure we meet the new geoscience fellows. These connections really count.
David Wunsch, David Spears, and I attended the AGU Policy Conference at the end of April. It was an excellent meeting. AGU is doing a lot of really impressive innovative things. AGU is succeeding in ways that are astonishing. This is part of their new strategic plan. I was approached by a Senior member of AGU to ask us to participate next time. The audience for this meeting was mix of scientists, NGO leaders, senior government people and lobbyists. They want to bring together a group of geoscientists that can influence geoscience. It was nice to be asked but this is something we need to discuss to see if this will really help AASG and if we would get any benefit from this.
VICKI MCCONNELL:
They are not going to let us display and use our AASG logo without providing some financial support. AASG most likely would not reap the benefits from the money we invest. We would have to see a real proposal from them before we can decide.
BOB SWENSON:
It seems that everyone here understand the reputation that AASG has built over the years and that joining something like that could dilute our reputation. I don’t think this is something that we would want to do. Providing a speaker would be perfectly fine, but being a partner is not what we want to do.
HARVEY THORLEIFSON:
I think we should provide a speaker and be supportive, but we do not feel we can provide financial support.
JOHN PRICE:
AGU is a wonderful organization but the connection there is somewhat tenuous.
HARVEY THORLEIFSON:
In reference to being asked to provide a witness for the hearings, John Price said if they ask, DO IT! If USGS asks us to do a favor and we do it. I think by doing this, it cannot do anything but help.
HARVEY THORLEIFSON:
For example, the discussion of hydraulic fracturing was a very sensitive topic and it was my job to moderate the discussion and keep it on track. I think USGS took a risk on me that I would be able to control the discussion and that is why they wanted an outsider to moderate.
To sum up, Liaison makes a big difference. People appreciate the meetings, they let us know how helpful we are. We have a broad perspective and we can speak from outside the Beltway. We also learn a lot. It’s been suggested that we should just do Liaison in March. However, I think we need to be in DC twice a year. Things change drastically in a year. I think we do need to be there every six months.
For Fall 2012, September 9-12, the room blocks are set, all meeting rooms are booked and we are ready to go.
For Spring 2013, March 10-13,the room blocks are set, all meeting rooms are booked and we are ready to go.
That concludes my report.
VICKI MCCONNELL:
I want to change the agenda just a bit. Jerry Weisenfluh is going to give his report on the Associates.
Associate’s Report – Jerry Weisenfluh
Jerry Weisenfluh:
The AASG Associates group conducted a survey of funded research projects this past year. Twenty five states responded to the survey. Preliminary analysis shows that there are at least 15 Federal agencies that fund one or more surveys through their programs. Many interesting ideas are found among the different ways individual states are funded through state, local, and private sources. The Executive Committee asked the Associates to consider sending out a final request for participation and to distill information from the raw survey data into a final report.
HARVEY THORLEIFSON:
This fits in very well with the purpose and mission of AASG. We want to optimize the way all these documents are stored and filed. AASG exists primarily to support the work of state geological surveys. That means awareness and information.
VICKI MCCONNELL:
My suggestion is that we task the Association to get the spreadsheet in a good place and then it would be made available on the website. This would be one that we make available to membership only. It will be something that should help folks understand the workings of other state surveys.
JON ARTHUR:
This is a very valuable resource for me, so thank you Jerry and the other Associates for this endeavor. I would like to see some of these actual proposals, especially city and county and other agencies. It would be interesting to see what the crossover was for geology. This also could be great guide to how we manage our Liaison Meetings.
VICKI MCCONNELL:
Jerry, I suggest that you take what you heard today back to the Associates, do some tweaking of the database, and then get it back to the Executive Committee and when we will see that it gets distributed. I would also like to suggest that we make this an annual task of the Associates to keep it updated or maybe every couple of years, since we only had 50% response. There’s still a wealth of information out there that has not been reported on. If we can get this into a good shape where surveys can use the information, then possibly the other surveys would also be willing to share their information.
BOB SWENSON:
I don’t think we need to worry about sensitivity, if people don’t want their information out there, they would not have given it to you. Also, a lot of this information will be very specific, so having the project description would be very useful.
Vice President Report – Bob Swenson
BOB SWENSON:
The 2011 Annual meeting in Dubuque was an incredible meeting. We had 124 total registrants, 30 states were represented. There were 39 federal attendees, with 23 being USGS. We closed the books in the black with $11,173.89. Of course, $10,000 of that is related to the USGS grant, but even without that, we were still able to close in the black. Bob’s final report is online and since 2005, we have 7 final reports that are very useful for future meetings. So if we make a decision on archiving the physical documents, that would be a good example.
This meeting is turning out to be a success also. We have a total of 166 registrants total. USGS attendance has dropped dramatically, with only 11 participants. The hold on federal travel has made a difference.
HARVEY THORLEIFSON:
The grant from USGS for our Annual Meeting is helpful, so hopefully we will receive it again next year.
BOB SWENSON:
Originally, Scott was not going to use the grant, as it has to go through Grants.gov, but he did end up using the money. In Derric’s budget for next year, he is not planning on using that money, but that may change.
VICKI MCCONNELL:
I think it should be the recommendation by the Ex. Comm. to advise the host state to take advantage of the USGS Grant—we can’t make them apply for the grant, but I think we should encourage them to apply. The Ex. Comm. needs to come to decision as we go forward if we think it is a good idea to continue having that discussion with USGS.
BOB SWENSON:
I need to clarify Derric’s decision about not counting on using the USGS grant when he developed his budget, because he was not certain he would receive the grant.
HARVEY THORLEIFSON:
On that point, do we ask the host to budget to break even or do we ask the host to budget for a profit? We don’t have a policy for this.
VICKI MCCONNELL:
We don’t have a written policy, but the Ex. Comm. has made it clear that we expect the host state to always break even.
BOB SWENSON:
I think the grant is specifically for help with the Annual Meeting and if we don’t need it, we shouldn’t ask for it.
JIM COBB:
No, that is not really correct. This money is a grant from USGS to help with liaison needs between AASG/USGS. We apply for a grant so USGS can attend our meetings and learn more about our Association and how we work with USGS.