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Presidential address

(Editor's note: This article is a slightly modified version of the Presidential Address given by SEG President Peter Duncan during the Annual Meeting in October of 2004.)

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

Fifty-three-dollar oil! Wow! Gold at over $400 per ounce and heading for an all-time high! Copper at a 15-year high! Our industry must be rocking and our society flourishing.

Well it does seem that the industry is slowly, cautiously responding to the higher cash flows. But I don't think I would find anyone here who would say that the budget thaw is happening too fast or that spending levels are too high.

What about the state of your society, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists?

SEG 2003–2004 president Peter Duncan

I believe I can truthfully report that we have had a good year by whatever measure you choose to judge success.

Finances? I don't like to judge SEG's success by the money we make, but I do appreciate the opportunities that come with a healthy set of financials. SEG has had an operating surplus this fiscal year, which ended June 30, of about US$ 650 000 on revenues of close to $9 million. We ended the year with cash reserves of more than $1.3 million. SEG has very little long-term debt and even owns the beautiful office building that houses our staff in Tulsa.

The SEG Foundation now has over $8 million in its corpus. The Foundation gave out about $227 000 in scholarships this year. It underwrites the DISC program to the tune of about $100 000/year and it also supported worthwhile geophysical projects like summer field camps, student job expos, and gifts of PCs to SEG student sections in some less-developed parts of the world. But many worthwhile projects are turned down every year for lack of funds. The Foundation Board is embarking on a major fundraising effort which deserves your support.

Well, what of membership? That could certainly be another measure of success. Today, SEG has 21 300 . . . [Full Text of this Article]