As we begin a new year, the 2010 API Delta Chapter Board of Directors would like to recognize and thank 2009 Chairman Ken Meyers for his tireless effort and leadership in guiding our Society through a very challenging year. He hands over an organization that is financially strong with many excellent programs in place. Fortunately, Ken and many past Chairmen, including Jan Catalano (2008), Bernadette Alaniz (2007), and Carlos Guzman (2006) all will remain as very active Advisory Board members in 2010.
As we look forward to the coming year, I and my fellow Board officers: Steve Freeman (First Vice Chairman), Peggy Bourgeois (Second Vice Chairman), and Rick Fowler (Third Vice Chairman), will be working with Barbara Edmonds (Secretary) and Doug Tymkiw (Treasurer) and the Board of Director Committee Chairs and Advisory Board to accomplish the API Delta Chapter Mission to serve and support the local oil and gas industry, and to continue to strengthen math and science education in our local communities.
The API Delta Chapter will continue to support the FETCH program at the Louisiana Children’s Museum, the GNO Science and Engineering Fair, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and BLAST (Building Louisiana Science and Technology) programs as well. The focus of these initiatives is to improve math and science education, and to encourage local students to pursue science education and hopefully careers in the Oil and Gas Industry.
We will also continue to fund the education mini-grant program that provides funds directly to local teachers for materials to teach math and science classes, and will continue to fund our API college scholarship program which assists local youth in pursuing petroleum industry careers.
We invite all API members to continue to help provide the financial support for these programs by your continued participation in our annual Golf Tournament and Clay Shoot activities this year. We also remind you to attend our Technical, Meritorious Service Award, and Joint Society Luncheons as well.
In closing, I would like to borrow the excellent challenge from Jan Catalano in her 2008 Chairman letter:
“I invite you to unite with us in hopes of making a difference -- Become active in industry societies to promote your profession and industry. Help your community and associations through your volunteer efforts and support. Expand the opportunity of a child’s career choice by educating them and their teachers about the various disciplines within the oil and gas industry. Help educate the public about our industry and its importance to the community.”
Sincerely,
John Dribus
2010 Chairman- API Delta Chapter
As we enter the final quarter of this year, no one can say it’s been a boring one. Obviously, we have had too many interesting and concerning events develop in politics, the economy, and our industry. Fortunately, the events associated with our API Delta Chapter have been more enjoyable, informative, and encouraging.
Many members of our joint societies again joined together under PIPE (Petroleum Industry Promoting Education) in late July to entertain and educate approximately 1000 kids and their families at our 2nd annual FETCH Energy program for the Louisiana Children’s Museum. I have to admit, I was anxious when considering the challenge of matching last year’s program with our current industry lethargy. But, with great generosity, many of our colleagues volunteered their free Saturday to show the best of our local industry. It was a huge success and we hope to continue supporting it in the years to come.
In August, SPE Delta Section and API Delta Chapter hosted a joint Technical Luncheon with a prominent energy expert, Dr. Xiuli Wang. She is considered a specialist on natural gas issues and problems and studied under Dr. Michael Economides at the University of Houston. They collaborate on natural gas issues around the world and co-author The Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering. All who attended learned a great deal about the current natural gas environment and the developing transportation efforts that will impact our domestic prices.
And in September, Delta Chapter held its annual golf tournament at Covington Country Club. As always the food was delicious and the course was challenging. Let me take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in all of these terrific events. We always appreciate the time and charity of our sponsors, volunteers, and attendees.
Fortunately, we still have time to squeeze in one more big event. Please plan to attend our 12th Annual GNO Joint Industry Association Luncheon on November 10th. This year it will be held at the newly renovated Roosevelt Hotel (previously our Fairmont Hotel). SGS will host their annual symposium that morning and join us for an informative speech by a world expert on the geopolitics of energy, Dr. Michael Economides. Please register early, we expect a sellout crowd.
As we start 2009 with a new executive board, the API Delta Chapter is financially strong and remains committed to its founding mission. As always, we will: 1) serve and support the local oil and gas industry, and 2) continue to strengthen math and science education in our local communities.
This year I humbly step into the Chairman’s position following a long list of dynamic leaders and tireless volunteers who have made great accomplishments over the past 30 years. Many longstanding board members continue to serve our Chapter and several new board members have been recruited to ensure our future success and relevance.
Each year the Delta Chapter board evaluates the condition of our industry and the landscape of education in our area. Consequently, we are able to proactively respond to the ever changing needs that arise. While we remain committed to several longstanding relationships such as with the Louisiana Children’s Museum and the GNO Science and Engineering Fair, we strive to add new and relevant programs to fit new needs that arise. Recent efforts include a “mini grant” program which provides funds directly to local teachers for materials to teach math and science classes, a college scholarship program which assists local youth in pursuing industry careers, and three new science labs which will be equipped in St Bernard Parish through our funding. In 2007, we also joined forces with BLaST (Building Louisiana Science and Technology), a local nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing innovative science and technology programs to the students of Louisiana.
As I write this message, events of 2009 are already proving that our new board of directors will need to handle many new challenges for our industry and our local community. But, do not be overly concerned, this year’s board is well funded, properly equipped, and fully prepared to carry on our mission. Our industry is blessed with countless dedicated individuals who cherish this area. And we will continue to donate our time, talents, and resources to the cause.
Sincerely,
Ken Meyers
2009 Chairman- API Delta Chapter
API-Delta Members,
Happy New Year! As some would say at this time of year, “…A new year, a new beginning”. But this is not so for API-Delta Chapter. Thanks to my predecessors, the API-Delta Chapter is on-a-roll and with the help of our current board of directors, I plan to continue with the momentum and progress we have achieved in recent years.
Let me first thank Bernadette Alaniz for her hard work and dedication to the chapter as president during 2007. Bernadette kept the chapter focused on its main objective – education. For API-Delta, this one word, “education”, covers so much. The chapter, through its volunteers and programs, assists and recognizes both educators and students with education concerns, as well as supports and provides education:
In line with the chapter’s education efforts, this year the Meritorious Service Award from the American Petroleum Institute is awarded to Duncan Goldthwaite and Michael N. Fein. Both of these gentlemen have been influential in working with the education community in providing lectures and support. They both have served in several oil and gas associations and have given their time to educating and helping the community. Please plan to attend the February 20th meeting at Le Pavilion Hotel where the API Delta Chapter will sponsor a luncheon in honor of these two gentlemen. In addition, George Wentz, co-founder of Horizon Initiative, will further explain the oil industry’s role in its business retention “YES! To Business”Forums.
Also, coming up this quarter, are several events you and your family would want to attend. The Greater New Orleans Science and Engineering Fair (GNOSEF) will be held February 28th through March 1st, and the First Robotics Bayou Regional Competition will take place March 27 – 29. Your participation in chapter activities throughout the year allows API-Delta to sponsor these events. And one such activity is the Sporting Clays Father-Son & Family Tournament which will be held on April 26, 2008. Please read the articles about these events.
As we begin 2008 I invite you to unite with us in hopes of making a difference --
Become active in industry societies to promote your profession and industry,
Help your community and associations through your volunteer efforts and support,
Expand the opportunity of a child’s career choice by educating them and their teachers about the various disciplines within the oil and gas industry,
Help educate the public about our industry and its importance to the community.
Throughout this year I shall introduce you to people that have stepped up and that are making a difference – our board of directors. Each newsletter will highlight a segment of our board, their dedication and accomplishments.
Please come join us, participate in the luncheons, get involved, and make this a progressive and rewarding New Year!
Jan Catalano
2008 Chairman- API Delta Chapter
Chairman's Message June 2007
API-Delta Members,
It is hard to believe that we are halfway through this year. We had a very active first half with the Greater New Orleans Science and Engineering Fair (GNOSEF), Meritorious Service Award Luncheon, and our annual Father/Son Sporting Clays Tournament.Be sure to read our articles to find the recipients and award winners of these events!
I want to give a special thank you to Gary Johnson, Teresa George, Don Miller, Dominion, committee members, volunteers, and sponsors for organizing and executing such a superfluous sporting clays event. Through their devout efforts and support they made our Father/Son Sporting Clays Tournament a huge success!
This next half of the year will be just as active and exciting as the first. We will be awarding our first college scholarships and remaining mini-grants. Frank Glaviano of Shell E&P Americas will be our guest speaker for our annual technical luncheon to be held on August 15th, 2007 at Le Pavillon Hotel. This will be the first time you will be able to sign up and RSVP on the website www.api-delta.org. In September, we have our annual Golf Tournament to be held at Covington Country Club on Friday, September 14th, 2007.November will host our annual Joint Luncheon meetings with all the other societies in the Greater New Orleans area.The API-Delta Chapter will also be a major joint petroleum sponsor for BLAST (Building Louisiana Science and Technology) and the (FLL) First Lego League which will help us to educate our youth, teachers, and parents about the petroleum industry.We will be looking for a few good volunteers and mentors for this program.Contact Jan Catalano if you would like to participate.
If you have been having problems receiving our newsletter, please contact Barbara Edmonds (bedmonds@eplweb.com or phone 504-799-1906) to update your membership information.
I would like to thank you all for your continued support, attendance, and participation in all our events. I look forward to seeing you all there this next half of the year!
Bernadette Alaniz
Chairman's Message - November 2006
API-delta members,
Our Golf tournament was a resounding success easily eclipsing the previous record set for number of sponsors, participants, and raised funds. On behalf of our members, I recognize this outstanding effort by Holly Fonseca and the Golf Committee.
The success of our tournament is especially noteworthy in light of the rebuilding challenges that many of our participants faced in their work and personal lives. The APIdelta Chapter is very fortunate to count on Holly’s service and leadership.
I join Holly in recognizing the sponsors and participants who make it possible for the APIdelta Chapter to continue supporting our community by funding programs that serve students, educators and schools.
The 2006 Golf tourney will help fund our new teacher mini grants program during the 2007 academic year. The APIdelta board approved the program to address the especial needs of our teachers following the hurricane disaster (visit www.api-delta.org and look at our March 2006 newsletter for details of the program).
On October 18th, Bernadette Alaniz, Jan Catalano and I met with officers from the local energy industry societies. We discussed ways to improve information sharing for the benefit of all our members. We talked about the great need of the local community and felt that the societies have means at their disposal to help.The societies’ officers who were present share APIdelta’s vision to join efforts in support of education in the community, and thus make best use of resources; we plan to jointly support deserving programs. Our sister societies were interested in our teacher awards program and the science fair energy category that our chapter supports; the scholarships, grants and petroleum science teaching materials for elementary school students were also of interest. We feel good about our collaboration with the Joint Energy Industry Association event and the API Meritorious Award.
The Joint Energy Industry Association Luncheon is scheduled for Tuesday, November 14th at the Royal Sonesta, 300 Bourbon St. We are privileged to have Ms. Rayola Dougher, as our guest speaker. Ms. Dougher is Manager of Energy Market Issues with the American Petroleum Institute’s Office of Chief Economist. She has written extensively on petroleum and energy issues and is the principal spokesperson for API leading its efforts to inform policymakers, the media and the public on energy market issues. Ms. Dougher has testified before federal and state legislators, and has appeared in numerous forums including NBC’s Today show and Nightly News, ABC World News Tonight, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, the CBS Morning Show and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
I look forward to seeing you at the Joint Energy Industry Association Luncheon. We are pleased to help bring another outstanding speaker to this yearly event. Don’t miss it!
Carlos Guzman
Chairman's Message - August 2006
API-delta members,
It has been almost one year since Katrina, and I hope you have been successful getting back to “normal.”
The men and women who volunteer on the API board have worked hard, in spite of the difficult times, to put together the upcoming general meeting and our golf tournament.
Bernadette Alaniz, your next year’s API Chairwoman, has lined up an excellent speaker for the August 15th general meeting that will take place at the Holiday Inn Astrodome.
Cliff Mugnier, our August speaker, is on the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at LSU. Cliff has studied subsidence and changing elevations in south Louisiana for over twenty-five years; his work is known worldwide. Cliff will discuss LSU’s network of GPS reference stations, a new technology for determining elevations in the State of Louisiana. The new way of determining elevations replaces the old system of elevation benchmarks made obsolete by subsidence. The presentation is very relevant to rebuilding efforts in the area and to the petroleum industry’s operations in south Louisiana.
Holly Fonseca, Golf Committee Chair, has scheduled our golf tournament for Friday, October 13th at the Covington Country Club. As you know, this event is a membership drive and fund raiser for the Chapter. The proceeds are used to support our recognition of teachers, outstanding students and their schools, and our exhibit at the Children’s Museum. We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you at this fun event. We thank Holly and our fellow API board members who have worked diligently to make this event possible.
The API-Delta’s Second Father Son Sporting Clays Tournament was held on April 29th at Covey Rise and was a resounding success thanks to the careful planning, and hard work by the Clays Tournament Committee and its Chairman, Don miller. We had an impressive list of volunteers that included our newest board member, Peggy Bourgeois, Executive Director, Harvey Canal Industrial Association.
The Clay Tournament was a lot of fun with plenty food and beverages, and many young participants. The Tournament is a fantastic membership and funds raiser for our chapter; the event can grow with an increase in the number of API volunteers committed to help. Speaking of volunteers, the newest member of our board, Gary Johnson, Manager, Offshore Operations, Dominion E&P, will be next year’s Father Son Clays Tournament Director. Join me in welcoming Gary to the board and in thanking him for volunteering his efforts on behalf of our membership. We look forward to sponsoring a very successful event in 2007.
I want to recognize the efforts of our former Chairmen Ben Waring, Dwight Paulsen and Jim Rike. These former Chairmen remain very active with our chapter. Ben helps us with all our general meetings’ logistics and planning, and the API-Delta web site www.api-delta.org. Ben has been especially helpful because some of us are still not back in the city.I have always relied on Jim Rike’s fine editorial touch with the APInion newsletter; I am especially grateful for Jim’s service during the current year in light of the severe hardships brought about by the storm. Finally, I wan to recognize Dwight Paulsen who oversees our Meritorious Award program. Thank you gentlemen for your efforts.
I also recognize our Immediate Past Chairman, Leo Kerner, who remains active in our board meetings and serves in the Golf tournament committee. I appreciate Leo’s help throughout the year.
Please join us on August 15th for an exciting presentation by Cliff Mugnier, and plan to take the day off on October 13th to have some fun at the Covington Country Club API-Delta Golf tournament.
Wishing you the best,
Carlos Guzman
Chairman's Message - March 2006
Join the board in thanking Leo Kerner for serving as Chairman of the API Delta Chapter during 2005. Leo and I thank the active API Delta board, and past Chairmen who volunteered their time and talent to make a difference on behalf of the membership.
Under Leo, our first, very successful, Clay Sporting event was held. The stage is set for the April 29 tournament, already booked up. We recognize Don Miller and his organizing committee for devoting time to these events.
In March, 2005 we put in place our first Science and Engineering Fair Award program, in collaboration with UNO, as part of our education and community outreach. We feel very good about this program and know that it will grow under Jan Catalano’s care. Our first place student winner went on to win awards in the International Science Fair competition.
The hurricanes presented us with many challenges including the cancellation of our key fund-raiser. Holly Fonseca and the golf committee are working to reschedule and we will soon post their progress in our www.api-delta.org. Doug Timkyw’s Treasurer Report shows the gap left by the cancellation of our golf tournament, and puts in perspective our new Clay Sporting event for funding the 2006 programs.
Despite the obstacles, we were able to organize the Joint Society meeting in early December. The meeting was very well attended. We had a surprise visit by Mayor Ray Nagin who welcomed the societies back to New Orleans, and discussed his plans to reconstruct and repopulate the City. We recognize our past Chairman Ben Waring, and the speakers, Poe Leggette and Chris Oynes who made this very exciting event possible. We received a momentum boost from this end of year gathering.
We are very fortunate that the majority of the board has agreed to reenlist this year. I look forward to a very successful 2006 thanks to a very energetic board, and many active past chairmen. Throughout the year, I plan to tell you more about these volunteer men and women, and their work with the Chapter.
Bernadette Alaniz, 1st Vice Chairman, organizes our general meetings. On March 14th, we will recognize two outstanding members of our industry by conferring on them the API Meritorious Service Award. Join us to celebrate Richard Bachman’s and Dean McPhearson’s accomplishments.
Our 2006 commitment to education continues with energy education project grants discussed by Cathy Vaughn, the Education Committee Chair. The energy education grants can catalyze our Science Fair awards program.
The Chapter needs your especial support and active participation in 2006. We have three board positions to fill this year. Become involved, volunteer to help with our events, and submit your ideas by contacting your board members or visiting our ww.api-delta.org. We need and appreciate your help.
I look forward to seeing you at our Meritorious Award event at Le Pavillon Hotel on Tuesday, March 14th, 11:00 AM., and at the Father Son Sporting Clays Tournament that will be held on April 29th.
Wishing you the best,
Carlos Guzman
Chairman's Message - April 2005
Congratulations to all the teachers nominated and selected to receive the API awards this year. The API has awarded over one hundred and thirty thousand dollars to outstanding teachers in the metropolitan parishes over the past ten years. I look forward to seeing all the recipients at this year's award luncheon that will be held at the Holiday Inn Superdome on April 26, 2005 at 11:00 am.
The chapter will also recognize the students who are winners of the Science Fair awards totaling fifteen hundred dollars. Their teachers and schools will be honored at the luncheon. A panel consisting of embers of the oil and gas industry selected the API Science Fair award recipients.
The API also supports the Louisiana Children's Museum. Our stipend goes to maintain our oil and gas based exhibit. I hope all of you can find time to visit the exhibit.
Have a safe and exciting summer.
Leo G. Kerner, Chaiman
API-Delta Chapter
