President's Page

Welcome to my inaugural President's Page. My first reaction when I was reminded to submit this article was "What the hell will I say?" However, after giving it some thought I decided I would start with thanking the retiring Federal Executive, who have handed over the society in such great shape, and take it from there.

Firstly, my thanks go to the outgoing Federal Executive Committee of Ahmad Tabassi, John Foster and David Perks. The past two years have seen some significant changes to PESA which will increase the society's status and prestige throughout the Industry. I am inheriting the fruits of their labours and as a result my task will be that much easier.

Secondly, a warm welcome to the other new Executive Committee members, Gaz Bisht (Secretary) and Max Williamson (Treasurer). Their initial enthusiasm augurs well for the coming two years. The new Vice-President is Barry Goldstein, the human dynamo. We will have to be careful not to fall into the trap of assuming that Barry will do everything – he just keeps volunteering!!

Barry's main duty is as Chairman of the PESA Education and Scholarships sub-committees and he is working very hard on both fronts.

There are some other new faces on the Federal Committee, along with some old ones. The State representatives are:
• Chris Hodge (NSW)
• Tom Bernecker (Vic)
• Tim O'Sullivan (Qld)
• Barry Goldstein (SA) – yet another duty he performs!
• Andrew Barrett (ACT)
• Dave Cliff (WA)
and last (but certainly not least!), our Company Secretary, Rowley Butters.

I look forward to working with all of you.

APPEA Conference
The PESA AGM was held at the APPEA Conference in Hobart and went successfully, although I would like to see more members attend.My thanks to those who did attend.

On the subject of APPEA, I felt that there was a mood of optimism in the air – it's been a long time since this has occurred. We'll keep our fingers crossed that it will continue.

The PESA Industry review went successfully, although it was disappointing that it was not given the status of a Plenary Session, with the result that a smaller number than usual attended. We will lobby APPEA to have that status restored next year.

Phil Lock (Victoria State Branch) and his team did a fine job of selecting the PESA Best Presented Paper Award – details elsewhere in this issue.

The PESA Farmout Symposium (organised by the NSW State Branch) was a great success with almost 90 attendees. My thanks to John Mebberson and his team for their sterling efforts – it was an extremely professional show.

PESA Website
The PESA Website is continuing to grow – look it up (www.pesa.com.au). It has all the details of the publications the society has ever produced and now includes the key articles produced in PESA News. The Industry Events Database is up and running and includes information on the events of each state branch and we are in the process of adding a full list of events/courses organised by other relevant organisations such as SPE and ASEG.

Central Banking
The mechanisms by which this system will be implemented are currently being worked out. When fully operational it will result in increased administration efficiencies and reduced costs to state branches.

Education Initiatives and PESA Scholarship
Barry Goldstein has been working extremely hard to ensure that a record number of superior courses will be available to members – some of these have already taken place. Barry is also organising a system whereby the PESA Scholarship will be available to any university student in Australia who fulfils the appropriate criteria.

I look forward to carrying on the work of my predecessors to the ultimate benefit of all PESA members, and as a final thought – PESA is YOU! If you have any opinions, suggestions or ideas – let us know. The strength of the Society is its members.