12EDITORIAL
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EDITORIAL |
MEMBERSHIP TRENDS
The number of members in a professional society is often considered the best measure of the
overall health of the profession. The Geological Society of Trinidad and Tobago was started in 1976 with an initial
membership of 64, which decreased by 50% in the succeeding 2 years. Since 1978-79 the membership has been increasing
steadily, always totaling more than 50, with peaks and valleys representing relative increases and decreases in
particular years. Membership peaked at 113 in 1984-85, which remains the only time the 100 mark has been exceeded,
and currently stands at 90. These figures reflecting the evolution of membership in the GSTT over the last 12 years
are plotted in Figure 1.
Analysis of membership composition reveals that the petroleum sector has always accounted for more than 75% of
the membership, exceeding 90% in 1980-81 and 1986-87. In what is still a male dominated profession women account
for less than 20% of the membership, with their best representation, both in absolute numbers (19) and relative
proportions (17%), in 1984-85.
Membership increases over the years are often due to former members becoming reinstated, and not due to many new
members joining the Society. Indeed apart from 1977-78, 1981-82 and 1983-84 when 32, 49 and 27 new members respectively
joined the GSTT, new additions to the membership directory have averaged less than 10, and in 1984-85, when membership
peaked, only 3 new members were registered.
Factors that control fluctuations in membership are primarily finances, career changes, loss of employment and
loss of interest or dissatisfaction with the GSTT. With annual membership dues costing only $75.00 finances are
unlikely to affect membership trends. Career changes, which in Trinidad are often involuntarily made due to lack
of employment opportunities in geology, would be an influential factor in the post-1982 period when the job market
for geologists contracted, but would really result in a loss of potential new members rather than in a decrease
in membership renewals. As regards loss of employment I am not aware of any geologist in Trinidad who has lost
his job over the last few years as a result of the recession, In fact the recession, which began in 1982, surprisingly
does not seem to have affected either the rate of growth of GSTT membership, or the total number of members. One
wonders whether the effects of the recession are yet to be reflected in GSTT membership.
Loss of interest in, and dissatisfaction with, the GSTT seems to be the controlling factor in determining membership
numbers. Whether this is related to the type of activities organised by the executive of the GSTT and the level
of interest generated in specific years, or to lack of commitment of individual members themselves is open to speculation.
However, analysis of attendance at monthly technical sessions and field trips put on by the GSTT seems to suggest
that the latter may be the case. Technical sessions covering almost every aspect of geology over the last 8 years
have been attended by less than 25% of the membership on average, while less than 20% participated in field trips.
On the other hand the years 1985, when the GSTT hosted its first geological conference, and 1988 when the first
GSTT seminar/workshop was organised, are the 2 years with the greatest number of members, and these major activities
may have been the catalyst in enticing delinquent members to renew their membership.
I recently came across two statements that have some relevance to our present predicament of falling oil prices
and declining production. The first comes from the March 31, 1927 Oil and Gas Journal: "It is considered a
sad commentary on the stability of the petroleum industry that in an era of several years of nationwide prosperity,
the industry should suddenly find itself plunged into a period of abnormally low crude oil prices, with the statements
of oil men indicating that no immediate relief can be expected, in view of the outlook for continued overproduction."
The second is Parke Dickey's erudite observation in the Tulsa Geological Society Digest of 1958: "We usually
find oil in new places with old ideas. Sometimes also, we find oil in an old place with a new idea, but we seldom
find much oil in an old place with an old idea. Several times in the past we have thought that we were running
out of oil, whereas actually we were only running out of ideas."
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