Welcome to our Chair’s Corner first edition. I’m honored to have been selected as the Gulf Coast Section Chair, and I look forward to a year full of interaction with all the Study Groups, Committees, and especially with our Community. Our key objectives for this year are three-fold; focus on membership retention and growth, strengthen the Board’s Interaction with all the Study Groups and Committees, and continue to promote the Scholarship Endowment Fund.
We are currently planning some membership appreciation events, promoting the interaction within our community, and seeking to grow, and strengthen it. Our Membership Chair, Adonis Ichim, previous YP Chair, is leading these efforts, with the Board's support.
We have also engaged with the Student Chapters in the area, as we need to reengage with the students and shed light on our industry, and its present and future role in the energy mix of the world. There are and will be plenty of roles where young engineers can let their talents shine and contribute to the world’s energy needs. On this topic, I would like to highlight the efforts of our Community Services and Education Committees, led by Sherry Etanireri and Eric Robken respectively, along with all the volunteers, as I attended some of the events, I had the privilege and the opportunity to interact with college students, and I can tell you, it just energizes you, to see our volunteer’s efforts and passion, and the students interest in our industry. They reminded me why decided to study Chemical Engineering (Shout out to my alma mater Unimet, in Caracas, Venezuela), and why I joined the O&G industry… and now, twenty-two years later, I got to tell some of them how I started a 16 years journey with Big Blue, and the last six years as an entrepreneur.
In this edition, I would also like to highlight an event recently hosted by our D&I Committee, led by Karin Gonzales, as they hosted the webinar “What it takes to flip the barrel”, an awesome discussion with Flipping the Barrel hosts Jamie Elrod and Massiel Diez, the event had 110 participants, where they talked about their journey to establish their podcasts as a key reference for women’s perspectives in different topics.
Please don’t forget to join us at some upcoming events. November 11th is the 22nd Sporting Clays Tournament. The event Chair and Vice Chair Prue Smith and Jeremy Viscomi are putting together an awesome event for you, with tons of prizes. Come have some fun and network!
Last but not least, Board meetings are held on the third Thursday of every month at 10 am. I highly encourage everyone to come to the meetings in person or virtually to interact with the board members, and to bring up any issues you or your Study Group is facing.
We are always looking for volunteers. Please let us know if you are interested.
Until next Chair’s Corner,
Carlos A. Torres
SPE -GCS Chair 2022-2023