Doug Crice

I read with interest the three articles referenced on the proposed governance reform.

My first reaction was “where is the article arguing against it”.  Is it proper for the SEG to use their publications to present a one-sided argument for a major governance revision?  Peter Drucker, in The Effective Executive, argues that you should never reach a decision in the absence of dissent.  If you don’t have dissent, you don’t have alternatives to choose from.

Having said that, I support governance reform.  I was a member of the council when they voted to never, ever have another convention in California. Presumably, this was because California is full of environmentalists who oppose all offshore drilling, and the Council wanted to punish them. Well, there is plenty of oil and plenty of geophysicists in California, and it’s a nice place to have a convention. I would be happy to never return to downtown Los Angeles (the venue for that vote), but Anaheim is nice and everybody likes San Francisco. The vote was of course dominated by the “Houston Mafia” over the protests of the leadership at the time—hardly proper governance for an international organization.

So, I vote “yes”, but surely there’s an articulate individual out there with a cogent contrary view to share.

Submitted 12 October 2010