It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to another year with Oklahoma City SPE Section. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Tyler Conner and I will be the 2018-2019 OKC Section Chair. I am a Chemical Engineering graduate from the University of Utah and I began my career in the oil and gas industry when I started with Devon Energy six years ago. I have served in various roles on the OKC Executive Committee and feel very proud at having been awarded the opportunity to serve our outstanding section as Chairman.
On behalf of the Executive Committee, and the section membership, I want to take a moment to offer thanks to our past Chairman, Chad Senters for all of his hard work and dedication to making this section so successful. Without the generous devotion of time and effort from our volunteers, this section would not be what it is today. Next time you see Chad, be sure offer him your thanks for his time and support.
We have another very exciting year ahead of us with numerous events geared towards technical dissemination and community outreach, as well as networking and social opportunities. Some of the goals I have set for the Committee this year include the trialing of a new Facilities and Pipeline Study Group and a community education event geared towards highlighting the industry’s commitment to society and dispelling some of negative publicity we often receive. We believe that this new Study Group is a great opportunity to provide for our members who work outside of the subsurface and production realms and community engagement is paramount to being a successful industry. Both of these are in line with the mission that SPE has set forth to its volunteers. Beyond the two aforementioned goals, the Committee will have a goal-setting session called the Big Ideas Meeting, in which we bring forth new ideas and decide what we wish to accomplish over the year. However, with that said, any successful service organization must be cognizant to the needs of its members, so I encourage anyone to approach myself or any of the committee volunteers if you have ideas to improve the section.
I very much look forward serving you all this year and hope that I will prove worthy of the responsibility that has been granted me. I am determined to continue the history of outstanding Chairs this section has had and echoing their determination for making this one of the best sections in the world.