IBC 1995 Goals

[boneill@xxxxxxxxx]

 As promised, below is a reposting of the IBC groups 1995 Objectives
(The original post was from Rich Lane on 5/16/95).  Sorry for the
redundancy to long time subscribers.

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                 Industry Biostratigraphic Coordinators Group
       
                          Objectives for 1995 
     
     1.  Form a Paleontological Network including industry, consultants, 
     academia, government, museums, societies, etc.  
     
         <Ongoing. This we consider to be one of our big successes for 
     1994.  We organized the Denver AAPG Meetin consisting of a 
     cross-section of Paleontologists to begin a dialogue.  The main fall 
     out of this meeting was the establishing of PaleoNet. Thanks to the 
     major effort of the NHM, London it is a reality.  We also have 
     organized a Paleo Network Meeting in Seattle and Houston.  Bottom line 
     on the objective is that we strongly feel that paleontologists of all 
     disciplines and organizations need to communicate better so as to form 
     a more cohesive science. Remember what Ben Franklin said about 
     `hanging together or surely we will all hang apart'.  I hate to remind 
     us of that PaleoNet dialogue/junk e-mail.>   
     
     2.  Send out summaries of annual results and meeting summaries on 
     PaleoNet, Micropal
     
     <Just what we are trying to do.>
     
     3.  Meet with Museum Specialists to begin Networking.
     
     <With industry focusing on the applications only part of the work 
     chain, we feel the heart of paleontology is left hanging.  The 
     analysis and taxonomic part of our business is at risk and we want to 
     do something about it.  Museums would seem to us to be a stable 
     organizational entity that with the available staffing could carry 
     this part of paleontology forward and perhaps make a profit at it.  It 
     certainly is more vision than reality at this time, but we would like 
     to talk to a group of museum paleontologists/directors to see what 
     could if anything be structured.>
     
     4.  Identify key contacts in museums, NSF, Government, Academia, 
     Surveys, etc., for communication--resource reasons.
     
     <We believe that, in addition to paleontologists communicating through 
     PaleoNet, journals and so on, we need the leaders of museums, heads of 
     government paleo groups, heads of industry paleo groups, key 
     academicians, etc.,  to be communicating.  We sense that this is not 
     happening.  Such a communicating group could be a powerful force 
     within the scientific world and could do nothing but good for 
     paleontology as a whole.>
     
     5.  Continue to investigate quality best practices among vendors and 
     options.
          --processing/sample handling
          --analysis
     
     <We feel we need to provide consultants and vendors with some best 
     practices guidelines to improve and standardize quality of processing 
     and analysis of fossils that we ask them to work on for us.>  
      
     6.  Formalize a plan for an industry library network.
             a.  Initial focus on current journal subscriptions.
             b.  Contact person at each company for books.
             c.  Highlight strengths of each.
     
     <Large industry paleontological libraries are currently at risk and we 
     need to strategize around maintaining them and utilizing them most 
     effectively to all of our benefit.>
     
     7.  Work on article targeted for Explorer on need for paleo 
     coordinators in larger independents.  Initiate with follow-up letter 
     informing them of available biostrat. services to differentiate 
     between independents doing paleo/rock work vs. no paleo.
     
     <Many larger independent oil companies request volumes of 
     paleontological work from outside sources but they do not have the 
     staff to analyze and effectively utilize the paleo information they 
     receive.  We would like to convince them that they can save and make 
     money by having at least one paleontolgist on staff.  This would also 
     probably have the effect of increasing the work for those on the 
     outside.>
     
     8.  Establish User Groups on Quantitative Stratigraphy and Ragware.
     
     <We would like to start some Houston based discussion groups on 
     particular computer product use or emerging specialties.>
     
     9.  Promote better communications with Houston area paleo community.
     
     10.  Compile a contractor register for vendor services.
     
     
     <We would appreciate any comments that you may have.  Are we on 
     target, or do you think there are other matters we should be 
     addressing.>
     



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      Brian J. O'Neill                    Phone:  (504) 588-4351
      Shell Offshore Inc.                 Room:   OSS-2916  	       
      P.O. Box 61933                      E-mail: boneill@shell.com	
      New Orleans LA  70161               Profs:  bjo5  
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