Executive brief The ASEG Annual General Meeting, held in Canberra in April, saw the election of new ASEG office bearers for 2019, and the departure of others. DrTedTyne assumed the position of President.Ted has already made a big impact on the Federal Executive in the last 12 months as President Elect, working diligently with ourTreasurer Danny Burns, Preview Editor LisaWorrall, and Exploration Geophysics Editor Mark Lackie to navigate safely into a new publication arrangement withTaylor & Francis.The decision to seek a new publisher was made in an attempt to reduce publication costs and strengthen the financial security of the Society.We look forward to the next 12 months underTed’s stewardship, and to further developments that progress our Society. We wish to extend an enormous thank you to our now Immediate Past President Marina Costelloe for her tremendous contribution to the ASEG over the last 12 months. Under Marina’s leadership we saw numerous changes including the new publishing agreement, new memorandum of understandings with sister societies KSEG and SEGJ, and updates to membership pricing including increased support for graduates with the introduction of a new membership level. Marina has been instrumental in modernising how the Society operates and refreshing our image by updating the constitution to allow secure electronic voting and removal of gendered language, not to mention facilitating updates to our website, increasing the awareness of our Society through a substantial increase in social media posts, and the introduction of the Members newsletter based on feedback from the 2017 Membership Survey. Marina has travelled considerably during her time as President, visiting all the State and Territory Branches, again improving our visibility and awareness of the ASEG brand and strengthening relationships with our affiliate organisations. We know that Marina will continue to contribute to the Society as she remains on the Federal Executive as Immediate Past President. Thank you again Marina. Megan Nightingale and Danny Burns will continue in their roles as Secretary and Treasurer respectively. We thank them both for their efforts, particularly Danny Burns who as previously mentioned was instrumental in negotiations for the new publications contract with Taylor & Francis. This year we see the resignation of some long standing Federal Executive members including Katherine McKenna, Andrea Rutley and Kim Frankcombe. We wish to extend another big thank you to Kim Frankcombe for his outstanding contributions to the Federal Executive over the past eight years. Kim was a very busy member of the Executive and created an astonishing 292 reports for 64 Federal Executive meetings during his tenure! Kim leaves very big shoes to fill and we’re glad that he has agreed to become a founding member of the new Director’s Forum, created as a “brains trust” to ensure the future success of the Society. If you are a former Director of the Society and would like to be a part of the Director’s Forum please email secretary@aseg.org.au to register. The terms and references of the forum will be the first item the group will establish. Thank you to returning members of the Federal Executive: Marina Pervukhina (Professional Development Committee Chair, State Branch Representative, Specialist and Working Groups Liaison), Kate Robertson (Communications Committee), and Leslie Atkinson (Membership Committee). Thank you for your efforts over the last 12 months, efforts that have also contributed to the Society’s successful year. This year we welcome Jim Austin (Conference Advisory Committee Representative), Mark Duffett (Technical Standards Committee Representative), Ian James (Web Committee Chair) and Tim Dean who will take over from Andrew Squelch as the Education Committee Chair, to the Federal ExecutiveTeam. Photos and short biographies of these new members will appear in the next issue of Preview. The day after the AGM the Federal Executive met to discuss the short and long term issues facing the Society. The Preview Editor Lisa Worrall, and representatives from the Secretariat The Association Specialists (TAS) also attended the meeting. The mission of the Society is to provide an environment for the science of applied geophysics to grow for the benefit of its Members and the wider community. Our aims are: • to promote the science of geophysics, and specifically exploration geophysics, throughout Australia • to foster fellowship and co-operation between geophysicists • to encourage closer understanding and co-operation with other earth scientists • to assist in design and teaching of courses in geophysics and to sponsor student sections where appropriate As documented in Preview after the 2018 Strategy Day, the ASEG, in line with its aims and the activities defined in the Constitution, has adopted several aspirational strategic goals for 2018–2023 to ensure that the Society retains vitality and relevance in an exploration industry that is continually changing. Throughout 2018 and 2019 to date, the ASEG Federal Executive has already made impressive headway in achieving and further defining these strategic goals including: • Strengthening and future-proofing our publications (Exploration Geophysics and Preview), promotions and member communications through arranging a new publishing contract to reduce expenditure, increasing our online presence including updating our website content, increasing social media usage posting on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and creating the ASEG Monthly Newsletter. • Advancing geophysics as a science to benefit our Members, the wider community and young professionals to secure the future of the ASEG, and grow the relevance of the ASEG in local regions – as mentioned, a strategy for community engagement is increasing our social media coverage and cross promotion of courses, conferences, and educational opportunities among other societies within Australia and internationally. The Federal Executive has identified the need to create stronger connections with our universities and are looking into improving member benefits and strengthening our relationships with corporate and state Sponsors. The Federal Executive would like to thank the ACT Branch of the ASEG for their assistance in organising, and Geoscience Australia for hosting, the 2019 AGM and Strategy Day. Megan Nightingale ASEG Secretary fedsec@aseg.org.au ASEG news Executive brief 5 PREVIEW JUNE 2019