If you’re new to AIG’s new membership system, or not sure about the renewal process, we’ve put together a few steps, along with screenshots, to help you along your way.
Download a short PDF guide at the following link: AIG Membership System.
A number of members have experienced difficulties accessing the system because they cannot see the member login button on the home page, which should appear as shown below.
Member Login Button
The button appears on every page of the AIG web site in the page header.
If you cannot see the button it is most likely due to the web site page being cached by your internet browser software, your company’s Internet server or your Internet service provider (ISP). Browser applications frequently cache pages or even parts of pages to make them appear to load faster, especially when the page is visited regularly. Network servers and ISP’s do this to minimise Internet traffic.
There are several ways of “flushing” the caches on systems between you and the AIG web site. Try these.
1. Hold down your left shift key while clicking the page refresh/reload icon with your mouse. You may need to do this several times.
2. Press Control-F5 several times.
3. Delete your browsing history (an option in your browser’s tools menu).
These should lead to the cached data being refreshed which will allow the Member Login button to appear.
If you have not received your login details, please contact AIG’s Executive Officer, Lynn Vigar.
2014-15 membership renewals have been prepared and emailed to members today (25/6/14). This renewal advice gives instructions on how to pay.
If you haven’t received your renewal notice, you can still pay through your member portal.
The Renew Membership button can be seen in the Subscription tab and various options will be available to you.
Recent controversy over articles published in AIG News concerning phases of water and water divining is healthy and to be encouraged (Refs 1, 2, 3). But, the AIG with the ASX, ASIC and AusIMM have recently instituted JORC 2012 (Ref. 4). JORC 2012 is a clear set of Professional Requirements phrased as Transparency, Materiality and Competence. It is a prescriptive strait-jacket with the requirement for the Competent Person to accept a life-long legal liability for material in Exploration, Resource and Reserve reports and removes the defense of “just doing what the boss requested”. I have heard past and present members of the JORC committee suggest that JORC applies only to grade and tonnes. But can Professionalism be turned on and off according to audience or subject matter? I think not, and clearly the AIG (and AusIMM) need to debate the reach of Professional Requirements.
One unintended consequence of JORC 2012 is that articles in the AIG News are viewed by members with a sharpened perspective (Ref. 3). Would the AIG publish articles on “hidden” gold not found by recognised analytical methods? No, the AIG is extremely concerned about claims of this nature. So the argument that the AIG News is an easy to read magazine that may encourage controversial articles is little different to putting material on hotcopper.com.au when that content is ineligible for an ASX release.
Professionalism applies to all aspects of Earth Sciences with a financial and/or societal implication. This includes, but is not limited to, Climate Change, Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR), Fracking, Water Resources and Water Exploration. Technical articles (as distinct from opinion like this) should be accompanied by full references to demonstrate Transparency and a statement of the authors’ qualifications to show Competency. A recent AIG News article (Ref. 5) “What Reporting Portable XRF Data to 2012 JORC Code Guidelines Means” was itself not JORC-compliant lacking both references for Transparency and the qualifications of the authors for Competence. (I happen to know the authors are competent, and having talked to them I understand references were omitted for simplicity and qualifications to avoid accusations of marketing their business). AIG members should be treated equally, all subject to the same Transparency, Materiality and Competence requirements. If one group are required to accept a life-long legal commitment then so should all others when publishing and providing advice to Government and Non-Government Organisations. This is especially important when data and advice involves orders of magnitude more dollars than the issues policed by ASIC and the ASX as is the case with Climate Change, Water Policy and Fracking.
The unintended consequence of the prescriptive JORC 2012 code is that all AIG and AusIMM members and the Institute will be scrutinized for Professionalism beyond the limits of grade and tonnes.
Good for the Goose is good for the Gander.
Julian Vearncombe FAIG
SJS Resource Management
References
AIG members will be aware from recent articles in email newsletters and the AIG Linkedin Group of the the plan to relaunch AIG Journal, the Institute’s on-line technical publication, this year.
The plans for this were reviewed by Council yesterday, at the annual strategic planning meeting being held in Bendigo, Victoria this weekend.
AIG Journal will re-launch in the next few weeks, using the existing name. The journal will provide members with a platform for publication of both papers and short technical articles on any aspect of geoscience. The relaunched journal will feature an “AIG Notebook” section, specifically intended to encourage the publication of short articles on applied and practice geoscience topics such as field and data analysis techniques, geological observations and technical innovation. AIG Notebook will also provide a means of publishing extended abstracts of presentations to AIG convened conferences and seminars where these have not been used in the publication of an AIG Bulletin.
All articles will be original and will be peer reviewed. The review processes employed will be directed towards rapid publication of material submitted to the journal.
The journal won’t follow a publication schedule. Papers will be published in both the journal and AIG Notebook sections will be collated to produce an annual compendium that will be available for sale in both electronic (download, CD-ROM) and printed form. Selected articles will also be published from time to time in AIG News. At least one author will need to be an AIG member.
Guidelines for authors will be available on the journal web site when it is relaunched using the papers that were previously published in the journal.
AIG members are invited to join the Publications Committee which will manage the journal’s publication, or to be called on as needed to peer review papers. Please express your interest here if you would like to join the editorial panel or you are prepared to act as a peer reviewer from time to time. Please include your contact details, fields of technical interest and a short (one or two paragraph bio) in your email. Details of editorial panel members will be published on the AIG Journal web site.
Progress towards relaunching AIG Journal will appear on the AIG web site as the launch date approaches.
William Smith (1769 – 1839)
William Smith (1769 – 1839), an English geologist, is credited with compiling the first nationwide geological map in 1814 which was first published, the following year, in 1815.
Smith was born in the village of Churchill, Oxfordshire, the son of blacksmith John Smith. In 1787, he found work as an assistant for Edward Webb of Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, a surveyor. He was quick to learn, and soon became proficient at the trade. In 1791, he traveled to Somerset to make a valuation survey of the Sutton Court estate. He stayed in the area for the next eight years, working first for Webb and later for the Somersetshire Coal Canal Company, living at Rugborne Farm in High Littleton.
Smith worked at one of the estate’s older mines, the Mearns Pit at High Littleton, part of the Somerset coalfield and the Somerset Coal Canal.
In 1794, working as a surveyor on the construction for the Somerset Coal Canal, Smith recognised that each stratigraphic horizon contained a unique assemblage of fossils. This enabled him to work out the order of strata from the fossils they contained. As he observed the rock layers, he realised that they were arranged in a predictable pattern and that the various strata could always be found in the same relative positions. Additionally, each particular stratum could be identified by the fossils it contained, and the same succession of fossil groups from older to younger rocks could be found in many parts of England. Furthermore, he noticed an easterly dip of the beds of rock—small near the surface (about three degrees), then bigger after the Triassic rocks. This gave Smith a testable hypothesis, which he termed The Principle of Faunal Succession, and he began his search to determine if the relationships between the strata and their characteristics were consistent throughout England and Wales.
In 1799 Smith produced the first large scale geologic map of the area around Bath, Somerset. In 1801, he drew a rough sketch of what would become “The Map that Changed the World”.
In 1815 Smith published the first geological map of Britain. It covered the whole of England and Wales, and parts of Scotland, making it the first geologic map covering such a large area ever published. Conventional symbols were used to mark canals, tunnels, tramways and roads, collieries, lead, copper and tin mines, together with salt and alum works. The various geological types were indicated by different colours; the maps were hand coloured. He published his Delineation of the Strata of England in the same year. In another of his books Strata Identified by Organized Fossils (London 1816-1819) he recognised that strata contained distinct fossil assemblages which could be used to match rocks across regions.
At the time his map was first published he was overlooked by the scientific community; his relatively humble education and family connections preventing him from mixing easily in learned society. Consequently his work was plagiarised, he was financially ruined, and he spent time in debtors’ prison.
It was only much later in his life that Smith received recognition for his accomplishments. In 1831 the Geological Society of London awarded Smith the first Wollaston Medal and the President, Adam Sedgwick, referred to him as ‘the Father of English Geology’. Smith subsequently received an honorary Doctorate of Laws (LL.D.) from Trinity College, Dublin in 1831. In 1838 he was appointed as one of the commissioners to select building-stone for the new Palace of Westminster.
Smith’s map is displayed at the Geological Society in London.
The latest AIG Australian Geoscientist Employment survey is open for submissions.
This series of surveys commenced in 2008 to monitor the impact of the global economic downturn on geoscientist employment throughout Australia. They provide valuable data that is used by AIG in conjunction with other industry groups to track fluctuations in geoscientist employment in parallel with other measures of exploration and mining industry investment and performance. Hard data provided by these surveys is needed to ensure representations to government and other groups on employment issues are supported by representative, timely and relevant information. Your assistance in completing this survey, when it is run on a regular basis, is critical in helping to ensure this.
The previous survey at the end of December 2013 painted a dim picture of employment opportunities for Australian geoscientists, with unemployment reaching levels exceeding those seen in 2009 at the time of the global financial downturn. Anecdotal since then has painted a mixed picture of geoscientist employment. This survey has been timed to provide definitive answers regarding the current situation.
It’s essential that individual professional geoscientists continue to support the survey by answering the short, confidential questionnaire each time the survey is conducted to ensure that the data collected each time is as representative as possible. No personally identifiable information is collected.
A minute or two of your time spent completing the survey makes a real contribution to your profession.
The survey will be open for submissions until 28 June 2014.
The following members were elected to Executive and Council Committee Chairperson positions at a meeting of the AIG Council held 9th April, 2014
President Wayne Spilsbury
Vice President Kaylene Camuti
Treasurer Steve Sugden
Secretary Ron Adams
Ethics and Standards Michael Edwards
Qualifications Anne Tomlinson
Legal Sam Lees
Registration Board Mike Smith
Complaints Andrew Waltho
Publications, Publicitty and Promotions Andrew Waltho
Education Kaylene Camuti
External Relations Wayne Spilsbury
VALMIN Committee Liaison Jonathan Bell
JORC Committee Liaison Graham Jeffress
AIG Service Award Wendy Corbett
Graduate Committee Liaison Heather Carey
GSA Geotourism Committee Liaison Ian Neuss
Key dates for implementation of AIG’s new membership system are fast approaching:
18 June: The new membership system will go live with access provided via a link on the AIG web site. The link will appear at the top of each page, adjacent to the search tool. Members will be sent usernames and initial passwords to enable them to log in and update their profiles. Currently unfinancial members will be sent renewal notices to allow their membership to be brought up to date.
25 June: 2014-2015 membership renewal notices will be sent to members using their registered email addresses. This will provide time for on-line and off-line payment of membership renewals prior to the end of the 2013-14 financial year on June 30.
The new membership portal is an important initiative which will significantly improve the ability of Council and state branch committees to communicate with members, as well as improving institute management processes which will help to contain the cost of AIG membership. The portal will also provide a range of new member services, including the ability to maintain their personal details and maintain subscriptions to AIG’s email newsletters and AIG News.
It is now essential to ensure that your contact details are up to date. If you received AIG News by mail at your nominated address in the last two weeks and have been regularly receiving email newsletters, this will be the case. If you have any doubts, or don’t receive a username for the membership system by 20 June, contact AIG’s Executive Officer, Lynn Vigar.
AIG President, Wayne Spilsbury, was quoted in RFC Ambrian‘s Metals, Mining, Oil and Gas newsletter of 9 June 2014, observing ““The mining boom is gone and the downturn is now in full swing, our members are increasingly jobless as a result and now we see confirmed officially that the exploration spend itself has suffered a dramatic decline.”
Giving further credence to the AIG’s comments, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies pointed to the fact that it took an average of seven years to convert a discovery into an operating mine. Clearly something must be done to keep the supply of mining projects ongoing. Without exploration dollars being spent, existing resources will become more and more depleted and more expensive to mine, thereby driving up costs. Thus, falling supply and the resultant rising costs should lead to increased commodity prices (assuming continued demand). Given the time lag between the exploration and development of a mine, replacement supply could come too late if companies are unable to spend on exploration now.
The Australian Government’s ‘Exploration Development Incentive’, which will allow investors to deduct a proportion of the eligible exploration expenditure against their personal taxable income, is proposed to start next month (July 2014).
There could also be a possible repeal of some carbon and mining taxes.
There are genuine fears that these moves might not be sufficient to drive a rapid turnaround and the AIG believes that “state governments need to seriously attack the issue of their slow and expensive regulatory systems, which divert money that could otherwise be spent productively on the ground”.
AIG’s insurance brokers, KBI Pty Ltd, have established travel insurance arrangements with AIG Insurance that offer members a substantial discount from normal rates, with the ability to support policy holders directly in many parts of the world.
Further details of this product for individuals and families is available here. Travel insurance arrangements are also available for companies. Contact KBI for further details and to arrange a quotation.
