President's MessageJanuary 25, 2011
Emitt Witt IIIUSGS National Geospatial Technical Operations Center
Rolla, Missouri
President’s Message 01-19-2012
Emitt C. Witt III, P.H.
I am often asked by members and prospective members about the State of AIH. My response is that the organization continues to focus on the founding principles—to promote hydrology as a science and a profession and to help protect public interest and the profession from non-professional practices. I also mention that AIH is in a state of change, not from the perspective of its founding principles, but from the prospective of how the organization serves its members.
As I approach the halfway point of my office, I could not be more proud of the dedication and enthusiasm of our Executive Committee. We have been busy making numerous changes in our organization. First of all an extensive amount of work has gone into our website. Take a look (http://www.aihydrology.org/ )! It has a brand new look with much easier navigation. Our front page describes what hydrology is, and why it is important to become a member of AIH. Access to our application process is now easier with links directly to the needed forms that are described not by a form number but by their purpose. Also, explanations about our membership categories are less than two clicks away from the home page with direct links to the application process. Our Constitution and Bylaws are available for all to see and like all our other content is accessible with two clicks. The Awards page has been given a complete overhaul--we added the citations and acceptance letters for many of the past awards. Within the next couple of months you will see even more changes to our site. The ability to complete applications, pay dues with a credit card, open a member account, and purchase AIH merchandize online will be available. As always we invite the membership to provide us with more suggestions for updating our site. We now have an outstanding web developer supporting our efforts—nothing is too challenging for him.
There has been a recent change in our membership categories. During our September 2011 business meeting, we eliminated fees for students. Now all students who have an interest in hydrology can join the organization without the financial burden of membership. Our hope is that more students will join the organization and more will become active at the local level--building student chapters, holding meetings, and supporting the annual conferences.
For those of you who have participated in our annual conferences, you should have noticed that we adopted an unofficial policy to partner with other scientific organizations for planning and executing these meetings. During September 10-13, 2011, our organization successfully co-hosted the annual conference with the American Institute of Professional Geologists in Chicago, IL. The conference, “Geoscience: The Road to a Sustainable Future” was well attended by members from both organizations. More than 70 papers and posters were presented and more than 34 sponsors and exhibitors helped make this conference a huge success. Our own past-president Dr. Miguel Medina delivered an outstanding keynote lecture—“The Global Water Crisis, Energy and Climate Change Uncertainty.” Also, during the award banquet Dr. Mustafa Aral was presented with the 2011 AIH Founders Award for his outstanding service to the organization. Both our General Secretary (Ms. Marzi Sharfaei) and our VP for Institutional Development (Dr. Jim Cruise) played a huge role in making this conference a success for both organizations. Our annual conferences are important to this organization. They give us the opportunity to connect with each other, share ideas and concerns, recognize members for their contributions to the profession and/or service to the organization, and provide direction for our union. I encourage you to make attendance at future conferences a priority.
If there is one area where we are failing, it is with our newsletter/bulletin. For years this has been the way our organization has communicated with its members on a quarterly basis. Unfortunately we have lost the regularity of this product because we do not have an active committee supporting the development of its content. We urgently need an active committee to support this task. I ask that you consider donating your time to the organization to help us build back this capability. Please contact the Executive Director (Dr. Rolando Bravo) with an expression of interest and we will set you up with everything you need to be successful. I also invite all members to submit short articles for publication in our future newsletters. These articles can highlight a project activity, a significant hydrologic finding, recognition of another member, a new publication, or some other news you feel the hydrology community should know about. Rolando Bravo will be soliciting support for newsletter articles in the very near future. Please consider drafting an article for publication in the newsletter.
In closing I would like to summarize who we are as an organization. During the last business meeting our Executive Director presented the demographics of our organization. The results show we are small but growing. Our organization is a cross section of industry, government, and academia and represents 65%, 22%, and 12% of the membership, respectively. These results show that our certification is valued by those practicing hydrology. If you know of colleagues that are not already certified members, please encourage them to become a part of this valued group of professionals.
Emitt C. Witt III, PH
President AIH
