Dear SPE Aberdeen members, colleagues and friends,

Wow, the world has turned upside down since our last newsletter. A month ago I had never heard of Zoom and now I seem to be living my life over it. Joking aside it has been a tough month for all of us in varying degrees and I sincerely hope you have avoided the consequences of the COVID19 outbreak.

My gratitude goes out to all those workers in our health and other services who are working so hard to keep us all safe and well physically and mentally.

Entering Q2 we were about to hit the busiest period of 2020 for SPE Aberdeen events. Within 10 days we went from a statement of Business as Usual and preparing for a busy week of NASA in Aberdeen to being just 8 days away from the Offshore Achievement Awards when we were forced to postpone not just the OAAs but seven Continuing Education events and all our YP and Evening Technical Meetings. Might I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the team who have been working tirelessly to reschedule, renegotiate and reimagine our events. From Suzanne Robertson and her team at Mearns & Gill, our OAA, Continuing Education, SCG, Programme and YP teams and our support team Diane, Louise and Lorraine there has been an unswerving determination to reschedule events, maximise technical exchange and minimise the financial impact to SPE Aberdeen. Thank you all.

You will be able to keep up to date with all our events at www.spe-aberdeen.org.

Plato told us necessity is the mother of invention and the Programme Committee is taking that to heart. We are trialling webinar applications and you can expect an announcement about a new form of Technical Meeting presentation shortly.

Fortunately, the last bit of normality before the shutdown allowed me to attend the Student Bursary Award ceremony. It was a great celebration of the talent entering the industry and you may have seen some great coverage in the press.

Best wishes and stay safe,

Kenny

Kenny McAllister

SPE Aberdeen Chair