SPE is excited to announce the expansion of SPE committees focused on our student and young professional members. The current Young Member Engagement Committee (YMEC) will split into two new groups, the Student Development Committee and the Young Professional Committee, starting from the 2023–2024 term.
In the current structure, standing committees are groups of SPE members who are dedicated to review international strategy on key functions for the society globally. They split into membership engagement topics and technical content topics and report their progress back to the SPE Board of Directors. Student and young professional development have been the focus of YMEC since 2014, when the Student Development Committee and Young Professional Coordinating Committee merged to help support the transition from student to professional members.
Since then, YMEC has grown significantly with a number of new programs and initiatives. PetroBowl now has more participating chapters than ever, and new programs have been developed such as the Virtual Career Pathways Fair. During the past 10 years, it has also fostered collaborations with other committees and societies through the Emerging Leaders Alliance, YP Congress, and YP Summit all aimed to push YP development. YMEC has reacted and responded to many challenges enabling programs to develop and continue in an ever-changing environment. Through social media, it has also fostered a greater link of communication with our regional sections and chapters.
From end of year reports, 65,849 of the total 119,120, or 55%, of SPE members fall into the category of young members (student and young professionals). The overall membership of 55% is clearly a vital demographic, and SPE International has now made the decision to split YMEC back into its student and YP committees so that it can give more focus to both groups.
The current chair of YMEC, Cassandra Dewan, shared her thoughts on the upcoming changes:
“The oil and gas industry is ever-changing, and, as we diversify to an energy industry to address climate change, we also have to prepare our current and future workforce to adapt and up-skill in order to be marketable. Today, the needs and challenges of our student membership vary vastly from the needs and challenges of our YP membership. The two new separate committees, SDC and YPC, will give us the bandwidth to dedicate more time to the development and implementation of strategic innovative programs to tackle the recent challenges faced by these demographics while constantly improving existing programs. Additionally, it will equip us with the ammunition needed to bridge the gap between students and YPs, thus fostering growth in the student to YP conversion rate. Furthermore, two committees with benefits tailored specifically for their demographic will result in renewed interested in SPE and an increase in both the student and YP membership, which has significantly declined over the last few years when compared to the other age demographics.”
This process will begin by diversifying the makeup of the committees themselves, by encouraging more senior professionals to share their advice in the YP committee, and bringing in more academic representatives to the Student Development Committee. For the first time, student members will also be allowed to apply for positions in the Student Development Committee, as well.
Changes will come into effect at the start of the new SPE Term on 18 October, and both committees are now seeking new members to join them. If you are interested in joining one of these new committees, or any of the SPE International Standing Committees, make sure to search opportunities through our SPE League of Volunteers webpage to submit you application. Applications close on 31 March 2023.
To find out more about these changes, please reach out to us at yp@spe.org