• Benefits
• Volunteer Opportunities
• Jump In! and Volunteer!
• Volunteer Profiles
  • Mark Cooper
  • Brad Hayes
  • Memory Marshall &
    Shannon Nelson Evers
  • Colin Yeo
  • Rachel Newrick
  • Astrid Arts
  • Gillian Stoyko
• Committee Descriptions
• Resources

Volunteer Profiles

Mark Cooper

My volunteer work with the CSPG started about 7 years go when I joined the Publications Committee to develop new publications for the society. I am still involved with Publications but developing new Memoirs has been a challenge due to the high costs involved; the real high point for me was producing the new Geological Highway Map of Alberta. Then in 1999 I was approached by John Varsek to join the Technical Committee for GeoCanada 2000 as the CSPG representative, a proposition to which I foolishly agreed! This was a great experience working on a diverse Geoscience meeting. This led to my involvement as Technical Co-Chair for the CSPG/CSEG Convention in 2003 for which we had an excellent committee of volunteers that made the meeting a great success. I was also involved with the Technical Committee for the 2005 AAPG meeting held in Calgary. Why do I get involved in all of this? I suppose because I can't say no and because I feel that is important to put something back into Geology which has provided me with an interesting career.

My background is an academic career in the UK during which I was involved in organising Conferences, running field trips etc., which was almost a requirement of my lecturing job! Since joining the oil industry I have continued volunteering in a variety of ways. I was an Advisory Editor for the Geological Society of London for several years, and still sit ontheir Books Committee. In addition I serve on the AAPG Distinguished Lecturer Committee and the Canadian Geological Foundation.

I believe this has given me new perspectives on Geoscience and has helped to enrich my career and hopefully that of membership of the various organizations I have volunteered for. I don't see this coming to an end even after I retire; geologists never really retire they just erode slowly!