https://www.spegcs.org/spe-gulf-coast-section-scholarship-endowment-fund/
SPE Gulf Coast Section Scholarship Endowment Fund
Building for the Future |
November 13, 2016
To the Membership of the SPE Gulf Coast Section
Dear Friend and Colleague:
The SPE Gulf Coast Section Scholarship Endowment Fund
Over the past two years we have witnessed challenging times in our industry. The continuing low oil and gas prices have resulted in a dramatic reduction in upstream activity worldwide. Thousands of our colleagues have lost their jobs, companies have gone bankrupt, and universities have seen a big drop in new students entering the field of Petroleum Engineering.
Education continues to be the cornerstone of the energy industry, and our Society has prided itself in helping students join our ranks by providing annual scholarships. We have awarded more than $3 million in scholarships over the last 15 years. This is a legacy that we wish to build on in order to sustain the future of our industry.
The Gulf Coast Section’s newsletter advertising and Golf, Tennis, and Sporting Clays tournaments have historically provided most of the funding for our annual scholarships. Unfortunately, these fundraising methods have taken a huge hit, as sponsorships have dropped. To decouple our scholarship revenues from the price of oil, we have developed a Scholarship Endowment Fund that will sustain the annual scholarship awards without our having to cut both the number and the amount of student scholarship checks, like we had to do this year. The Fund has been launched with $100,000, comprising GCS funds and generous personal donations.
As a member of SPE, we now ask you to participate in building a legacy for this and future generations through tax-deductible charitable giving. Such charitable giving can be as simple as a cash or check donation to the Section or, alternatively, in the form of securities, real estate assets, or even life insurance. We have established an Advancement Committee to manage this initiative, and we hope you will contribute.
Download the donation form. Feel free to fill this in and email it to SEF@spegcs.org, I and other members of the Advancement Committee are available to answer any questions that you may have.
Many of our SPE-GCS Scholarship winners have gone on to become technical and managerial leaders in our industry. Future generations of petroleum engineers will be indebted to you for your generosity.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ivor R. Ellul
Advancement Chair