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GSA 2018 ANNUAL MEETING & EXPOSITION

President’s Welcome

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, is a perfect place to know more about karst or pseudo-karst, communi-
cating about hazards and risk, the latest in climate change as well as global changes with Triassic evo-
lution and extinctions, urban geochemistry, agrohydrology, urban systems, geoarcheology, artificial
intelligence, and medical geologists—the opportunities abound!

There is something for everyone, including papers that were the peer-judged “Best of AAPG” if you
want to learn about the latest in petroleum technology. These papers will be embedded in the geology
energy and unconventional energy sessions.

Talk to me in Indianapolis!
Robbie Gries, GSA President
President, Priority Oil & Gas LLC

GSA Presidential Address

Navigating “Me, too” in the Geosciences
Robbie Rice Gries

Sunday, 4 Nov., noon–1:30 p.m., Indiana Convention Center, Sagamore Ballroom 5

We have seen the “Me, too!” movement expand across all I believe people in the sciences have some excellent skills to
aspects of humankind. From Hollywood where it grew legs, to address harassment, prejudice, and gender issues. We have the
Congress, state legislatures, the White House, to huge corporations, scientific skills and intellect to address many societal problems,
small businesses, sports, television personalities, the military, and we are good at it. We use data, published studies, field trips,
the Olympics, and, yes … to GSA. and in-depth conversations with experts in our disciplines to
Before Harvey Weinstein, before something hit the proverbial advance our knowledge. We prime the creative pumps of our
fan—GSA was already receiving and addressing complaints minds with these actions and techniques to find science-based
from members who experienced harassment (ranging from bullying solutions to nagging problems. This is second nature to the
to sexual assault) at GSA functions and in their professional lives. professional geoscientist.
We launched a review of our ethics position, our obligations, What is not second nature to all of us is how to employ these
and our code of conduct to ensure our Society had the ability to skills, techniques, use of experts, and data-gathering abilities in
effectively deal with unprofessional behavior at GSA meetings, our interpersonal relationships, including our interactions with
field trips, and other sanctioned events. Recognizing our lack of colleagues, staff, students, and families. But we can. And this
good definitions and effective procedures, GSA’s initiative was can make a bigger difference.
timely, and good strides have been made for our Society to appro- Let’s look at historic, sometimes reprehensible, behaviors
priately deal with these types of inappropriate actions. We can demonstrated by geoscientists, changes that have already been
take “proactive measures.” made to counter this behavior, statistics about harassment by
scientists today, and possibilities for advancing our science
through advances in interpersonal skills and behaviors.

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