European Geologist European Geologist Geoheritage - learning ...

Foreword
EurGeol. Ruth Allington, President
It is a pleasure to introduce this 34 th European Geologist
magazine with its diverse selection of papers under the
theme of “Geoheritage”. The celebration and preservation
of geoheritage as a resource is an essential element of
support to geological and scientific education at all levels.
It also provides our community with opportunities to
create and disseminate accessible and useful information
on geoscientific issues and the way they relate to protection
of the public, sustainable use of natural resources
and environmental protection. These are issues that are
central to EFG’s mission and strategic aims.
At its Tenerife meeting in May, the Council made further
progress on strategic planning for the Federation. A
revised statement of the ‘Objects’ of the EFG at Article 2
of the statutes, re-worded to add clarity and focus, without
detracting from their meaning, was approved, and
a list of strategic aims, drawn from the Objects in the
statutes, was developed to underpin the strategic plan
for the period 2012-2017.
At its meeting in Brussels in November, the Board will be seeking approval for the strategic aims,
following the current period of consultation. Since the summer meeting, the Board has used the substantially
agreed draft strategic aims to draw up, and rank, priority actions for the plan period – this
document is now with the Council for consultation. At the Council meeting in November, a major
item of business will be work on agreeing a finalized list (and ranking) of priority actions for the
plan period so that the Board can work on detailed action plans and budgets that can be presented
for approval at the June 2013 summer Council meeting in Stockholm.
It has taken us some time to reach this stage with our strategic planning and the ‘end of the beginning’
is now in sight, when we will have in place a hierarchy of documentation representing a robust
and well-articulated strategic plan to guide and underpin our activities. The work done by Council
members and the Board and Officials in getting to this stage has been valuable in itself – it is helping
us to be an even more ‘connected’ organization with more of a sense of common purpose, and this
can only continue as we implement the strategic plans we have worked so hard to produce. I call this
the ‘end of the beginning’ because it is intended that the 2013-2017 strategic plan will be a rolling
plan, updated annually so as always to have a five year time horizon for the EFG’s activities.
European Geologist 34 | November 2012
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