The Australian Geologist - Geological Society of Australia

SocietyUpdate
Publicity&Media
The GSA has an excellent run with publicity and media recently.
The Discovery Channel approached us some time ago
now for basic fact-checking for the brand new Atlas
Australia DVD. I’m pleased to report that this was launched
worldwide 19 October 2006, with GSA in the credits: fabulous
exposure for us.
Channel Nine's 'The Shack" kid's science show asked us to
help out with contacts about soils. We were pleased to be able
to contribute contacts for the content of this excellent show.
The BBC is also creating an Earth-related documentary, and
we were able to put their researchers into contact with
Australian specialists on the geology of Uluru.
The response to the hot rock energy article (TAG 139,
September 2006) has been very positive, with industry journals
and the general science media picking up on the story.
In other news, we have announced the Australian Earth
Sciences Convention 2008, with a media release promotion
to all our kindred societies and their calendars worldwide, as
well as to the national media. We have established an information
email list for all those who want to stay in touch as we
move towards our next Australian Geological Convention –
AESC2008@gsa.org.au
We also digested the results of our geoz survey, undertaken
recently to assess reader responses. In general, it is a popular
resource, although the design and content need some tweaking.
We are sure now that the idea of an electronic newsletter is
welcome, but we need to adjust the
content to more accurately reflect
reader requirements. In 2007, we will
be releasing a new approach, taking on
board the valuable comments we received. Thanks to those who
contributed.
An important recent development has been our connection
with International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) activities, to
establish how the GSA might manage several education and
outreach programs. I represented the GSA at an IYPE workshop
at Geoscience Australia with the IYPE management team chair
Eduardo de Mulder, where I outlined the GSA's strengths and
potential activities geographically through our divisions, and
intellectually through our specialist groups – which were enthusiastically
received. Andy Gleadow had previously met with
Eduardo de Mulder and the GSA is now in a position to contribute
to a national coordinating committee, reporting directly
to the international management team. The GSA has also been
invited to participate in the International Outreach Committee.
More news on this front soon.
There are so many exciting GSA related events planned
for 2007 – 'Deformation in the Desert' coordinated by the
Specialist Group in Tectonics and Structural Geology, and the
Specialist Group in Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Petrology also
has a conference planned for 2007.
These events are being widely promoted through the
GSA business office, adding to our profile enormously and
demonstrating the wide variety of activities going on around
the country.
JESS TYLER
Promotions and Publicity Consultant
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TAG December 2006