One of the primary tasks with which the GITA staff has been involved has been a complete overhaul of the association's membership structure.

 When the decision was made last April to discontinue the format of the annual conference, there were implications for just about everything we do. I am pleased to report that a lot of progress has been made on a number of important association services.

As promised in the year's first News Hub, we have launched several important initiatives each week so far in 2012: the new GITA Thought Leader Symposium was announced on Jan. 10, the new 2012 Board of Directors on the new GITA website was featured in the Jan. 17 edition, as was the inaugural Oil, Gas and Mining Seminar in Perth, Western Australia.

This week, we are happy to announce the new GITA membership structure.

Since mid-2011, the GITA staff has undertaken an unprecedented effort to learn and understand what is most important to our membership. Through many conversations, interviews and email survey responses, you have told us what you expect from GITA and the types of educational benefits and business opportunities that are most important in your relationship with us.

As a result of all this excellent input, we have completely retooled our approach to providing value to our individual, user affiliate and sponsor (previously corporate) members. The events and services we've already announced were created with a new, more relevant and more flexible membership structure in mind. It has been finalized, and I invite you to review the new structure here.

If you are already an individual or organizational member, thank you for your continued support through what has been a challenging period for the association. If your membership has elapsed, I encourage you to renew. If you have never been a member, take a look at what the new GITA can do for you.

There is a lot that is new — but we're certainly not finished! You'll see more improvements and enhancements to your membership benefits in the near future. As always, if you'd like to share suggestions, concerns or ideas, just let me know. Call me at 720-496-0481, or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it I always look forward to hearing from you!