Houston Pipeliners Association

00:00:00 Speaker 1
This episode of the Energy Pipeline is sponsored by Caterpillar Oil and Gas. Since the 1930s, Caterpillar has manufactured engines for drilling, production, well service and gas compression. With more than 2100 dealer locations worldwide, Caterpillar offers customers a dedicated support team to assist with their premier power solutions.

00:00:26 Speaker 2
The energy pipeline is your lifeline to all things oil and gas. To drill down deep into the issues impacting our industry. From the frack site to the future of sustainability, hear more about industry issues, tools, and resources to streamline and modernize the future of oil and gas. Welcome to the Energy Pipeline.

00:00:49 KC Yost
Hello everyone, and welcome to this episode of the Energy Pipeline Podcast. Today we're fortunate to have Ashley Gaston-Boneau, and Melissa Scott from The Pipeliners Association of Houston as our guest. Welcome to the Energy Pipeline Podcast, ladies.

00:01:04 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Thank you.

00:01:04 Melissa Scott
Thanks, KC.

00:01:05 KC Yost
Great having you guys here. I'm so anxious to have our conversation about the pipeliners in Houston. But before we get started talking about the association, would each of you take a few minutes to share your background with our listeners? Ashley, let's start with you.

00:01:20 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Yeah. Sure, KC. So I must say I'm excited, but yet I'm a little nervous because my history is being on the opposite side and usually I ask the questions. So today I am a little nervous because we're going to be answering the questions, but we've prepped, and what I can say about that is, I've been with LJA for 10 years and I'm on the business development side where I ask potential clients a lot of questions. And then before that, I was in broadcasting for 10 years and I was a journalist where I asked a lot of hard questions to people. So I think this is going to be great, and I'm excited to see us produce a great podcast and us promote The Pipeliners Association, who's been so good to me.

00:02:09 KC Yost
Welcome. Glad to have you. By the way, just so you know, Ashley and I actually do work as competitors, so we're friendly competition.

00:02:17 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
That's right.

00:02:18 KC Yost
Or frenemies, however you want to say it, but great to have you here. She's a wonderful person and glad to have you here. Melissa, I'm sorry. Please tell us about yourself.

00:02:28 Melissa Scott
Yes, nice to be here. My name is Melissa Scott, and I've been in the oil and gas industry for over 30 years. I currently work at Phillips 66, where I'm part of the commercial and business development team, and I'm in their strategy execution group. And so I've done projects, I've worked in refining, I've worked in midstream and pipeline. And I happy to be here. I love being a part of the Houston Pipeliners Association, and I've reaped a lot of the benefits of being there, such as the scholarship and networking with different people and meeting people like Ashley, who's now one of my best friends in the organization. And my husband is also was pipeliner of the year in 2020. So

00:03:26 KC Yost
Shout out to Doug. There you go.

00:03:28 Melissa Scott
Shout out to Doug Scott.

00:03:29 KC Yost
There you go.

00:03:30 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
KC, that's so amazing about this organization is because of it, Melissa and I met each other. So she's on the owner side and I'm on the vendor side, someone that offers services that her company buys. And if it wasn't for the pipeliners organization, we may not have met. So that's why we're excited here today just to talk about all these relationships that-

00:03:55 KC Yost
I think that's-

00:03:55 Melissa Scott
Are fostered because of our-

00:03:57 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Organization.

00:03:58 KC Yost
Well, good. Good. Well, let's keep talking and maybe we'll end up making this into two podcasts. We'll just talk for the next hour or so. That's good. That's good. Well, anyway, the subject is near and dear to my heart. You guys know, because I told you my first Pipeliners Association meeting was in 1977, played my first Pipeliners golf tournament in 1977. So I've been associated with the group for a long, long time, and I'm just so anxious to hear you guys talk. We've already recorded the Tulsa Pipeliners Club and the San Antonio Pipeliners Association, but now we get you guys on there so you can maybe debunk some of the nasty stuff that they said about Houston.

00:04:46 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Oh, no way. You know what I'm going to call you KC, I'm going to call you the OG pipeliner, the original gangster pipeliner.

00:04:56 KC Yost
That would be good, but actually I'm not. Which kind of gets into this. So let's talk about Houston Pipeliners. When was The Pipeliners Association formed?

00:05:09 Melissa Scott
So The Pipeliners Association was formed in 1953, and it started with just six members.

00:05:18 KC Yost
So just to be clear, that was a year before I was born.

00:05:22 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
No, so you're not the OG.

00:05:24 KC Yost
Right off the bat. Yeah. And Tulsa made it a point to let us know that they formed in 1946, 7 years before us.

00:05:33 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Burn.

00:05:34 KC Yost
I don't... Yeah, fair enough. Okay. Anyway, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah.

00:05:38 Melissa Scott
So today we have over or right at 2000 members. And as Ashley was saying, our membership is made up of owners and vendors, owner companies and vendor companies. And we... Ashley you go.

00:05:57 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
So some of the vendors we focus on, design, engineering, operation or maintenance of pipelines and pipeline equipment, make up 50% of the organization while the other 50% of the organization like Melissa is Phillips 66, enterprise products, energy transfer, just to name a few.

00:06:16 KC Yost
Kinder Morgan, Williams, et cetera. Sure. In fact, it's in the bylaws, isn't it? That 50% of the membership has to come from an operating company?

00:06:24 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Absolutely. And we are looking for more members of the owners and we welcome you to come out.

00:06:32 KC Yost
Is there a way to help promote that a little bit more at the operating companies to get more people out?

00:06:40 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
We've put our heads together and we don't know how to do that.

00:06:44 Melissa Scott
And we're working on just getting the word out to people. One of the best ways, I think, to promote it at the owner's companies is that the Houston Pipeliners Association, not only if you have a high schooler who's getting ready to go into college, we have the scholarship program where we've funded over 10 million since the scholarship fund started. We're second only to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Houston as far as our fundraising. And in '22, we surpassed a million dollars in our scholarships. And I know when you were president of Pipeliners in 2000, 2001, the scholarship total surpassed a hundred thousand. So in 20 years, we've gone tenfold over where it was when you were president.

00:07:45 KC Yost
So someone's done some homework. Yeah.

00:07:48 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
That's incredible. I told you we were doing our research because we wanted to impress you and our listeners.

00:07:54 KC Yost
And let's get to the scholarships later, because I will tell you that first scholarship that I remember was 500 bucks. But anyway, we'll get to that in a second. You were talking about your relationship and how one side of the fence gets to know the other side of the fence, and we have this camaraderie and relationship that builds through that. So to me, networking is a strong reason to join the organization. Would you consider that to be the main purpose of the organization? What is the main purpose of the organization?

00:08:37 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Well, we have a mission statement, and it's always important to know the mission statement of every organization to sell to them or to learn more about them. And it's to advance our pipeline engineering and operation practices for the mutual benefit of the members of the industry. So the mutual benefit is if we get to know each other, then we know what your company needs. And then I can either offer you that from my company or maybe I know someone like KC who's selling something to help you get in front of them. So I think it does come back to networking, but people get in a shell and sometimes they get nervous about going to these events because they have to be an extrovert, and really they're an introvert. So I could see where this whole networking thing could be a little overwhelming for some people, especially to some of our listeners.

00:09:32 KC Yost
Well, the organization does, I think do a pretty good job of trying to welcome new guests and ask for the rookies, the first people that are attending for the first time to actually stand up and be introduced and try to get their name out and try to get them out of that shell a little bit. But the idea of the networking and the purpose and the mission statement that you read, the idea of promoting pipelining. I remember Dana and I taking a jet boat tour down in the Everglades, and they were asking everyone, "Well, what do you do for a living?" And I was the last one. They said, "Well, what do you do for a living?" "I build pipelines." No one talked to me after that. No one recognizes that pipelines are the safest means of transporting hydrocarbons in the world safer than trains or trucks or-

00:10:33 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
18 wheelers.

00:10:33 KC Yost
...whatever case. Sure. So the idea is that they don't recognize that. So promoting pipelining, I think is really cool. And the idea of networking is really cool. And having these conversations is really kind of the backbone for the Pipeliners Association. My thought.

00:10:54 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Yeah. Even to put it on a platform, you're putting this on a platform that maybe supersedes our reach.

00:11:02 KC Yost
Sure.

00:11:03 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
So we really can only reach our industry, but now because you're doing this podcast, the sky's the limit on who can listen to it.

00:11:11 KC Yost
There you go. For everyone that's out there, be sure to know, it's houstonpipeliners. net. We'll talk about that later. But fair enough, again, we promote this out and try to get more operating company people involved. I really think there's a lot of benefits. You touched on a number of those, Melissa. We'll get to the idea of the continuing education credits and all of that kind of stuff for professional engineers. It's pretty important stuff. Anyway, so I understand the purpose of the organization. And Melissa, you touched on this. Let's go into detail here and let's talk about charitable work by the organization. I mean, what Houston Pipeliners does is really outstanding from my perspective.

00:12:00 Melissa Scott
Yes. So like you said, the association has been granting scholarships to member relatives of, or scholarships to the relatives of our members for many, many years now. And like I said, in '22, we surpassed a million dollars in scholarships. We also have our veteran committee, which has done several service projects in charitable organizations such as the Combined Arms Houston, with their Operation Santa program participated in Irreverent Warriors, Silkies Hikes, I need my glasses. And cleaning up grave sites at the Houston National Cemetery, to name a few. Our Pipeline Young Professionals known as the PYP, has also raised funds food and gifts to benefit Cy Fair, Helping Hands. Our newest partnership is with Alpha Kappa Alpha to collect books multiple times a year for their literacy outreach program in conjunction with Cy Fair Helping Hands. So those are just some of the notable things that we contribute to in the community to help Houston area overall with the good deeds by the Houston Pipeliners.

00:13:30 KC Yost
We're not just scholarships.

00:13:35 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
No

00:13:35 Melissa Scott
No.

00:13:35 KC Yost
We're not just scholarships. I think that's-

00:13:36 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
We find a way to give back in areas that are meaningful or maybe even forgotten.

00:13:41 KC Yost
Sure.

00:13:42 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
I love that we have a veterans organization, and us going and cleaning up the grave sites at Houston National Cemetery. We are really paying it forward. Our servicemen and women who died for our country and their family members, they need to have clean grave sites to go visit to. And we need to recognize that these men and women died for our country. And sometimes that is something that's forgotten in today's world, and I'm really fond of us even having a veteran's organization to do outreach.

00:14:21 KC Yost
I think that's wonderful. The other thing that I caught on here real quick is the PYP. I mean, I'm old. I've got a 27 year-old granddaughter. But the idea of the organization actually having a subset organization that is specifically for the young professionals, the young pipeliners, trying to understand their way of doing things and trying to make them feel more comfortable. Frankly, they're going to be the leaders in the pipeline industry of tomorrow, so let's start building those relationships now and all of that kind of thing. So I think getting involved in having that PYP is pretty good. I've actually gone to two PYP meetings and was the oldest guy there. But they welcomed me and it was a nice visit and all of that kind of thing. But I think it's a wonderful that the next generation is already starting to look at getting together. And the Pipeliners Association promoting that I think is extremely important and very exciting. Very exciting. Very exciting.

00:15:39 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Well, if I may toot my own horn for just a second. At one of the PYP events, the bowling event LJA and Phillips 66 teamed up together, and we actually got third place in the bowling tournament.

00:15:53 KC Yost
Outstanding.

00:15:54 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
So that was a cool event.

00:15:56 KC Yost
Absolutely.

00:15:57 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
And I was with people who are probably 10 years younger than me, but it was fun to be together, to get to know each other. And in any situation, walking into a room of people can be intimidating, especially if you're fresh out of college. Where am I going to go to meet people and get to know people in my industry? And PYP is a platform to do that.

00:16:21 KC Yost
Perfect. That's exciting. That's exciting. By the way, did I share the story about 1977 and playing in that golf tournament? About three dozen of us going out to Hockley and played at the old Tennwood Country Club. First Pipeliners Association golf tournament. I participated in, might've been three dozen of us there. We drank a lot of beer, played a little bit of golf.

00:16:48 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Beer? No.

00:16:49 KC Yost
Threw money together. And in 1977, the Pipeliners passed out one $500 scholarship.

00:16:59 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Well, that was big money back then.

00:17:01 KC Yost
Well, it was. But now to hear that last year, or excuse me, in '22, we surpassed a million dollars. I suspect we're holding pretty close to that. Frankly, I'm on the board of directors. We have a meeting next week to talk about how much we pass out in '24. So hopefully it's a good amount as well that it's very exciting to see. Yes, you pointed out that I broke a hundred thousand dollars back, almost 25 years ago. Very good. Good job. Good job.

00:17:30 Melissa Scott
Yes.

00:17:31 KC Yost
I mean, it's just amazing what's happened now.

00:17:34 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
A million dollars, just, and I think we have a hundred and something people that sign up for these scholarships.

00:17:40 Melissa Scott
Yes. So in the last three years, we've raised over a million dollars each year since '22. So this will be our third year with over a million dollars in scholarships. And that's given out to anywhere from, we typically average like 125 to 140 students that we give the scholarships out to. And this year we have 149 signed up for the interviews.

00:18:11 KC Yost
Oh. Excellent.

00:18:12 Melissa Scott
And so you speak that back in the '70s when we gave out the first scholarship, it was $500, and now we're at the $5,000 level. So some get a little more, some get a little less, but that's the magnitude of these scholarships. So we're talking real tuition dollars, not just something that would these days just cover books. Though, back when the first scholarship went out, that probably covered full or maybe even half of the tuition that I remember.

00:18:49 KC Yost
Yes, you're absolutely right. It's amazing what's being done nowadays. I was the scholarship chairman for four years. No one remembers this, but before Barbara took over and Debbie took over, I was the-

00:19:04 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
So it's before Barbara and then after Barbara?

00:19:06 KC Yost
Yes.

00:19:08 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
But there's no after Barbara yet. So before Barbara was KC?

00:19:10 KC Yost
Yeah. Yes, that's right. That's right. So I was the scholarship chairman back then, and we made it a point to adjudicate the sponsor as much as we did the applicant. So the sponsor has to be a member in good standing for two years, has to attend six or more of the events each calendar year. I remember when the bylaws were changed, it used to be each fiscal year, which is June 30th to, excuse me, July 1st to June 30th. Now, it's every calendar year. It's been changed to that.

00:19:50 Melissa Scott
Yeah. It makes it easier for people to keep up with.

00:19:52 KC Yost
Yes. And participation. If you're volunteering for something, like talking with me on a podcast or Ashley, I know you're heavily involved with the golf tournaments and all of that kind of thing. By the way, I want to talk about those later. But if you go through the chairs and you're president, you get so many points. If you're vice president, you get a few less points, but you get some points. If you're on the board of directors, you get some extra points and that type of thing. So the sponsor is adjudicated as much as the child is or the student is. And so getting into the organization, like you were talking about kids in high school going into college, let's start doing this and get out and volunteer. And we've never had any problems, I don't think, finding volunteers for all of our events to get things done. I actually recall turning away some people at times, but at the end of the day, this is another incentive for people to come out and help and participate with the different events.

00:21:01 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Yeah.

00:21:01 Melissa Scott
Yes. Yeah.

00:21:02 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Absolutely.

00:21:03 Melissa Scott
And then it's real money to be used towards their college education. And there's not any stipulations as to what part of the college cost it can be used for, but it does go directly to the school. So it comes directly off of your bill that you have for the school. That includes your tuition and room and board and school fees and things like that.

00:21:29 KC Yost
Good. Are they still accepting applicants from out of the country?

00:21:35 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Ooh. I haven't heard of that one.

00:21:37 KC Yost
A guy named Ron Mara, old old friend of mine, hope he's listening, had two granddaughters that went to school in the UK. And when I was scholarship chairman, I had to get two cashier's checks converted from dollars to pounds sterling to send for their scholarships. One was in Cambridge, I'm sorry. I can't remember where the other one was. But yeah, so anyway.

00:22:02 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
That's incredible. I mean, I feel like if it's a member and the member has done its due diligence and met all of the requests for the bylaws, then why not?

00:22:13 KC Yost
Sure. Great stuff.

00:22:14 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
I think this is amazing though, because Melissa, her son received scholarships and now your daughter's up and-

00:22:21 Melissa Scott
And now my daughter.

00:22:22 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
... she'llbe interviewing the Saturday before Easter-

00:22:25 Melissa Scott
The Saturday, yes.

00:22:25 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
... which is always theSaturday before Easter. And I'm hoping that this will be a hook for more owners to get involved. We're always trying to get more owners to get involved. But when your kids get ready to go to college, sometimes they may not qualify for scholarships because of a salary cap, that schools think that you make too much money. And we were talking about this the other day. Sometimes I feel like the more money I make, the more money I spend. And so I'm always out of money, and I just can't imagine when my kids get ready to go to college, where am I going to come up with whatever tuition costs now? And I don't even know. But now you already live on a budget, and so now you have to find this extra money to support your kids to go to college. Well, where's it going to come from? And thank God we are participants of an organization who doesn't judge you based off of your salary. Because of your volunteer work with the organization, as long as they fill out all the paperwork and apply, attend the interview, more than likely they're going to get a scholarship, just like you have benefited.

00:23:36 Melissa Scott
Yes. And they have to have good grades. And volunteerism is a big component of the criteria and the selection process. So as long as your kids are going to college, making good grades and progressing and giving back to their community, then all of that goes into the consideration of how much money you get. So you could get a little more, depending on what your grades are, how much you participate in the community with volunteerism, and then also on your sponsor too. So if your sponsor is just a member, you get a certain amount, and then if your sponsor is on a committee or committee chair, then you get extra. So it goes both ways. The sponsor and the candidate, the more you do, the more you get.

00:24:34 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
What a great foundation for everyday life skills. Make good grades, work hard, give back to your community, and you'll be rewarded.

00:24:45 KC Yost
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. So the overall umbrella, when we're looking at Houston Pipeliners, we're talking about the scholarships, we're talking about the veterans and the veteran work that you do, and then the young pipeliners organization as well, trying to cover as much as we can across the board. Right?

00:25:09 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Absolutely.

00:25:10 KC Yost
Good. So let's talk specifically about meetings. You have monthly meetings?

00:25:18 Melissa Scott
Yes, we have.

00:25:19 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Yes.

00:25:19 Melissa Scott
Monthly business meetings. And in those meetings we have presentations on the industry, which I find to be very fascinating. You can keep on track with what's going on. A lot of times we get, at least once a year, we have a presentation by the Army Corps of Engineers to keep us updated on the permitting requirements and what is new coming out of the office that supports the Houston area, and what types of projects that they're looking at and how they're reviewing those types of permits. We also have presentations on things such as LiDAR that can be used to assess geo-hazards with pipelines, if there's ground movement around them and everything that could eventually contribute to a leak. And we always want to be safe and keep the product in the pipe. And then we also have presentations from the Pipeline Oil and Gas Journal that covered what's happening in the industry. Usually that one occurs at the beginning of the year to give us an outlook for what types of things to expect. They also give an overview of some of the projects around the world that are going on, so we can see how we fit in in the global perspective of projects that are going on, especially now with a lot of the oil pipelines being converted to carbon dioxide use. So we get to see a lot of what's going on there, what the new things are that are coming down. But just fascinating things that will help in our industry as far as integrity, metering, and just keeping everything safe. We get to learn about that at our presentations on a monthly basis.

00:27:33 KC Yost
Good. And the meetings are the first Monday?

00:27:36 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
First Monday, and they're always in the evening. So you can get there about five if you want. And the presentation starts at about 6:30, 6:45.

00:27:43 Melissa Scott
6: 30.

00:27:45 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
And this is good for people who are in the trenches at work Monday through Friday, and they feel like maybe they can't get out to an event, which we'll talk about later. But this is great for people who are in the trenches all day at work, in their cubicle, in their office, and they want to participate in our organization. They can come in the evening on a Monday, get a good hearty meal, do a little fellowship, learn a little something, and then go home and get one of their six boxes to check off to say, "Hey, you know what I'm doing my part to one day qualify for scholarships."

00:28:20 KC Yost
Perfect. And where is the meeting held?

00:28:23 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
It's held at the North Center in City Center over off I10 in the Beltway. Energy Corridor area.

00:28:28 KC Yost
So that would be the southeast corner of Beltway 8 and the Katy Freeway.

00:28:35 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Correct.

00:28:36 Melissa Scott
Yes.

00:28:37 KC Yost
Perfect. And that's first Monday of the month, and you take off July and August?

00:28:44 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
We're off... Shoot, when are we off? I'll have to refer to my notes on that, KC.

00:28:48 Melissa Scott
July and August. We start back the last week in August, usually because that first Monday is Labor Day. And then we-

00:29:01 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
That's right. No meetings in April, July, and September.

00:29:05 Melissa Scott
Yeah, because we have the golf tournament is on the 1st of April.

00:29:07 KC Yost
Okay. All right.

00:29:08 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
And then the summer, everybody's out for summer, and that's when we have our fish out. And then the fall is when we have our clay shoot and another golf tournament.

00:29:17 Melissa Scott
Golf tournament.

00:29:21 KC Yost
Gosh, you guys have got a lot of stuff going on. So-

00:29:25 Melissa Scott
Busy bees.

00:29:26 KC Yost
...what do we have? What are we talking about? You've got two golf tournaments, two sporting clays, two fish outs. Is that right? Is that what's going on?

00:29:36 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Yeah.

00:29:36 Melissa Scott
Cornhole with the PYP tournament that's coming up.

00:29:40 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
So you got to wonder, we're giving away a million dollars in scholarships, where is this money coming from? How do you even collect a million dollars to give away? Well, we do it through these events, and these events are so much fun. Yes, it takes a whole nother second job to do them.

00:30:02 KC Yost
Yeah. Let's be clear, that golf tournament in 1977 with 36 of us was a lot of fun. But this is a lot more funner.

00:30:12 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Well,-

00:30:13 KC Yost
Or a lot more people. Fair enough. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

00:30:15 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
It's both. It's more fun, more people. It is not wild, but as a member of the golf committee, just planning for this, I can't imagine, it's like planning for a wedding for a thousand people. I can't even imagine what a wedding for a thousand people would be like, but that is what our event year is going to be like in April. I mean, we have 600 golfers signed up. We have 22 beverage carts, and we have 70 whole sponsors.

00:30:46 KC Yost
Oh, my.

00:30:47 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Our golf tournament is at Kingwood Country Club where there's four courses. Why is it always at Kingwood Country Club? It is the only golf course in the area that is large enough to handle our group. Mind-blowing. And to put a dollar amount to it, last year, the golf tournament raised $275,000.

00:31:12 KC Yost
Oh my, that's like 130 per tournament.

00:31:13 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Yeah.

00:31:13 KC Yost
Wow.

00:31:14 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
125 in the spring and 150 in the fall. And then the clay shoot raised equally as much, $275,000.

00:31:25 KC Yost
Okay, so stop right there. Let me... When I was president in 2000, 2001, someone came up with this idea of having a sporting clays tournament, and they wanted to have $1,200 as seed money to get things started. This is a true story. And the guys who were forming the committee to do this came to the board and asked me for $1,200. And we wrote out the check for $1,200. But as I handed it to him, I held on to it real tight and I said, "You've got to break even. This is one scholarship, so don't screw this up." So Kelly Varnado was one of the guys that was there. I can't remember who the other was. Might've been Jim Hughes. But anyway, I held onto that, and they just flourished. And you're talking about the money that they're passing out now for scholarships on an individual basis. Back then, $1,200 was a lot of money. And now you're saying they're doing hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue?

00:32:32 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Hundreds of thousands netting. The golf tournament net $275,000 last year. The clay shoot, net $275,000 last year. And the fishing tournament net $175,000 in 2023. And while we're talking about these things, I'd like to talk about some of the chairs for these events because man, they really take on a load to put on and recruit volunteers to help them. So Kim Mueck is the chair for the clay shoot. Jill Harsh with Venable's is the chair for the fish out. And Kelly Nissenbaum is the chair for the golf tournament this year, but before her it was Trey Berniard. So these people, man, they really pour their heart and soul into putting on a good event for our pipeliners. Good.

00:33:28 KC Yost
Well shout out to them.

00:33:29 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Shout out to them. Yeah.

00:33:30 KC Yost
Thank you. Thank you very much. Your help and your dedication to the organization. Okay. Do we want to talk about anything else on events, contact information?

00:33:44 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Well we're-

00:33:45 Melissa Scott
We'll touch on the continuing education credits that we have.

00:33:48 KC Yost
Oh, yes. Let's talk about continuing education. I'm sorry.

00:33:51 Melissa Scott
Yes. So that's another part that would be enticing to the owner companies. As we have the business meetings each month with presentations on what's going on in the industry, we have the scholarship program, and then we have continuing education. And so with the continuing education, a lot of times as a professional engineer, you have to keep up in order to keep your license current, you have to have continuing education credits. And so we have that through the Pipeliners as part of the Texas, University of Texas at Austin, Petroleum and Extension program, known as PETEX. I myself, have gone to the in-person class. And the modules that we offer cover the same information that you would get in the instructor-led training. This is available to all of our members, the PYP and the PAH members. There's three instructor-led training courses currently offered, which is the pipeline technology design, pipeline technology maintenance, and pipeline technology operations. PETEX is currently working on the conversion of their existing pipeline technology operations course to an online course with delivery to the PYP and PAH to be determined here in the near future. But these courses are available to our members free of charge. Because they can cost a couple of thousand dollars a person to go to the in-person class. But as a member, you have access to this online and for free.

00:35:44 KC Yost
Well, actually, the organization contributed a lot of money, if you will, to help PETEX get this converted over to the online service. Right?

00:35:53 Melissa Scott
Yes.

00:35:53 KC Yost
So as compensation for that, we've made it available to the membership, right?

00:36:00 Melissa Scott
Yes.

00:36:00 KC Yost
Well, that's great. That's great. So yes, you have a PE license and you need to get your 15 hours of continuing education, there you go. So great plan.

00:36:12 Melissa Scott
And then even if you aren't a professional engineer and just want to learn more about the pipeline industry, these classes are a great way to do that, accomplish that. Because they teach you like-

00:36:28 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Lingo.

00:36:28 Melissa Scott
...what it is a pipe in the valve. So you get to learn the lingo, you get to learn the operation, why different conditions are important. And again, to drive that, keep the product in the pipe philosophy.

00:36:42 KC Yost
So pipeline one-on-one.

00:36:44 Melissa Scott
Yes.

00:36:45 KC Yost
Very good. That's great. That's great. Well, super. Anything else you guys want to talk about?

00:36:50 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
I just want to reach out to a lot of owners out there, and you may not find this beneficial to come to a meeting or network with us, but I want you to know that vendors and suppliers like LJA want to meet you. Especially post-COVID. Pre-COVID We had ways of meeting you, but now post-COVID, the world has changed. And if you would just find it in your heart and in your time to come to these things and give us an opportunity to meet you and build a relationship with you, that can be one that stands the test of times for good projects and bad projects. That way we have that foundation of a relationship to get to know you and offer you a great product. And this is how we can come together and do so.

00:37:41 KC Yost
Sure.

00:37:42 Melissa Scott
And as a member from an owner's company, what I like about the organization is that I can network with people, meet people with new technology as I still have a hand. I'm not directly associated with the projects, but I still know which projects are going on. And as I come across new and different innovations to do some of the same things or to do it faster, safer, for less money, then I bring those forward to our projects organization and bring it to their attention, and so that we can build that into our projects and help with our execution.

00:38:25 KC Yost
Excellent.

00:38:26 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
That's right.

00:38:27 KC Yost
There's to me, a lot of value added in the operating companies talking to each other as well through the Pipeliners Association. I remember in the past at times, you've talked about some of the presentations. We've had people come in and talk about projects and challenges that they've run into on a particular project. And someone from Kinder Morgan might hear someone from Williams saying something that they find interesting, and they continue the discussion. I mean, there's got to be some kind of rapport across the level on a functional level when it comes to pipeliners. I mean, we have the Southern Gas Association, the American Gas Association, et cetera. We've got all of these organizations that handle things on the management level up the functional level, communication and camaraderie through pipeliners organizations, I think contributes quite a bit as well. So that's all good. That's all good stuff.

00:39:30 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Yeah. All good stuff. I don't know, do we have anything else to talk about?

00:39:33 Melissa Scott
And a lot of times, I know a lot of the engineers that I work with, they will attend the golf tournament. So we just have to help them to see the benefits of not only attending the golf tournament, but the whole entire organization is a great place to be and has a lot to offer to you.

00:39:53 KC Yost
Sweet. Very good. Well, thank you both for taking the time to visit with us today.

00:39:59 Ashley Gaston-Boneau
Absolutely.

00:40:00 KC Yost
Its was a great conversation. If anyone would like to learn more about the Pipeliners Association of Houston, you can again find them on the website at houstonpipeliners.net. that's houstonpipeliners.net. Thanks to all of you for tuning into this episode of the Energy Pipeline Podcast, sponsored by Caterpillar Oil and Gas. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas for podcast topics, feel free to email me at kc.yost@oggn.com. I also want to thank my producer, Anastasia Willison Duff and everyone at the Oil and Gas Global Network for making this podcast possible. Find out more about other OGGN podcasts at oggn.com. This is KC Yost saying goodbye for now. Have a great week and keep that energy flowing through the pipeline.

00:40:51 Speaker 2
Come back next week for another episode of the Energy Pipeline, a production of the Oil and Gas Global Network. To learn more, go to oggn.com.