GITA is reevaluating its role as a professional organization and we've reported on its status to change its business model and address some of the challenges its still faces.

But there is a bright spot. Due to some of the vendors stepping up to cover the costs of the event, GITA's Oil and Gas Conference is officially "on." Previously, it had been announced that the conference was cancelled. However, in speaking with Bob Samborski, GITA Executive Director, today, past exhibitors said the conference was valuable to them and they were willing to make some guarantees that GITA was not able to make because of their current financial situation. So, according to Samborski, the promotion of the event and recruitment of speakers restarted smoothly and they did not lose any of their prior vendors or conference abstracts. Registration is set to open in mid-July. For this year, the conference will be run by some of the existing GITA staff that will remain on board under a separate contract to support the event.
 
Samborski reiterated that GITA is not going away and will continue to operate by a group of volunteers. Depending on the scope of the activity, this group will be helping with the weekly newsletter and other tasks such as maintaining the membership database.
 
For the regional chapters, the future is less certain. However, those that have operated well will have the option to continue as before with rights to use the GITA logo as well as to take advantage of other administrative benefits, like insurance because GITA will remain as an organization under its non-profit status.  Samborski thinks that between six and eight chapters will remain.