Editor Greg Ettling stirs up excitement about the upcoming Jubilee in his "For Openers" column this month.

It’s that time of year again and it’s always the same. The White Sox are buried in third place, traffic to the beach is horrific and the special hybrid grass I plant in the spring has died. On the upside, I do get to tell everyone in the drilling industry to do everything they can to beat it over to the South Atlantic Well Drillers Jubilee. This year’s show is August 2-5 at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtle Beach, S.C. If you’ve ever attended any of the previous 47 Jubilees, you know what a great event it is, so just skip ahead to the next paragraph and read about the golf tournament. And for those of you who have never experienced the Jubilee, I will keep my message brief: If you go, you will return home a better driller, perhaps a better person, and you’ll be more proud and excited about the drilling industry than ever. And it’s not too late – all the detailed information on the show is available at www.well-drillers.com, or by calling 540-740-3329.

If you enjoy chasing after little white balls, the place to be Sunday, Aug. 3, is the Myrtle Beach National Golf Course for the annual Jubilee golf tournament. The two-person, team captain’s choice-format event is being presented by National Driller, the Water Systems Council and Central Mine Equipment Co. A $30 per golfer entry fee covers greens fees, cart, lunch (INDOORS!) and lots of tournament and door prizes. Space is limited, so make sure you’re in on the fun by calling National Driller’s sales manager Dean Laramore at 800-874-4245. We’d love to see you out there with us.

From the Research Dept.

The number crunchers in our research department have been burning up their calculators and slide rules lately. They already have completed a reader preference study and a drilling industry salary survey, results of which will be presented in these pages in the near future. I’m sure you’ll find them interesting; in this industry, any research or survey results are interesting to see because there aren’t a lot of them out there compared to other construction-related trade industries. But we’re changing that, and we’re doing it with your help. On the heels of the aforementioned research projects, we’re just about to distribute our 2003 Drilling Project-type Survey. If you are selected to receive one, please take the few minutes required to complete it. The information will be quite valuable to the drilling industry, you’ll be able to compare your operation with others around the country, and by completing the questionnaire, you just might get a little insight about your own firm.

As Always

We constantly are encouraging readers to share their comments and give us some feedback on the magazine. This month’s suggestion: Tell us which article(s) you like best in this issue – and/or which one(s) you like least. Or do it with the advertisements. We place a high value on the contributions of our readers, and we thank you in advance for your time, effort, interest and dedication – toward the drilling industry, in general, and National Driller magazine, in particular.