The American Geophysical Union's (AGU) Thriving Earth Exchange (TEX) has been named as a partnering organization with the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy newly launched "Resilience Dialogues." Officials are hoping to help communities facing climate resilience challenges by offering them a consultative service that will connect them with information, tools, and programs, they are hoping to support to community wide climate-resilience needs. TEX was established three years ago by AGU and has been connecting communities "facing challenges related to the geosciences, such as adapting to climate change and protecting water quality, and pro bono geoscientists who are experts in pertinent fields."

The International Association for Promoting Geoethics (IAPG) published their minutes from their first General Assembly held at the 35th International Geological Congress in Cape Town, South Africa. The General Assembly, which is composed of all IAPG Members, covered topics to help promote geoethics as a global community.

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) announced the winners of their Data Visualization Story Telling Contest. In addition to travel stipends, and complimentary meeting registrations, the winners will share their entries on the NASA Hyperwall at 2016 AGU Fall Meeting.

Following success in San Francisco, CA the American Association of Geographers announced it will again be offering childcare at its Annual Meeting in Boston, MA. CAMP AAG will host children ages 6 mos. to 13 years. Interested parents will be able to register their children either online in advance or during on-site registration. 

The American Association of Petroleum Geologists published an interview Lyndon Nance, a land surveyor who uses fixed-wing drones for data collection on the LEARN! Blog. Nance shares his experience using drones as the industry as developed in recent years, and details some of his projects.

The Association for Environmental and Engineering Geologists (AEG) published a story in AEG News (scroll to page 15) written by AEG Past President, Ken Fergason. In Arizona a bill was introduced to the state legislature that sought to eliminate licensure of geologists. Fegason points out that these issues may affect other states, and even licensed professionals like engineers in the future.

The Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society (EEGS) have published the September Issue of FastTIMES. This issue centered around a central theme of karst geophysics. It includes six articles on the topic and one book review.

The American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG) recognized 14 students this year with their National Graduate and National Undergraduate scholarships. The AIPG William J. Siok Graduate Scholarship went to Philipp Tesch, Texas A&M University.

College/University geoscience programs still have time to apply to participate in the 2017 Imperial Barrel Award (IBA). This is a competition hosted by American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and "is an annual prospective basin evaluation competition for geoscience graduate students from universities around the world.

On Tuesday September 20, the Critical Issues Program hosted a webinar on the state of desalination in the United States and further afield. The three speakers were Tzahi Cath (Colorado School of Mines), Jessica Jones (Poseidon Water), and Katherine Zodrow (Montana Tech). Topics covered included the past, present, and future of desalination technologies; the costs and waste management challenges of desalination plants; the recently opened seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad, California; and brackish groundwater use and desalination in Texas. A recording of the webinar and the speakers’ slides can be found at bit.ly/desal-webinar.