I hope this finds you enjoying the cool fall air.  I plan to enjoy it on the San Antonio Riverwalk this week and learn a lot at the GCAGS convention.

We had another successful ETGS Golf Tournament thanks to Nick Pollard.  There were 106 golfers and Stephen F Austin students raised money for their AAPG student chapter on one of the holes.  Check out our website to see the winners.

We had a record attendance for our luncheon last month: 80.  This month should be just as good.  We will have a seminar and luncheon on the same day. You can choose just the luncheon or both, Wednesday, November 15th, at the Cascades Country Club.  Dr. Jeff Dravis will present both the seminar and luncheon.  Most of you are familiar with Dr. Dravis and his carbonate geology work. The seminar will be "Overview of the Austin Chalk in South Texas and Louisiana”. There is new Austin Chalk horizontal activity in Karnes County and huge new wells (in an old play) are being made.  

We had a good start to our luncheon series in September. It was wonderful to see so many of you. However, we are still falling short on RSVPs early enough for the Cascades to prepare.  PLEASE remember to RSVP by the Thursday before the luncheon; in fact, if you are fairly sure you are going, there is no time like the present, at easttexasgeo.com.  This month C.F. “Casey” Clawson will present “Horizontal Exploitation of the Cotton Valley Sands in East Texas”.  Many of you may know Casey as he is a petroleum geologist for Samson Resources and has worked East Texas for 36+ years.  Check out his bio and abstract on our website, his talk is sure to be informative.  The luncheon is on Wednesday, Oct. 18th, 11:30 at the Cascades Country Club.

Our September social at Rose City Draft House, in conjunction with SPE, was another success.  Thanks again to Hunter Carr for setting it up.

It is with a heavy heart we start our 2017-2018 season.  The suffering and loss of life in our state and in the Gulf Coast has been so hard to watch. Most of us that have been in the oil patch for a while have lived along the gulf at some point or still know lots of people that are down there trying to recover. However, the bravery, compassion, and outreach from our country and so many selfless individuals are inspiring.  Once the immediate danger has passed, we must start the difficult conversations: preventing future disasters, securing energy, funding recovery of the stricken areas, and the impacts of climate change, to name a few.  As geologists and earth science professionals, these conversations affect our lives and our jobs.  I believe our knowledge of the earth will be needed as our world grapples with the impacts of rapid changes in our society and our environment.