The closure of 2017 is a celebration of the strength of our society and our members. In this issue we focus on the 20th NZGS Symposium hosted by Napier on 23-26 November 2017. Pierre Malan and the organisation committee put a tremendous amount of work into organising the conference, MBIE Workshop on the 23rd November and the field trip on 26th November. We have re-published the two keynotes and two of the best conference contributions in this issue, for those who were not able to attend. We also have an international conference contribution from Gavin Alexander.
As we have closed the NZGS Symposium it is now time to start thinking about the 20th ICSMGE conference, which, it has just been announced, will be hosted by Sydney! This is the time for members to keep their eyes out for interesting case studies and to think about highlighting lessons learned from the wide variety of work we do in New Zealand. It is also time for companies to think about how they will support and encourage their employees to attend conferences.
We had a large number of submissions for the photo comp with the theme “better than being at the office”. Clearly working in the field remains a core part of our business, and we are lucky to work in a number of interesting and photogenic locations.
The first series of engineering geology short courses ran in September very successfully. Look out for the report and photos from the course. Practitioners should also look out for the key changes to AGS 4. We have highlighted the key changes to make it clearer. Our young professionals are very active lately, with representation to the International YGP conference this year and preparations for the Australia-New Zealand conference in 2018. Let’s keep up the great momentum and support for our young professionals.
We also have some updates from the NZGS and the international societies, including three new presidents. We welcome Tony Fairclough as the new NZGS chair, with the full committee elected in September given towards the end of this issue. We also have new ISSMGE and ISRM presidents.
Finally, this is my fifth issue and I will be transitioning out of this role over the next year. I would like to send out a call for volunteers for the role of Geomechanics News co-editor, to serve alongside Don Macfarlane and me for the June 2018 issue, after which I will step down.
