04/15/2003 Quarterly Meeting

Minutes, IGIC meeting 4/15/03 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Board Members present: Artz, Joe; Brase, Terry; Brockmann, Cory; Corbin, Don (for Gary Brown); Cutler, Brad; Havel, Rick; Kane, Kevin; Kuehne, Herb; Patocka, Roger; Popp, Deanne; Ricker, Tom; Sanders, Sunny (for Joe Eckmann); Saucey, Shane (for Andy Kula); Schuman, Bill; Tuttle, Kris; Willis, Ray

Others Present (apologies for misspellings and for lack of names of those who came after roll call) Berquam, Barb; Breisier, Miki; Coppersmith, Mark; Flack, Wes; Fullmeier, Karen; Garn, Adam; Giglierano, Jim; Harkin, Lawrence; Kolda, Stephan; Lubke, John; Marienau, Terry; Nolte, A; Olson, Chad; Rohe, Tom Sampson, Tom; Toller, Mitch; VanZam, Rick; Z., Jeff.

Meeting began at 10:05

Kevin Kane reported on Alan Jensen’s condition. Medical conditions may limit Alan’s activities for the next month or so. Alan does check email occasionally and tries to keep up on IGIC’s pressing business.

Kevin reported that as president he has been trying to follow the many activities of Alan and several IGIC committees. Most committees have members and most of those committees are active. Alan’s position is funded through June 2003. Efforts in the summer should be able to fund the position beyond, as long as Iowa State Extension continues to help and if other current contributors and the Iowa Department of Technology are approached. Iowa State is covering to keep the Clearing House web Home page, and to date, ISU has not billed IGIC for any of its services.

Terry Brase, Treasurer, reported that IGIC’s accounts hold approximately $18000, apart from monies left over from the Iowa City conference. Those funds will soon arrive from U. of Iowa.

Organizational Committees and Activities

Kevin summarized a report from Bill Kapp that indicated how the IGIC’s non-profit status request is coming. As soon as a specific letter is signed requesting that incorporation, IGIC can start acting as a non-profit. Final approval may not come for months after, however.

Kapp also recommends that the funds coming from U of Iowa for the past conference be placed in an account that is more easily accessible by the IGIC president and/or other Executive officers.

Deanne Popp reported with other members on the Conference Committee about how preparations for this summer’s conference are progressing. All seems on track, although so far there are only 35 abstracts for presentations. Others would be desirable. Perhaps a panel discussion or two will be organized for the conference. Otherwise, hospitality, vendors, facilities, entertainment, advertising, and registration processes are all underway and moving ahead smoothly.

A discussion followed regarding the need to choose a date and location for the 2005 conference. Barb Berquam has begun to assemble a month-by-month list of known conferences, so that IGIC might be able to choose a time that will enable more registrants. April seemed like a good month, to rotate with the MAGIC conference. October or November also seemed like a good time, because there are fewer competing conferences for some. More discussion ahead….

The Nominations Committee has received volunteers to stand for election to the Exec. Committee in July. The Nominations group would encourage other interested volunteers. So far, Terry Brase has offered to serve as Treasurer. Kris Tuttle has offered to serve as VP. And both Brad Cutler and Roger Patocha are willing to stand for Secretary. Thanks to those folks for stepping forward.

Applications Committees: The Cadastral Committee is working, according to Ray Willis, mostly in conjunction with the Iowa County IT group. ICIT is holding its first conference in June.

Jim Giglierano reported that the Remote Sensing Project is nearing completion. The map server may soon be able to serve 1 meter DOQQ’s. Additional work on color balance and mosaics is planned.

The Clearing House is being handled by Pat Brown, according to Kevin Kane. The work should enable the clearing house site to become an NSDI node, and that status in turn may open the doors to additional funding sources.

There were no reports from the E911, GPS, Weather-Climate-Environment, or Education Committees.

Jim Giglierano reported briefly that the Natural Resources Project continues to work on watershed data and plans to seek partners to help create specific land use layers.

Other Reports: The Central Iowa GIS group has only had informal discussions.

Wes Flack noted that the Census Bureau is continuing with its Tiger Coordinate Enhancement project and is moving into the production mode of the project. The project continues to seek counties whose centerline files have at least an accuracy threshold of +/- 7.6 meters. Several Iowa counties are already involved with the project. Interested parties can contact Wes at 913-551-6833 or at John.W.Flack@Census.gov.

Old Business: All already covered.

New Business: Bill Schuman requested that IGIC send the IDOT a letter of endorsement for the consortium effort to develop a state-wide centerline database. MSC (Brockman, Tuttle) - 16, 0, 0.

Cory Brockmann and Kevin Kane identified several By-Laws changes that they will be recommending for action at the July meeting. A list of those will be sent out at least 15 days before that meeting, as required in the current By-Laws.

The meeting recessed for lunch at 11:50 and resumed at 12:25 for the educational portion of the meeting. Mark Coppersmith and Dan Corbin presented items of interest.

Mark Coppersmith, US Geological Survey, described the National Map project, and provided an update on activities and progress. The USGS is partnering in the effort with the states of Arkansas, Missouri, and Kansas and there are opportunities to expand and include other Midwest states.

Dan Corbin discussed the advantages of setting permanent control, and using state plane coordinates (HARN) for county-wide GIS.

Respectfully submitted Herb Kuehne, Secretary