04/09/2002 Quarterly Meeting

Iowa Geographic Information Council
Meeting Minutes
April 9, 2002 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
ICN locations across Iowa

Attending:

Board Members:  Joe Artz, Todd Bishop, Terry Brase, Cory Brockman, Kevin Kane, Bill Kapp, Herb Kuehne, Jon Lubke, Roger Patocka, Bill Schuman, Jason Siebrecht., Ray Willis

 State Coordinator: Alan Jensen

Others:  Barb Berquam, Brenda Brock, Alan Czarnetski, Mika Eitler, Wes Flack, Jim Giglierano, Lawrence Hartpence, Daryl Hersman, Craig Cogil, Andy Kula, Patrick O’Reilly, Mark Petersen, James Quinn, Lea Satterwhite, Dennis Toddy, Jeff Wallenfang.

Agenda Items:

I-Teams Update:   Bill Kapp reported that federal support for the I-teams initiative has temporarily dried up. No grant monies for State projects will be forthcoming in the immediate future. 

Alan Jensen reported on his recent activities.  These included keeping current on 1) the I-team effort, 2) the Technical Advisory Group of the Open GIS Consortium, 3) NSGIC’s Geo-spatial one-stop working group and 4) the Remote Sensing Committee.   He has met with many city, county, tribal, and university groups.  He helped move the IGIC server to ISU and has sent GIS educational information to all 99 county extension agencies.  Of major concern right now is development of the “stake holders” support project.

Alan’s invited comments by Wes Flack regarding the Census Bureau’s ambition to modernize Tiger files with help from local government data sources.  Wes’s office (in Omaha) is trying to inventory geo-spatial datasets within a 6 state area.  He invited submission of information and asked interested parties to phone him at 816-801-2010.   The discussion led to queries about whether data generated with tax dollars should be shared without compensation.  Barb Berquam suggested that IGIC could perform a valuable service by encouraging more discussion about the issue.

Bill Kapp described additional detail about the Stakeholder initiative.  He noted that IGIC needs to raise $40,000 annually in order to function.  The goal of the initiative is to get State Agencies, such as DNR, DOT and IDT, along with many local communities and the private sector, to contribute annually in order to raise at least 1/2 of the annual need ($40,000).  Iowa State University Extension to Communities has committed to funding the other half. Bill Schuman noted that governmental budget cuts might hinder realization of that hope.

Herb Kuehne raised the long debated issue about membership fees as a way of providing some of the annual budget needs.  He suggested that membership fees can’t be levied, however, until IGIC performs services perceived as useful to possible dues-paying members.  In that context, he noted that IGIC’s mailing lists (especially for email communications) seem incomplete.  For example, he wondered whether conference attendees are part of the email list-serve.   

That discussion led to consensus that a membership committee needed to resurrect in order to establish appropriate lists and recruit new members.  Kevin Kane, Jon Lubke and Bill Kapp volunteered to tackle the issue.  

Bill Kapp noted that the attempt to establish IGIC as a non-profit group is nearing completion.  Much work has been done, but some last-minute applications and signatures still need to be pursued.  He expected that final Federal and State applications would be submitted soon.

Kevin Kane reported on how an ISU grad student will maintain the IGIC server, the IGIC web pages, the map server, the Resource Guide pages, and pages covering IGIC meetings and their minutes.

Bill Kapp described the procedures that he will implement to get IGIC’s elections underway.   By April 30, ballots for sector representatives will be e-mailed with return required by May 15.   Executive committee elections will follow in a similar way.  Because Jeff Corns, who was VP and president-elect, has resigned and moved to a new job out of state, four of the five executive committee positions will be open for election.  

Jim Giglierano and Andy Kula presented ideas favoring formation of a new IGIC committee, which would be entitled the “Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Committee.”   Discussion focused on procedure for instituting a new committee as well as on the substance of what the proposed committee might do.  Some members wondered if we needed a committee on committees before proceeding.  Discussion suggested that a new committee could be created at the meeting, provided a chair was assigned and the new group kept minutes of its activities.   Kevin Kane moved, and Herb Kuehne seconded, “that IGIC form a Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Committee.”   All attending Board members unanimously approved the motion.   Jim Giglierano and Andy Kula agreed to serve as co-chairs in order to organize the new committee and its agenda.

After a 20 minute lunch break, Dennis Toddy and Daryl Hersman described work they were pursuing in order to map historical climate patterns in Iowa as well as in order to map real-time weather events.  

The next quarterly meeting was scheduled for 10:00 AM, July 16, 2002. 

Respectfully Submitted

Herb Kuehne, Secretary

4/21/02