04/14/2004 Quarterly Meeting Minutes

Meeting began at 10:04 am

Board Members present: Terry Brase, Gregg Hadish, Brad Cutler, Micah Cutler, Joe Eckmann, Patrick Brown (alt. for Kevin Kane), Ron Koch (alt. for Herb Kuehne), Andy Kula, Roger Patocka, Deanne Popp, Bill Schuman, Marc Peterson (alt. for Ramanathan Sugumaran), Kris Tuttle, Rick Havel, Chris Solberg, Jim Giglierano (alt. for Todd Bishop), Colleen Eck (alt. for Joe Artz) and Ray Willis

Others Present Alan Jensen, Iowa GIS Coordinator, Adam Noelting, Lawrence Hartpence, Paula Lemke, Michelle Lantermans, Barb Berquam, Gavin Cutler, Mark Warren, Ben McConville, Kevin Royal

The agenda for the current meeting and previous month’s committee meeting minutes were motioned for approval by Bill Schuman, seconded by Deanne Popp. Without objections they were accepted.

Executive Committee Reports

Chair Andy Kula wanted to thank IGIC for the privilege of serving IGIC in the chair position for the previous year.

Treasurer Terry Brase reported that the IGIC bank account balance as of January 14, 2004 was $37,833.70. Between 1/14/04 and 4/14/04 there was no IGIC income and disbursements were sent out totaling $663.65 leaving the IGIC balance at $37,170.05 as of April 14, 2004. That total does not include expenses for Jessica Clinton or deposits coming from the University of Iowa.

Iowa GIS Coordinator Alan Jensen will report during the business section of the meeting.

Committee Reports

Reporting for the Conference Committee, Kris Tuttle said that she is ready to start putting together a meeting to prepare for the conference. The next IGIC conference is slated for September 2005 in Ames.

Ray Willis, Cadastral Committee, state that a Central Iowa Arc Users Meeting is just getting started. Their second meeting will include a presentation of geodatabases and discussion on Trimble GPS units. This second meeting will be held on July 13th, 2004 in Ames at the Ames City Council Chamber located at 515 Clark Avenue. The meeting is slated to run from 9:00 am until 11:30 am.

Response for the Clearinghouse Committee was given by Patrick Brown. The IGIC Clearinghouse is in the final custom stages and is being implemented using ArcIMS. Users can manage their own metadata content. This functionality will be available for users to start submitting their own content in the next week or so.

The final committee report was from the Weather, Climate & Environment and submitted by Jim Giglierano. The one major issue facing this group is the possibility of the Iowa DNR conducting a statewide floodplain inventory. This inventory will look for floodplain projects around the state and is being conducted due to the fact that FEMA is ramping up to map the state. The DNR inventory will be looking for elevation and horizontal/vertical control data held at the local level. The Weather, Climate, & Environment / Natural Resources Committees will get together starting in June to discuss this project. Contact Jim Giglierano at the Iowa DNR or Andy Kula with NOAA to assist or if you have any ideas.

Old Business and Updates

Alan Jensen reported that the status of the Iowa ESRI contract for educational institutions is currently out for review within educational areas. This contract will need Board of Regents approval and a digital copy is available upon request. The $65,000 contract with ESRI allows for unlimited use and seats of software at Regents institutions and also allows for limited use by community colleges and small colleges who responded. It was reported by Terry Brase that seven or eight community colleges statewide responded. This contract only serves higher education institutions but it does allow for more use and cheaper costs for smaller colleges around the state. Contributions for the contract include $19,000 from the University of Iowa, $18,000 from Iowa State University, and $17,000 from the University of Northern Iowa. Technical support centers/contacts will be established at each of the Universities with U of I having 4 contacts, ISU having 3, UNI having 2 and IGIC maintaining 1 tech support contact. A plan has been established so that a list-serv will be established to provide tech support to the community colleges.

Director of Extension to Communities Director Steve Padgett will be leaving his post on September 1, 2004. Since Padgett is Alan Jensen’s supervisor discussion will need to be had on how this change will affect future changes and its affect on Alan’s position with IGIC. Padgett has been at this post for 4 years.

The IGIC membership list is being updated by Jessica Clinton and is circulating. At the time of the report, a final number of IGIC members had not been established. Work has been done on developing a certificate of membership in IGIC for members and a certificate to document service by IGIC members to the Board. Alan and Jessica have gone through files from previous conferences to document participation and helping with putting a package of membership together. Alan posed the question to the Board as to whether or not the Board would like funds to be used in helping with documentation. After discussion , is was determined that with IGIC’s limited funding it was not feasible to provide this direct assistance but IGIC can help with general guidance on where to find help and obtain information membership activities to members. Further discussion on the related topic of GIS certification and IGIC involvement can be found under new business.

The final report on old business was related to the USGS memorandum of understanding for IGIC/Iowa participation in the National Map. A signed copy of this MOU is on file and opens two possible funding streams for IGIC. The first is a CAP grant and the second targets more specific funding that supports data serving for the National Map. The USGS is looking for participants to fund ongoing efforts already underway.

New Business

Discussion on GIS Certification and ideas for IGIC’s involvement was conducted. During the process of getting professional GIS certification, there is a need for validation of membership/participation status. Bill Shuman posed the question to the Board as to whether or not IGIC as an organization would be able to further the documentation process by adding links to the certification websites or having speakers come and speak about the GIS certification at a quarterly or biennial meeting. Chair Andy Kula would like to promote and incorporate these procedures into IGIC business. The current certification process is being “forgiving” in documentation at this time but individuals will need to be recertified every five years. At that time, documentation will be much more important in the process. Further discussion on this topic centered on how other organizations deal with their certification and how IGIC’s efforts tie into those processes and the need for the IGIC Education Committee to deal with providing local training and how to accommodate the certification process. There is grant funding available for geospatial education coordination within extension to create a sustainable education program. With no further discussion, no further action was taken.

Board discussion moved towards future IGIC Quarterly meetings and the use of the ICN or other communication mediums to conduct business meetings. Ideas were given to possibly using conference calls or web conferencing as an option in place of the ICN. Andy Kula stated the opinion that the ICN is good for educational purposes but it could be possible to reduce the use of the ICN for business meetings. Alan Jensen stated that the last teleconference cost 10% of what a regular ICN meeting costs. Micah Cutler questioned the cost of using the ICN and Alan stated that the cost of using the ICN for a quarterly meeting costs over $1,000 and closer to $1,500. Further comments included that county extension offices can now do streaming video which would help those individuals where out of county travel is prohibitive to IGIC participation and that face to face meetings would be useful for voting on IGIC Executive Committee officials. Kris Tuttle questioned the Board as to whether it would be able to meet at least once a year in person. With lack of further discussion, this topic was tabled until the next meeting.

Discussion from the previous topic brought about the need to appoint a Nominations Committee Chair and begin working with the Nominations Committee to prepare a slate of candidates for IGIC Sectoral elections, hold elections, and prepare a slate of nominees for the IGIC Executive Committee. Micah Cutler nominated Brad Cutler for the position of Nominations Committee Chair, with Andy Kula seconding. Via a unanimous vote, Brad Cutler was appointed Nominations Committee Chair. Volunteers were then solicited to help with the elections. Barb Berquam and Alan Jensen volunteered to assist. Further information will be circulated to IGIC members in the upcoming weeks.

The final agenda item was a motion made by Marc Peterson and seconded by Bill Schuman to charge the Executive Committee with preparation of a budget for the upcoming fiscal year before the next IGIC Board Meeting in July. The motion was approved by unanimous vote.

The Business Meeting concluded at 11:50 am.

The Educational and Development Session presentations were given by Patrick Brown of the ISU GIS Lab on “Using the new IGIC website”; Lawrence Hartpence of Jasper County GIS on “Jasper County Flood Mapping Using the Flood of 1993” ; and by Mark Connor of the Air Force Weather Agency at Offutt AFT, Nebraska on “Stratospheric Balloon Launches and Imagery Using Amateur Radio and GPS.

Following the Educational and Development Session, the meeting adjourned at 2:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted Brad Cutler, Secretary