UCGIS 1998 Annual Assembly

 

MINUTES

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING, Wednesday, June 24 12-3pm

Olympia Park Hotel, Park City, Utah

 

The Council meeting was brought to order by President David Mark at 12:10pm.

 

Introduction: Everyone Introduced themselves along with the guests from NSGIC and MAPPS.

 

(I NEVER GOT THE LIST OF THOSE THAT ATTENDED THIS MEETING)

 

1) Revision of and Items for Agenda - none

 

  1. Motion: Adopt minutes of Board Meeting October 28, 1997 (Cincinnati, OH) - Getis proposed , and Saafield seconded that the minutes of the last Board meeting be approved as appeared on the home page. Passed (unanimously).

    2.  

  2. Financial Report - (Palmerlee) UCGIS is in a good position but most of this is due to the 'new member' fee which will likely change in the near future.

    3.  

    Discussion: - Some institutions are not paying on time. Following the bylaws two member institutions owe $3,000. as a reentry penalty fee. The board decided that a letter would be sent stating they pay their fees in full by Sept. 1, 1998 or they will have to pay the reentry fee ($3,000) to get membership reinstated.

     

    Should schools in arrears be allowed to vote? (No). David Mark will make a statement to this effect before any voting at the Council Meeting.

     

  3. Appointments/Re-appointments of Chairs of Standing Committees. Will Craig would like to transition his Chair of the Membership Standing Committee to a reappointment. Carolyn Merry was his nomination.

    4.  

    Dick Wright would like to transition his Chair of the Educational Standing Committee to a reappointment in the next year.

     

    Tom Palmerlee would like to set a regular schedule for transition of Chairs of Standing Committees. It was discussed that dates of service of Standing Committee Chairs would be published (on the web) so the board could better coordinate.

     

    Bylaws will be consulted and if any action needs to be taken, it will be put on the Sunday Council Meeting Agenda.

     

  4. 1999 Assembly, Program theme and responsibilities. Identify options and a process for achieving consensus on Saturday.

    5.  

    Deferred until Bob McMaster returned to the meeting. (Bob McMaster to put details on the web)

     

    Three days on the agenda: 1) Educational Priorities, 2) GIS Applications, and 3) GIS and Society. Potential addition of Research Priorities. Discussion produced a statement that we have a lot to cover in a short time so we need to have much of our work done by the time we get there. The theme should be integrating geographic information science and society…integrating the three areas: basic research, education, and GIS applications.

     

  5. 1999 Congressional event: Congressional "message" and agency program. Identify options and a process for achieving consensus on Saturday.

Policy and Legislation committee - Harlen Onsrud reported on 1998 congressional breakfast. UCGIS pushed this year and it was a success. It was a real success and promoted lots of visibility. Breakfast was a great success with over 80 people. We did not get $20million increase in the NSF. We did learn where we have contacts and where we did not have contacts. Congressman respond to their own constituents.

 

General Discussion:

Jerry Dobson suggested we need to formalize our agenda and promote it as a coordinated document. We need to have a joint research and academic program/proposal. At this point we need to formalize what we want.

 

David Mark pointed out that education was missing from our agenda and it is increasingly attractive and the scientific statement of UCGIS did not really buy us anything in DC.

 

Politics is an art and not a science and we need to gather our intelligence so we can correctly lobby for our agenda. This might be an opportunity to partner with NSGIC, MAPPS, OGIS and other industry to push our agenda in Washington.

 

Tom Palmerlee suggested we need to do a lot of planning before the next 1999 meeting.

 

Harlen pointed out that we need to report to the Council a process for achieving consensus. Potential activities for 1999 … he suggested a Multi-Day event in DC which would need:

Getting members to DC

Briefing our university representatives in DC

Generating posters from each institution

Instructions on how to visit your members of congress

An effort to visit those people

 

Jeff Osleeb questioned whether we should not have a separate standing committee?

 

 

7) Action of Interagency Budget Initiative - Palmerlee

 

Babbitt and FGDC trying to get additional dollars to build NSDI. John Moeller will be at our Park City meeting and will talk about it.

 

Action Item for Council Meeting on Sunday: We need to vote on Supporting this Initiative.

 

8) Strategic Planning - Discussion (Buttenfield)

 

We need action on a couple of points:

- diversify and seed these small groups

- prioritize action items - which are not necessary and which ones do we do first

- fix any corrections

- overlaps between groups - think about these and prioritize

- come to the council meeting on Sunday with all changes in mind

 

9) Operating Procedure Working Group Recommendations (Discussion of increased member dues)

 

Discussion on increased member dues:

 

Motion: Kemp put forth a motion that, "we do not make a motion at the Council Meeting that we increase dues, but that we discuss it at the Council Meeting". Alan Saafield (second). Motion passed.

  

Motion: Osleeb put forth a motion that, "we instruct our President to put together a working group to identify and coordinate cooperation with NSGIC " Getis (second). Passed (unanimous).

 

Motion: Osleeb proposed, and Elmes seconded that we adjourn the meeting. Motion carried (3:01pm) (unanimously).