 For several years, CGIA has recognized and honored those in the California GIS Community who do exemplary work or contribute to the industry for the benefit of GIS users everywhere. There are five categories: Chairman’s Award, Advancement of Collaboration, Outstanding Internet Presentation, Exemplary Systems, and Excellence in Education. This year three of our colleagues were recognized for their contributions and outstanding work. The awards were presented at CalGIS 2013 in Long Beach by CGIA Chair David Peck. Congratulations to all the winners.
Chairman’s Award – RuthAnne Harbison, GISP, GIS Coordinator for the City of Merced
RuthAnne has been involved with GIS since 1998, first in Madera County as chairperson of the multi-department GIS Committee, and since 2003 as the GIS Program Manager for the City of Merced. Joining CGIA in 2004, she has served on the board for Cities and as Secretary, Vice Chair, and Chair in 2012. During this time she has contributed to the industry by working to promote GIS not only within her own organization but statewide as well:
- GISP Certification in 2006 and 2011
- Member of CentralCal URISA Chapter
- Attending and presenting at GIS Day events
- Hosting GIS Day events sponsored by the San Joaquin Valley Regional GIS Council and the CentralCal URISA Chapter since 2004
- Serving on the CalGIS Planning Committee since 2006
- Chair of CalGIS in 2008
- Presentations at CalGIS since 2006
- Presentations to local service organizations
- Presented at the ESRI User Conference in 2000 and 2012
- Promoting GIS outreach by chairing GeoSummits at UC Merced in 2012 and 2013
- Serving as a mentor for student groups at UC Merced.
Exemplary Systems Award – Rich Green, GISP, Transit Manager for the Transit Joint Powers Authority for Merced County
Formerly the GIS Manager for the Merced County Association of Governments, he attained his GISP certification in 2009. He has been co-chair of the San Joaquin Valley Regional GIS Committee for several years, co-chaired several GIS Day events as well as presented, and currently serves on the board of the California Geographic Information Association for Regional Government. Rich worked on the California Blue Print project for the Merced County area.
 With years of growth, changes in land use and traffic patterns, relocations of businesses and services, and the introduction of UC Merced, The Bus has been long overdue to revise its bus routes and schedules. TJPAMC staff was able to extract the database of boarding information from the GPS system and create points for all boardings for the last 6 months. To help cluster the individual points, staff “rounded†the coordinates and then created a summary table by the X and Y coordinates. These new rounded summary points could be used to more clearly define where the largest groups of riders were, while isolating out the locations that were not used at least once a day.
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Staff used these points along with Census income data and local zoning layers to lay out new routes. The new routes were designed to not exceed 14 miles in the urbanized areas. This standard would help ensure that the routes could be completed from start to finish in less than one hour. This was being done to help keep the new routes on schedule. Plus with the addition of another bus to the route, it would make the frequency 30 minutes, instead of 60.
 Rich has served the GIS community well for several years and this project is just one of many over the years that show his great GIS skills.
 Excellence in Education – Jay Eliades, Liberty High School GIS Academic Program in Bakersfield, California
Jay has taken on and grown Liberty High School's entire GIS academic program from the ground up. With only 2 years under his guidance the students have already developed some truly amazing mapping accomplishments utilizing ESRI's ArcMap, ArcScene, Google Earth, and Google Sketch Up. They're impressive knowledge has even allowed them the opportunity to work on major mapping projects with Paramount Citrus and Frito Lay. The success of this program has even spawned a GIS program at neighboring Stockdale High School set to start in the 2013-14 school year. The increased spatial knowledge and abilities of the students coming out of this program will no doubt be a great asset to the GIS community as whole.