Posted October 21, 2021
Dear California GIS Council Members,
I am pleased to share that the Executive Committee for the October 2021 – September 2022 term has been nominated. Since there were no contested seats, they are deemed elected. Here is the new committee roster:
Melissa Christie serves as a member of the Private Industry constituency,
Paul Selmants serves as a member of the Federal Government constituency,
Jacob Mark serves as a member of the Professional Associations constituency,
Council Vice Chair Chad Miller, who is a member of the County Government constituency,
Isaac Cabrera, the State Geographic Information Officer, and
Yours truly, Council Chair Jane Schafer-Kramer, who is a member of the State Government constituency.
Melissa Christie works as an account manager with NV5 Geospatial (formerly known as Quantum Geospatial). She studied Geography and Geology at University of Nevada, Reno, and has worked for USGS Water Resources Division, Washoe County Parks and Recreation, and the National Park Service. She lives and works in El Dorado Hills. She has a long history of involvement with the GIS and Lidar community in California and is active with the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS). She and her colleagues regularly participate in the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC).
Paul Selmants is an ecosystem scientist working for the US Geological Survey. He uses data synthesis and simulation modeling to do projections of land use change and ecosystem carbon balance at regional to continental scales. As a proponent of open data he would like to participate in Council endeavors to promote sharing of spatial data that are platform agnostic. Paul is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Jacob Mark is serving his second term on the Executive Committee. He is a Geospatial Analyst for Woolpert, based in Los Angeles. He initiated and leads the Council’s Policy Advisory Workgroup and writes GIS Under the Dome, a digest of GIS-related legislative issues. He also presents a quarterly lunchtime legislative briefing. Check it out at https://cgia.org/cagiscouncil/2021/09/24/ca-gis-legislative-update-q3-2021/
We really appreciate these volunteers and look forward to working with them in the coming months. There are vacant constituency seats on this committee. If you are interested in serving and are associated with City Government, Tribal Government, Regional Government or GIS Councils, Special Districts, Education, Nonprofits, or Public and Private Utilities, please contact us at ca.gis.council.chair@gmail.com.
Policy Advisory Workgroup (PAW) Broadband Update
• The Governor’s Broadband infrastructure item in the 2021-2022 budget has kicked into action. The Middle Mile Advisory Committee has formed (led by the Dept of Technology). They are responsible for coordinating $3.25 billion to build a state-owned 8,000-mile high-speed network. Here is the proposed middle-mile network (still a draft). Follow their work and attend their meetings here.
• The governor signed AB41 on October 8 (two days before his Oct 10 signing deadline), mandating the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to create a comprehensive Broadband Accessibility Map. This map will show the percentage of each census block that meets state and federal speed standards. CPUC’s current Broadband availability map can be found here. Opponents of this bill argued that these efforts will be duplicative, as the Federal Communication Commission has its own mature mapping program.
• PAW will continue to monitor progress on these programs.
The PAW would love to hear from you if you have insight on these or other California GIS policy/budget items and their implementation. We welcome local policy items as well! Please email jacob.mark@woolpert.com with any tips, suggestions, or questions.
Tribal GIS Education Virtual Symposium – December 8-9, 2021
Adam Fleenor of our Tribal Workgroup has shared the Call for Content for the Tribal GIS Education Symposium (link to flyer). Tribal GIS is a non-profit organization with an objective to provide assistance to Native American tribal governments and Native American organization regarding GIS technology. Tribal GIS brings together an organized environment for novice and advanced tribal GIS users. Here is a link to a pdf flyer for the Call for Content. More information can be found at their website https://tribalgis.com/.
Notes from the Chair
As Chair of the California GIS Council, my goal for this term is to review and update the Council’s charter and to facilitate a process to outline our vision for the future of this group. I started this goal when I was Vice Chair by forming the Charter Review and Strategic Plan Workgroup. We met several times in 2019-2020. Unfortunately, progress on this effort stalled when I took on the duties of the Chair. The reports are posted on the Council website here. It’s now time to reactivate this workgroup and redraft the council’s Charter as it’s become apparent that some of the mission and goals, as articulated in the Charter, have not been met. We are not recognized as an “advisory body to members of its constituencies, the State Geographic Information Officer, and agencies and groups that develop and implement geospatial initiatives, policies, and standards, by providing recommendations, best practices, and expertise.” We are a popular forum for information exchange, and we provide opportunities for collaboration and networking across constituencies for topic areas such as elevation, geodetic control, and hydrography, and for constituency groups such as Education and Tribal. We have discussed forming workgroups to take on important issues such as building out other spatial data infrastructure themes and ensuring efficient data flows during public emergencies, but we’ve come up short on leadership for those workgroups.
Two years ago, the Little Hoover Commission studied the state of GIS coordination and implementation in California state government. This Commission is “an independent state oversight agency created in 1962. The Commission’s mission is to investigate state government operations and policy, and – through reports and legislative proposals – make recommendations to the Governor and Legislature to promote economy, efficiency and improved service in state operations.”
On October 31, 2019, the Commission published the report “Mapping a Strategy for GIS.” https://lhc.ca.gov/report/mapping-strategy-gis. The Commission recommended “that the state designate a state Geographic Information Officer to coordinate projects, promulgate standards, and manage shared resources; that the state create a GIS Advisory Council of governmental leaders and other stakeholders; and that the state use GIS to evaluate regional disparities in funding and the delivery of services.”
The California GIS Council is not the “GIS Advisory Council” described in the report. In fact, I would argue, we are not actually a council because we don’t fit the definition of a council. We are not appointed by any public official, have no authority, and are not officially recognized by anyone except ourselves. Furthermore, I am convinced that by continuing to call ourselves a council, we may be getting in the way of the state creating an official GIS Advisory Council. We have members who were involved in efforts many years ago with the California Geographic Information Association (CGIA) to get a GIS Council established (https://cgia.org/2008/03/cgia-releases-the-california-gis-phase-2-strategic-planning-final-report/) and to draft a California Geospatial Framework Data Plan (https://cgia.org/2006/10/cgia-releases-california-geospatial-framework-draft-data-plan/). We have newer members who recognize the value of our group but may be reluctant to participate in workgroups or take on a lead role because we are not an officially recognized body, nor are we a nonprofit professional association. The only resources we have, besides the website hosted by CGIA and perhaps the support of our employers, are our ideas, energy, and time as volunteers. How sustainable are we as the California GIS Council?
What we now call the California GIS Council is the most recent attempt at establishing an advisory body to work with a state Geographic Information Officer to advance the development of spatial data infrastructure and establish communication and collaboration channels for this and other issues that affect our work in the GIS community. We wrote and adopted the charter in 2015. The charter calls for a review every five years, so this is my open call for members to help chart the future of the California GIS Council.
This is an open invitation to all members to join the Charter Review and Strategic Plan Workgroup and be a part of the conversation and planning for the future of this group. If you are interested and willing to participate please let us know by sending an email to ca.gis.council.chair@gmail.com. We’ll be in touch to set up the next meeting.
Sincerely,
Jane
Jane Schafer-Kramer, California GIS Council Chair for July 2021-June 2022