Region 5 GIS Coordination Team Meeting Minutes

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Regional Office - Hadley, MA

R5 GIS Coordination Team Meeting Minutes 


Attendees:

Linda Shaffer/NWRS-CSDS
Ralph Tiner/ES-NWI
Andrew MacLachlan/ES-SNE/NYB
Bill Zinni/NWRS-Planning
Michelle Babione/NWRS-Conte NWR
Mike Drummond/ES-VAFO (by telephone)
Mike Weaver/LE (by telephone)
Bob Houston/ES-GOMP (by telephone)

Team members not in attendance:

Chris Castiglione/FR-Lower Great Lakes FRO
Linda Repasky/RDT


Todays meeting started at 9:00 am with a presentation by Bob Houston on two Gulf
of Maine Project proposals for which GOMP is requesting our review and
endorsement.  The first is a proposal to extend the Gulf of Maine Watershed habitat
analysis for trust species to all watersheds in Region 5. Andrew will prepare a
summary of today's discussion which will then serve as a recommendation to the RDT
from this team. Please review the summary and send your comments to Andrew.

The second is an ArcIMS application to serve the Gulf of Maine habitat analysis data
to the public.  Bob reported that they have requested and will likely receive funding
for this effort.  This Team fully endorses the ArcIMS application.

We then heard the subteam reports.  Michelle briefly reviewed the Outreach
Subteam's draft strategic plan.  She asked for comments and additional outreach
ideas from Team members.  Andrew reported that the Technical Support Subteam is
not pursuing any further actions.   Linda reported on the progress of the Spatial Data
Library Subteam.  She noted that the group is making headway on estimated costs as
well as identifying alternatives and a recommendation.

The next item was to establish a due date for the draft Outreach and Spatial Data
Library Strategic Plans.  We decided on a Sept. 30 deadline with a presentation of the
Plan to the RDT in mid to late October.

We discussed whether or not to hold a bi-annual R5 GIS Workshop in  January 2003. 
 We discussed potential conflicts with Centennial activities in 2003 and decided to
proceed with a 1-1/2 to 2-day workshop scaled down from the 2001 workshop. This
will be a shorter meeting with little or no training.  The  focus will be on how FWS
biologists and GIS specialists are using GIS to do their jobs.  The workshop should
highlight cross-program projects; projects by new GIS users as well as experienced
and advanced users; and examples from offices that haven't traditionally been GIS
users (e.g.,. LE and PERS).  For those who desire training, we could set up the
computer training room for the ESRI Virtual Campus class on Migrating from ArcView
3.2 to ArcView 8.x.  This is a free, web-based, self-paced course.

Action items associated with the workshop are:

  
Linda will ask Linda Repasky to request permission from the RDT to hold a
January 29-30, 2003 workshop in the RO Auditorium.
  
Linda will reserve the auditorium for those dates.
  
Once we get permission from the RDT, we will draft an email to be sent to all
R5 employees in September. The email will serve as a call for papers and a
call for volunteers to help plan and handle logistics for the workshop.
  
Linda, Mike Drummond, and Mike Weaver volunteered to participate in
coordinating the workshop.


We briefly talked about the upcoming November FWS Data Summit to be held in
Baltimore, MD.  CSDS will likely send a representative.   Team members are
supportive of the summit, but unable to attend.

Our final agenda item was membership of the R5 GIS Coordination Team.  Specific
items were representation from RW-Planning and a need for information flow on GIS
activities between this team and the Promises Teams.   We resolved that each member
should send an alternate when he/she is unable to attend a team meeting.  Michelle
will coordinate with the Regional Biologists to improve information flow and ensure
that we're aware of what projects each team is working on and we're not duplicating
effort.

Our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, August 28 at 9:00 am.

We adjourned at 11:30 am.