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
Michelle Babione/NWRS-Conte NWR
Andrew MacLachlan/ES-SNE/NYB (by telephone)
Chris Castiglione/FR-Lower Great Lakes FRO (by telephone)
Mike Drummond/ES-VAFO (by telephone)


Team members not in attendance:

Mike Weaver/LE
Linda Repasky/RDT
Bill Zinni/NWRS-Planning

Todays meeting started at 9:00 am with a review of our last meeting's minutes.  One
item of note is that the Regional Biologists are planning to have a meeting tentatively
scheduled for Nov. 19-20.  Michelle will arrange for someone from this Team to attend
that meeting and brief them on our activities and plans.

We then heard the subteam reports.  Michelle noted that she will be adding more
material to the draft Outreach Strategic Plan and will ask for comments.  Linda
reported that comments are coming in on the draft Spatial Data Library Strategic
Plan.  We are on course for the Sept. 30 deadline for drafts of these plans.  Michelle
and Linda will then develop a presentation and brief the RDT in October or November.

We took up the Gulf of Maine Project's proposal to expand their watershed habitat
analysis program to all R5 watersheds.  A lengthy discussion ensued on what we were
responding to, to whom we should respond, and on what aspects of the proposal we
should respond.  The outcome was that Michelle will prepare a draft response from
this Team to Ed Christoffers.  That response should include a note on the confusion
that reigns over the mix-up of the 2 GOMP proposals and that other individuals and
groups (Regional Biologists, ES staff, those who have worked on LAPS) should be
involved in determining whether these data are needed.

For the remainder of the meeting, we talked about the January 2003 R5 GIS
Workshop.   We agreed to write up a goal for the workshop (highlight GIS work in R5
to appeal to all programs and all user levels) and identify the intended audiences
(RDT, project leaders, GIS users from novice to advanced).  We agreed to focus on
presentations by R5 staff, but will also schedule a panel discussion by GIS staff from
other agencies (EPA, USACE, NPS, USGS) to hear about their activities.  We talked
about whether or not to invite an ESRI rep, but left the matter undecided.  We then
discussed what needs to be done and handed out assignments.

Our next meeting is  scheduled for Wednesday, October 2 at 9:00 am.

We adjourned at 10:40 am.

ACTION ITEMS:

  
Linda will add costs of commercial data acquisition to the SDL Strategic Plan.
  
Michelle will arrange a GIS update briefing at the Regional Biologists fall meeting.
  
Linda will send minutes of this Team's meetings to Regional Biologist staff (Jan Taylor, Hal Laskowski, Jennifer Casey, Joe Dowhan).
  
Linda will meet with RDT administrative staff to schedule an October or
November RDT briefing on the strategic plan for Outreach and SDL.
  
Linda and Michelle will present a briefing to the RDT on the Outreach and SDL
strategic plans.
  
Michelle will write a draft response to the request for review of the GOMP
proposal for expanding watershed habitat analysis.

WORKSHOP ACTION ITEMS:

  
Chris will write a draft message to all R5 employees (plus other region's GIS
coordinators) announcing the January 2003 workshop and calling for
papers/presentations and volunteers to help out with the workshop.  Travel
dates are January 28 and 31.  Workshop dates are January 29-30. Hours are
8:00 - 4:30.  Location is Regional Office auditorium and computer training
room. Interested persons should respond to Linda by Nov. 12 with their
presentation ideas.
  
Linda will handle registration and food (lunch/breaks) for the workshop and
will get clerical assistance from someone in the RO.  We'll send out an email in
December with a reminder in January requesting folks to register for the
workshop in early January.
  
Ralph is in charge of name tags.
  
Mike Drummond will handle the R5 GIS Resources booklet update.
  
Michelle and Andrew will develop the workshop schedule, coordinate
presentations and assist the presenters.
  
Linda will arrange for morning and afternoon introductions by RDT members.
  
Linda will investigate gifts/tokens for presenters, helpers, and attendees.
  
Marci Caplis will serve as official clock watcher to keep us on schedule.