Related Posts
Dear Colleagues,
I am honored to serve as the President of the NYS GIS Association this year.
From my home base in the Livingston County Planning Department, I have long admired this group as the premier professional organization for GIS and related industries in NYS. One of the strengths of the Association is the collaboration and networking opportunities with fellow practitioners of the geospatial arts. We are a community of mappers and data analyzers and thinkers and revelers who delight in a good conversation about map projections and the ever neglected act of creating metadata.
If anyone is considering a GISP Certification, one of the components of that certification is “Contributions to the Profession” – giving back to the profession. Membership in a professional association like the NYS GIS Association and participation on boards and committees count towards the points requirement in this category.
The true strength of the NYS GIS Association is our nine Committees. The committees include Awards, Communications, the Educators Committee, the GeoSpatial Summit Committee, Legislative, Membership, NYGeoCon, the Professional Development Committee, and the Regional Coordination Committee. The important work that happens in each of these committees helps strengthen the GIS Profession as a whole.
Currently, the NYGeoCon Committee is working on the content that will be presented at our fall conference, which will take place on October 8th through 10th of this year at the Lake Placid Olympic Conference Center. I hope you all consider joining us at that event – registration is available at the conference website here. I am very thankful to the NYGeoCon Committee for helping to make the conference a reality.
Another committee that I would like to highlight is the Legislative Committee. Over the past two years, we have been able to work more closely with one of our sister organizations, the New York State Association of Professional Land Surveyors. We started simply with outreach to the Surveying Society, and the synergy grew from there to focus on Public Access to Digital Documents through the power of GIS and highlighting the power of the New York State GIS Clearinghouse.
A goal of my presidency is to continue to encourage participation in all our committees. Our committees provide an opportunity to allow our members to contribute to the success of the NYS GIS Association in areas that interest them.
The NYS GIS Association’s board is made up of volunteers from all over the State who were willing to get involved. If any of this sounds exciting to you, or if you have ideas on what should be content at our next events, or have some other passion you would like to share with the Association, I encourage you to join one of our committees and start getting more involved today!
Heather Ferrero, AICP
President, NYS GIS Association