November 1, 2000

Attendees

Mr. Chris Boudreaux, Conway Corporation
Ms. Susan Cromwell, Department of Information Systems
Mr. Cecil Davis, Department of Heritage
Mr. Fred Limp, CAST
Mr. Jubal Smith, Entergy
Ms. Suzanne Wiley, U of A Cooperative Extension Service

Not Attending

Mr. Bill Bush, Arkansas Geological Commission
Mr. Randy Jones, First Electric Cooperative Corporation
Ms. Shirley Sandlin, Benton County Assessor
Mr. Phil Schoettlin, Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce
Ms. Phyllis Smith, UALR
Mr. Jim Wells, Wellsco Graphics Solutions

Guests

Mr. Shelby Johnson, State Land Information Coordinator
Mr. Learon Dalby, GIS Program Manager
Mr. Mike Mitchell, GIS Users Forum
Don Melton, Director, Department of Information Systems

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The meeting was called to order at 1:00. The minutes of the last meeting on October 13 were approved with minor corrections.

Report of the State Land Information Coordinator

Shelby Johnson reported that he met with the director and deputy director of the Assessment Coordination Department for discussion of cadastral issues. Shelby explained that he wanted to inform them and get a person to address these issues and for the Board to study these issues in terms of cost and alternatives. John Allen, Director of ACD, said that they support these issues.

Shelby said that he and Learon Dalby met with the director of Arkansas One-Call and visited their facility. They exchanged ideas and talked about how they could work together. Shelby recommended that the Board visit the One-Call center in Conway sometime in the future, combining a regular Board meeting with a tour of the center.

Shelby reported next that a test run had been done of importing Arkansas Highway Department black and white, 200 dpi aerial photography data of three counties into GeoStor. This was done to check what would be necessary to accomplish this type of procedure and to plan for importing data for all seventy-five counties in the future.

GIS Data Fair

Shelby said that he and Learon Dalby are planning a GIS Data Fair for December 8th. The Fair will be for state agencies to get together to look at each other's projects and share data with the aim of possible coordination of future projects. Learon is coordinating this event. The agencies that have agreed to participate so far are several divisions of the Arkansas Highway Department, the Department of Game and Fish, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Health. Cecil Davis said that he will arrange for the Department of Arkansas Heritage to participate also. Shelby explained that this could possibly become an annual event.

Old Business

Name Tag Committee

Jubal Smith reported that nice name tags will be made for each Board member by GIS Day on November 15.

Federal GIS Users Forum

Suzanne Wiley reported that she and Learon Dalby had attended the first meeting of the Arkansas Federal GIS Users Forum on October 18, which is being organized by Ray Fox of the USGS. She said that there was good attendance and the group talked about various possible cooperative projects. She also reported that she heard positive comments about the Land Information Board. The next meeting of this group will be held in Russellville at the Ozark National Forest offices. They plan to meet four times a year. Suzanne said that there was discussion about how to negotiate cooperative efforts amongst federal agencies, something which can be difficult due to bureaucratic processes.

Learon Dalby explained that the group has requested a demonstration of GeoStor and a date of January 18th was tentatively scheduled. He said that Tammy Hocutt asked about having federal data in GeoStor to make it available to the public.

DOQQs

Shelby Johnson reported that six rolls of the one-meter film have been converted to diapositives, are in Denver, and have been reviewed. All six rolls are being shipped to the USGS in Reston where they will undergo NAPP scrutiny for specs while at the same time the contractor will start production. The USGS is shipping necessary data to Pixxures. Shelby foresees Lafayette County being completed by the end of November.

Corps of Engineers Project

Shelby described how he has reviewed two blocks of film taken of the Arkansas River at the eastern and western state borders and that there are major problems with lint and contrast on those films. He has informed Pixxures and the COE and Block A will definitely be rejected due to high overexposure on water reflections. After much discussion between Shelby, Pixxures and the COE, Pixxures has agreed to return next year and refly the whole project. They will use strategies to avoid glint by using the best sun angle, possible polarized lenses, and possibly using a different film.

Shelby next discussed the lint problems that occurred with the scanning of the film and Pixxures will work with the scanning contractor to remedy this.

Shelby explained that they discussed flying lower next year to get better data. He stressed that Pixxures is working hard to provide a high quality data set and that the Corps of Engineers has agreed to accept their data one year later than agreed upon originally.

Shelby added that the processing of the LIDAR images for the project is on schedule and will be delivered soon.

Fred Limp thanked Shelby for doing so much work towards getting the best possible results from this project. Suzanne Wiley agreed and also thanked Shelby for his dedicated work.

In regards to completing the photographic flying of the state, Shelby will be checking with the Air Force to try to avoid conflicts in flight schedules, since the photographic flights cannot be done when the Air Force is holding flight maneuvers.

Arkansas Society of Professional Surveyors Project

Suzanne Wiley reported that she and Susan Cromwell, Learon Dalby and Randy Jones met with Ted Mullinex, the lobbyist for the ASPS. They worked on the legislation for electronic plat recording for Ted to take to the Surveyors for consideration.

Advisory Panel

Suzanne Wiley reported that all but one interest group has named a representative, but not all have yet agreed to serve. She will be sending out an invitation letter to all the nominated representatives asking them to attend a meeting on November 29 from 9:00 to noon in the Ragland Building conference room. Jim Wells and Jubal Smith will help with the meeting. This will be an orientation for the panel representatives and will cover information about the Board, future plans, and proposed legislation for the upcoming Legislative Session in 2001. Shelby, Suzanne and Learon will prepare an agenda.

Presentation by Guest Speaker

Don Melton, Director of the Department of Information Systems, was introduced. He appeared before the Board to discuss legislative strategy.

Mr. Melton explained that GIS issues have great support in the legislature, but that there will be problems with competition for funding in the next legislative session. He outlined some ways the Board might approach funding issues:

  • Be resolute!!!

  • Befriend your enemies

  • Identify those who may be opposed and convert (or pacify) them

  • Identify opposing issues and match with advantages for that group

  • Identify your supporters and seek their input on front end

  • Ask supporters to help make decisions

  • Identify questions that will be asked and prepare a response

  • Identify reliable people to testify

  • Identify groups with lobbyists who will provide support

  • Have someone ready to meet and answer questions at any point

  • Make a business case, focus on low hanging fruit, ripest fruit

  • Find legislative champions in each house

  • Find federal dollars for technology

Mr. Melton stressed that it was important for Board members to talk to key legislators and seek their support.  Mr. Melton thanked the Board for the opportunity to speak to them and departed the meeting.

Following Mr. Melton's departure, discussion continued regarding legislative issues. Shelby Johnson mentioned that the Contingency Appropriation Hearing scheduled for November 2nd would give the Board a better idea of how much funding would be need to be requested in the legislative session in January. Shelby and Susan Cromwell will provide the Board with figures as soon as possible following that Hearing. 

A number of action items were mentioned for the members to work on:

  • Get the appropriation bill in order
  • Need to have legislation in order
  • Identify important lobbyists
  • Line up sponsors and co-sponsors in the legislature
  • Need to contact members of newly formed IT committees
  • Need to work on opponents
  • Need to make a business case
  • Need a list of "talking points" for the Board members
  • Need a budget breakdown
  • Inform the Joint Committee and seek support
  • Send out letters to all in stakeholder database
  • Print more brochures

GIS Day

The Board discussed the upcoming GIS Day activities. A press release was discussed, as well as inviting members of the GIS Users Forum to participate. There will be GIS displays set up in Room 151 of the Capitol Building all day on November 15th. Susan Cromwell was appointed to draft a letter to invite legislators to drop by and visit.

It was agreed that the members will seek additional exhibits and participants and that the Governor would also be invited to attend.

Next Meeting

The next meeting was set for December 13th from 9:00 to noon at the Ragland Building 2nd Floor Conference Room.