November 10 , 2003

Arkansas State Land Information Board - MINUTES
November 10, 2003
Held at the offices of the AGIO, Little Rock, AR
10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.


Board Members Attending
Ms. Phyllis Smith, U of A at Little Rock
Ms. Suzanne Wiley, U of A Cooperative Extension Service
Mr. Randy Jones, First Electric Cooperative Corporation
Mr. Mike McGibbony, Deputy Director of DIS
Mr. Earl Smith, Ark Soil & Water Conservation Commission
Mr. David Hudson, Sebastian County Judge
Mr. Russell Gibson, City of Fort Smith
Ms. Mary Kay Sullivan, Benton County 911
Mr. Brian Culpepper, proxy for Dr. Fred Limp, Director, CAST

Board Members Not Present
Mr. Jim Wells, Wellsco
Mr. Bill Bush, Arkansas Geological Commission
Mr. Jubal Smith, Entergy Corp

Arkansas Geographic Information Office
Mr. Shelby Johnson, State Geographic Information Coordinator
Mr. Joakim Jörwall, GIS Analyst
Mr. Amrut Khatri, GIS Specialist
Mr. Vince Guillet, GIS Specialist
Mr. Richie Pierce, GIS Specialist
Guests
Ms. Shirley Sandlin, Benton County Assessor – Outgoing Board Member
Mr. Gary Underwood, Deputy ECIO

1. The meeting was called to order by the interim Board Chair, Suzanne Wiley at 10:05 a.m.
2. Approval of the minutes of the last meeting.
After review, Suzanne Wiley called for a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting of September 2, 2003. Suzanne noted that attendance was not included and requested a list of the members present to be submitted to her electronically from AGIO for completeness. Several other minor updates and corrections were suggested. Earl Smith moved to accept the minutes as corrected. The minutes were unanimously approved as corrected.

3. Welcome from Chair and Introductions of Present and Past Members and Guests
Suzanne Wiley introduced herself as interim Chair. She explained that Governor Huckabee recently appointed three new members to the Board to replace those with expired terms. This Board meeting would serve as a transitional meeting with the primary purpose of providing an orientation for new members. Suzanne welcomed the new members and thanked them for their willingness to join the Board in its mission.

New and old Board Members introduced themselves. AGIO staff introduced themselves.

Suzanne briefly mentioned the general Board participation and meeting policies.

Suzanne gave an overview/background of the ASLIB history and formal practices, the important Land Records Modernization Advisory Board, ACT 150 of 1993, and the State Land Information Board, Act 914 of 1997. Other relevant Acts touched on were the Act establishing the Arkansas Geographic Information Office, Act 1250 of 2001, and GeoStor, Act 1250 of 2001. She also mentioned the responsibilities of ASLIB and AGIO with respect to current law and relevant Acts. She gave a background on funding for AGIO, including the GIS Fund, Act 1250 of 2001.

Shelby Johnson spoke of AGIO past and current funding, e.g. the revolving GIS Fund and how it works. Gary Underwood gave an overview of the OIT and AGIO administrative structure, agency roles and functions.

Shelby showcased the AGIO Web site and discussed specific Acts and documents which established the Board and AGIO, budget elements, activities, GeoStor, digital cadastre, various data sets, past and present funding and usage reports. Brian Culpepper elaborated further on GeoStor.

A general discussion on funding and value-added revenue streams ensued. Concerns of a likely marginal revenue decline were voiced. Discussion continued on whether GeoStor should become a revenue generating mechanism driven by current GeoStor usage figures, even at a low marginal cost and estimated high Return on Investment.

Shelby discussed current activities and partnerships, both federal and local, and provided information from the AGIO coordination survey.

4. Overview of Current Standards, Policies & promulgation Process

Shelby discussed the development and structure of the various geographic standards in existence. He indicated that Learon Dalby could provide further detail at a later date. Shelby briefly discussed the promulgation process for standards and regulations, and the SLIB and AGIO role in this process. He briefly discussed the Cadastral standard and the upcoming Water System standard, as well as the GeoStor data loading policy.

5. Overview of Current ASLIB & AGIO Activities

Shelby Johnson introduced Vince Guillet to give an overview of the Arkansas Centerline File (ACF) project. Vince discussed ACF data format properties, regular maintenance, metadata, naming convention requirements, etc. He further discussed methods used for error estimates and data collection, data cross-walking into the standard, and subsequent, final load into GeoStor. Vince further discussed various, existing solutions for data development on the local level, feature vendors, US Census Bureau and AHTD partnering, and voter registration. He also described the current county status (counties in the standard and forecast), and accuracy testing under way. A discussion on the Master Street Address Guide and SBC, and conflicting standard convention issues (naming) ensued. A discussion on address geocoding requirements and disparities among various entities also took place.

Shelby asked Richie Pierce to give an overview of the County Assessor Mapping Program (CAMP) project. Richie provided an overview of the program, computer and software provision, data processing and support, and formal training for county representatives. He described the various CAMP phases, benefits to Assessors and counties, and participation by individual counties.

A general discussion ensued on county participation, and state law mandated participation. Judge David Hudson strongly maintained that a legislative problem exists that must be addressed for reasons of equity.

Richie showcased practical applications of the CAMP program.

Shelby Johnson presented brief, general overviews of USGS National Map, Homeland Security involvement with USGS 133 Cities initiative, FEMA Floodmap Modernization, ADH projects and Amrut Khatri’s work on ADH BioTerrorism and Critical Infrastructure projects within the state. He also briefly discussed an expansion of agency liaison possibilities. A brief discussion on data formats related to Homeland Security applications and GeoStor took place.

6. Review of Historical Funding and Future of Sustainable Funding

These following topics were briefly discussed. Handouts were distributed by AGIO for review in order to minimize meeting time.
- Former Funding under Department of Information Systems
- Present Funding under Office of Information Technology
- Future Funding (Senate Bill 697 now Interim Study IS2003-087)

7. Other Business
No other business.

8. Adjournment
Following the conclusion of business, a motion was made by Phyllis Smith and seconded by Randy Jones to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m. The next meeting will be held in January, 2004 with the date to be established via email.