February 18, 2004

Arkansas State Land Information Board –
MINUTES
February 18, 2004
Union Building 17th floor conference room, Little Rock, AR
09:00 a.m. – 12:17 p.m.


Board Members Attending
Ms. Phyllis Smith, U of A at Little Rock
Ms. Suzanne Wiley, Higher Education
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
Dr. Fred Limp, Director, CAST
Mr. Bill Bush, State Agencies
Mr. Jubal Smith, Entergy Corp

Board Members Not Present
Mr. Randy Jones, First Electric Cooperative Corporation

Arkansas Geographic Information Office (AGIO)
Mr. Shelby Johnson, State Geographic Information Coordinator
Mr. Learon Dalby, GIS Program Manager
Mr. Joakim Jörwall, GIS Systems Analyst
Mr. Vince Guillet, GIS Specialist

Guests
Mr. Bill Sneed - USGS

1. Approval of the minutes of the last meeting
The meeting was called to order by new Board Chair, Phyllis Smith at 9:15 am. After review, Phyllis Smith called for a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting of January 14, 2004. Suzanne Wiley moved that the minutes be accepted as distributed via email. Mary Kay Sullivan seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.


2. Resolution for Jim Wells
Yancey Reynolds has been appointed to fill the remainder of Board member Jim Wells’ term representing the private sector. A resolution and certificate to recognize Jim Wells’ service to the Board will be provided for approval at the next meeting.


3. Report from State Geographic Information Coordinator

Shelby reported on his presentations to the Governor’s staff and Cabinet.

4. Report from other AR Geographic Information Office (AGIO) staff

Learon discussed current projects he is working on:
county aerial photography with Northwest AR Regional Planning Commission
meetings around state
Geospatial One Stop
cost analysis for potential move of GeoStor to Department of Information Services
Regional National Map pilot project– Amrut was helpful in developing viewer


AR Centerline File Program (ACF) - Vince Guillet
Accuracy assessments and GeoStor loading and have been successful. (see report)
Work continues and more counties will be completed soon.
Other topics included County Judges Association, 911 Grant funding Bozeman, DHS possible grant,
Sec State voter registration –database design.

County Assessors Mapping Program (CAMP) – Learon Dalby for Richie Pierce
Work will began on metadata for CAMP and comprehensive state layer for upload to GeoStor.
Digital Cadastral Standard will be promulgated soon. (See report)

Other
We need to maintain awareness of Federal activities (USGS) related to Arkansas.
Fred Limp brought up the issue that state vector data is out of date (latest is 2000). Discussion followed about the possibility of working with AR Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) mapping division on obtaining updated data. Following a discussion on issues existing with AHTD, in particular, security, liability, and education, NAD27, and CAD vector format. Learon is currently working on cost models.
Fred moved to charge AGIO to draft resolution content in re: AHTD data importance. David Hudson seconded the motion. Phyllis asked for vote. Motion unanimously passed. Shelby will submit to list for review and present before next Board meeting.


5. Report on GeoStor and related projects

Fred Limp distributed a GeoStor Usage Status Report. The orthophotography continues to be the most popular data set. (see report) Other topics discussed were new AHTD data; system being rolled over to new upgraded system; all NASA relevant software now ported to Linux; distributed file storage solution in development; and soils data close to completion (20 more counties should be online soon).

6. Old Business

Interim Study Committee conference calls
Phyllis updated the Board on the committee’s consensus on revenue strategy. The first priority is funding for the AGIO. Every effort will be made to ensure that funding through the state’s general revenue fund continues. Increase in funding is needed for an education specialist. This position will provide relief for other staff to concentrate on their projects. The move of GeoStor will require additional funding also. AGIO will look at these issues and bring suggestions to Board. The Board will continue in its efforts to seek revenue for state and local GIS efforts as a separate issue.

State GIS Labor Force Survey
Shelby disseminated the results of the survey. (see report) Jubal brought up the issue of state agencies that use GIS for a decision making tool, not in a technical capacity, most likely did not filled out the questionnaire.

State GIS Job Descriptions Development
Bill Bush reported that Shelby has descriptions from other states to use as guidelines. The approach will be to get descriptions of the duties being performed by existing state GIS personnel. Once the descriptions have been compiled they will be taken to OPM, who will audit them, base on survey results. The next step will be to look further to find common job descriptions, manager, mid, and entry level seem appropriate, then develop three position descriptions for these levels of responsibility, create new titles, and determine the costs involved with the reclassification and upgrades. Discrepancies in salary levels and actual job duties are prevalent. Committee will continue working on this.


ADOP II Progress (see report)
Learon discussed the completely digital process utilized by EarthData, who would be doing a demonstration on Friday, Feb 20th, for Forum members and other interested parties. Elevation/Lidar were also discussed.
He emphasized the need for more substantial plans by this fall. General discussion followed on the technical aspects of new data acquisition techniques, time, processing cost savings, and the additional by-products that will be available through this method.

7. New Business

Suzanne Wiley inquired as to possible AGIO projects the Board should make award nominations for the upcoming MidAmerica GI Symposium in Kansas City. Phyllis asked Board’s feeling on nominations (Board not independent). Shelby suggested counties should be nominated instead, highlight counties instead within CAMP.
Fred said there was a greater benefit from Shelby suggestion. Suzanne moved that Shelby create text for nominations of county individuals and local efforts for MAGIC symposium. Specific counties to be named later (2 county nominations). Russell Gibson seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously. Shelby pointed out the Board could also issue resolution for recognition of these counties.

Interim Study Committee
Shelby discussed the highlights of the interim study.

Reprioritize framework data development list
Shelby requested the Board to reprioritize framework data development list that is based on Federal model data. He will email the Board a list of these layers for consideration.


Review estimated costs of development for critical framework layers
Learon discussed estimated costs.


Determine strategies for revenue sources
Shelby talked about several of ideas for revenue sources. However, nothing has been declared a viable source. He plans to speak with Preston Means, Department of Finance and Administration (DFA), about suggestions for possible sources. David Hudson spoke on issues, possible approaches. Shelby will meet with Tom Geist regarding bonds issue.

Advisory Council Members
A list of the members of the Advisory Council members was passed out to Board. Phyllis said it was necessary to revisit the list due to members who are no longer in state or with organization they represent. Discussion followed addressing the obvious changes that had to be made and new organizations to include on council. How to involve the council more was discussed. It was stated that lunch would be necessary for a Board and Advisory Council meeting to take place. This in turn brought up the point of how to fund it? Since the Board is not currently funded, it will be necessary to look into Board funding for future functions. A possibility is to add line item into AGIO future budget to cover expenses such as travel and meeting expenses. The consensus was that financial remuneration was necessary to encourage more action from Advisory Council Members.
The need to add private business to list was discussed, as they are under represented. Real estate, Acxiom, Wal-Mart, and the Farm Bureau were discussed. Since 4-year higher education representatives are on the Board it was suggested that a 2-year representative would be appropriate. New representatives needed:

Education K-12 - Fred will review EAST

Education 2 and 4-year colleges - Vince will investigate a West Memphis college to better represent
East Arkansas region.

GIs Users Forum - defer to Forum for nominations.

Transportation - defer to AHTD for nominations.


Suzanne brought up the Board’s brochure and how outdated it is. A new/revised brochure would benefit its visibility.

Comments from guests
Bill Snide spoke briefly about National Map development.

8. Future meeting dates - February / March
The Board set March 17th, April 14th, and May 19th, as the tentative meeting dates for the next month. Board members are to check calendars for conflicts.

9. Adjournment
Following the conclusion of business, a motion to adjourn was made by Mary Kay Sullivan and seconded by Bill Bush. The motion passed unanimously and the meeting adjourned at 12:17 p.m.

COMMITTEES:
Strategic Planning – Fred, Bill, Suzanne
Communication/Public Relations – Jubal, Phyllis, Mary Kay
Task Force for Legislative Action – David, Russell, Bill, Randy, Suzanne, Phyllis
State Agency GIS Position Descriptions – Bill, Earl, Mike