USGS Meets with Northeast States

The USGS held a "meeting among partners" in Albany, New York, this month. The meeting brought together USGS staff with GIS coordinators from northeastern states to discuss common interests and partnership opportunities. It was one in a series of USGS partnership meetings that included a meeting of the southeast states in 2007.

Among the states represented, either by a state GIS Coordinator or staff or by their USGS liaison, were New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Illinois, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Washington DC, Indiana and Delaware.

USGS staff spoke about efforts to update the National Map program, interactions and partnerships with the homeland security community, integrating GIS data in USGS science efforts, and the renewed interest by USGS leadership in printed topographic maps. Each state gave an update on its latest efforts and several states took the opportunity to outline challenges seen in the years to come in providing meaningful geospatial data.

The meeting featured frank, open and respectful dialogue. I hope to post more information from this meeting as I digest my notes.

Bob? Bob?.... Is He on Mute? Is Bob Still on the Call?

There's an interesting article on CIO.com about ways to run effective teleconferences and virtual meetings.

Meetings are hard enough to run when the participants are all in the same room, fighting over the last chocolate doughnut. . . . You may be great at orchestrating an in-person meeting, but running an effective teleconference requires new skills.

NSGIC is increasingly taking advantage of teleconferencing and WebEx to bring together members, sponsors, partners and leaders to work on issues around creating the NSDI. We're slowly learning lessons about making the best use of this technology; we are often amused at our own fumbling.

We do a pretty good job, but it may be worth a few moments to share the tips and tricks in this article before our next NSGIC Call.