Minutes: UGCIS Board of Directors Meeting

Monday, June 16, 2003

Asilomar, California

Present: Carolyn Merry, John Shular, Scott Mackay, Mary Lou Larson, Ling Bian, Shashi Shekhar, Zorica Nedovic-Budic, Lyna Wiggins, Dawn Wright, John Wilson, Lynn Usery, Art Getis, Sean Ahearn, Suzy Jampoler, May Yuan.

1)       Call to order. The meeting was called to order by Merry, UCGIS President, at 9am.

2)       Introductions. New board members (Scott Mackay, Shashi Shekhar, Zorica Nedovic-Budic) and officers (Mary Lou Larson: membership committee chair, May Yuan: secretary).

3)       Minute revisions of the board meeting on February 11, 2003.

a.       Item (6) Grant progress. Original: “The RFP for a $75,000 follow-on HUD grant…”  Change to “The RFP for a $68,000 follow-on HUD grant…”

b.       Item (10) Budget. Need to attach the proposed budget by Jampoler, as stated in the minutes.

4)       Outstanding action items

a.      International outreach. Merry: AGILE wishes to remain informed; Geoid, no responses so far; Japan GIS, a representative attending this summer assembly.

b.      NIMA standards meeting. No one from UCGIS attended the meeting.

c.       ISO meetings. Kim (University of Illinois) will represent UCGIS on any issues relevant to UCGIS.

d.      Research committee: Two proposed action items to be discussed in Research Committee meeting in the afternoon of June 16, 2003.

                           i.      Research briefs

                         ii.      Intellectual content and structure of Summer Assemblies, and collaborate with GIScience meetings.

e.      SPACE project. 

                           i.      Getis: SPACE project is likely to be funded by NSF.

                         ii.      Action item: select universities to participate in the project.

5)       June 2003 Board Meeting Briefing Book

a.       Usery moved to accept the briefing book.

b.       Mackay seconded.

c.       Approved by unanimous votes.

6)       Standing Committee on Strategic Planning.

a.       Approved by the last council meeting to keep track of strategic planning and keep progress towards to UCGIS mission and goals.

b.       Usery: make the following change in the proposed By-laws, Appendix B By-laws changes (page 28 in the briefing book):

Original:

“The actions of the Committee are to be based on the “Strategic Plan,” a document accepted by the Council in June 1998.”

Change to:

“The actions of the Committee are to be based on the current strategic plan.”

c.       Re-affirm moving forward a standing committee on strategic planning.

d.       Action item: determine the committee make-up

7)       Strategic issues.

a.       Memberships and communications

b.       A list of topics for future meetings

8)       Memberships.

a.       Current changes in memberships.

                     i.      Sun Microsystems discontinued their UCGIS membership.

                   ii.      Outstanding delinquent members.

b.       Discussion on membership issues.

                     i.      Member benefits:

1.       Student paper competition awards offer excellent financial returns to universities.

2.       Recognitions of educator and research of the year raised the profiles of the associated universities. Yet, Wilson suggested change the awards to UCGIS fellows in parallel to IEEE fellows or alike to raise the level of recognition.

3.       Research grants specific to UCGIS members.

                   ii.      The critical role of lead delegates.

1.       Lead delegates need to be more aggressive and proactive to get GIS people on campus involved.

2.       Lead delegates need to disseminate UCGIS announcements, grant opportunities, and student research competitions to their institutions.

3.       Lead delegates need to introduce colleague UCGIS research ideas for grant ideas or student dissertation ideas.

                  iii.      Recommendations.

1.       FAQs for delegates to outline responsibilities and suggestions.

2.       Expand income sources, so not solely rely on membership dues. Potential sources: conferences (registration fees), subscriptions to digital libraries or websites, and charges for job announcements and recruitments.

3.       Concerns were raised that UCGIS should not be profit-driven. Not to rely on meetings or conferences to generate revenue. Focus on stablizing memberships.

4.       Identify a niche to maintain and sustain our memberships. Not just focus on universities, but seek mechanisms to connect three levels of delegates and participants: established faculty, mid-career and junior faculty, and graduate students.

5.       Be more organized and institutionalized so that UCGIS membership can continue when the lead delegate moves to another institution. Have a mechanism to offer channels for UCGIS to interact participating faculty beyond the lead delegate. 

6.       Training programs for delegates, such as delegate orientation and information packet for delegates. The key is to help member institution become self-organized.

7.       UCGIS needs an intellectual outlet, such as GIScience meetings. A staged plan is desirable to become more involved in GIScience meetings, starting as 50% of intellectual resources and attendance of GIScience meetings, progressing to 75% to 80%, and eventually make GIScience meetings as one important UCGIS intellectual outlet. Need to consider problems when GIScience takes place outside the U.S.

8.       Remind university administration that the membership obligation includes the annual due and travel support for delegates to attend UCGIS meetings.

9.       Reach out to international GIS equivalent, such as AGILE. UCGIS may provide travel support for liaisons to attend meetings held by these organizations.

10.   Advertise faculty job interviews or hires as a result of student presentations at UCGIS meetings to highlight the importance of UCGIS network functions.

9)       Charges on membership issues

a.       Lead delegate education and orientation: Larson

b.       Staged plan to GIScience meeting: Getis and Wilson

c.       Intellectual content of summer assembly: Wilson

d.       Multi-tier membership (understand membership structure, revised membership benefits to target each type of memberships, and establish different levels of communication): Larson

e.       Strengthen international ties: Mackay

f.         Statistics of hits to UCGIS website and other web activities: Wright.

g.       Organization analysis of member institutions: Shular.

h.       Reduced federal membership from $50,000 to $10,000 plus $40,000 for student travel support or internships: Shular.

Initial discussions suggested that federal membership due be reduced from $50,000 to $5,000 plus $20,000 for student travel support or internships.

i.         Re-evaluate private affiliates and target Microsoft and IBM: Shashi.

Initial discussions suggested an increase private affiliate membership due from $1,000 to $5,000

10)   Communication.

a.       Bian summarized the design of the new UCGIS website: more professional look and better content arrangement. Detail information about elements of the new website is documented in Communication Committee Report in the briefing book (page 22).

b.       Discussions on two forms of communication: web pages and listserv.

Suggestion one: post job announcements and other news on the web, but send out email alerts to members.

Suggestion two: provide links to the main UCGIS home page and to specific announcements or news items.

c.       Each committee chair should have a webpage to post committee information, issues, and related activities.

d.       Fix missing and broken links on UCGIS membership page to member websites, and request adding the UCGIS logo on member homepage.

e.       Consider adding the UCGIS logo on all materials downloaded from UCGIS website.

f.         Consider placing UCGIS advertisements and announcements in GIS related journals and magazines to enhance UCGIS visibility.

11)   Adjourned 12 noon