Board Meeting minutes, Feb. 9, 2002

 

Recorded by Karen Kemp

1. Revision of items for the agenda

2. Minutes of the Board Meeting, Friday 8

-        Motion to approve by McMaster, seconded by Merry, passed

3. Introductions

-        New Board members: John Wilson and Lynn Usery

4. Appointments of Committee Chairs

-        MOVED by Onsrud, seconded by Usery, to appoint Marc Armstrong, subject to his agreement, to a position on the Board for a 1 year period due to the position vacated by Merry’s election as President-Elect, passed

-        Secretary (1 yr) – Richard Wright

-        Communications (3 yr) – Ling Bian (chair, accepted), Dawn Wright (vc, accepted)

-        Research (3 yr) – John Wilson (chair, accepted), Zorica N-Budic (vc, invited)

-        Sponsored Projects Committee: Non-research - Michael Demers (chair, invited), Piotr Jankowski (vc, accepted)

-        Nominating – David Tulloch (chair, invited), Jochen Albrecht (vc, accepted)

-        Policy and Legislation – Will Craig (chair, accepted), John Shuler (vc, accepted)

-        Research Projects – Gerry Rushton and Tim Nyerges (chair to be invited), (vc to be decided)

o      Note made regarding need to consider conflict of interest clause in bylaws regarding this committee

-        Education – continuing

-        Membership – continuing

-        MOVED by Onsrud, seconded by Usery, to accept the appointments assuming they are accepted by the individuals involved, passed

5. Committee and Chair status reports

-        Policy and Legislation - Craig

o      Decision on whether to hold a Congressional Breakfast in 2003 deferred to discussion about meetings later

o      To continue discussion with other UCGIS members regarding holding a workshop to develop research proposals on data access and national security to be directed by John Shuler

o      ACTION: Committee to prepare a letter from the President in support of the American Community Survey program

o      Discussion regarding UCGIS lobbying activities. The Board encouraged the Committee to continue seeking out activities that need our lobbying support.

o      Abler informed the Board about the Coalition for National Science Foundation Funding who lobby in support of NSF funding.

§       ACTION: Suzy to inform the Board about this organization’s activities for possible membership.

o      Committee instructed to identify congress people who will sponsor the Congressional event.

-        Education - Wiggins

o      March 30 and May 31 deadlines for publication of draft report

o      Discussion regarding the role of the Education Committee since there has been little communication with the UCGIS membership

o      President requested the Board to show support of the activity through the Education Committee

o      1. Request for formal half day plenary at summer assembly approval

§       Onsrud commented that the range of 11 topics need further clarification but are still worth discussing

§       MOVED by Onsrud, seconded by Wright, to approve a half-day session for the Model Curricula at the summer assembly. Discussion regarding need for the Research challenges to have all the available time, voting against this would significantly impact progress on the project. Motion carried.

o      2. Request Board to help in raising money

§       Discussion suggesting the Education Committee looks into other funding opportunities; suggestion to look at other funding opportunities; Board needs to be proactive in how it organizes contributions from ESRI. Statement that the Board should not take action in helping seek funds.

§       Request from Duane the final draft and reviews of the proposal from NSF.

§       MOVED by Onsrud, seconded by Wilson: In support of the activities of the Task Force, moved that the Education Committee be tasked to 1. Specify the specific tasks to be completed under the proposed budget, 2. Set deadlines for those tasks, 3. Specify responsible personnel for completing the tasks, 4. Detail the budget, 5. Distribute to private sector sponsors with intent for soliciting comment and their support of the project for the upcoming year. Motion passed.

§       Discussion: should not ask ESRI to respond; should we discuss with Intergraph their continued involvement with this project; ask for a co-chair

§       MOVED by McMaster, seconded by Wright, that the chair of the education committee become a co-chair of the task force. Discussion: seems heavy-handed. Rescinded.

§       MOVED by McMaster, seconded by Wright, that the Chair of the Education Committee represent the Board as a member of the Task Force. Passed.

o      3. Request approval of budget

§       Chair of Task Force requests that cost of managing this budget not be charged to the project’s budget

§       Timeline of tasks and products needs to be specified before approval

§       Discussion that the full cost of managing the project should be applied to the budget (Onsrud and Abler).

§       MOVED by Onsrud, seconded by Wright, that full direct costs for this project be charged to the project’s budget. Discussion: More direct costs need to be added to the budget – with 15% there is still a surplus; Intergraph would like to pull their remaining money out of this project. Motion passed.

-        Communication - Wright

o      Brochure needs to be updated; suggestion is a three panel, generic and timeless brochure with updated information on challenges, members, etc.; prepared as a PDF for download from the web; should not abandon the large format, heavy paper brochure for non-academic audiences; suggest a printed folder with graphics. Ideas to be passed on to the new chair.

o      Recommend transferring the web and listserv services over to the DC office under ED’s and staff control with the chair supervising the content; current budget does include some money for internet services in DC, though possibly not enough. ED to resolve this.

o      ED requests the communications committee to work closely with the membership committee to keep the membership lists up-to-date with only one version.

-        Research - Usery

o      Plan for summer meeting activities to be discussed in a later item.

o      To establish a separate committee to make the GIScience Research award this June.

o      The book has deadline of Feb. 28^th, book will continue with or without all originally requested contributions.

-        Research Projects

o      Nothing more to report

-        Membership - Mark

o      5-year renewals need to be approved: Boston University, Georgia Tech, Hunter College CUNY, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, Maryland College Park.

o      MOVED by Onsrud, seconded by Merry, to approve all five renewals. Passed.

o      Oak Ridge National Lab did not reapply.

§       ACTION: that the President writes a letter to the new lead GIS person at ORNL to give them a final deadline of March 31 for reapplication and continued membership. The website to reflect this change following this date.

13. General accounting practices – Abler and Jampoler

-        Per the auditors, suggestions that checks over a certain dollar amount should have 2 signatures and that formal general accounting procedures be written

-        MOTION by Onsrud, seconded by Usery, that checks over $10,000 require 2 signatures. Passed.

15. Budget – Abler

-        Abler urged that the budgeting have full allocation of realistic estimates of ED time to project budgets.

-        Need to reconsider the amount of dues in order to provide more flexibility for the organization and to support base functions, consider modest annual increases at something close to inflation (2-3%).

-        MOVED by Merry, seconded Usery, that the Executive committee tasked to take a recommendation to the council in June that the 2003 dues be raised to $1500 to account for the past 7 years of inflation and then increase at an annual rate close to the Consumer Price Index. Discussion: an increased dues notice need to accentuate the positives, including that an entire University gets representation for such a small amount, UCGIS delivers very good value, no increase for 7 years; take recommendations separately; task executive committee with a memo and to get the word out soon; this will require a significant sales job; include brochure about benefits with dues notice; need to document why the increase is needed. Passed.

Secretarial duties passed to Lyna Wiggins.

 

Membership Committee:  Need a cooperative effort between the Membership Committee and the Communication Committee to help Suzy create a single membership list.

 

6)  UCGIS Meeting report

HUD grant progress report.  All universities have performed well on this grant.   A no-cost extension to the end of May has been requested and is expected to be approved.  The Second Symposium on Global Urban Quality was originally scheduled close to 9-11.  It was postponed and held in January.  It was a successful meeting with attendance by the five UCGIS participants and ten of the foreign partners. 

 

Joint Statistical Meetings.  Five or six UCGIS members will participate in a session at the Joint Statistical Meetings panel of presentations on visualization – in August, NYC.  The UCGIS panel will be one of only six successful outside applicants to present at this meeting.   A total of $1000 to be allocatedion from G&A travel and meals was approved to provide small subsidies for 5 or 6 UCGIS panelists.

 

7)  Sponsored programs

a.      Department of Transportation

There has been some continuing discussion about running a series of symposia funded by BTS.  There are difficulties within the BTS accounting office in giving funding directly to UCGIS and this activity is currently inactive.

b.     Intergraph Young Scholars Program/ ESRI Young Scholars Program

The Board tasks the Sponsored programs/ Non-research Committee to coordinate the process of a call for participation, selection criteria, allocation between the two sponsors, and funding amounts.  The Committee should pass these by the Board for comment before releasing the call.

c.      Student Program 2003

The Executive Director will encourage sponsorships by industrial affiliates to fund this program in 2003.

d.     Homeland Security

A research allocation of $15,000 for seed money/ research on Homeland Security has been given by ESRI.  The Board tasks the Research Projects Committee to write an RFP, coordinated with ESRI, to award these funds.

e.      FGDC

 The Board tasks the Research Project Committee Chair to advise the Board about the status of future FGDC funding.

 

8)     2002 Summer Meeting, University of Georgia

The schedule for the 2002 Summer Meeting was discussed, and the following schedule was developed: 

 

	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
a.m.	Board	Research Agenda	Research Agenda	Final Decisions on Challenges	Board
p.m.	Committee Meetings 1-3 Research Plenary 3-5	Research Agenda	Model Curricula	Council Meeting
evening	Icebreaker and GiScience Bowl	Social Event	Student Program

 

7)               UCGIS has been approached by the National Research Council and USAID to develop a proposal for research on sustainable development.  The Board tasks the Executive Director to follow through on this and John Wilson volunteered assist.

 

11-12)  Strategic Planning

David Mark and Harlan Onsrud will complete an on-line member survey.  David will complete a first draft within a week or so.  It will be circulated to the Board before full dissemination to the membership.  Barbara Buttenfield has been asked to review the existing plan.

 

Secretarial duties passed to Art Getis

 

14)           Executive Director contract

The Executive Director contract was discussed.  Contract was approved as presented.

 

15)           Budget

The budget was presented.  Alterations in the draft Model Curriculum Task Force budget to reflect a 15% direct cost and employment tax liabilities (based on discussion in Education Committee (3) report).  Budget was approved with these minor alterations.

 

16)           Other

Getis requested that representatives of “new challenges” be sent to the summer assembly

A list of 11 knowledge areas will be out soon for the summer assembly

 

17)           Adjournment

McMaster moved to adjourn.  Wilson seconded.