shrug-l: Heads Up

Mon Jul 23 08:55:20 EDT 2007

I'm not in the Seven Hills area, but wanted to submit a thought to the
rest of you. I have always thought that one of the  major sources of
disagreement between surveyors and GIS professionals is that they did
not understand each other's roles. My personal opinion (I am sure some
of you feel differently) is that if I can trust a surveyor to collect
field data for me, if he can do it more accurately than me, and if it is
not prohibitively priced for my organization, let him (or her) go to it!
My job is not threatened by this as the majority of what I do is
analyzing data that has already been collected. I fly a desk, not a
Trimble. Neither does my existence as a GIS professional not under the
direct supervision of a surveyor threaten the surveyor's job. Many times
I have questioned about the validity of putting a GPS in the hands of a
field tech instead of a surveyor simply because it's cheaper. Most of
the non-surveyor GPS work that I have seen in different organizations
has been done that way- by field techs, not by expensive GIS
professionals.

The second observation is that many GIS professionals I know don't
attend FLURISA because it's "mostly for surveyors" (quote from another
GIS professional I know). Most of us have to choose which conference to
go to. Which should we spend our education allotment on- SHRUG, SERUG,
FLURISA or the San Diego ESRI conference? Usually both SHRUG and FLURISA
lose this contest.  This is a shame because there seems to be a widening
breach between GIS professionals and surveyors, two groups who could
cause incredible change to our world for the better if only we can get
along.  

In view of that, I think that it would be very beneficial for the two
groups to have a joint conference. More dialogue usually equals more
understanding and eventually cooperation.  This seems like a great
opportunity to help along the relationship between our two groups. Will
it make SHRUG bigger? Maybe. Is that bad? Sometimes. But there are many
issues in Florida where the participation of more people would be
beneficial to all (standardized shapefiles, to name just one).  I think
that in this situation the greater good outweighs the lesser evil. 

Thanks for listening to my soapbox speech!

Heather Wolfe
Sr. GIS Analyst, Planning & Development
Seminole County Government
1101 E. First St.
Sanford, FL 32771

Office 407-665-7378
Fax 407-665-7412
HWolfe at seminolecountyfl.gov
www.seminolecountyfl.gov

________________________________

From: Mayo, Michele L. [mailto:Michele.Mayo at dep.state.fl.us] 
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 5:09 PM
To: shrug-L at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: shrug-l: Heads Up

Hello List,

A proposal was introduced in Thursday's SHRUG quarterly meeting to
investigate a merger of our annual conference with that of FLURISA,
known as the Joint Mapping Conference.

Lee Hartsfield, current SHRUG president, announced that he had recently
been elected president of FLURISA.  Lee now serves as president for both
organizations.  After giving a very general outline of his proposal to
discuss combining the two conferences, Lee asked the small gathering to
vote for or against further discussions with FLURISA, saying that,
according to SHRUG by-laws, there were enough people present to take a
vote on the matter.  Although several of us expressed reservations, Lee
did take a vote and his motion was carried.

This is not a trivial decision.  In my opinion, any proposal that could
fundamentally change the character of our organization should be put to
the SHRUG membership at large before any negotiations are conducted with
outside parties.  The grass-roots character of SHRUG has kept our
organization strong, solvent, vibrant and valuable for eight years.  We
could lose that if we fail to keep the membership informed and involved
in plotting our future course.

If this proposed action concerns you, please let your SHRUG officers
know.  Their contact information can be found here:

http://www.shrug-gis.info/shrug_business.htm

Michele Mayo, GISP

Florida DEP, Beaches and Coastal Systems

Coastal Data Acquisition Section

3900 Commonwealth Blvd. MS 300

Tallahassee, FL 32399-3000

850.413.7776

michele.mayo at dep.state.fl.us <mailto:michele.mayo at dep.state.fl.us> 

www.floridadep.org/beaches/programs/cda.htm
<http://www.floridadep.org/beaches/programs/cda.htm>

-****Florida has a very broad Public Records Law. Virtually all written communications to or from State and Local Officials and employees are public records available to the public and media upon request. Seminole County policy does not differentiate between personal and business emails. E-mail sent on the County system will be considered public and will only be withheld from disclosure if deemed confidential pursuant to State Law.****-

-****Florida has a very broad Public Records Law. Virtually all written communications to or from State and Local Officials and employees are public records available to the public and media upon request. Seminole County policy does not differentiate between personal and business emails. E-mail sent on the County system will be considered public and will only be withheld from disclosure if deemed confidential pursuant to State Law.****-
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