shrug-l: Heads Up

Mon Jul 23 09:32:13 EDT 2007

Within the past year, I have attended the ESRI San Diego conference, the
SERUG conference and, of course, the last two SHRUG conferences.  Of the
three, the SHRUG meeting has consistently been the best.  I think the mix of
Florida; State, County and Local ArcGIS users creates the best environment
for the exchange of useful information.

Don't get me started on surveyors, I've gone through four companies before
getting the workproduct I needed on one site alone (50 - 160+ ft errors
should not occur in a sealed survey).  You've probably seen my latest
postings here about a survey problem, but I have to balance that with
"map-accuracy", widely used GIS layers that I know are off by 50 - 100 ft or
more as well.  Part of the problem is that neither "map-accuracy" nor 1 part
in 10,000 "survey accuracy" are acceptable in today's precision GIS
environment (1 part in 1,000,000 is more like it!).

Anyway, my recommendation is not to mess with the SHRUG conference, it is one
of the best around and the price is right.  It will likely be the only
meeting I will get to attend this fiscal year because of the State's travel &
conference cut-backs.

-- John 

  _____  

From: shrug-l-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us
[mailto:shrug-l-bounces at lists.dep.state.fl.us] On Behalf Of Wolfe, Heather
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 8:55 AM
To: Mayo, Michele L.; shrug-L at lists.dep.state.fl.us
Subject: RE: shrug-l: Heads Up

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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