New Member Candidates Spring 2010

As you will recall, we are working on expanding the committee membership.  First, we are adding two new members for a total of eleven.  Next, we are considering inviting members from the professional associations.  We had discussed preparing the nominations for the next meeting, then voting, so that new members can begin their terms in April of 2010.  If we are to make that happen, then we need to get moving on this.  However, I propose that we table the idea of inviting members from the professional associations until next year, when we have more time to deal with that.  What say yee?

A little discussion was held this past weekend about potential candidates.  More specifically, Sheila and I talked about inviting GIS users from local (county and city, or why not consider the state?) government GIS departments.  Maybe we could ask someone from an appraisal district or a city GIS department.  The cities of Corpus Christi and San Antonio came up in that conversation, with the benefits being that they are close, and can also help with recruitment (at least in Corpus, maybe elsewhere also) since they will have some voice in the local community.  Please comment below with other ideas or suggestions.  If you know of someone who would be a good candidate, we can discuss it here.  Please keep all discussion of member candidates for the two new positions (and to fill Bill’s position) to this blog post.

According to the new bylaws (which are now posted on the site, see Sec 2.05), we need to have at least five nominees for three positions.  Feel free to suggest nominees, but remember that to become an official nominee, they must read the bylaws and accept the nomination.

I plan to also ask Tim Alford if he is still interested.  I feel like he was a stong candidate and should be considered again.  I feel like at least two (maybe all three) new membership positions should be filled with true GIS people (as opposed to surveyors).  I also think these people really need to be “technical” GIS folks, as opposed to just managers.  Managers who have extensive experience on the technical side would probably be the best candidates.