Click here to see a previous discussion from August on committee membership.
With the news of a new program coordinator, and the likelihood of changes in the program to come, we will most likely have a need for a live meeting in April. We will have at least two vacancies at the end of the April meeting, (we will have to wait for Ken’s and Noela’s responses to their pending reappointments, see this post) since we are down to 8 members currently and since Bill has decided not to serve on the committee past April.
This would be a great time to elect our new members, and invite them to the April meeting so they may witness the beginning of a new era and get up to speed on current events in preparation for the beginning of a new academic year.
First, we need to fill the two vacancies to get our membership back to nine. According to our bylaws, we need 4 nominations to fill these two vacancies.
I think we should also try to add the two new members to the committee (expanding our membership to eleven) at this time, if we can get enough nominations. We would need a total of at least 6 nominations.
I think we should table the idea of inviting members from the professional associations for a while, at least until we are back to full membership and things have settled down a bit.
We have discussed nominating GIS professionals for these vacancies. I think that is very important (Sheila needs help), and would like at least two new GIS folks, and three would probably be better. Sheila and I have discussed contacting GIS people from local governments (city and county) and/or appraisal districts, maybe from Corpus Christi or San Antonio (because they are close by, and may also be able to help with recruiting). Sheila, your nominations, in my opinion, are very important considering there are no other “true GIS” professionals on the committee. I don’t know where to start when it comes to GIS nominations.
New terms don’t officially begin until the fall, but I think it is important to elect the new members now, so that they can be “invited” to attend the spring meeting as guests, so they will have the benefit of being at probably the most important meeting we have had or will have in a while.
I welcome any suggestions or other thoughts.
In summary, let’s try to get at least 6 nominations to fill 4 positions. I plan to contact Tim Alford to see if he is still interested. He also works at BP, along with Brian, but I don’t have a problem with that if the committee doesn’t. I have one other in mind. If and when they have agreed, I will submit their names. Lets try to get the nominations together by the end of January, so that we can wrap up the elections and get this behind us. Who knows, we may want to have the next meeting sooner than April.
Once your nominees have read the bylaws (which can be viewed by the public on this site, just send them the link) and agreed to serve, submit their name and resume or qualifications along with any comments you may have, as a comment at the bottom of this post.
Let me know if there are any questions, or send me an email if you have any problems posting to the blog.
Thanks for all your help.
I nominate Davey Edwards. He has been surveying since a very young age, and co-owns or co-operates Edwards Surveying with his father. It is a small business. He is very active in the professional, registered in 2 states, is also a member of the board’s Item Writing Committee, and he is a recent graduate of the masters program. His resume will be emailed to the committee.
I nominate Tim Alford. He is the survey department manager for British Petroleum. His son is now a sophomore in the program. Obviously, he brings more O & G experience to the committee. In my opinion, his experience as a manager, as an employer responsible for hiring, his input would be valuable to the committee and the program. My only concern is that if he is elected, that would make two representatives from one company, which I am okay with. The committee will ultimately have to to decide that. His resume will be emailed to the committee.
I am familiar with Davey and I know Tim quite well.
I support both nominations and think both would be great additions.
Brian Autio
Billy: Do we have a deadline for nominations?
We don’t have a hard deadline for anything. I have a goal of completing nominations within the next 2 or 3 weeks. It would be nice to finish by the end of the month. Maybe we could have a conference call to discuss the nominees, and hold elections by email so ballot results are not posted online.
I am emailing the TX ESRI office to see if they can recommend a strong GIS user in the Corpus area that could add to the committee. WIll post as soon as I get something back
I know Davey very well and am confident he would make an excellent addition to the committee. I support his nomination.
I do not know Tim Alford (yet).
Thank you for allowing me to serve on this committee for the past three years or so. It has been a wonderful learning experience for me. This committee does important work for the curriculum, the students and the profession. Keep up the good work!
Bill
Maxey Sheppard may be interested, but has not accepted nomination yet. Bill and Rob Aanstoos (Maxey Sheppard contact from TNRIS) both suggested Sterling Harris with the GLO. He has expressed some interest and we are currently playing phone tag. Rob also suggested Dr. Kim Ludeke with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, who is currenlty considering accepting a nomination. Both Sterling and Dr. Kim and GISystems candidates. Gary Jeffress and Rob Aanstoos both suggested Jim Scott, who is the director of the TNRIS division of the State Water Board. He has yet to return my phone call. Maybe Gary can contact him for us. He may be to busy to participate anyway. We need to complete nominations and elections in time to invite the new members to the next regular meeting to be held this fall at the campus, which means NO LATER THAN August.
Maxey has informed me that he is unable to accept a nomination at this time. I thanked him for his consideration and promised to bug him again in the future when we have another opening.
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I contacted Brandi Kolenovsky today and she has expressed interest. She is a 2003 graduate of the program (GIS) and is currently the head of the GIS department for Bluebonnet Electric Coop in Giddings. Stacey Lyle is going to send me a list of contacts at appraisal districts that he has. I plan to try and find somebody from one of these districts who is interested. I am also considering contacting city utility GIS departments. The only problem with the appraisal districts and the city departments is I don’t have any referrals, and am a little hesitant to contact people out of the blue. If anyone has any appraisal district or city GIS department contacts, please feel free to contact them. It would also be good to find another GIS developer/analyst from the private sector.
Another suggestion that was made by Rab Aanstoos was Dr. Jerry Creager (not sure about the spelling), with A&M College Station. I don’t remember the details, but it sounded like he could be a good candidate. I initially wrote off that suggestion because he is faculty at another university. I realize now that our bylaws authorize that when it is “appropriate”, so I wanted to add the name here for consideration. We might need an opinion from the faculty as to whether or not he would be an “appropriate” nomination.
I nominate Brandi Kolenovsky. She is a 2003 graduate of the GISystems (not geomatics) program and currently is the GIS supervisor for Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative in Giddings. I will be emailing her resume as I am no longer posting resumes on this site.
I would like to nominate Mike Beavers (GIS user who is an Emergency Management Planner in Corpus). He comes recommended from our south TX rep. I will forward his resume upon receipt.
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