The Census Bureau is advertising for jobs in the Morgantown and Beckley local offices for Census 2010. Positions close June 1. Click here for details.

Click here to join the free WVAGP email mailing list.

WVAGP is sponsoring a FREE one-half day Tax Mapping Workshop for GIS professionals on June 10, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., at the Mollohan Center, Glenville State College, Glenville, WV.  The workshop will include presentations on the new statewide tax mapping guidelines, tax map monitoring procedures, existing county digital parcel mapping systems, and best practices for maintaining and publishing digital tax maps.  The cadastral community is the target audience of this workshop.  If you intend on attending the workshop, please register online.

Workshop Agenda           Online Registration

Dear Colleagues:

Thank you for your support of the West Virginia Geospatial Community.   Our next membership meeting is scheduled for June 10, 2009, at Glenville State College.  At this meeting the annual report will be presented and the results of the board election will be announced.  A tax mapping workshop will also be held in conjunction with the annual meeting.  Please click here for other geospatial news that may be of interest to you.

Jennings Starcher, President

WVAGP

In 2009, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) will acquire NAIP imagery for all of West Virginia.  The imagery will be natural color, one-meter resolution, and collected statewide between July 1 and September 30.  After the aerial photography is collected and processed, it will be accessible to the public. 

NAIP Information Sheet                               NAIP 2009-2011 Acquisition Map

WVAGP is sponsoring a one day, instructor-led GIS Program Management workshop for GIS professionals.  This course is one of the most popular URISA-certified workshops.  The URISA workshop is scheduled for April 16 at the Days Inn Conference Center, Flatwoods, WV.  The cost is 20 dollars for members and 120 dollars for non-members.  Click on the announcement for more information about the workshop.  You can register online at the WVAGP website.

Recently the Property Valuation Procedures and Training Commission approved new statewide procedures for the maintenance and publishing of surface tax maps by county assessors.    This new procedural rule became effective 27 February 2009 and incorporates guidelines for creating manual or digital tax maps.  Importantly, the new procedural rule provides guidance to those assessors creating tax maps with geographic information systems.   

House Bill 2807 (Geographical Information Systems) was introduced in February for the purpose of recognizing GIS User Groups such as the West Virginia Association of Geospatial Professionals to assist in the development of the State GIS Plan.  The WVAGP board adopted a resolution on 3 February 2009 in support of this legislation.

WVAGP Board Resolution (Adobe PDF)

Introduced Version of House Bill 2807 (Adobe PDF)

Nominations for the WVAGP board of directors will close April 23, 2009.   Being a board member is an excellent way to earn points for the Contributions to the Profession Component of GISCI Certification.  Four points per year can be earned for board membership.

Click here for more information

ArcGIS Training is available in March by WVGISTC and in May by RTI.

March 16-17       Intro to ArcGIS I, Morgantown, WV
March 18-19       Intro to ArcGIS I, Charleston, WV
May 5-7,              ArcGIS Training Level 1, Charleston, WV
May 19-21           ArcGIS Training Level 2, Charleston, WV

RTI Training Flyer              WVGISTC Training Flyer

The final 2008 Agency Roll Call report of GIS activities in the State has been published.  This effort was sponsored by WVAGP, WV GIS Technical Center, and the WV Office of GIS Coordinator. The biennial roll call report is beneficial in informing the West Virginia geospatial community of other agencies’ mapping activities in the State.  It is important to know what other agencies are doing to minimize costly duplication efforts and to make government more efficient.  As you can see from the July 2008 published report, multiple agencies at all levels of government utilize geospatial technologies for their agencies’ mission.

Click here to view the 2008 Roll Call Report (PDF)

A geospatial workshops survey of 30 instructor-led workshops listed in the WVAGP Training Catalog has been completed.  The top four workshops chosen from the survey are listed below.  Using both preferential and plurality voting methods, the same top four workshops were selected by the 38 respondents who participated in the online survey.  Two of the workshops are taught by URISA-certified instructors. The WVAGP Board will use the survey results to schedule future workshops.     

This is to announce that J. Antonio "Tony" Simental has been selected as the State GIS Coordinator. Tony previously worked for the Property Tax Division where he managed and administered the Mined Minerals GIS unit for several years.  Mr. Simental is a graduate of Marshall University where he obtained an MS in Geography in 1999. He is a resident of Huntington WV and is married to Maria E. Simental and has four children. 

Tony will bring to this position a combination of academic training, GIS skills, research interests, and work experience in private, governmental, and educational organizations.  Previously, Tony also served as Interim Public Works Director and as engineering technician for the City of Huntington.  Mr. Simental is looking forward to collaborating with both the public and private sectors in his new role as State GIS Coordinator, and applying the latest GIS technologies, ideas, and theories for the benefit of the State of West Virginia.   

Jon Amores
Deputy Secretary and General Counsel
West Virginia Department of Commerce
State Capitol Building 6, Room 553

[Tony can be reached at Tony.A.Simental@wv.gov]

The GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) certified over 3,000 GIS Professionals (GISPs) in December 2008 and saw the largest monthly cohort ever.  For more information see January 2009 news briefing:

http://www.gisci.org/News/1_2009_3000GISPs_PR_JABquote.pdf

The GIS-Surveying Committee is working on a map disclaimer and other GIS policies associated with the GIS and surveying professions.  A resources web page is located at this link:

http://www.wvagp.org/upload/GIS_Survey/survey_gis_resources.pdf

If you are interested in serving on this committee, please contact Jeff Stephens.

(1) Click here to view WVAGP Newsletter (October 2008).
(2) Click here to view agenda for membership meeting November 13th.
(3) Click here to view 2008-09 WVAGP goals and committee charges.

CORRESPONDENCE from WV GIS COORDINATOR:
(1) Click here to view letter regarding formal recognition of WVAGP
(2) Click here to view slide presentation on WV GIS Coordination and GIS Strategic Planning

We need your feedback!  If you have not done so, please complete the 2008 WV GIS Conference Survey and WVAGP Membership Survey. 

Suveys Link: http://www.wvagp.org/survey.asp

The annual report is submitted in accordance with the bylaws and summarizes important work done by the membership, board, and committees from 15 March 2007 to 9 June 2008.

View Report                View Presentation

The 2008 West Virginia GIS Conference was a resounding success!  A photo gallery of the event can be seen here:
http://wvagp.org/conference/2008/gallery.asp

Speaker presentations for the paper sessions (June 11-12, 2008) of the 2008 WV GIS Conference can be veiwed at http://wvagp.org/conference/papers.asp.

During the June 12 WVAGP board meeting, the following new officers were elected.  The term of office is from 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009.

Jennings Starcher, President
Larry Evans, Vice- President
Kurt Donaldson, Secretary
Katherine Paybins, Treasurer

The WV GIS Coordinator's Office administered an informational opinion survey at the 2008 GIS Conference as a preliminary step in the state's process of developing a new State Strategic Plan for GIS. Anyone in the WV GIS community was welcome to participate, and for those who didn't make it to the conference or would like to provide more detailed answers, the survey can be accessed online here (Word or Adobe pdf).

Word Document: Download
PDF: Download

Completed surveys can be mailed to:

Katherine Kapo

WV Office of GIS Coordinator

1124 Smith Street, Ste. LM-10

Charleston, WV 25301

Alternatively, surveys can be emailed to kkapo@gis.state.wv.us, and survey results will remain anonymous beyond the WV Coordinator.

Please return your surveys by Friday, June 27^th. Thanks to all who participated, and updates will follow.

Dear geospatial technology folks,

Also, in order to avoid mass mailings we have created a new Google Group for MoSpatial. By joining the Google Group you can receive email notifications about upcoming MoSpatial events and discuss geospatial technologies with other members. You can join at http://groups.google.com/group/mospatial

I hope to see you at the next meeting.

Sincerely,

Jesse Rouse
jesse.rouse@mail.wvu.edu

Time/Place: Tuesday, June 10, 3:30-5:00 pm, Holiday Inn Charleston House, Charleston, WV

The WV GIS Coordinator would like to invite any interested GIS professionals and other GIS stakeholders to participate in a workshop to discuss the modernization of the State Strategic Plan for GIS.  No conference registration or membership of any type is required to participate. The WV GIS Policy Council will be overseeing the development of a new GIS strategic plan, in alignment with the Fifty States Initiative from the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC).  To ensure the success of the state plan, input from all GIS stakeholders and user groups is critical from the very beginning of the process.  The purpose of the workshop will be to provide an opportunity for the GIS community to communicate their needs and ideas for how coordination, development, and implementation of GIS technology can be improved and modernized in WV, before the strategic planning process formally begins. 

Katherine Kapo
WV GIS Coordinator
WV Office of State GIS Coordinator
1124 Smith St., Rm LM-10, The Greenbrooke Building
Charleston, WV 25301
Phone: (304) 558-4218 
Fax: (304) 558-4963
Email: kkapo@gis.state.wv.us

Annual Meeting:  Our next membership meeting is the annual meeting on Monday, June 9, 2008, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Charleston House, Charleston, WV.  At this meeting the WVAGP board and standing committees will present the annual report to the membership.  There is no registration fee to attend the annual meeting.  Non-members are welcome to attend the meeting but only members can vote on matters presented to the membership.

Cy Smith will be a keynote speaker for the 2008 WV GIS Conference.  He is currently the Oregon Statewide GIS Coordinator and President of the National States Geographic Information Council.  He is also a past member of the GISCI Board of Directors.

All WVAGP members and exhibitors are asked to complete the 2008 roll call for your oganization.  Please submit your roll call report by May 1.  The report will be published in June and will be made available in electronic format to all WVAGP members and conference attendees.  The report will be published in June and will be made available in electronic format to all WVAGP members and conference attendees.  Click here for more information. 

WVAGP desires to enhance educational and training opportunities for its membership and statewide geospatial community.

Please take the online workshops survey, ranking your top five choices. Results of this survey will be used to schedule instructor-led workshops for this spring.

Click Here to take survey

For information about course descriptions and instructors, refer to the WVAGP and URISA workshop catalogs.

The WV Geospatial Community encourages GIS stakeholders and especially data producers to complete the user profile and all survey questions located on the Ramona GIS Inventory website.  This web-based inventory tool is part of a nationwide GIS inventory system supported by the National States Geographic Information Council.  If necessary, you will need to create a user account to complete this survey.  If you are the designated GIS contact for your organization, then please make sure that you coordinate the responses of all GIS personnel within your organization.