WVAGP at the 2023 Eastern Panhandle GIS User Group Meeting In Martinsburg

By:  Marvin A. Davis, President

I was able to participate in this year's 2023 EPan Meeting at the Purple Iris in Martinsburg, on behalf of WVAGP. This meeting ended up being a full room and full of content, too. I really enjoyed the amount of energy from the professionals and the students who presented, and it made me hopeful for not only future EPan meetings, but also for meetings with WVAGP membership as a whole. I shared our efforts as WVAGP and teased the pending announcement for the 2024 WV Geospatial Conference (WVGeoCon) to attendees as we have big plans ahead. Stay tuned on that front!

I did snap some photos, but I have to apologize first to the morning session presenters. I like to think I am a competent geographer and cartographer, but I am definitely not a photographer! I was too engaged in watching presentations and forgot to take photos until the afternoon sessions. So, please enjoy some sights from the 2023 EPan. Thank you for having us!

If you are curious or even interested in starting your own regional GIS user group in other parts of the state, message me!

Caption: Proof I am NOT a photographer! Our table of materials for EPan attendees!

Caption: Dr. Michael Harman of WVU presenting on the Online MS in GIS program.

Caption: Arjun Sheoran of Fugro presenting on LiDAR products.

Caption: Ben Gressler of USGS presenting on data for the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Caption: Carolyn Sommer of City of Martinsburg (formerly an intern at City of Morgantown!) presenting on summer intern work on the city's stormwater program.

The 2024 West Virginia Story Map contest challenges students to tell a story using digital maps, images, video, and text. The stories must have a geographic focus in West Virginia and tell the story of an event, give a tour, describe an issue, recount a trip or even profile a West Virginian!  Click here for more information on the contest and teacher support sessions. The submission deadline for the contest is March 15, 2024. Please contact Erika Klose, or call PK-12 Academic Support at 1.833.627.2833, if you have any questions. 

WVAGP members, please consider reaching out to teachers in your area to provide support or to let them know about the contest!

The West Virginia Society of Professional Surveyors cordially invites you to our 2023 Fall Symposium at the DoubleTree Hotel in Huntington, WV, on October 5-6, 2023. Our theme is focused on "Mapping the Future for the Surveying Profession." Throughout the event, you'll be able to participate in valuable continuing education seminars led by experts and thought leaders from the state and the wider region. Whether you attend seminars, professional development or personal connections, you won't want to miss this surveying event.

To register and for more details, https://julnet.swoogo.com/wvsps2023fallsymposium

#WVSPSSymposium23

Letter from the President

Welcome The New WV State GIS Coordinator! WV GIS Steering Committee Returning Taryn Moser WV State GIS Coordinator tmoser@wvgs.wvnet.edu

WVAGP Members,  WVAGP is happy to announce the new State GIS Coordinator, Taryn Moser! Welcome Taryn! A resident of Monongalia County, Taryn has a wealth of geospatial experience from the private and public sectors, most recently as the GIS Manager for the Morgantown Utility Board. She also was an Associate Committee member of the Monongalia Morgantown Area Geospatial Information Consortium (MMAGIC), where she helped collaborate on projects and cost sharing for yearly aerial imagery flights and a LiDAR data collection. She has been very involved in advancing geospatial awareness and growing interest in the technology from K-12 schools up to various professional organizations, and will continue that effort in her role. Taryn has also been on the WVAGP Board of Directors since July 2022, but resigned her voting member position to assume the State GIS Coordinator's ex-officio role on the Board, as per WVAGP bylaws. Eric Bess will fill the voting member vacancy on the Board for the remainder of the fiscal year. We look forward to continuing to work with Taryn into the future as she has already begun to make impacts and learn from geospatial professionals and organizations across the state. As President, I am excited for the future and am already learning of ways WVAGP can assist her. Please join me in congratulating Taryn on her new position! A Call to Action: The WV GIS Steering Committee As GIS Coordinator, Taryn is working to revive both the State GIS Policy Council and the GIS Steering Committee. I have volunteered to begin recruitment from the WVAGP side for interested members to participate in the revitalized GIS Steering Committee. If you would like to join the GIS Steering Committee, please email me or Taryn to be added to the mailing list. Your participation will be critical to West Virginia's geospatial future and I hope to hear from you soon! Thank you,  Marvin A. Davis West Virginia Association of Geospatial Professionals President PO Box 3903, Charleston, WV 25339 https://www.wvagp.org/

Read more details here. Feel free to share and let's get West Virginia on the (Story)Map!

From AAG.org

Geography Awareness Week 2023

August 2, 2023

Bowie State geography students tour one of several national parks. Credit: Sumanth Reddy

What we mean by ‘place’ is a crossroads, a particular point of intersections of forces coming from many directions and distances.”

—Rebecca Solnit, 2023 AAG Honorary Geographer

 

NOVEMBER 13-17

The Power of Place

To geographers, place is defined as a space that has been made meaningful by people and connections. Places can be sites of belonging or exclusion; safety or danger; commerce and activity or repose and reflection. Certainly, places imply witness: can a place even be a place if no one at all is there or knows it?

The work of seeing, understanding, and knowing places is the work of geographers. Our work, by necessity, is wide-ranging but always situated in relation to place. As this year’s AAG Honorary Geographer Rebecca Solnit put it in her talk at the AAG annual meeting, “If a field of expertise can be imagined as an actual field, then…I love geography because [it] trespasses across a lot of hedges and fences and borders in its vast encompassing of so many crucial things.”   Watch the recording

Now more than ever, as we contemplate the rapid change wrought on the Earth by human-caused activities, and as human settlements cover roughly half of Earth’s land surface, and as we confront the pressing need to embed habitat, plant, and animal life in our notions of place, we must examine our connections and our shared responsibility to care for places together. Understanding geography is a crucial part of fulfilling our responsibility to places.

Take part in National Geography Awareness Week: The Power of Place, November 13-17, 2023. Help AAG tell the world about how vital the field of geography is to understanding where we are right now, and where we can go. Use our map to find out about GeoWeek events and happenings where you are, and all over the world.

 

Get Involved!

This year, help AAG celebrate the impact that geographers have on the world. We invite you to take part in Geography Awareness Week. Here are a few ways to get involved right now: 

• Become a GeoAdvocate. Get GeoWeek information and see your name listed below. Sign up now
• Be a Promotional Partner. Promotional Partners are organizations interested in helping spread the word about GeoWeek. We provide you with information and public acknowledgment of your partnership. Sign up now 
• Help Us Publicize Your Events. Add your work to our map. From mapathons to mentoring events, from webinars to community meet-ups, we want to know how geography is showing up where you are. Share your work with us

Connect with our Core Partners

AAG is pleased to collaborate with the following organizations and institutions to create information resources for Geography Awareness Week. 

 

 

 

 It’s a great day for a field trip! If you are one of the many geospatial professionals who knew Dr. Bob, a full obituary with information about Bob’s memorial services on Friday and Saturday is posted at https://hastingsfuneralhome.com/tribute/details/4222/Robert-Behling/obituary.html#tribute-start.

Check out the Citizen Science article with several WVAGP members and the WVDNR firefly project. 

https://www.timeswv.com/news/local_news/into-birds-or-insects-hobby-could-also-help-scientists/article_ecd32496-24e3-11ee-81fc-3f70c5c5fbf0.html?fbclid=IwAR3fRCrzcOlnXNW9GCfNWdEKFMl8hlpEd8s_unyfvSr3W42FMAC9R_5t1XM

A Letter from the President

2023-2024 WVAGP Board of Directors (L-R): Austin Dotson, Meryl Friedrich, Taryn Moser, Aaron Ferrari, Marvin Davis, Jennings Starcher, Stacey McDaniel, Amanda Adams, Eric Bess, and Hussein Elkhansa. Not Pictured: Jessica Gormont, Dusty Hays.

Respond to Survey

Hello,  I'd like to start off with saying it is an honor to be elected as the President for WVAGP for the 2023-2024 term. I am forever grateful for the membership and the Board of Directors for their trust in me to lead WVAGP through a year that, I believe, we will see some great changes and growth in our organization. I am sending this message to provide you some goals and plans for the coming year, and asking for you to provide input to the Board of Directors to help us in steering WVAGP forward. Goals The goals I'm setting for the coming year are: A Geospatial Professional Census. It has been a while since we had a true count on the number of people practicing, and organizations utilizing, geospatial technology. Collaborating on this effort with the Office of the State GIS Coordinator, once the position is filled, would be of benefit to all. Make WVGeoCon 2024 a Valuable Event for All. WVAGP has implemented changes to our format by moving to an annual conference and branding as WVGeoCon for 2024. We aim to have events, workshops, and presentations that will be valuable to all of our members and attendees. Increase our Engagement with Allied Organizations. We have many organizations in our state that have users who use geospatial technology or wish to learn how to use it. We want to ensure we are fostering growth in the profession in the Mountain State! Continue Building "WVAGP 2.0." We have been focused on taking the next step as an organization in updating our bylaws, implementing new strategies, and moving to our new website. The work is far from finished and this year we need to continue moving forward, but it can only be done with all members participating. Help by joining a committee or by providing feedback! Help Us Help You! WVAGP always relies on its members to inform the Board of Directors on ideas, needs, or concerns they have. We are including a survey in this email to ask for your brief input on our organization so we can work to make this organization even better. Your participation is key! The survey will close on Monday, July 31st. I look forward to working with you all in this coming year. Let's make it spatial! Marvin A. Davis WVAGP President, 2023-2024

Respond to Survey

Join WVAGP

(From URISA)

We need your help and expertise! 

URISA is a founding member of the Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO), which produces an assessment of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) every few years.  For the first time, COGO is reaching out to geospatial professionals and practitioners, people who use, develop, or manage geospatial data, to get a better understanding of the NSDI's current status.

Please review and complete the NSDI Assessment survey.  You will see questions about each of the 8 NSDI Framework data sets and some Universal questions about the NSDI. At a minimum, please answer the Universal questions. If you have knowledge about any of the Framework data sets, please answer those questions, as well.

Survey Areas

• Addresses
• Transportation
• Cadastral
• Elevation
• Orthoimagery
• Hydrography
• Geodetic Control
• Government Units

The survey will be open until August 1, 2023.  Thank you in advance for your participation!