URISA Advocacy Agenda Update

2011 Summary of Advocacy Progress

Summary of progress made on Advocacy Agenda items between GIS-Pro 2010 and GIS-Pro 2011:

• A grant from the Federal Geographic Data Committee will fund testing of URISA’s Return on Investment model for GIS in Multnomah County, Oregon.  Multnomah County is communicating with the Metro Regional Council in Minneapolis, MN to help them implement the ROI model, as well.

• URISA’s Geospatial Capability Maturity Assessment has been tested by several local governments, and the Board is preparing for full implementation to make the GCMA available for use in 2012.

• The URISA Board has formed a joint work group with the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) to pursue activities that will result in accelerated development of a national address database in support of the Next Generation 911 program.  We are working with NENA and NAPSG on these activities, as well.  We have had panel discussions at 3 conferences so far.

•  URISA occupies the Chair position with the Coalition of Geospatial Organizations and has assisted them in taking the next step to implement their national Geospatial Report Card by approving the members of an Expert Panel to devise the first Report Card.

• URISA presented its first webinar this year, on addressing, to a large audience of more than 85 participants.  Several more webinars are already scheduled .

• URISA is working with the U.S. Department of Labor to develop the final tier, geospatial management, of the Geospatial Technology Competency Model.  A multiple session workshop will be held at GIS-Pro 2011 to initiate this work.