2007 IGIC Conference Review

Well, the 2007 IGIC Conference, held in Sioux City, Iowa, has successfully come to an end.

The most exciting piece of the conference was the fact that Ron Koch, Conference Committee Chair, invited Jack Dangermond, Founder of ESRI, to be the keynote speaker and he accepted. Mr. Dangermond spoke on Tuesday and had a great vision of what GIS is moving towards. It was my hope that the technical difficulty he experienced during his presentation relaxed all the presenters for the conference. I mean, if Jack Dangermond has trouble, then ANYONE could. :) I thought his vision for GIS was exciting and I hope to see that come to pass. It also made me wonder how we can tie that in with what IGIC is doing.

The social on Monday night was a hit as well. The food was good and it was a nice atmosphere for reacquainting ourselves. I enjoyed viewing all the student artwork and comparing opinions with Gary Kaufman from DMACC. It was nice that Jack Dangermond won the drawing for the book on Sioux City since his mother was from there. Serendipitous for sure.

There were great sessions offered and I heard rave reviews about the food! The board meeting on Tuesday night ran late but included much good discussion. The accomodations were convenient - especially the skywalk in the pouring rain. All in all, the conference was a success and I enjoyed meeting and visiting with my GIS friends. There is nothing like being surrounded by a group of people who do what you do and love it as much as you do.

A big thank you to everyone on the conference committee!

Congratulations to 2006-2008 IGIC Executive Committee members

At the 2006 IGIC Quarterly meeting, the Board of Directors elected the following individuals to Executive Committee positions. These positions were effective immediately.

Serving two year terms are Terry Brase as Treasurer and Micah Cutler as Secretary. Anne Packard was elected as the new organizational Vice-Chair. Anne will serve as Vice-Chair until July 1, 2007 when she will assume the role of Chair from Herb Kuehne.

Congratulations to all.

Voting ends for 2006-2008 IGIC Board of Directors

The IGIC Board consists of 25 members that are elected on a 2 year cycle. Voting concluded on May 15th, 2006 to fill the empty seats in all 8 of the sectors represented on the Board. Those elected include:

• University & College Sector: Patrick Brown (Iowa State University); Dr. Anya Butt (Central College); Chris Seeger (Iowa State University); and Dr. Ramanathan Sugumaran (University of Northern Iowa)
• County Government: Micah Cutler (Harrison County); Lawrence Hartpence (Jasper County); Ron Koch (Woodbury County); and Paula Lemke (Cerro Gordo County)
• Community Colleges & K-12 Education: Terry Brase (Kirkwood Community College) and Scott Ermer (Hawkeye Community College)
• Federal Government: Gregg Hadish (United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service) and Robert Lemen (United States Geological Survey)
• State Government: Eric Abrams (Iowa Department of Transportation); Chris Ensminger (Iowa Department of Natural Resources); Adam Kiel (Iowa Department of Natural Resources); and Jon Paoli (Homeland Security and Emergency Management)
• Municipal Government: Herb Kuehne (City of Sioux City Police Department); Steve Cooper (City of Cedar Rapids); and Dave Croll (City of Johnston)
• Regional Organization: Brad Cutler (Golden Hills Resource Conservation & Development) and Ben McConville (Muscatine Area Geograpic Information Consortium)
• Private Sector: Gail Brown (Hertz Farm Management); Lang Deng (Pioneer); Joe Eckmann (ESRI); and Anne Packard (Fox Engineering)