Minutes for September 10th

Minutes for September 10th

Phone-Only

Call to Order – 10:31am
Welcome and Introductions
Ex-Officio Members
MSDIS – Tom Vought – P
NSGIC Liason – Tony Spicci – P
OA ITSD GIS – Tracy Schloss – P
USGS – David Nail – P
State Members
DNR – Debbie Bridewell – P/P
Economic Development – Colin Duewell – P
MDC – Tim Bixler – E/P
MOARNG – Wiley Howell – P
MoDOT – Joe Carter – P
OA Planning & Budget – Jodi Simpson – P/P
Cooperating Members
BCFPD – Jason Warzinik – E/P
Boone County – Nathan Mattox – P
City of Columbia – Dan Rose – P
City of Jefferson – Buster Schrage – P
City of Lee’s Summit – Steve Marsh – P
City of Maryland Heights – Andy Wagner – P
Cole County – Melissa Johnson – P
Columbia Public Schools – Laura Estabrooks – P
Mid-MO RPC – Jennifer Bowden – P
MO 911 Board – Brian Maydwell – P
MoRAP – Diane True – P
MU Extension/CARES – Chris Barnett – P
Northwest Missouri State – Ming-Chih Hung – P
Sanborn – Brad Arshat – P
SEMO RPC – Jacob Millam – P
Surdex – Tim Donze – P
US ACE St. Louis – Michael Gawedzinski – P
Washington University – Mollie Webb – P
Wilson & Co. – Derek Smith – P
Other Attendees
Census Bureau – Craig Best – P
ESRI – Joe Eckmann – P
Lindenwood University – Tara Vansell – P
MO Botanical Gardens – Kayla Flamm – P
St. Louis Board of Elections – Rob Ryan – P
Columbia Public Schools – Richard Perkins – P
Gateway Global – Zekita Armstrong-Asuquo – P

Motion made and seconded to approve minutes from August MGISAC meeting. Motion passed unanimously.

Administration
OGI Report – ESRI MPA not renewed yet. Takes a while to get through product list review. Question regarding MPA coverage. Does not cover services. Not expecting pricing changes or any changes in offerings. ESRI does havve a ctontract for consultant service. NASCO Value Point. Question in regards to Jason Long report. Probably get it near December. Possibly use it to assist in legislative language.
MSDIS Report – General News – We are very happy to welcome Jefferson Daubitz, Kadie Clark, and Harry Le to the MSDIS Fall 2020 internship program. They join Abby Hunt, who returns for another semester with MSDIS, and Ben Kite, who has been with us for several years now. As with last semester, these students will help the clearinghouse with online applications, fulfilling map requests, and working with data. They will also be CC’d on most MSDIS emails in order to get firsthand experience of the sorts of questions the clearinghouse receives. With a new semester comes new challenges. While we have not received any reports of server outages or problems, we want to remind everyone that, since MSDIS is a part of the University of Missouri, the equipment that the clearinghouse runs on is being taxed more heavily now than it was over the summer months. We trust the talented folks in the Mizzou Division of IT to keep everything operational, but please be aware that some slowdown may occur now that students have returned to campus.

Downtime – No outages were reported during Aug 2020, however we did notice some problems (some expected, some not) with the MSDIS Open Data Portal. In anticipation of ESRI’s intent to enforce HTTPS later this year, we took the opportunity to modify the Open Data page early to only accept secure websites. To be very clear, we knew this would break several links given that the MSDIS main page does not currently use HTTPS. What we did not know, and what we could not know until we made the switch, was how much would break. As anticipated, any link that takes users from the MSDIS Open Data page to the MSDIS main page is currently nonfunctional. Links back to the MSDIS Map and Imagery servers, and to MSDIS interactive applications, still work exactly as intended. The MSDIS main page is still entirely functional, users simply cannot get to it from the MSDIS Open Data page. Once the semester settles down and we feel like we can ask our colleagues in DoIT to enforce HTTPS on the MSDIS main page without taking them away from more pressing concerns, we will start that upgrade. What we did not anticipate happening during the upgrade was the malfunctioning of the data search functions on the MSDIS Open Data page. While the search bar still worked and no data were removed from the portal, the category searches were unexpectedly broken. We took all of those links down for a day until we could work through a cause. On review, it appears that upgrading the Open Data page to enforce HTTPS somehow caused the creation of two new Open Data content groups within our ArcGIS Online account. We suspect that the existence of three competing content groups, of which two contained no content, created some internal confusion within the Open Data search functions. Upon deleting the two empty content groups and adding the category search cards back to the Open Data page, the search functions appear to be working as intended once again.
Observant MSDIS Open Data users will note that, while the category searches have been restored, there are fewer of them than we used to have. This is also by design. Ever since the creation of the Open Data page, there has been no small amount of internal debate over whether or not certain categories were necessary given they only included one or two datasets, or if the data they included were also included in a different category. Please understand that 1) these categories are not final and 2) even if they do become final and we decide to remove some category searches, NO ACTUAL DATA HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE MSDIS OPEN DATA PAGE.
Treasurer’s Report – No expenses. $24,349.95
Membership Report – 37 total. 33 in good standing. 4 absent. 19 quorum.
By-Laws Report – No Report. Looking at MAGIC by-laws for ideas to incorporate.

Presentations
Presentation by Zekita Armstrong-Asuquo from founder of Gateway Global. Gateway Global has a focus on diversifying the tech market and helps find alternatives to help in that diversification. Emphasis falls outside the traditional 4-year degree program. Apprenticeships are attractive. At the end they have the skills to bypass some entry positions. Saves employers training time and creates qualified professionals. Offers virtual training so recruites can be had from both urban and rural areas. Always looking for more partners. Ultimate goal is to provide opportunities nation-wide. Currently marketing in-state. Council can help by assisting with school district exposure and finding possible position for students.

Presentation by Tara Vansell of Lindenwood University. Partnering with higher education. Effective internships. Internships provide real-world experience for students. They aren’t just a way to use the University’s software and data. Lindenwood certificate candidates have Intro GIS, Remote Sensing, and Advanced GIS. They work in ArcPRO and ArcOnline. Lindenwood needs to know you want an intern for fall semester by July. For spring/summer, by the end of October. Need 7-10 hours GIS work per week over 15 week period for total of around 105 hours. Interns are great for BETA projects, extra data wants, anything with repetative flow that can be taught. More advanced students can do research projects.

Discussion with Richard Perkins of Columbia Public Schools. Laura teaches GIS to the students of CPS. Administration is currently seeking a model that other schools have used for data collection. What is needed and how best to pull it all together so it can be used by administration. People who maybe able to assist contact Wiley.

Committee Report
Data Development/E911 – Current 911 flyer to be sent out for review soon. Possible November short course webinar for GIS day to come. MO 911 Board selected GeoComm consultant for project. This regards gathering and reviewing data for PSATs and do gap analysis. Extension added to current imagery contract until November to hopefully close gap until new imagery contract is in place. NAIP usually available in first quarter next year.
Education – Working with DESE to offer GIS courses through their curriculum. Voting soon on contract. Mayy have class tis year for science credit and dual credit opportunity. Tuns through UMKC and MSU.
Workshops – Discussion on other avenues for workshops and outreach needed. MOGISCON’21 has 73 responses to survey. Planning meeting next month before MGISAC meeting.

Liaison Reports
NSGIC conference coming up. 16th is council of councils meeting. FUDC reviewing NAOI.
MAGIC conference with Illinois October 5-6th. Early bird registration has passed. All previous courses are tied in.

Cooperating Agencies
No Reports

Open Discussion
Make sure your voter registration cards are up to date. If anyone has an opinion on using Zoom moving forward for meetings please reach out to officers. We have the opportunity to use Zoom through MU to consolidate call and video conferencing capabilities.

Adjourn – 12:29pm

Next Meeting October 8th at 10:30am

Comments are closed.