From Oct 29 to Nov 4, GISAA members voted to change officer term limits. The vote passed unanimously, and has taken affect immediately. The following information was included in the vote:

Background: The GIS Association of Alabama (GISAA) is preparing to take nominations for the 2020 elections. It has come to our attention that three of the four Regional Directors will be rolling off due to term limits. In order to avoid high turnover in the future, the current GISAA board members would like to propose the following changes to the by-laws:

Quick Summary:
Change Secretary, Treasurer, and all Regional Director positions from 1 year term/2 term limit to 2 year term/2 term limit. Treasurer, North Region Director, and South Region Director will begin their term on even years. Secretary, Central Region Director, and Capital Region Director will begin their term on odd years.

Complete By-law Wording:

Current:
Tenure of Officers and Directors. Officers and Directors shall assume office at the beginning of the following membership year. The Vice President shall be elected to serve one year as Vice President, one year as President and one year as Past President. Other officers and directors shall be elected to one-year terms and shall not serve more than two (2) successive terms in any position. The period of time an officer or director may serve, in completing the unexpired term of another officer or director, shall not be included when applying the foregoing limitation of terms. Officers and directors shall serve without compensation.

Proposed:
Tenure of Officers and Directors. Officers and Directors shall assume office at the beginning of the following membership year. The Vice President shall be elected to serve one year as Vice President, one year as President and one year as Past President. Other officers and directors shall be elected to two-year terms and shall not serve more than two (2) successive terms in any position. The terms for Treasurer, North Region Director, and South Region Director begin on even years. The terms for Secretary, Central Region, and Capital Region begin on odd years. The period of time an officer or director may serve, in completing the unexpired term of another officer or director, shall not be included when applying the foregoing limitation of terms. Officers and directors shall serve without compensation.

Temporary Suspension:
In order to execute the proposed plan of alternating elections, the positions of Secretary, Central Region Director, and Capital Region Director will serve a one year term in 2020. Current term limits will be suspended for the 2020 election to allow any person interested in one of these three positions to run and complete the one year term.

Registration is open for the Central Alabama GIS Event, to be held Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019, at the Taylor Center on the Auburn University at Montgomery campus. GISAA is helping to sponsor this event for the second year in a row. 

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/central-alabama-gis-day-2019-tickets-72795400001

More Info:  https://centralalabamagisday.wordpress.com/

From the USDA: We are pleased to announce the release of the first version of a new USDA-NRCS Soil & Plant Science Division (SPSD) soils database called the gridded National Soil Survey Geographic Database (gNATSGO). This product was designed and built by a team of SPSD staff in spring of 2019. It is the first SPSD composite database that provides complete coverage of the best available gridded soils information for all areas of the United States and Island Territories. For more info, visit: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/survey/geo/?cid=nrcseprd1464625

As communities around of the state prepare for the 2020 Census, many GISAA members are participating in preparation activities. Alabama has a lot a stake - a great deal of funding is determined by the Census count, not to mention some population projections show our state could lose a seat in the Legislature. Having everyone count matters more than ever. How can you help? Visit https://census.alabama.gov/ to find out more!

If all the available map projections seem overwhelming, you might want to check out a recent Esri publication, Map Projections in ArcGIS. This Story Map app provides brief explanations as well as examples for 68 featured projections. 

From the USGS: The NLCD 2016 suite of Conterminous U.S. (CONUS) land cover and impervious products have now been released. This release includes seven epochs of land cover (2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, and 2016), a 2001 – 2016 land cover change index, and eight urban imperviousness datasets - a percent imperviousness and classified imperviousness for 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016. The NLCD 2016 products for trees, shrubs, and grasses will be released in the coming weeks.

Check it out: https://www.mrlc.gov/

The U.S. Census Bureau is conducting a series of free data access webinars to all interested data users. Topics include  Introduction to the U. S. Census Website, Understanding the American Community Survey, and Census Data Made Easy. Visit the Census Academy webinar page to learn more.

The City of Tuscaloosa is hosting a Lucity Regional Users Group meeting on May 20, 2019. If you are a Lucity user, join the City of Tuscaloosa GIS staff for this free event. The City of Tuscaloosa is also a sponsor of GISAA!

Registration info: https://lucity.wufoo.com/forms/regional-user-group-meeting-registration-2019/

From Keith Cooke at Esri:

We'll be holding an ArcGIS User Group Meeting on Tuesday, May 14 from 9-noon at the Regions Center Auditorium. It's at 1900 5th Ave. N. in Birmingham. Will Meyers and I will go over some of the changes in the ArcGIS platform, including some of the newer products coming out. It will be a great opportunity to learn and network.

Register online at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/esri-alabama-arcgis-user-group-meeting-tickets-59202068982

Click here to read how NEI assisted Arkansas-based Crafton Tull to develop an in-house solution to survey a 9,000 acre pipeline, that allowed photogrammetry, CAD files, and 'blueprints' to be produced in 10 days.