New issues addressed

by Curt Sumner

The ACSM Congress, which is comprised of two representatives each from its member organizations and one non-voting representative each from its associate organizations, acted on a number of important matters during its recent annual meeting in Spokane, Washington.
The American Association for Geodetic Surveying (AAGS) announced that it is pursuing the establishment of a Chapter in New Mexico. Jim Reilly, AAGS past president and former ACSM president, will be spearheading this effort.
The Cartographic and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS) is adding an Early Career Membership category and extending its complimentary membership offer that began during the 2007 ESRI User Conference. CaGIS has also established new terms of service for its officers and added the office of Secretary.
The 35th Map Design Competition went very well, and CaGIS exhibited the winning maps during the Spokane conference. The awards were presented during the AAG conference held April 15-20 in Boston, in expectation that most winners will be in attendance.
AutoCarto, the CaGIS biennial international symposium on automated cartography, will be held in Shepherdstown, WV, September 8-11. CaGIS also announced that it will hold the 2010 AutoCarto in conjunction with the ASPRS fall theme conference.
The Geographic and Land Information Society (GLIS) is considering the concept of offering affiliate membership to all 50 state surveying societies, as a means of bringing GIS practitioners and licensed surveyors closer together in their perspectives of the roles of each in the integration of GIS and surveying.
GLIS continues to pursue discussions with CaGIS concerning joint opportunities for offering GIS-related seminars within ACSM, and to other geospatially oriented associations.
The National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) announced that membership continues to rise, due in part to its outreach to the state surveying associations with joint membership offers, and active visitation activities by its officers and directors.
Another factor is the success of the NSPS Insurance Program which offers reduced premiums to its members for a vast array of business and personal coverage opportunities. NSPS recently signed a new contract with its insurance provider, Assurance Risk Managers of Aurora, CO.
The NSPS Board of Directors voted to “go green.” Staff at ACSM headquarters were tasked to undertake actions that employ products and practices that conform to the “go green” initiative.
The National Society of Professional Surveyors Foundation held an exciting raffle during the 2008 ACSM/LSAW conference. The Foundation sold in excess of $5000 in tickets to those hoping to win one of three gift cards of varying amounts from Cabelo’s. The raffle raised money for scholarship endeavors of the Foundation, and future raffles are likely to follow.
The revenue for the 2008 conference were lower than expected, primarily as a result of several major equipment manufacturers opting not to participate. Among the reasons for this appears to be the huge ConExpo event which was held in Las Vegas shortly after the ACSM/LSAW conference. It is hoped that the Salt Lake City venue for the 2009 conference, and some changes in the logistics of the conference, will entice these, and many more exhibitors, to participate.
ACSM reported that a new database/website management platform is urgently required. This is only partially due to the fact that Stan and Kathy Thompson, who have so generously managed and maintained the current system, are no longer able to provide those services. ACSM and its member organizations owe a great of gratitude to Stan and Kathy for their tireless and gratis efforts on our behalf. The system that has been selected will allow staff to better manage the membership database, interact with and among the member organizations more satisfactorily, and integrate the websites of ACSM and the member organizations on one server and with an efficient access to the membership database. The ACSM Congress authorized staff to obtain a cost estimate for the purchase and implementation of the system.
A demonstration was provided to the Congress of the new website for the online version of the ACSM Bulletin. The “webmazine” has been conceived as a complimentary member and subscriber benefit and will, once the new data management platform is in place, be coded with a secure access to full content pages. The webmazine will also provide more prominence to advertisers in the ACMS Bulletin, giving them an opportunity to reach interested clientele within the entire geospatial community to which ACSM belongs.
The ACSM Congress adopted a number of actions, including:

Adopted a change in the distribution of net conference revenues among ACSM and the MOs to insure that ACSM is better able to accumulate funds for reserves.
Adopted a resolution affirming ACSM’s its role within ABET as the “Lead Society for accreditation evaluation of all Surveying/Geomatics or similarly named programs, regardless of commission.”
Named Joe Dolan as its Delegate to the Council on Federal Procurement of Architecture/Engineering /A/E, which includes surveying and mapping) Services, COFPAES.
Endorsed the language as proposed by NSPS that the Joint Government Affairs Committee find a sponsor in the U. S. Congress for a Bill addressing the destruction of monumentation upon which railroad road rights of way are based. This Bill is to be introduced as a protection of the public good that is adversely affected by such destruction.
Asked each MO to appoint a representative to the Curriculum, Accreditation, Registration, and Education, Committee for the purpose of developing a Body of Knowledge for Surveying that can be used in the development and accreditation of educational curricula.
Adopted a motion from the Communications Committee directing ACSM staff to develop a RFP for professional services to review ACSM communications mechanisms and make recommendations for promoting ACSM membership to others in the geospatial community and to the general public.

Once again, ACSM and its member organizations have undertaken an aggressive agenda on behalf of members and the entire professions they represent.