IMAGIN - Improving Michigan's Access to Geographic Information Networks
IMAGIN E-News - August, 2007
Current News

The Nominating Committee of IMAGIN is pleased to announce the results of the 2007 IMAGIN Board of Directors Election. Members' ballots were tabulated during IMAGIN's 2007 Annual Conference in Kalamazoo this past May.  This year's election brought one new member to the Board.

The following individuals were re-elected to the IMAGIN Board of Directors:
The new member welcomed to the Board was:
IMAGIN would like to express its gratitude to the following Leader who concluded her term on the Board of Directors:
  • Dawn Siegel, Supervisor, Land Implementation Services, Oakland County Department of Information Technology - 3 years of Service
The Board's annual meeting was held Tuesday afternoon at the Conference, at which time the Board officers were elected.  The Executive Committee will consist of:
We wish the new Directors and Officers much success in leading IMAGIN into the challenges of the next year. For a complete listing of the IMAGIN Board of Directors, visit: http://www.imagin.org/about/directors.html
Bill Rowe, Chair-Nominating/Governance Committee, can be by email at BRowe@mqtcty.org
IMAGIN Web Site Provides Employment Resources - In addition to the monthly job postings in the E-News, you can view the current job postings on the IMAGIN web site at http://www.imagin.org/resources/jobs.html and you can also post your resume or view potential employee's resumes at http://www.imagin.org/resources/resumes.html.
Michigan Digital Government Summit – This summit will be held October 4-5, 2007 at the Lansing Center in Lansing and will have a session entitled "GIS – More Important than Ever". Having a session like this at an executive level conference seems to support the 2007 IMAGIN conference theme, "Affecting Decisions". For more information about this conference, see the announcement at: http://www.govtech.com/events/silo.php?id=121939
City of Troy Integrates Crystal Reports and GIS - The City of Troy uses the APOS Integration Kit for ESRI GIS to create reports from their ArcIMS and Asset Management systems. This solution uses Crystal Reports Server XI release 2. To listen to Alex Bellak, GIS Manger for the City of Troy describe the solutions that they've developed, visit the following web page: http://www.apos.com/Troy/movie.shtml
NACo Supports GIS Certification Program - The National Association of Counties GIS Committee recently issued a letter of support for the GIS Certification Institute's certification program for GIS professionals. For more information, visit: http://www.gisci.org/News/news.aspx
Monthly Theme
This month's theme is "GIS in Public Health".
National Center for Health Statistics - The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is part of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and provides a wealth of health statistics in map form. The maps include statistics on cancers, diseases as well as motor vehicle injuries. For more information, see the NCHS web site at:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/gis.htm
Public Health, Delta & Menominee Counties (PHDM) - PHDM has utilized GIS since the late 1980's starting with early versions of CMAP, adding ArcView 1.0 when it was released. Today, PHDM uses a combination of ESRI products including ArcView 3.2, ArcGIS 8.3, and ArcIMS 4.0.1.
Natural conditions such as near surface bedrock and many areas of high seasonal water table in Delta and Menominee counties pose numerous challenges for siting of wells and septic systems. Our intranet site allows Environmental Health staff access to soil, well construction and lithology, floodplain, special well construction, water sample, permit denial, and base data overlain on orthophotography. Field staff typically use the data to gain background on a site needing a determination of suitability for on-site sewage treatment/disposal system (OSTDS).
In addition, staff can instantly see if the site is within a floodplain as mapped by FEMA. PHDM's sanitary code requires the OSTDS be constructed outside of the 100 year floodplain. Known potential sources of contamination (leaking underground storage tanks, landfills, etc.), alert field staff to isolation distance issues when siting new wells. Areas of special well construction requirements help staff consistently mandate additional well casing where necessary to protect public health. EH management staff have also find the easy access to a wide variety of data improves efficiency in evaluating certain of the variance requests and in responding to questions from the public, well drillers, and OSTDS installers.
For more information about the work being done at PHDM, please see their web site at http://www.phdm.org/ or send email to Lori Schultz at lschultz@phdm.org.
West Nile Virus Surveillance Maps - The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) actively utilizes GIS to track cases of West Nile Virus across Michigan. Maps included on the MDCH's include tracking maps of birds commonly known to carry the virus and human cases of the virus by county. Data and maps on the site are updated as new cases arise. You can view the West Nile Virus maps by visiting the MDCH site at:
http://www.michigan.gov/emergingdiseases/0,1607,7-186-25805_26531---,00.html
Upcoming E-News Themes - In addition to our permanent 'GIS in Michigan' coverage, we include an additional theme for each monthly issue. The theme will not limit the E-News articles to only this theme, but rather it will provide an additional focus for some articles.
The theme for the September 2007 issue of E-News is "Discovering the IMAGIN Organization: Its Mission, How to Participate, & Opportunities for Professional Development".
Send any ideas you have relating to the general 'GIS in Michigan' theme of the E-News or the special theme for next month to enews@imagin.org.
Upcoming Events
  • August 20-23, 2007: URISA Annual Conference & Exhibition, Washington, DC
  • September 12-14, 2007: MiCAMP Fall County GIS Conference, Boyne Mountain Resort, MI
  • September 24-26, 2007: GITA GIS for Oil & Gas Conference, Houston, TX
  • October 7-10, 2007: 2007 ESRI Health GIS Conference, Scottsdale, AZ
  • October 8-11, 2007: Electric and Gas Utility Group (EGUG) 2007, Nashville, TN
  • October 29, 2007: Great Lakes Regional Data Exchange 2007, Ottawa, Ontario
  • November 5-7, 2007: 2007 ESRI Homeland Security GIS Summit, Denver, CO
  • January, 2008: ESRI Northern Michigan User Group meeting, TBA
  • March 9-12, 2008: GITA Annual Conference 31, Seattle, WA
  • May 4-7, 2008: IMAGIN Conference, Dearborn Inn, Dearborn, MI
  • August 4-8, 2008: 2008 ESRI International User Conference, San Diego, CA
  • For more events, see the IMAGIN Calendar of Events
    • Training
    Date(s) D Organization City Description
    August 20-21, 2007 D MSU RS&GIS E. Lansing Introduction to ArcGIS
    August 22, 2007 D MSU RS&GIS E. Lansing ArcGIS - Introduction to Geodatabases
    August 23, 2007 D MSU RS&GIS E. Lansing Getting your GIS Project off the Ground...
    August 24, 2007 D MSU RS&GIS E. Lansing Integrating Orthoimagery and Raster Datasets into your GIS
    August 27-28, 2007   ESRI Livonia Introduction to ArcGIS I
    August 29-31, 2007   ESRI Livonia Introduction to ArcGIS II
    For links to Michigan GIS training facilities visit the IMAGIN training page.
    To include your Michigan GIS training in this list, send the details to: enews@imagin.org
    D = IMAGIN Members get a 10% discount on this training.
    Spotlight on Supporting Organizations
    Livingston County Livingston County - Computer-aided mapping technology has a long history at Livingston County. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the Planning Department started building geographic information system (GIS) capabilities. Today, the GIS Division of the Information Technology Department provides GIS data & services to various other county departments and the 911 operations center for a wide variety of uses. GIS use has expanded beyond the Planning and GIS Departments in the past few years. Five County departments actively use the GIS basemap layers and also maintain data unique to their business needs. Viewer departments receive access to the GIS data via our intranet application called eParcels. Through eParcels, GIS users can find parcels, locate addresses, generate mailing labels, and print maps. We are planning to migrate the eParcels application to the Internet by the end of the year. Data sharing with the local communities is facilitated through the Intergovernmental Agreement for Access to GIS Data. Through this Agreement, the County provides updated data layers to each municipality (and consultants working on their behalf) on a quarterly basis. In return, the municipalities provide data layers developed locally or by their consultant. Additionally, Livingston County GIS provides technical assistance and training to the local communities.
    For more information about Livingston County GIS, please see our website at http://www.co.livingston.mi.us/
    Aero-metric
    AERO-METRIC, INC. - is the nation's largest full-service photogrammetric mapping firm, with a staff of over 330 professional and technical experts. With a national reputation for completing large-scale mapping programs since 1969, Aero-Metric is proud to offer the newest technologies in the industry. Aero-Metric provides high quality digital products in a timely fashion, through the use of Digital Mapping Camera Systems (DMC's) , Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology, and a 24 hour production team. The company maintains their fleet of aircraft in Sheboygan, WI, located within approximately 70 miles of the Michigan border.
    Aero-Metric is also pleased to introduce Larry Christenson as their newest Contract Administrator. Larry has over 30 years in the industry in Michigan, and looks forward to serving Michigan clients out of his office in Charlotte.
    For more information about Aero-Metric, please see our web site at: http://www.aerometric.com/
    Each month, this section will highlight two of our supporting organizations. If your organization would like to be in the spotlight, please contact IMAGIN headquarters about becoming a supporting organization.
    Web Mapping Site of the Month
    Battle Creek Online Mapping Provides City Data - The City of Battle Creek Michigan have implemented an online viewer that contains aerial images, parcel boundaries, roads, parks and more. If you are looking for a new industrial site or for residential parcel information, this site provides information at your finger tips. See the Battle Creek web mapping application at:
    http://ci.battle-creek.mi.us/Services/GIS/Default.htm
    Employment
    Job Openings
    Organization Title
    Holland Board of Public Works GIS Specialist
    City of Ann Arbor GIS Specialist
    City of Novi GIS Internship
    Clinton County GIS Coordinator
    Great Lakes Commission Web Services/Database Development
    NAVTEQ Geographic Analyst I
    DTE Energy GIS Co-Op/Intern
    Consulting Engineering Associates Senior Analyst Programmer (GIS)
    To include your job openings, new hires, promotions or GISP certifications in this section, please send the information to enews@imagin.org. Please include the URL for your organization also. Check the IMAGIN jobs page for other openings.
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    IMAGIN E-News Information

    Editors:
    · Tara Maguire, GIS Coordinator, City of Birmingham.
    · Matt Malone, GIS Coordinator, City of Farmington Hills.
    · Brian Buckley, Senior GIS Specialist, Hubbell, Roth & Clark, Inc.
    · Derek Moy, Outreach Specialist, MSU Remote Sensing & Geographic Information Science Research and Outreach Services.
    Publication Date: August 15, 2007
    E-News Web Page:http://www.imagin.org/resources/enews.html
    Email Address: enews@imagin.org
    Any corrections to the E-News will be posted on the web site above.
    Please email us your comments and suggestions. Thanks!

    © 2007 IMAGIN, Inc.