Florida ASPRS 2009 Year in Review

February 19th, 2010

It has been an excellent year for the Florida Region of ASPRS, we have built upon the traditions we started in 2008 and expanded on them in 2009. 

We had two technical meetings this year.  We had our Second Annual Geospatial Symposium in Gainesville, FL at the Best Western Gateway Grand on February 24th & 25th, with multiple presenters, paid sponsors and a very well attended Certification Preparation Course with Bob Burtch.  Information on the Symposium can be found by downloading the agenda at the following link: http://flasprs.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/2ndannualgeosympprogram.pdf, it is also attahed.  Special thanks to Brian Murphy for organizing the event once again this year.  It was very well attended and much expanded from last year.  We advertised on our website and at all of the events we attended

 In 2010 we plan to participate in the ASPRS Fall Conference and will temporarily suspend the Symposium.  It was the decision of the Florida Board to host a Symposium on the years that there will be no National ASPRS meetings in the state, so that we can focus our energies on one main Technical meeting per year.

In 2009 we once again participated in the Annual Florida Surveyors and Mappers Conference with another full day of classes, three 2 hour presentations, taught by our Board Members, as well as a Florida Region ASPRS exhibit booth.  This was also advertised on our website www.flasprs.org  and the website for FSMS http://www.fsms.org .  Conference schedule attached with ASPRS track highlighted.  At both of the Technical meetings we held board meetings where all were invited to attend and participate; several members took advantage of this and joined us for our meeting. 

 We advertised the open positions for the Board of Directors on the website and had 4 candidates for 3 positions.  We sent out approximately 450 ballots and received 85 ballots returned.

 The Region Newsletter has become fully digital and is hosted on our website as our weblog section 

http://flasprs.org/blog/

Here you can find out all the happenings and events for the Region as well as articles from our members.  When a new article/announcement is posted it is automatically sent via email to all of our members.  This also includes a Quarterly President’s Message to keep everyone informed of Region activities.

Our membership committee and Board members have contacted all of the unpaid members in the Region via phone or email, unless their information was out of date and they were not able to be located.  The campaign spreadsheet is attached.

In an effort to recruit new members we were able to exhibit this year at the University of South Florida GIS Day (and hope to join in with them again and other GIS events in the future) http://flasprs.org/blog/?p=116 In April of 2009 the FL Region ASPRS additionally had an exhibit booth at the National GITA Conference held here in Tampa.

Our National Director, Jeff Young, has attended all of the National meetings and has passed his report along to the board members and it is available to all FL Region members.

In 2009 we also started a new tradition for Awards to honor members and non-members in our Profession with a 1 year full membership and one year paid renewal.

The Award will be an Annual Professional Recognition Award and the Nominees will be selected by our members via an online Nomination form to be found on the website http://flasprs.org/blog/?p=109 .  After the nominations are collected the Board will read them over and vote for the best candidates for both Awards in 2010. 

The Florida Region has completed all of the requirements under Article V Section 6 of the bylaws in order to receive our full Region Rebate for 2009.  This will be my last post as President and I want to be the first to welcome incoming President Evan Brown and wish him success in his endeavors in the coming years. 

Regards,

Erin McCormick

Florida Region President ASPRS

Light from Above: LIDAR (Mostly) Improves Water and Flood Modeling

February 10th, 2010

Here’s an Article coauthored by two of our Florida Region Board of Directors: Dr. Al Karlin and Ekaterina Fitos!

Click Here for the Article

Please Vote – Florida Region Board Elections

February 5th, 2010

Please take a moment to vote in this year’s Florida Region Board elections. In order to be green and save on postage costs we are using an E-ballot, provided by nationals. Please click on the nominee’s name in order to read their bio, and please choose wisely!

https://www.asprs.org/FLeballotSpring2010/

ASPRS Fall Conference is coming to Orlando

January 25th, 2010

The national 2010 ASPRS Fall conference will be held in Orlando this year. This year’s fall conference will be a great opportunity for Florida Region members to attend certification workshops, in addition to attending a variety of other technical presentations.

STUDENTS: This will be a great opportunity to volunteer and get involved with the Student Advisory Council at a National Level. Also, travel scholarships are available to help subsidize hotel stays and gas.

Contact Kim Tilley for volunteering information

For more information about scholarships, please refer to this post.

Because the Fall conference will be held here in Florida, the Florida Board has decided to suspend this year’s Geospatial Symposium.

Stay tuned. We anticipate having some REGIONAL events organized for this meeting.

ASPRS Board Openings

January 25th, 2010

We are seeking nominations for the following openings:

Vice-President: This is a two-year position. The Vice President may ascend to the President upon Board Approval

National Director: This is a two-year position

At-Large Director: This is a two-year position

At-Large Director: This is a two-year position

Nominations will be open until 30 January 2010. Self-nominations are acceptable. All nominees need to submit a brief biography (1 paragraph, ~ 50 words) and supplemental information (1 paragraph, ~ 75 words). Please submit information electronically to: Al.Karlin@SWFWMD.State.Fl.US.

GIS Day 2009

November 24th, 2009

On November 17 of 2009, the Florida Region participated as both a sponsor of and vendor at the annual GIS Day event hosted by the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.  The event invites children and adults to experience geography through educational presentations and GIS technology demonstrations.  The Florida Region took advantage of this opportunity to interact with students, and discuss the benefits our professional society provides to its members.  The event was an overall success.

Professional Recognition Award

September 29th, 2009

Please view the PDF version of this announcement, located:
http://www.flasprs.org/docs/ProfAward_Flyer.pdf

Are you a member of the ASPRS Florida Region in good-standing, and know someone who has made significant contributions or advancements to the remote sensing, photogrammetric, or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) profession? Here is your chance to give that person some well-deserved
recognition.

The Florida Region of ASPRS is now accepting nominations for the Professional Recognition Award. This is a yearly award meant to highlight the accomplishments of professionals whose actions have promoted the mission of the ASPRS. Of those nominated, two (2) will be selected (a current Florida Region ASPRS member and a non-member) for the award.

Winners of the award will receive a one-year paid ASPRS membership.

To submit a nomination form go to:
http://www.flasprs.org/docs/ASPRS_Professional_Award_Recognition_Form_09082009.pdf

FLASPRS.org gets 2nd Place Website of the Year

June 16th, 2009
2nd Place Website of the Year, ASPRS

click to enlarge

At this past year’s ASPRS Conference in Baltimore, the Florida Region’s website placed 2nd overall for the Website of the Year award, by which we had 16 other regions to compete with. Also noteworthy, is when you type “ASPRS” in Google, the Florida Region’s Website comes up 3rd only after ASPRS, and the ASPRS Conference websites. Whoo-hoo!

We are very honored with the recognition ASPRS has bestowed upon us; however we aim to continue to make the website better and better as we move along – to the point of hopefully winning 1st place one year.

One way to accomplish this is to have increased postings and content to our website and blog; thus, if anyone is interested in contributing as an author or would like to help provide oversight to the website, please contact Brian at webmaster@flasprs.org
You can write about or post anything related to Remote Sensing, GIS or Photogrammetry.

The Role of Women in the History of Photogrammetry

June 11th, 2009

ASPRS Nationals is in the process of putting together a series of videos documenting the History of Photogrammetry with funding donated from a variety of sources (including the Florida Region). The funding is directed towards the Public Television project: “Geospatial Revolution”

Before reading on, I highly recommend taking a moment to click on the link above to watch this video.

Done? okay… read on…

In April of 2008, the Florida Region had donated $5,000 towards this project – and I think we can all agree that this money was VERY WELL SPENT

Here is another snippet of video from this project off of the ASPRS YouTube site that documents the role of women in the history of photogrammetry.

In future posts, we will highlight more of these videos in order to give them their well deserved acclaim for a job well done.

- B. Murphy

President’s Message June 2009

June 11th, 2009

President’s Message – June 2009

Greetings to Everyone,

The Florida Region of ASPRS is off to a great start this year and we are planning on continuing our efforts through participation at the Florida Survey and Mappers Society (FSMS) Conference in August, membership assistance to our unemployed members and with the New Professional Recognition Awards.

The second annual FL ASPRS Geospatial Symposium held in Gainesville in February was a great success with excellent presentations in many different fields of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. In addition to the presentations we hosted a very well attended Certification Preparation Course. Thanks again to Brian Murphy for all of his efforts to coordinate and host the Symposium once again.

In August of 2009 we will once again be working together with FSMS at their Annual Conference to help bridge the gap between survey and photogrammetry and to show our support for their efforts. Board members Al Karlin, Brian Murphy and Evan Brown will be teaching courses this year on Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing at the Conference for Continuing Education Credits. I encourage all of our members to attend the Conference and show your support. www.fsms.org

This year we have also instituted a new program to recognize members and non-members that have made contributions to our industry with the Professional Membership Awards. Details will soon follow but we are asking our members to nominate a current member and a non-member of ASPRS here in Florida who they feel has made a significant contribution to the profession. Once the nominations are received the Board will vote and select one from each category and present them with a certificate and one year’s paid membership dues.

In association with the ASPRS National Board of Directors the Florida Region is going to pay membership dues to Florida Region members who have lost their jobs during this turbulent economy. Members in good standing can feel free to contact any of the board members for assistance with this program or with help renewing your membership.

Please join me in congratulating the newly elected Florida Region Board Members:
Brian Murphy will continue in his role as a Director
Keith Patterson will be replacing Dan Casey as a newly elected Director

Thanks to Dan Casey for his efforts during his tenure as a Director here in Florida

Regards,

Erin McCormick
Florida Region President ASPRS
emccormick@aerometric.com