December 15, 2000

Attendees Present

 Mr. Chris Boudreaux
Mr. Bill Bush, Arkansas Geological Commission
Ms. Suzanne Wiley, U of A Cooperative Extension Services

Present by Videoconference

 Ms. Susan Cromwell, Department of Information Systems
Mr. Fred Limp, CAST
Mr. Phil Schoettlin, Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce

Not Attending

 Mr. Cecil Davis, Department of Arkansas Heritage
Mr. Randy Jones, First Electric Cooperative Corporation
Ms. Shirley Sandlin, Benton County Assessor
Mr. Jubal Smith, Entergy Corporation, Inc.
Ms. Phyllis Smith, UALR
Mr. Jim Wells, Wellsco Graphics Solutions

Special Representatives

 Mr. Shelby Johnson, State Land Information Coordinator

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The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. in the DIS 3rd Floor Conference Room, MAC Building, One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, Arkansas.  Minutes from the last meeting of November 1 were unanimously approved.

Report from the State Land Information Coordinator

Data Fair

Shelby Johnson explained that his office hosted a GIS Data Fair on December 8 for state agencies.  There were seven or eight different agencies that presented and a total attendance from about 35 different agencies .  He explained that he would like to do this once or twice a year as a way to share information about agency projects GIS and Fire Meeting  Shelby next outlined a meeting scheduled for later in the day.  He explained that there are a number of projects going on in the state that relate to fire issues and it became clear to him that he needed to put together a coordination meeting to share information across the projects and see whether there are common issues and data.   

Old Business

GIS Day

Suzanne Wiley next talked about GIS Day.  She said there was a lot of participation from exhibitors and there was a steady flow of visitors to the exhibit in the Capitol and that it was successful.

Advisory Panel

Suzanne Wiley said that the Advisory Panel meeting went very well.  There was a lot of good discussion and comments by the panel members.  She said that the panel members were given a short version of the GIS Stakeholder's presentation and that Shelby and Learon put together a nice folder with handouts and maps and the Board's legislative information.  Everybody was very supportive and the meeting was successful. 

WAPPD Support

Suzanne Wiley said that she is waiting for some information from Rusty Myers as to who the Board should sent a letter of support for the WAPPD. 

NAPP and DOQ Project

Shelby Johnson explained that the first data has arrived and is all of Lafayette County.  Learon Dalby has done a quick example comparison by downloading AHTD road out of GeoStor for Stamps, Arkansas, and then pulled up the Stamps' DOQ to compare line work, and it all looked very good based on this cursory assessment.  Fred Limp said that he could get some of the data, he would get it up on GeoStor as a demo.  Shelby said that the first thing he has to do is get the data out to the cooperators and he is reluctant to do that until they have had a chance to really do some QA/QC.   

Electronic Plat Filing Project

Bill Bush explained that nothing has been done as far as filing the bill.  He said that they were proposing to have one county in each congressional district to request funding for electronic filing.  They have not picked the counties yet.  He is not sure where the bill stands at this point.  Shelby Johnson explained that Ted was trying to get an idea of project costs and that this would be difficult without doing a thorough analysis.  Bill said that he is not aware of exactly what the ASPS is proposing, so he can't give Ted any information regarding costs at this point. 

Susan Cromwell asked what it would take to do a requirements document and the costs could be figured out, so that the bill could move forward.  She also said that she understood that the intent was to propose that surveyors quit having to file in every county, use the Geological Commission archives electronically, and file with state only once.  Bill Bush agreed that this is the ultimate goal.  Susan said that Ted was going to propose amendments to change that process.  Bill said that Ted had not said whether this was to be a fee-based budget or whether they were going to ask for appropriations from some other revenue. 

Susan said she will contact Ted Mullinex and find out what is happening at this point. Suzanne Wiley recommended a pilot project rather than trying to do the whole project at once.  Bill Bush explained that he does not have enough staff at this time to support a statewide electronic filing project.  Suzanne stated that the surveyor's group needs to make a decision as to what they want before anyone else can follow up on the cost or staff. 

Legislation

Suzanne Wiley explained that there is an issue regarding the cadastral definition in the legislation.  Shelby Johnson explained that at the Advisory Panel meeting, Joe Clements of the State Board of Registration for Surveyors attended and there was a considerable amount of discussion about cadastre and digital cadastre.  He said that it became very apparent at that meeting that if the Board is not very careful in the way that the cadastral language is crafted in the legislation, it could cause problems, as happened in California and North Carolina.  Shelby started looking at the definition in the legislation to prevent it from potentially being confused with surveying.  He worked on the definition with Fred Limp and then sent the definition to the Arkansas Society of Professional Surveyor's Board to get input. 

Shelby said that the proposed change states:  "It does not represent legal property boundary descriptions nor is it suitable for boundary determination of the individual parcels included in the cadastre."  He said that the ASPS has made this suggested change and he thinks that the definition now will not cause any conflict.   Suzanne Wiley said that Tom Webb sent some suggested changes and input and that he was concerned about the submission of metadata by state agencies.  She said that in the proposed legislation, a section had been deleted stating that the Board would require a data quality report with data submission.  She said that the requirement for a data quality report could be left in the legislation and that changes could be made to the digital cadastre definition. 

Discussion followed regarding the proposed changes to legislation.  Following discussion, Susan Cromwell made the motion to accept the changes to the legislation, Bill Bush seconded the motion, and the motion was passed.  Shelby Johnson said he will send the proposed changes to the ASPS surveryors to keep them informed.

Appropriation Bill

Suzanne Wiley passed around copies of the appropriation request compiled by Shelby Johnson.  Discussion followed.  Shelby explained that the document could be used to answer any questions posed to Board members regarding the appropriation request.   

 Legislative Strategy

Suzanne Wiley said that hopefully next week Don Melton would inform the Board if the Governor will be supporting the Board's efforts.  If so, the Board can move forward as instructed; if not, then the Board can make its own plans.  It was agreed that the Board really couldn't do anything until after hearing from the Governor's Office.   

Annual Report

Suzanne Wiley passed out copies of the Annual Report of the Board for comments, and said that the Report will be filed with Legislative Audit prior to the due date. 

Advisory Panel Letter

Suzanne Wiley said that she has drawn up a sample letter to give to the members of the Advisory Panel that they can use to distribute to GIS stakeholders, who in turn can use the letters to send to legislators seeking support for the GIS legislation.

New Business

Accomplishments for the Year

Suzanne Wiley reviewed the accomplishments of the Board for 1999-2000, as follows: 

  • Arkansas Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI) development

  • Strategic Plan development for SLIB - needs further work

  • Legislative package for 2001 Session

  • Investigate grants and alternative funding methods

  • Develop technical specifications and standards

  • Address communication between cities and counties

  • Implement ongoing education programs

  • Freedom of Information Act activities - Electronic Records Study Commission

  • Inventory of state digital data

  • Organize SLIB Advisory Panel 

Suzanne went over some goals that were drawn from the Advisory Panel meeting, as follows:

  • GeoStor

  • Digital Cadastre layers for the state

  • Improve PLSS

  • Coordinate efforts between with counties to update existing data

  • Work through Planning and Development Districts

  • Emergency management and floodplain data

  • Public outreach; i.e., newsletter by SLIB, "Agency of the Month" feature

  • Establish and reinforce partnerships

  • Geology layers - 10m DEMs 

The Board discussed goals for the coming year, and listed priorities:

  • Get GeoStor on-line

  • Finish the Strategic Plan

  • New legislative package for 2003 Session

  • Development of cadastral layer

  • GIS Day and increase education

  • City/count/PDDs

  • Emergency management/flood plain issues
    - increase awareness
    - possible standards for 911 


Committees

The Board discussed what committees are needed for the upcoming year and decided on the following:

  • Strategic Planning Committee

  • Legislative Committee (Bill Bush, Susan Cromwell)

  • Electronic Plat Filing Committee (Chris Boudreaux, Randy Jones)

  • Local Government Committee (Fred Limp) 

Future Meetings 

The members decided to keep the next meeting date undecided for January, based on need.  Shelby Johnson will research a future meeting with One-Call in Conway. 

The meeting was then adjourned.