September 19, 2007 Meeting Minutes and
Agenda
AGENDA
Approval of the
August 15
th meeting minutes –
Chair
CIO addresses the
Board – Dick Thompson
Subcommittee
Reports
- Financial
– Larry Harwood
- Policy
& Marketing – Marilyn
Lutz
- MOU – Dave Blocher
- Technical
- Orthoimagery Project /Parcel grants –
Larry
Harwood
- Status on the GEOPortal – Christopher
Kroot
CAT 3 grant
RFP – Group
Elections – Chair & Staff
Geolibrary
Funding – Group
MEETING MINUTES
Present
James Page, Chair
Marilyn Lutz, CoChair
Dan Coker
Greg Copeland
Gretchen Heldmann
Elizabeth Hertz
Christopher Kroot
Nancy Armentrout
Will Mitchell
Ken Murchison ( by phone)
William Hanson
Staff
Larry Harwood
Visitors
Richard Thompson, CIO
Dan Walters, US Geological Survey
Carl Nylen, ESRI
Mary Cloutier, OIT
David Kirouac, OIT
The meeting was called to order at
10:00
1. Approval of the
July 18th, 2007
meeting minutes
The Chair entertained a motion to
approve the minutes. Marilyn
Lutz moved to approve the minutes as written. Gretchen Heldmann
seconded. The
Board voted unanimously in favor. The motion carried. ( Note: unless
otherwise
indicated the Chair abstains from all votes )
2. State CIO
addresses the Board
Dick Thompson, Chief Information
Officer for the state gave
a short dissertation on the ongoing relationship between the Geolibrary
and the
Office of Information Technology. As a first aside he noted that Dave
Blocher,
OIT, who normally represents the CIO on the Board had been in hospital
for an
operation for a long standing medical condition but was doing well and
would be
back soon.
The CIO has been monitoring the
progress of the Geolibrary
thru the state employees on the Board and of course his designee. He
also
discussed the Memorandum Of Agreement ( MOA ) with the Chair recently
and had
some differences of opinion with the MOU as currently written. Given
that the
Geolibrary serves a wide variety of public purposes, what then is the
role of
OIT/MEGIS vis-à-vis the Geolibrary. In particular where are the
lines between
what MEGIS does and what the Geolibrary does. For the immediate future,
MEGIS
will continue to offer services to the public and the private sector
thru data
downloads from the internet data catalog.
Q: Do we need to proceed with an MOU?
A: Yes, there should be a documented
relationship between
OIT and the Geolibrary. The amount of support from OIT will be
maintained for
some time but data will always grow and both parties should look at
what the
growth will be. Both organizations have to determine how to recover
costs and
how to serve the public without competing with the private sector.
Q:What is the legal status of the
Geolibrary?
A:The Geolibrary is a quasi-state
agency created by the
legislature; most quasi-state agencies endure as long as their mission
is
valid.
Q:What is the budget outlook?
A: Maine traditionally has budget
problems but that should
not discourage the Geolibrary from looking for a revenue stream. One
solution
would be to find a constituency willing to pay for a product or
service.
Q: What of the new contract for
InforME?
There is not much in the RFP about
GIS. 1) They should
address the Board before the contract. 2) They cannot compete with the
private
sector nor can OIT.
Mr. Thompson asked what data the
municipal representatives
were interested in. The answer was tax parcel data, local zoning and
another
round of parcel grants. He made the point that it is for the Board to
decide
what data is to be in the Geolibrary and in what form or format. He
also noted
that if a revenue stream could be identified to support the Geolibrary,
then
the Board should look to June 2008 when budget preparation begins.
The Chair summed up the discussion. 1)
It is up to the Board
to accept data as it feels appropriate. 2) The new InforME contractor
will be
invited to address the Board. 3) The Board will prepare for budget
matters in
June of 2008.
3. Subcommittee
Reports
Financial
There was one change to the financial
sheet. The amount
expended for town parcel grants, second round rose to $126,711.00. The
amount
encumbered for town parcel grants, second round dropped to $63, 003.00
and the
total encumbered now is $400,186.45.
Policy &
Marketing
There was no report to make on policy
issues. The MOU between
MLGIB and OIT was tabled to the next meeting.
Technical
Orthoimagery & Parcel Grants
There was nothing new to report on the
parcel grants
project. There was a question as to whether updating of parcel data was
taking
place. It was explained that although discussed extensively in the
past, no
program of updates had ever been put in place.
The long awaited orthoimagery for
central and downeast Maine
is now said to be available in December 2007. As had been previously
reported,
the area in northeast Washington and southeast Aroostook counties flown
in
2004-2005 but not planned for
orthorectification due to budget limitations, will
now be processed into orthoimagery by
USGS. The imagery will be available in 3 batches, probably delivered in
early
2008 and paid for entirely by USGS. NGA, a homeland security ancillary,
had
flown in Spring 2006 and purposes to make 1 meter color orthos in the
“Tier C”
areas not flown in 2003-2005.
Status on GeoPortal
Christopher Kroot reported that he had
completed the full
review of the portal begun back in August 15th by the
technical
committee. The portal is described as a failure. Out of 169 functional
requirements 111 failed , 38 were unknown results, i.e. inexplicable or
untestable, and 20 succeeded. The links are very slow and prone to
malfunction.
User friendliness and intuitive functionality has not been improved
over
previous version.
The Board had until the 21st
to submit a report
on the current build of the portal. The Chair reported that he received
no
reply to his informal e-mail on this matter to Ken Bossung of Ionic..
It was suggested
that a vote be taken today on whether or not to cancel the contract.
Several
members expressed their gratitude to the Technical Committee and
Christopher in
particular for this review in the face of many problems. There was some
discussion of what would be left in terms of product or code if the
contract
were cancelled; OIT will try to get anything remaining or due from the
partial
contract if it is canceled.
Christopher Kroot moved to cancel the
contract with Ionic
Enterprise due to non-performance. Gretchen Heldmann seconded. The
Board voted
unanimously to approve. The motion carried.
The Chair instructed staff to handle
the official
termination of the contract, The Chair also remanded the Technical
Committee to
review alternative portal technology and return with a suggestion as to
how to
proceed as soon as possible.
Special Note
The Chair took this opportunity to
personally commend the
long and very valuable service of Will Mitchell, Representing GIS
Vendors, who
is resigning from the Board today. Will was one of the original members
of the
Board when it was formed in 2002. He has served continously, staffing
several
subcommittees, to the present day while also owning and operating his
own
consulting business. He will be missed.
4. CAT 3 Grant RFP
Nancy
Armentrout presented version 10 of the CAT 3 Grant Request For
Proposals. She
briefly reviewed the two major tasks called for:
Task 1.
Update and enhance the
GeoLibrary Strategic Plan and
bring it into alignment with the goals of the National States’
Geographic
Information Council (NSGIC) Fifty States Initiative.
Task 2.
Recommend a conceptual
framework and functional
specification for an Integrated Land Records Information System for the
State
of Maine.
The matter
having been fairly well discussed previously there
was minimal comment. The Chair entertained a motion to approve. Marilyn
Lutz
moved to approve the RFP as written (v.10). Liz Hertz seconded. There
were 8
votes to approve and 2 abstentions (not including the Chair, also
abstaining as
customary) The motion carried.
There was
attendant discussion on how the project would be
managed. It was expected there would be more than usual overview
required. It
was expected that MEGIS would have a significant hand in the management
but
Greg McNeal, CTO will have to be consulted on this as soon as possible.
The
Chair called for volunters to review the proposals, the most logical
being the
RFP subcommittee plus attachments. The review team will be Nancy
Armentrout,
Marilyn Lutz, Greg Copeland, Bill Hanson, Dan Coker and Dan Walters in
an
advisory capacity only.
5. Elections
The current Chair and
CoChair were not standing for
re-election. Nominations were opened. Bill Hanson was nominated for
Chair. Dan
Coker was nominated for Co-Chair. There were no further nominations.
After a
secret ballot, staff posted 10 votes for Bill Hanson and 10 votes for
Dan
Coker. Bill Hanson will serve as Chair and Dan Coker will serve as
Co-Chair.
Concluding informal
discussion dealt with the upcoming Maine
Users Group Meeting. Greg Copeland invited any and all on the Board to
attend.
Dan Walters will be giving a presentation, possibly 1 or 2 from the
Board to be
determined.
Meeting was adjourned at 11:55
