American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

Central New York Region

Region Council Meeting

MINUTES

11 June 2004, 10:00 AM

 

Location

SUNY ESF, Bray Hall

Present        

Ed Freeborn, Lindi Quackenbush, Emily Constantine Mercurio, Paul Szemkow, Ron Fredericks, Joan Zelinski, Maureen Wakefield (present for first half of meeting)

President’s Report – Joan Zelinski

·         CNY ASPRS Handbook was reviewed and looks great. Thanks to Tom Henderson for putting it together.

·         Thanks to Art for his help in the 2004 Remote Sensing Symposium

·         We now need to figure out what to do for next year’s 2005 Remote Sensing Symposium and the potential Fall 2006 National Conference 

National Director’s Report – Ed Freeborn

·         Need to investigate timing of National Director and officer elections. We need to submit candidates for National Director by January 28, 2005. We may need to have the winter meeting be our annual meeting in order to get the timing right. Paul S. will revisit the bylaws and will give an update on the timing of the elections and winter meeting.

·         Schedule for National events is as follows:

o        Fall 04- Kansas City, MO, 9/12-9/16

o        Annual 05- Baltimore, MD, 3/7-3/11

o        Fall 05 + Pecora- Sioux Falls, SD, 10/23-10/27

o        Annual 06- Reno, NV, 4/30-5/4

o        Fall 07- Proposed Change Detection Conference in Puerto Rico

o        Annual 07- Tampa, FL

·         External Affairs and Professional Practices will be reviewing the QBS (Qualification Based System)

·         There was a discussion at National on representation of membership by zip code to help plan activities, and include Canada in that list. National needs support (GIS and otherwise) in order to do this type of analyses and to keep information up to date

·         Discussion on how to handle truant due-payers at CNY ASPRS. The Vice President is supposed to inform these people and get them to pay up. If they don’t, they will cease to receive the newsletter. Membership lists can be found on the CNY ASPRS website- contact Sokhan Hing at ASPRS to get access to this (sokhanh@asprs.org).

·         The American Association of Geographers (AAG) has expressed interest in co-sponsoring fall 06 conference

·         There is interest in involving the Canadians in CNY ASPRS regional conferences

·         There is interest in establishing image calibration test sites in NYS. Ron will look into this further.

·         Ms. Pullman from the North Atlantic region is interested in working with us.

·         There was discussion of National’s investment policy. ASPRS would like to have a cushion for 1 year of operating revenue- about $1,000,000. Since the building is paid off, the ASPRS Foundation may be used to build this cushion. We may opt to send out rebates to this.

Treasurer’s Report – Emily Constantine Mercurio

·   Overview of current financial status

o        We are in very good financial status.

o        We need to figure out what to do with our funds, options are to keep it there to absorb risks from future endeavors, or help pay for academic speakers if their institutions won’t cover it

·   Our region rebate check has not yet been received by Art. We need to call National and find out what happened, and cancel the check.

·   No contribution was made this year to the William Johnson fund

·   We are still expecting expenses from Christine Hopkins’ travel to Denver

·   2 people still owe from the RS Symposium. We are also expecting a check from ESF.

Old Business: Discussion of 2004 RS Symposium

·   Financials and Feedback:

    • 87 total registrants (2003 has 115, 2002 has 150-160). 800 flyers mailed out, so over 10% attendance.
    • $5930 total projected income, $1992+ residuals, both outside of IAGT grant
    • 25 students, 55 regular, 11 complementary
    • Banquet: 23 regular, 5 students.
    • We went over-budget on mailings by using first-class postage, but it was worth it because bulk mail takes way too long.
    • 40% of people filled out an evaluation, responses were good overall
    • Bill Philpot’s presentation on LiDAR was a big hit. Perhaps we should ask him to do LiDAR workshops in the future

Old Business: Discussion on Scholarships/Rebate

·         Students both here and nationally aren’t applying for scholarships. A discussion was had on how to get more students interested. One idea was to get current winners to testify on the benefits of the scholarship.

·         With our rebate this year, it will be used for the Hopkins’ family travel to Denver. It will also be used for the William Johnson Foundation and the ASPRS Foundation.

·         Discussion was had on creating an endowment at National to create a scholarship for CNY ASPRS students. This may help the SOY award be more recognized. Ed will talk to National to get details on this potential endowment.

New Business: Discussion of 2005 RS Symposium

·   Options for venue:

o        SUNY ESF- free space, smart classrooms, Dinosaur BBQ, school will be out.

o        Canandaigua Inn

o        Saratoga Marriott- new facility, tourism options, Joan will find out of track still open

o        Fulton-Montgomery Community Center (SICT), contact person Mike Flinton.  Space might be available free.  Mike is checking to see if they will sponsor it.  They usually charge a space amount.  Theatre the room holds 70-100 and has break out rooms available.  There is a lab area with 18 computers. Link: http://fmc.edu/

o        Cayuga Community College- also have GIS classrooms with 25 computers, probably no charge for space, Emily will investigate

·   May will likely be the month of the 2005 Symposium. We want to avoid paying for space rental. ESF can do on-site registration if needed.

·   If students want to go but can’t afford it, we could possible have volunteer positions for them at the Symposium so they can still go.

·   A session topic for the 2005 Symposium might be “Standards” since there is some interest in this

·   Suggestion to have both a member and non-member registration rate for the Symposium, perhaps generate new members that way.

·   Might be helpful to have a look at other Region’s reports to see what kind of conferences/symposia they are sponsoring

·   CNY ASPRS will likely not be involved in the 2005 NYS GIS conference

·   ESF Outreach will help us organize the 2005 Symposium

·   A site visit to Fulton-Montgomery was discussed. Joan, Emily and Maureen will find a day to travel out there.

·   We discussed offering ASPRS technician certification workshops adjacent to the Symposium. Need to find out more details on this and who could lead the workshop.

·   Still need to decide on a theme for the 2005 Symposium, may involve “Remote Sensing Applications’ in some way.

New Business: Discussion of Potential 2006 Fall ASPRS National Conference in our Region

·   ASPRS National’s office would cover much of what ESF’s office would do. Lindi may know the specifics on that the region’s responsibilities would be for conference planning. The fall 06 meeting will likely need to be a DEM conference.

·   ESF’s office is still willing to help if needed. We could potentially draft an MOU with National in case we need to make some sort of special arrangements. If ESF’s office were to help, Maureen would need about 14 months of planning time.

·   We need to have a draft business plan in to National by September ’04 for this possible 06 conference. Ed suggested that examples of business plans from Kansas City and Alaska fall meetings will be helpful.

·   Possible venues:

o        Buffalo

    • Prime Saratoga Hotel and City Center. Here is their web page link: http://www.primehotelsandresorts.com/hotels/ptss.shtml. Overnight room rates: single 95, double 95, Triple 110 and Quad 125. Space rental: no space rental fee for the hotel, however there is a $9450 charge for space in the City Center for five days. Questions were asked as to whether Saratoga Performing Arts Center and the race track are open in late Sept/early Oct. Joan will check in to this.

Other New Business

·   For the Regional fall technical meeting this year, RIT is very interested in hosting it. Mike Richardson (RIT) will try to line up a speaker. The day could consist of a tour of the Center for Imaging Science (CIS) in the afternoon and dinner there or at a neighboring hotel in the evening. A tentative date of Nov. 2004 was set.

·   For the Regional Winter meeting, a likely location is Rome. The Horizon Hotel near Oneida airport may work well. Perhaps do something in remembrance of Al Stringham. An idea for the meeting is to have ASPRS sustaining members and other regular businesses who are members bring some slides to present and have these slides run during the cocktail hour. A tentative date of Friday Feb. 11, 2005 was set.

·   The CNY ASPRS Regional Council Student Member is Chintan Shah.

·   The CNY ASPRS Website:

o        Plan to add presentations from the 2004 RS Symposium. Lindi is missing a few because they were too big. Might be better to convert them to PDF.

o        The website should be changed to reflect current information and activities.

o        Discussed getting a web maser in the same way we have a newsletter editor. Lindi suggest Jen Barber. Ron suggested using an ESF student to maintain the website, in exchange for 1 credit. He also suggested having 2 people to serve as web master. Ed will check if National will provide some web support other than hosting services.

o        Ron will have a coworker at DOT look at the website to see what level of effort it will take to update it.

o        A year and a half of past newsletters should be posted on the website. Paul S.’s email address will be with the newsletters in case anyone should want those older than a year and a half.

o        Ed will ask if we can show the PE&RS cover on our website.

o        Lindi can replace Paul H. as the contact person for the site overall.

o        Emily will change the handbook cover to reflect the actual PA counties that Regional represents. This image can also be posted on the website.

 

Meeting adjourned 3:50 PM