1 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium

Annual Report 2018

Mission Statement: "To develop and support the GIS professional in Minnesota for the benefit of our state and its citizens."

The Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium is a forum for communicating information to, and improving cooperation among, those interested in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Land Information Systems (LIS) in the State of Minnesota. Members include GIS users in local, state, federal and tribal government agencies; business and industry; educational institutions and nonprofits. Membership is FREE just by being on our mailing list. The Consortium hosts annual statewide conferences and workshops, collaborates to recognize outstanding contributions of members and organizations, provides grants to support students and community organized activities, and establishes committees that deal with specific GIS/LIS-related matters in Minnesota. Opportunities to participate in Consortium activities are available through volunteer work with the board, its committees, the conference and workshops. The Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact myself or any other Board Member

2 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Message from the Board Chair From Gerry Sjerven, 2018 Board Chair As a GIS professional, I spend most days looking for ways to continue ‘ Bridging Boundaries’, whether I’m at work trying to communicate between internal departments, state or federal agencies. Or working as board chair trying to address the needs of all sectors of the consortium community. This year we were fortunate to be able to hold our conference at the same time as the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) in Duluth. It was a great opportunity to showcase how we continue ‘Bridging Boundaries’ within Minnesota, our region, and for the fourth year in row, K-12 education. Thank you to the 2018 conference chair, Jared Hovi, and the entire conference committee for the great leadership and wonderful conference. As a state organization, made up completely of volunteers, we continue to set the standards on how things can be accomplished, often through the leadership from dedicated individuals with an idea that flourishes into a new tradition. The 2018 Annual Consortium Conference was our 28th conference. You, our membership has made that possible by continuing to attend the workshops, conferences, and networking events. Our mission is ‘To develop and support the GIS professional in Minnesota for the benefit of our state and its citizens.’ We continue to explore how we can accomplish our mission, but we need your help. Please consider getting involved with the consortium. Reach out to any Board Member and ask questions on how you can get involved. You could join one of our committees, host a networking event, or teach a workshop. In 2018, the board created the Conference Rate Request. It allows a way for retired GIS individuals and members that are just starting out in GIS to attend the conference at a reduced rate. We continue to explore what else we can do to support the GIS professional. So please consider getting involved and tell us how the MN GIS/LIS Consortium can help you grow. Thank you to everyone I’ve had the pleasure to work with this past year! I look forward seeing you all when we return to St. Cloud for this year’s conference! 4th Annual Educators Day Duluth Minnesota, Home of the 28th

Annual MN GIS/LIS Consortium Conference

3 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Thank you to our Contributors Conference Exhibitors

Ayres Associates

Bolton & Menk, Inc.

CES Imaging

Cloudpoint Geographics

ddms, Inc.

EagleView Technologies

EOS Positioning Systems

Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI)

Frontier Precision, Inc.

Geospatial Analysis Center, UMD

GIS Professional Programs, UW-Madison

GPI Geospatial, Inc.

GRAEF

Houston Engineering, Inc.

Kadrmas, Lee & Jackson, Inc.

Maverick Drone Systems

Moore Engineering, Inc.

MSPS

North Point Geographic Solutions

Panda Consulting

Pro-West & Associates, Inc.

Quantum Spatial

SC Recon

SharedGeo

Surdex Corporation

UND Geography Department

VirtualGIS

Wisconsin Land Information Association

Woolpert

WSB & Associates, Inc

Conference Sponsors

Bolton & Menk, Inc.

ddms, Inc.

EagleView Technologies

GIS Professional Programs, UW-Madison

North Point Geographic Solutions

Pro-West & Associates, Inc.

SharedGeo

Higher Education Workshop Hosts

University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota – Duluth

Distinct Sponsorship

ddms, Inc. provides Project Portal at no cost to the Consortium for our online document management. This tool is an exceptional benefit to our everyday business.

Municipal, County, and State Government

A large percentage of the attendees and active participants at our annual conference, spring and fall workshops and other Consortium sponsored events are employees of local government throughout the state. Equally as many are state government employees.

Federal Agencies

Federal agencies step up every year to involve their staffs in Consortium events and initiatives.

Donated Honoraria

Every year many of our instructors generously decline honoraria, requesting instead that these funds be directed to our Education Investment fund.

Education Volunteers

Thank you to all who have donated their time to participate in our education program as a scholarship or Minnesota on the Map Competition judge, Young Professional’s Conference Mentor, Geo-Mentor or K-12 workshop instructor.

Other participation

All organizations that have graciously allowed their employees to donate time to present, moderate, plan, and attend our annual conference and other events.

4 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Consortium Events 2018 The Consortium held several events in 2018. These events support our mission to advance education and communication among GIS professionals to the benefit of our state. Spring Workshops

87 Attendees 12 Workshops University of MN-Twin Cities campus 21 Attendees 3 Workshops University of MN-Duluth campus

28th Annual Conference – “Bridging Boundaries” 638 Attendees 90 Total Presentations 33 Vendors 17 Workshops 323 Workshop Attendees 27 Posters 3 Web Maps 91 Esri hands on Learning 80 Tuesday - Hoops Brewing 203 Wednesday – Great Lakes Aquarium 257 Thursday – Grandma’s Sports Garden 11 Discount Card Participating Businesses

• 15 Mentor/Mentee pairs participated in the Young Professionals Conference Mentorship Program.

• With the commitment of our contributors, the Consortium was able to sponsor 3 students to attend the 2018 Conference through the Student Assistant Program.

K-12 2018 Educator GIS Workshops

Five Half-Day Summer Workshops and ten separate school visits Educator Day at Annual Conference - 85 Attendees

Networking Events Spring Workshops Networking Event at Republic bar GISSO GIS Networking and Career Fair Fall Conference Social at Great Lake Aquarium Event/Education Grants 3D Geomatics Committee Workshop $250 NW/NC GIS User Group $325 Northeast MN GIS User Group $650 Funds raised for our Education Fund: Donated Honoraria - $5,500 (spring and fall workshops) Fund Raising (merchandise sales, networking events and donations) - $6,063

Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, Home of the 28th Annual MN GIS/LIS Consortium Conference

4th Annual Educators Day

Keynote Caroline Torkildson and Jared Hovi

Friday Lunch, Business Meeting

Awards Luncheon

5 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Award Recipients 2018 Polaris Awards – Recognition of active, established leaders in the geospatial community who demonstrate a beacon of energy and creativity that inspires and guides the rest of us.

Distinguished Educator Award – Recognition of active educators who have demonstrated leadership, creativity and enthusiasm for the effective use of geography and GIS to inspire, engage and prepare students for participation in the workforce and geospatial community.

Presenter Kari Geurts with Chris Pouliot, MN.IT @ Department of

Natural Resources

Presenter Craig Perreault with Stacey Stark,

University of MN-Duluth

Presenter Pete Henschel with Jesse Adams, North Point

Geographic Solutions

Dr. Ben Richason, St. Cloud State University with Scott Freburg

Dr. David Kelley, University of St. Thomas

with Jason Menard

David Casey, Retired, Buffalo High School

6 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Award Recipients (cont’d) 2018 Student Scholarship Participants:The following students were selected by their school for recognition as MN GIS/LIS Student Scholars.

Graduate Competition: Tucker Robeson St. Mary’s University of Minnesota 1st Place $1000 Devon Libby Minnesota State University Mankato 2nd Place $500 Jessica Meyer St. Cloud State University $200 Kathy Dooley University of Minnesota, Twin Cities $200 Under Graduate Competition: Katie Jolly Macalester College 1st Place $800 Alice Ready University of St. Thomas 2nd Place $400 Crystal Sucher Bemidji State University $200 Riley Finnegan Minnesota State University Mankato $200 Asami Minei Minnesota State University Moorhead $200 Wing Yi (Pinki) Wong University of Minnesota, Twin Cities $200 Arman Bajracharya St. Cloud State University $200 Community College Student Poster: Donna Spaeth Itasca Community College $500

Mentor-Mentee Pairs: The following students were paired with GIS professionals as mentor-mentee pairings. Thank you mentors for stepping up to help lead and inspire our future workers!

Brynn Johnson University of Minnesota Twin Cities Michelle Trager, Rice County Boxuan XIa University of Minnesota Twin Cities Kitty Hurley, MN-DNR Annetta Wilson Itasca Community College Cory Richter, City of Blaine Katie Jolly Macalester College Mark Sloan, Clay County Tucker Robeson US Army Reserve/VERSAR Andrew Lamers, SHE Inc. Zhiwei (Iris) Yan University of Minnesota Twin Cities Tim Tabor, Power Engineers Lauren Strug University of Minnesota Twin Cities Zeb Thomas, MN-DNR Anthony Maiolo University of Minnesota Duluth Mike Dolbow, MnGeo Sarah Grandstrand University of Wisconsin Madison Alison Slaats, MnGeo Megan Sisko University of Minnesota Twin Cities Sally Wakefield, MN Dept of Revenue Carly Anderson University of Minnesota Twin Cities Christopher Morgan, MN-DOT Katya Kelly Macalester College David Brandt, Washington County Grant Hoel University of California Davis Richard Holzer, MN-DOT Alison Link University of Minnesota Twin Cities Shelly Carroll, SE Recon Andrew Anklam Minnesota DNR Ryan Stovern, St. Louis County

2018 MN GIS/LIS Consortium Competition Winners; (L to R) Donna Spaeth, Devon Libby, Katie Jolly, Tucker Robeson, and Adam Gardner

7 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Consortium Highlights 2018 Annual Conference in Duluth “Bridging Boundaries”

The 28th annual conference took place in Duluth, October 3-5, 2018. This was the first time visiting Bemidji and it turned out successfully with 638 registered attendees. The conference started with featured keynote speaker, Caroline Torkildson, ‘Reinventing My Life through GIS’ and concluded on Friday with ‘Outdoor Activities for the North’ with Sam Cook. Jared Hovi did a great job ‘Bridging Boundaries’ with the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) setting up multiple opportunities for conference attendees to take part of the shared sessions and networking events. Thank you to Jared Hovi and the entire conference planning committee on a wonderful conference!

Fourth Annual Educator Day

The Fourth Annual Educator Day was held on the first day of the annual conference and included 85 teachers and 7 students. The Wednesday luncheon speaker was Cloquet Science middle school teacher Mathew Winbigler, along with students Gabe Zago, Elizabeth Strickland and Marcy Ferriere. Three morning hands-on sessions and 4 afternoon hands-on sessions along with help sessions. 7 GIS professionals attended as helpers and instructors, along with 5 K12 teachers and Charlie Fitzpatrick of Esri and Kyle Tredinnick of Omaha Zoo School.

Minnesota Map Competition

The third annual ArcGIS Online map competition was held in 2018 for Minnesota middle and high school students. This was a group effort sponsored by the MN GIS/LIS consortium, MN Department of Education and MN Alliance for Geographic Education (MAGE). GIS/LIS members volunteered as judges along with over 15 Geo-mentors helping out with the contest. The contest was once again a success with 120+ students registered. This made up over 40% of the total students in all other states in state competitions. 10 students won $100 Amazon gift card. Keeli Gustafson, from Duluth Denfeld high school won the National High School competition put on by Esri. The winning Story Map is available here.

MN Education Committee provides K12 GIS Training

This included a $5K grant from Esri that supported training in three location; Byron high school, Sauk Rapids-Rice high school and Park Rapids middle school. 75+ teachers attended these three training sessions. Park Rapids included a drone demonstration over lunch.

Conference Rate Request for Retired or Fresh Start Consortium Members In 2018, we established the Conference Rate Request, a way for members to request a lower rate in order to attend the annual conference. The Fresh Start rate is for members currently unemployed, or in a non-GIS position or in an internship or other temporary GIS position. The Retired rate is for members that have retired from a GIS related form. In 2018, we approved 2 Fresh Start requests, and 1 Retired rate request.

Conference Chair Jared Hovi opening the 28th Annual

Conference

Mathew Winbigler, Cloquet Middle School, with Gabe Zago, Elizabeth Strickland and Marcy

Ferriere

8 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Consortium Highlights 2018 First ‘Meet Me at the Corner’ event held at the Conference in Duluth

For the first time ever the Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyors, Minnesota Association of County Surveyors along with MN GIS/LIS partnered together to teach and education folks about the Public Land Survey System the true foundational data for all things Geospatial. The inaugural Meet Me at the Corner went great with about 50-60 participants in the crowd. The crowd asked some great questions of the presenters. The presenters and about 30 participants took a short walking field trip in the pouring rain to a surveyor marker that was placed just for the conference. Local news stations were on site to film and interview presenters. This event was open to the public. The 3 organizations look forward to partnering on the 2nd Annual Meet Me at the Corner in St. Cloud.

Introduced Cloud Computing for the Conference Workshops The Consortium Board of Directors continues to explore ways to improve what is provided at our annual conference. In 2018, a subcommittee was established to explore ways to improve our workshop offerings for both our attendees and our instructors. In October, the Consortium used Azure cloud computing in 4 workshops. We continue to review the success and plan to expand the use of cloud computing during the 2019 Spring Workshops and the Annual Conference in St. Cloud.

MN Education Committee helps to develop GeoInquiries

Mn GIS/LIS matched a $5000 Esri GeoInquiries Grant with an additional $2000 to help develop Minnesota specific GeoInquiries. The GeoInquiries were designed to fit the 6th grade Minnesota Studies standards, but also meet 7th grade US History and 8th grade Geography standards. They have been used to engage hundreds of students in Minnesota history with interactive online mapping. These GeoInquiries have been presented at several Education Conferences, Esri Conferences, and at the 2018 MN Educator Day.

9 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Financials 2018

Balance Sheet

Net Amount - General Fund $77, 958 $77,571 $104,630

Reserve Fund $35, 222 $45,265 $45,310

Scholarship Fund $32, 468 $0* $0*

Education Investment Fund $32,033 $76,556 $84,366

Total Assets $177,681 $199,392 $234,306 DESCRIPTIONS: Conference Income – Workshop and Fall Conference registration fees, exhibitor fees, and interest from General

Operations account. Spring Workshop Income – Workshop registration fees. Education Income – Donations, fundraising and interest. Networking Events Income –Networking events fundraising. Annual Conference Expenses – Including but not limited to event space rental, food & beverages, audio/visual fees,

printing and honorariums for workshop instructors. Spring Workshop Expenses – Including but not limited to event space rental, food & beverages, printing and

honorariums for workshop instructors. General Operating Expenses – Expenses for the general operations of the Consortium including but not limited to

professional management fees, website maintenance fees, student scholarships, printing and event grants. Net Amount – General Fund – Operational account balance as of December 31st, 2016. Reserve Fund – A fund to protect the solvency of the Consortium in the event that Annual Conference revenue cannot

offset expenses. Education Investment Fund - This fund was created in 2017 from the consolidation of the Scholarship Fund

(Education Fund) and Investment Account. This was created for the long term investment of education monies and will be used for education purposes. Going forward the Scholarship Fund will not exist.

Detailed accounting documentation is available upon request. Contact any Board Member for more information.

Profit / Loss 2016 2017 2018 Conference Income $195,840 $175,625 $192,661

Spring Workshops Income $16,135 $16,060 $12,976

Education Income $18,305 $3,488 $5,879

Networking Events Income $1,800 $307 $400

General Operating Income $3,047 $3,156 $1,425

Total Income $235,127 $198,636 $213,340

Conference Expenses $145,792 $124,677 $153,093

Spring Workshop Expenses $4,365 $8,281 $4,093

Networking Events Expenses $2,945 $1,053 $496

General Operations Expenses $36,597 $31,408 $35,090

Total Expenses $189,699 $165,419 $192,772

* Scholarship fund merged into Education Investment Fund. See description below

10 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Volunteer Opportunities About the MN GIS/LIS Board of Directors and Consortium Committees Board positions are elected by the membership. We encourage you to run for a seat that matches your experience and current association. In addition, there are many opportunities for you to contribute your skills, time, and enthusiasm to make a difference, without having to run for office. Several committees need your help. We’re sure you will enjoy working with such an interesting group of people who are dedicated to providing the best possible educational and networking opportunities to our membership of GIS professionals.

The Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium is run solely by volunteers. All members are invited to participate. Here’s how to get involved: Awards Committee Select recipient of Polaris and Lifetime Achievement Awards. You must be a past award winner to sit on this committee. Conference Committee Help to plan and execute a fun, educational and successful fall conference. Opportunities include planning entertainment events, selecting speakers, coordinating facility set up, and assisting onsite. Education Committee Work to foster relationships between the consortium and educational institutions to support GIS in K-12 and higher education. Help manage student scholarship program for the fall conference. Communications/Outreach & Newsletter Committee Promote the GIS/LIS Consortium, its mission and events through social media and our blog. Networking Event Planning Committee Organize networking events as educational and/or fundraising activities for GIS professionals. Spring Workshops Committee Plan, prepare, and assist with technical spring workshops for GIS professionals. Web/Database Committee Assist with design and management of the Consortium database and website. Please feel free to contact us at any time at webmaster@mngislis.org.

29th Annual Conference & Workshops in St. Cloud, MN

11 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Board of Directors 2018

Chair Gerry Sjerven Allete, Inc.

Past-Chair Scott Freburg Minnesota Department of Education

Chair-Elect John Nerge City of Brooklyn Park

Secretary Leah Sperduto City of Eagan

Treasurer Tim Loesch Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

Conference Chair-Elect Aaron Menza City of Rosemount

Past-Conference Chair Jane Mueller Beltrami County

At-Large Tanya Mayer Metropolitan Council

Conference Chair Jared Hovi Carlton County

Higher Education Jason Menard Lake Superior Consulting

State Government Zeb Thomas Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

Local Government John Studtmann City of Minneapolis

Private Sector Peter Smith Tiller Corporation

Statewide Geospatial Advisory Council (Ex-Officio) Ryan Stovern St. Louis County

MnGeo (Ex-Officio) Dan Ross Minnesota Geospatial Information Office

12 The MN GIS/LIS Consortium is an official 501c3 non-profit organization. http://www.mngislis.org

Association Management and Event Management Ewald Consulting Eric Ewald Vice President of Association Management Kathie Pugacewski Vice President of Communications & Technology Amanda Ewald Vice President of Finance and Client Accounting Tommy DeMartino Client Accounting Specialist Sarah Ewald Event Manager Michele Wolfel Account Executive Assistant Barb Mann Director of Member Services