News

Real world GIS projects needed for University of Washington Professional and Continuing Education’s GIS Certificate Program Students. NWGIS member Steve Savage and Leah Saunders, instructors for the UW GIS Certificate program, are seeking project ideas from NWGIS members for the 2024/2025 academic year. If you have a GIS project or task that might be a good fit for the students of the GIS Certificate Program to work on, please contact Leah Saunders at lsaundersuw@outlook.com by Tuesday October 15th. This would benefit students in getting applied GIS real work experience and will benefit you in getting some GIS work products completed by the students for your organization.

What would make a good student project?

· Size: should be appropriate for a 3-4 (maybe 5) student project team

· Schedule: Project selection takes place during October and November. Students begin working on the projects in January as Winter quarter begins and deliverables are completed and turned over to the sponsor at the conclusion of the program in early June.

· Content: in order to offer the students quality learning opportunities, a project should not be limited to a single activity such as data development or data editing/collection. Opportunities to perform any of the following help increase the learning value of the experience: database design, data collection, mapping/cartography, spatial analysis, ArcGIS Online application development, etc.

· Sponsorship: some of our best projects have been real-world practical projects submitted by organizations from around the region (including, in the past, from Washington, Oregon, California and Alaska). These projects are typically efforts that the sponsoring organization has wanted to act on, but, until now, has been unable to address due to their own limited resources.

· Time commitment for sponsors: this does not need to be a great impact on you. Some students interview their sponsors to assess the needs and requirements, and then work independently from that point forward. Other projects have very active sponsors who may meet regularly with the student team, and is involved in reviewing documents, providing feedback, and other activities. Regardless of the level of involvement, sponsors will receive periodic status reports from the team as the projects progress.

Benefits to You

· Getting projects and/or tasks that have been lingering on the back-burner for some time completed.

· Get those projects moving and, at the same time, provide valuable experience for the students.

· New initiatives that you haven’t had time to start with GIS applications, web, field or other work products.

Work Quality

The program focuses on practical and professional execution of projects in a way that strongly mimics how a project would be executed in the workplace. We have had great success with the vast majority of our projects and many have gone on to win awards at the annual WAGISA (formerly WAURISA) conference and other conferences.

How to get Started

If you have a project in mind, here are the details that is needed to get started:

· Sponsor name and contact information

· Name of proposed project

· Brief description of proposed project (a short paragraph is ideal)

Ideally, they would like to hear from you on or before Wednesday October 9th, as students will begin discussing projects towards the end of October, and by mid-November all projects will have been selected. However, if you think of a project later than that, proposals could be accepted as late as October 18th.

Please feel free to contact Leah at lsaundersuw@outlook.com, even if your proposal idea needs some refining. The Instructor team is happy to work with you on this to come up with a good solution for all parties, and we can provide past project examples of provided for context.

Posted on behalf of Steve Savage

We'd love to hear your ideas and experiences in the GIS field, and so would the rest of our community. Please consider presenting at our conference in Seaside this September.

Answer the Call

Please tell us what kind of content you are most interested in hearing about this year. The survey also includes a brief section on selecting Esri-related workshops and presentations, which we are always grateful to feature.

Survey Link

NWGIS is excited to announce a new job description survey and document library that we hope will greatly benefit GIS employers and job seekers alike. One of the most important components of the hiring process is the job description. A well-written job description can attract qualified candidates and help employers find the right fit for their organization.

To help with this process, we are launching a survey soliciting job descriptions from various industries and positions. We are asking employers to share their job descriptions with us so that we can compile a comprehensive library of job descriptions that can be used as a reference for making hiring decisions.

The library of job descriptions will be publicly available. Employers can use this library to get inspiration for crafting their own job descriptions, while job seekers can use it to better understand what skills and qualifications are required for various positions. We believe that this initiative will help bridge the gap between job seekers and employers, and ultimately lead to more successful hires and job placements.

We encourage all employers to participate in the survey by submitting their job descriptions. The survey takes just a few minutes to complete. All submissions will be reviewed and added to the library if they meet our criteria.

Thank you for your participation in this important initiative. Together, we can improve the hiring process and create more opportunities for job seekers.

Submit a Job Description Document: 
https://forms.gle/8ou31mBy6YicGS7p6

View Responses:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nEIvOPcarNarE682kOh4EHC56DHtaqHQhYTs8KfSWWc

View Responses on a Map:
https://pullman.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=2385da0519e54e18859cd5cc08aa7fc3

The Cascadia Users of Geospatial Open Source (CUGOS) was formed in 2007. CUGOS acts as the Cascadia Chapter of the OSGeo Foundation.  We are an active group of members who are passionate about open source software, GIS, and our region. We have members from all walks of life, a large spectrum of business and academia, and active OSGeo members (board members, charter members, and active project participants).

It is a non-profit organization in Seattle focused on building a community around open source geospatial tools and practices see also https://cugos.org/about/. CUGOS has been around for nearly 15 years, providing a space for folks to share their work and passion for maps.

This year we’re holding the Spring Fling on April 21-22 2023, a two-day low cost event bringing together academics, professionals, students, and enthusiasts for a series of talks about Pedestrian/Bike/Transit Access, Open Source Geospatial tools, open data, and Social Justice in and beyond the Puget Sound region. The first day will be the main conference day with presentations about open source GIS projects (e.g. such projects might include but are not limited to: QGIS, PostGIS, MapServer, GDAL/OGR and OpenLayers, see also https://www.osgeo.org/projects/), the second day will be a volunteer OpenStreetMap (OSM) Hackathon in conjunction with the OpenSidewalks Project. More information to be added on the web page  soon.

For Spring Fling we are are currently putting together the program. If you are interested in giving a presentation head over to our Call for proposals page. The final program will be announced on March 21st and registration (donate as you wish) will open. If in the meantime you are looking for inspiration on what to expect in our program you are welcome to check out the schedules of these previous CUGOS Fling events:

• 2015 https://cugos.org/2015-spring-fling/
• 2016 https://cugos.org/2016-spring-fling/
• 2017 Spring Fling
• 2019 Fall Fling

We are also in the process of building these grants from donations from corporate sponsors https://cugos.org/grants/

GeoSpatial Training Services has several live classes December 5-8, 2022 at Everett Community College. See details.

NWGIS is pleased to welcome Sam Jenkins and Tyson Taylor as our newest board members. 

There are currently openings on the NWGIS Board of Directors. The following folks have expressed interested in joining the board. As a member of NWGIS, you have the opportunity to vote on the candidate of your choice. Please view them below and vote using the button at the bottom of the page.

Andrew Neuman (Oregon)

I am a GIS Solutions Architect for the City of Portland, OR. I have been working as a GIS Professional in the Portland Area for 23 years. In my spare time I am working towards an MBA with a concentration in Business Analytics from Southern Oregon University.

I've been blessed with working with some great mentors and GIS Professionals and I want to help give back to the Northwest GIS Community.

Sam Jenkins (Washington)

I am currently the GIS Administrator of the City of Pullman, Washington. Like many local government GIS administrators, I have the opportunity to work with various city departments and regional stakeholders – it’s a job that presents infinite opportunities to learn. I came to the City of Pullman from Washington State University where I worked with Facilities Services to implement their mapping platform, develop their utilities networks and fly drones for mapping and inspections. Before moving to the Palouse in 2016, I lived in Fargo, North Dakota, where I developed a GIS for the municipal power and water utility in Moorhead, Minnesota – winters are much kinder here. I came to the US in 2001, from Australia, where I was born and raised – winters were much kinder still, there.

Early in my GIS career a mentor suggested that I connect with two local GIS users groups – the Pine to Prairie GIS User Group and the Mid-west Esri Utility User Group. At meetings of these groups I learnt a great deal, everything from keyboard shortcuts to strategies for developing successful enterprise GIS implementations. I was introduced to a community of GIS users and leaders that would support and inspire my growth as a GIS professional. I was encouraged to develop GIS leadership skills, to present what I had learnt to the community, and I went on to serve on the boards of each of these user groups. The time I spent at each of those organizations was pivotal to making me the GIS professional I am today. Here in the Pacific Northwest I am looking to connect to a community both to continue my career growth and provide the same opportunity to new GIS professionals that I had. I hope to learn and serve by volunteering on the board of the NWGIS User Group.

Tyson Taylor (Idaho)

I am a GIS Solutions Engineer working at the J.R. Simplot Company. I lead the company's enterprise GIS systems by implementing GIS solutions within the company's integrated portfolio, which includes phosphate mining, fertilizer manufacturing, farming, ranching, food processing, and other agriculture-related interests. A GIS Professional with decades of experience in using esri and Microsoft stacks. I have held numerous GIS roles: Analyst (Kootenai Electric Cooperative, ID and Kootenai County, ID), esri Authorized Instructor and Manager (Boise State University, ID) , Developer (City of Bellevue, WA and Single Point Solutions, ID (Co-founder). Education B.S. degree in GIS from the University of Idaho followed by a M.S. degree in Management of Information Systems from Boise State University. Passionate about Cartography, Geography, and GIS.

I thrive in an environment where I am constantly learning new things, there is always something new and exciting going on with GIS especially in the NW. It would be an honor to serve on the NWGIS Board and I look forward in contributing to the NWGIS user group and its mission.

Vote for Candidates

NWGIS is seeking local businesses in the Treasure Valley area of Idaho to contribute in-kind donations for a silent auction supporting GISCorps (a volunteer group of mapping professionals that assist with disaster response and humanitarian projects). 

If you know a business owner in Idaho or the Treasure Valley area that would like to contribute link them to this document. 

Congratulations to Ms. Megan Selis and her 85 humanities students from Clara Brownell Middle School for being the first Oregon School to ever participate in the ArcGIS Online School competition. NWGIS helped facilitate the competition for Oregon and provided mentorship on ArcGIS Online. Despite having a late start and having no prior experience with ArcGIS Online Ms. Selis quickly got up to speed with the technology and had her humanities students create StoryMaps of an Oregon issue of their choice.

Our Oregon 2022 Finalists

• Immigration from Mexico to Oregon (State Finalist)
• Mental Health Access in Oregon
• Women's Health Clinics in Oregon
• Crime Rates/Dropout Total in Oregon
• Dollar General