To better serve the California geospatial community, we have restructured our Hot News page into four areas: Feature News, General News, Training Opportunities, and Job Opportunities. The Statewide Events Calendar is a quick way to see the major events that have come to our attention. Please email George White, CGIA Executive Director ( ) regarding any news items that you would like to see included in any of our news categories so that we can serve you better.

HOT NEWS ITEMS:
DECEMBER 2007 FEATURE NEWS

12/6/07 -- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of Teresa (Teri) M. Takai as the State Chief Information Officer. Takai, 59, of Detroit, MI, earned a Master of Arts degree in management and a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $175,000. Takai is a Democrat. Download full press release.

CGIA Award Program Nominations
The CGIA Awards are approaching. The deadline for nomination submission is December 31, 2007! Categories for nominations include:

• Chair's Award
  
• Exemplary Systems Award
  
• Advancement of Collaboration Award
  
• Outstanding Internet Presentation Award
  
• Excellence in Education Award

Remember, nominators, nominees, and winners need not be CGIA members. Nomination forms may be submitted electronically via http://arcims.gis.uckac.edu/cgia/. For additional details about the 2008 CGIA Awards, click here (PDF).

The Phase 2 California GIS Strategic Plan Progress Report

• Over 100 people participated in seven Workshops. Download summary results here.
  
• The November 2007 Monthly Status Report highlights completed tasks, while summarizing tasks to be completed within the next several months.
  
• An overview presentation of the Strategic Planning presentation workshop is now available, for review by both those that could attend one or more workshops and those that could not attend a workshop but not wish to be involved in the Phase 2 Strategic Planning Online Forum.
  
• An Online Forum for Phase 2 Strategic Planning has been developed to obtain your feedback. Please respond as obtaining your feedback is a critical final phase of our project. We invite stakeholders and interested parties to take a look at the questions and respond to those where you have a strong opinion and important evidence to supplement the information collected during the online survey and workshops.
  
• The Phase 2 Strategic Planning Data Availability Snapshot can now be viewed, both to provide a summary of the Workshop results and to assist you in responding to the Online Forum.
  

Imagery Business Plan & Best Practices Project Progress Report
CGIA is partnering with the US Geological Survey, the California Resources Agency, and the California GIS Council to develop a California Digital Imagery (CDI) Business Plan and Best Practices Report. This goal of this project is to identify best practice options for cooperatively acquiring and procuring digital imagery, as guidance for regional and other multi-participant digital imagery projects that may be conducted within California. To accomplish this goal, an inventory of major imagery projects will be conducted. Then interviews and workshops will be held based on a selected group of digital imagery projects, either started or completed within the past three years, to develop case studies of best practices and identify imagery projects that may not have met their goals. Finally, public workshops will be held to present a summary of survey and interview findings to be reviewed and included in the final CDI Business Plan and Best Practices Report. This presentation will provide summary highlights of the major findings, conclusions, recommendations, and lessons learned from the project.

• An online survey will be developed in December 2007.
  
• Workshops are scheduled for February 2008.
  
• For more details, see the Imagery Business Plan and Best Practices Work Plan, developed using feedback from Principal Sponsors (California GIS Council and USGS) and selected stakeholders that have had a digital imagery project implemented in their area.
  

CGIA & BAAMA Education Forum: "Best Practices for Financing GIS Program Sustainability"

CGIA & BAAMA Joint Education Session
January 24, 2008, 9: 00 am to 12:00 Noon
Location: City Hall, Hayward CA

Best Practices for Financing GIS Program Sustainability
Achieving financial sustainability for GIS programs has been a major challenge for most public agencies that use geospatial technologies. In response to this strategic challenge, CGIA and BAAMA are co-hosting a policy forum to encourage a dialogue among GIS professionals and interested program managers and executives regarding best practices for achieving GIS program financial sustainability.

The education session will have panel speakers representing best practice models from state government, county government, and regional consortium. A dialogue between the panel and education session participants will be held following the presentations. Presentation themes include the inter-relationship of the following facets of financial sustainability: political climate, governance approach, financial model, staffing, technology implementation, stakeholder participation, program outcomes, and lessons learned.

Come join us as we tackle how political, policy, and organizational acumen impacts the financial sustainability of GIS programs. This is where "the nexus of GIS technology and organizational structure" meet.

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CGIA extends a special "Thank You" to the California Resources Agency for their hosting of our web site. This special arrangement reflects the close working relationship that exists between our two organizations and our mutual interests in using geospatial technologies to improve government services.