To better serve the California geospatial community, we have restructured our Hot News page into four areas: Feature News, General News, Training Opportunities, and Employment 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 Chair ( ) 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 - June 2006
FEATURE NEWS

CGIA Membership Drive 2006-2007
It's time to renew your membership to CGIA; or, if you are not a current member, to join CGIA. There are three levels of membership: student ($20), regular ($40), and sustaining ($200).

CGIA will create a special web page with Sustaining Members listings, which will link to their organization's website. Sustaining members can also have up to seven (7) members of their organization as members in good standing of CGIA. And finally, CGIA will partner with Sustaining Members to communicate messages that are consistent with CGIA's mission and strategic initiatives, using the CGIA NewsFlash and the CGIA website as appropriate.

CGIA is the only statewide non-profit organization that facilitates coordination, collaboration, and council for California's GIS community. There are many reasons to join CGIA, as expressed in the Chair's Letter to Members of April 3, 2006. You can now join CGIA using PayPal via the links on the CGIA web site, aking it easier for you to become a CGIA member. Of course, you may still download the CGIA Membership Form/Invoice and mail it in with the appropriate check payment. Join before June 16th and you will get an opportunity to vote in the CGIA elections process, which will close at 5 pm on June 23, 2006.

Outreach Workshops on the California Geospatial Framework Data Draft Plan

CGIA and Baker, on behalf of the USGS, California Resources Agency, and the California GIS Council, are pleased to have received feedback from over 75 workshop participants who have voiced their needs for regional and state collaboration on geospatial framework data. Results from the first three workshops (Santa Barbara, Sacramento, and Bakersfield) can be downloaded from the Geospatial Framework Data Draft Plan page. These are preliminary reports and will be updated and modified as additional information becomes available.

The goals of each Outreach Workshop are to:

1. Collect and document input from regional GIS collaboratives/ councils and the public on Geospatial framework datasets for California, including regional priorities;
   
2. Summarize existing geospatial initiatives such as Framework data definitions, Geospatial One- Stop, NSDI, Imagery for the Nation, NDEP & NDOP, California Spatial Information Library (CaSIL), and discuss regional GIS collaborative activities;
   
3. Identify and prioritize data themes based on statewide/ regional/ local use potential, availability relative to existing geographic coverage and distribution rights, estimated timeline to serve data; and
   
4. Capture knowledge on availability, custodians, maintenance, costs, and future hosting options of existing data sources.

The fourth California Geospatial Framework Data Draft Plan Workshop will be held at the Elihu M. Harris State Building in Oakland (located at 1515 Clay Street, on the Second Floor Room 15) for on Thursday, June 29 from 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM. Download the flyer for more details. The Geospatial Framework Data Draft Plan page also contains a link to the flyer for the fifth Outreach Workshop, on July 13 in Los Angeles.

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CGIA Forms Private Sector Task Force
At the request of the California GIS Council, CGIA is forming a Private Sector Task Force. The California GIS Council letter provides details on this task force. CGIA is requesting that those interested in joining the Task Force contact George White at during this formation phase. An email will be sent directly to private sector individuals who are current or former CGIA members. The Task Force is also open to individuals who are not members of CGIA, but you will of course be encouraged to support the coordinating organization - CGIA.

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.