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Q u a r t e r l y N e w s l e t t e r o f t h e T e n n e s s e e G e o g r a p h i c I n f o r m a t i o n C o u n c i l , I n c .
TNGIC Today T o p r o m o t e e t h i c a l , p r o f e s s i o n a l a n d t e c h n i c a l e x c e l l e n c e w i t h i n t h e
T e n n e s s e e G e o g r a p h i c C o m m u n i t y
Letter from the President
Greetings TNGIC Community!
Happy Summer. I hope you are staying cool in the tremen-
dous Tennessee heat. I cannot believe my time as TNGIC
President has come and gone. It flew by in the blink of an
eye. I’m proud of what we accomplished and look forward
to all of the great things that lie ahead under Dave’s lead-
ership.
During my time as President, I tried to convey a consistent
message about getting involved in TNGIC. We’re offering
more and more Experience GIS courses. These are 100% developed, organized and taught
by TNGIC members. Please ask how you can get involved. I’m also a huge advocate for be-
ing active in your local school systems. Young students need to be exposed to mapping and
geospatial technology. It’s one of the most powerful ways we can build the future of
TNGIC. Now is the time to start thinking about ways to get involved when school resumes in
a few months.
I want to thank you for the amazing opportunity to serve as TNGIC President. I love this or-
ganization and strongly believe in our mission. If you are interested in serving on the TNGIC
board of directors, or becoming involved on a committee, please contact any of the current
board members. Becoming active in TNGIC is an amazing experience that is well worth your
time. I’ll leave you with my favorite saying that I always try to live by “All you can take with
you is that which you've given away.” Thanks again!
Marc -Marc Pearson, TNGIC Past-President
Points of Interest
TNGIC Conference 2016, p. 2-17
TNGIC Member Spotlight, P. 21-22
Calendar of Events, P. 23
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2016 Vol. 4
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2016 TNGIC CONFERENCE
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2016 TNGIC Conference Recap
The 2016 TNGIC Conference returned to the Chattanooga Convention Center after
a 9 year hiatus. Chattanooga is a destination with an outstanding convention cen-
ter and hotels, great restaurants, and attractions like the Tennessee Aquarium and
Chattanooga Lookouts baseball.
By the conference logo above you can see that UAS was the theme of this year’s
gathering. Though UAS was featured, we had a variety of great content for all.
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We offered a comprehensive agenda of presentations for all fields in GIS. Our list includ-
ed presentations such as managing the Shelby County traffic signal infrastructure with
GIS, using ESRI Story Maps for public outreach and Atlantic’s LiDAR Hydro Derivative Pro-
ject to name a few. With our wide array of topics it is certain attendees walked away with
a few “gems” to take home from their experience.
Several pre-conference trainings were offered and well attended including TNGIC’s Experi-
ence GIS in Tennessee I and II courses, a half day course on the GISCI Certification Pro-
gram (GISP), and a half day workshop on Extracting Value from LiDAR Data.
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Our opening day keynote was Woolpert senior vice president Jeff Lovin. Jeff brought good
words about LiDAR, UAS and the investment Woolpert has made into those markets.
State GIS director Dennis Pederson brought us all up to speed on state GIS coordination
and the progress of LiDAR data development in Tennessee.
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We had another great group of vendors in our exhibit hall this year. Thanks to all vendors
for sharing their time and information about their products with our attendees!
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The Map Gallery is a staple of the TNGIC conference and this years’ entries did not disap-
point. Thank you to all that contributed and congratulations to our winners!
Map Gallery Awards
Best Student Project
1st place – Nyssa Hunt - Land Cover Trends in Hyla gratiosa Presence at Watershed Scale
in Tennessee
2nd place – Becky Place – Cookeville Crime Analysis
Best Analysis
1st Place – Chuck Sutherland - Predictive Modeling of Cave Entrances Utilizing Hyperspec-
tral Imagery and Digital Elevation Models
2nd Place – Charlie Mix – A Watershed Moment
Best Cartographic Design
1st Place – Will Fontanez – Knox County Wall map
2nd Place – Shawn Anderson – Mind Your Own Annex! A History of Annexation in Tipton
County, TN Since 1998
Best Online Map/Story Map
1st Place – Rob Ealy – Mount Julliet: Our History of Growth and Development
2nd Place – Andrew Mindermann – Tennessee Valley Water Trails
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The Map Gallery is a staple of the TNGIC conference and this years’ entries did not disap-
point. Thank you to all that contributed and congratulations to our winners!
Will Fontanez
1st Place
Best Cartographic Design
Nyssa Hunt
1st Place
Best Student Project
Shawn Anderson
2nd Place—Best Cartographic Design
Rob Ealy
1st Place
Best Story Map
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Andrew Mindermann
2nd Place—Best Story Map
Becky Place
2nd Place—Best Student Project
Austin Ramsey
4H Map Contest Winner
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The TNGIC Board of Directors is the governing body of TNGIC and is elected by the gen-
eral membership at the annual conference. Newly elected Board of Directors will serve
a term of 3 years. We elected 4 new board members during the conference in Chatta-
nooga. Congratulations to our new Board members and thank you for your willingness
to serve!
Kevin Bingham, GISP
GIS Manager - Town of Collierville Kevin Bingham is the GIS manager for the Town of Collierville and
has been in this role for the past six years. He graduated with a B.S.
in Geography from the University of Memphis in 1997. He worked in
local government at Collierville from 2000 through 2003, in the pri-
vate sector as a consultant at EnSafe, Inc. from 2003 through 2009,
and in the federal government at the Army Corps of Engineers from
2009 through 2010. In 2010 he left the Army Corps of Engineers to
become the GIS Manager for Collierville.
Throughout the past several years Collierville GIS staff has worked diligently to leverage advanc-
es in spatial technology to better serve our staff and citizens. This includes the implementation
of web mapping technology, GPS data collection, mobile (tablet, phone) data collection and
maintenance, application development, and integration with other Town business systems.
These changes led to Collierville being awarded ESRI’s Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) award
in 2015.
Kevin has been an active participant in TNGIC for approximately 15 years. He has served as the
vendor coordinator for the state-wide conference and given several presentations at the state-
wide conference and the West TN regional forum. He has also been active in the Memphis Area
Geographic Information Council (MAGIC) user group, serving as a Board member for several
terms and actively participating in and helping organize the annual MAGIC conference.
Kevin lives in Lakeland with his wife, Anna, and their three boys. When not serving the citizens
of Collierville, Kevin is active with his church family, enjoys working in the vegetable garden, and
loves spending time with his family hunting, fishing, and playing in the dirt at their family farm in
Hardeman County.
Newly Elected TNGIC Board of Directors
TNGIC Board of Directors Nominees continued on page 7
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Tim Buchanan, GISP
GIS coordinator, TN Department of Environment & Conser-
vation Tim Buchanan is the GIS coordinator for the Tennessee Department of Envi-
ronment & Conservation (TDEC) and is responsible for the development, im-
plementation, and administration of TDEC's agency-wide GIS. He is also re-
sponsible for developing Maps and applications that are integrated with
TDEC's core business functions.
Tim began his GIS and TNGIC experience almost 20 years ago as the Sr.
Software Developer at Southern Digital Services tasked with "putting our
maps on the Web". In 2005, he moved to TN State Government as a GIS
Analyst in OIR-GIS Services, where he played a major role on the TNMap Project team which was
tasked with designing, building, and maintaining Tennessee's first enterprise-wide GIS .
Tim earned his B.B.A. in Information Systems from MTSU and began his professional IT career in
1990 as a mainframe programmer. His "geek & nerd" classifications were bestowed for his efforts
in the early 1980s for writing computer programs just for fun AND also being in the band for 8
years. He later received an upgrade to "uber-nerd" in 2008 but... no honorarium check.
Tim has been active in TNGIC for many years as a presenter, conference volunteer, training assis-
tant, and GIS advocate. He is also a certified GIS Professional (GISP).
Kurt Butefish
Tennessee Geographic Alliance, Inc.
Kurt Butefish is an active member of the TNGIC Board and an active
member of the TNGIC Education Committee. Kurt has undergraduate
and master’s degrees in Geography from the University of Tennessee
and worked at Intergraph Corp. in Huntsville, AL for 14 years before
taking his current position as Executive Director of the Tennessee
Geographic Alliance (TGA), a position he has held for over 15
years. The TGA is a not-for-profit housed in the Geography Depart-
ment at the University of Tennessee that is funded in part by the Na-
tional Geographic Education Foundation. The mission of the Alliance is to advance geographic lit-
eracy across the state. Since 2012, a major focus of the TGA has been to bring awareness to
stakeholders about the importance of robust Geography content in Tennessee’s K-12 curricu-
lum. In 2013, much of Geography content was removed from Tennessee’s Social Studies curricu-
lum and Kurt is working diligently with stakeholders (TNGIC, Cumberland URISA, State Department
of Education, State Board of Education, and State Legislature) to reverse this situation. Another
focus of the organization is to train teachers of all disciplines in the effective use of geospatial
technologies in their classrooms.
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Suzanne White, GISP
State of Tennessee, Strategic Technology Solutions,
GIS Services Suzanne has over 26 years of GIS experience and currently works for
the State of Tennessee, Strategic Technology Solutions, GIS Ser-
vices. Previous employers have included Amec Earth and Environ-
mental, Inc., the State of South Carolina, and The Center for the Pro-
tection, Utilization, and Management of Water Resources at Tennes-
see Technological University. During her career, Suzanne has been
a project manager, GIS manager, developer, instructor, and a GIS
analyst. She earned her BS degree and a MS degree both from Ten-
nessee Technological University. She was also an ESRI Authorized Instructor for six years.
For the past 17 years, Suzanne has enjoyed being a TNGIC member and served as the TNGIC Presi-
dent in 2008 and 2013. She has served TNGIC in various other roles including two terms as a
board member, TNGIC conference coordinator, and education sub-committee chair. Suzanne has
been actively involved in facilitating the TNGIC training “Experience GIS in Tennessee” courses.
She is also a recipient of the TNGIC GIS Champion Award. Since 2000, she has coordinated the
Middle Tennessee Regional TNGIC meeting.
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TNGIC president Marc Pearson
presents the 2015/2016 GIS
Champion award to Bill Avant.
Conference coordinator Kristen John-
sey received a standing ovation for
her work presenting this years con-
ference and was also presented a
plaque of appreciation from TNGIC
president Marc Pearson.
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Jason Duke receives the inaugural TNGIC Lifetime Achievement Award which was renamed
the Jason Duke Award by outgoing president Marc Pearson. Jason received the award for over
20 years of continuous service to TNGIC as a multiple term board member and officer.
Jason photographed with some of his current and former GIS students that attended this
years conference.
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Our second day keynote, Susan Marlow from Stantec, took us into the
future with an update on how the world’s transportation industry is
undergoing major changes. The connected / autonomous vehicle is
said to be the biggest transformation since the interstate highways
were built. Susan outlined a vision for the future and discussed how
these changes (i.e. sending your kids to school in a self-driving car)
are closer than we think! I believe there was a flying car reference
and some discussion about the Jetsons!
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The 2016 TNGIC Board of Directors
From left to right: Kurt Snider, Marc Pearson (past president), Judy Manners, Kurt Butefish (secretary),
Kim Denney, Tim Buchanan, Suzanne White, Dave McMillen (president), Jason Duke (treasurer), Kev-
in Bingham, Bill Avant (vice-president). Not present: Rick Stieg
Dave McMillen
takes the reins as
TNGIC president
and outlines goals
for his term.
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Networking opportunities were highlighted with our Wednesday night social at the Water-
house Pavilion at Miller Plaza, just a few blocks south of the convention center. The
evening featured great food and music provided by Mountain Cove.
Kim Denney of Atlantic has established the cornhole tournament at the social as a must
participate event.
Sam Moffat has run the pre-conference golf scramble fundraiser for several years and
did another outstanding job organizing this year’s event. The tournament was held at the
picturesque Signal Mountain Golf and Country Club. Along with a challenging layout,
players experienced fantastic views.
Photo credit: Bamber Photography—www.bamberphotography.net
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EXPERIENCE GIS IN TE NNESSEE
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Experience GIS in Tennessee
Introduction and Intermediate Editions
Ready to take your skills to the next level?
Check the TNGIC website for the next offering near you!
Intro
Geodatabase fundamentals
Geoprocessing essentials
Intro to Cartographic Design
Intermediate
Geodatabase Design and Creation
Spatial Data Processing— The next step Spatial Analysis—Working with imagery ArcGIS Online—The fundamentals
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2016 TNGIC GOLD SPON SORS
2016 TNGIC Gold Sponsors
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TNGIS J U NE 2016
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Be sure to check out the
Tennessee GIS Clearinghouse!
Now serving LiDAR datasets for select areas!
www.tngis.org
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TNGIC MEMBER SPOTLIG HT
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Barbara Marlin Barbara Marlin, GIS Manager Rutherford County Office of Information Technology
Barbara is originally from Clinton, Tennessee but has been living in Murfreesboro since
1988. Her journey to Murfreesboro was driven by her love for music as she accepted a
Music Scholarship at Middle Tennessee State University. From 1991 to 2000, Barbara
landed an opportunity to become a member of a band in Nashville playing the clarinet
and piano. Although her love of music never ceased, Barbara recognized that she did
not want to pursue a forever career in the Music Industry; therefore, she shifted her fo-
cus by obtaining her Bachelors of Science in Geoscience.
The Stage to the Office of Information Technology
Barbara was still beating away the paparazzi when she became a Dispatcher for Ruther-
ford County Animal Services in 1996. After 4 years as a Dispatcher, Barbara was offered
a position in Rutherford County’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) as Microsoft
Trainer. Two years passes and a decision was made to install an SVE server. Due to Bar-
bara’s direct experience and knowledge of mapping applications from her Dispatcher
days as well as her understanding of the OIT’s database, Rutherford County asked that
she manage the beginning of what would become one of the advanced and in-depth plat-
forms in the southeast. Barbara, without hesitation, accepted the challenge of managing
the SVE server and next steps of the OIT. Little did she know, a seed was planted that
would eventually lead to her current position as GIS Manager of Rutherford County OIT.
What is GIS? The Rest is History.
“My boss, Brian Robertson (Director of OIT) approached me one day and asked if I would
be interested in GIS…I thought to myself, what is GIS and what am I about to get myself
into…”
From Microsoft Trainer to Mapper to GIS Manager, Barbara found her niche. Mr. Robert-
son, Barbara and a team of nearly 20 technology professionals strive hard to support the
County IT department in one of the nation’s fastest growing counties. As stated on the
OIT website, their responsibilities and services include GIS, a government access cable
channel, an enterprise network, support of over 1,000 devices in 30+ departments, and
database / programming for 30+ databases.
Continued on Page 21
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TNGIC MEMBER SPOTLIG HT
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Utilizing GIS to Make Better Decisions
Barbara and her team think outside of the box. “Our office has come a long way. We try
to stay on top of the technology advancements and are always looking for ways in which
we can utilize GIS in order to make better decisions for the County as well as the commu-
nity as a whole. All of this, of course, would not be possible without the continued sup-
portive leadership from the County Commission and Mayor. Collectively, we ask our-
selves, are we making better decisions with the tools we employ, the data we capture,
the analysis we perform and public products/applications we release? To us, the answer
should always be yes. If not, than we are not doing our jobs.”
Motivation Station
When TNGIC asked about awards or specific achievements received over the years, Bar-
bara replied, “Our team is not driven so much by awards or recognition, it is more about
our accomplishments such as a recent project we were asked to be a part of for our first
responders.” Barbara received a call from an EMS contact asking if they could support
them in a request case specifically related to a need for funding in order to install a new
ambulance station or perhaps at least add another unit to an existing station. Without
hesitation, Barbara and her team accepted the challenge and went to work. The Ruther-
ford County OIT GIS team performed analysis of all 911 calls from last year, categorized
the calls by response times, locations of calls, etc. These calls were all based in Ruther-
ford County’s three busiest zones. By providing accurate and detailed analytics rooted
by GIS, Barbara and her team equipped these first responders with the data needed in
order to receive the Commission’s approval to fund the EMS initiative.
Barbara stated, “Helping EMS gain approval for this request is the type of accomplish-
ment that motivates us.”
Barbara attended her first TNGIC Conference in 2002. Served on the Board of Directors
from 2004 to 2007.
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS J U NE 2016
Calendar of GIS Events
Experience GIS in Tennessee
October 6, 2016—Jackson, TN
East TNGIC GIS Forum
October 6-7, 2016—University of Tennessee Plant
Biotech building
West TNGIC GIS Forum
October 26, 2016—Jackson, TN
TNGIC Middle Tennessee Forum
November 28-29, 2016—Montgomery Bell State
Park
MAGIC
November 16-17— Memphis, TN
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TNGIC.ORG
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When was the last time you were on TNGIC.org?
JOBS
REGIONAL
FORUMS
MEMBERSHIP
INFO TIPS
&
TRICKS
NEW
25
ET Map Info Users Group
Contact Reid Gryder at 865-482-7919 for
quarterly meetings in the Knoxville/Oak Ridge
area. Also at GryderRk@aol.com
Geo-spatial Information Network of East
Tennessee (geoNET)
Regional GIS users group serving the 16-county
region of the East Tennessee Development
District (ETDD) centered around Knoxville.
Non-software specific group that meets
bi-monthly. Contact Blake Sartin at
blake.sartin@tys.org or contact him at
865-342-3027.
OpenStreetMap Chattanooga Group
A group that is improving the OSM Map in Chat-
tanooga. Learn about GIS, Open Source GIS,
GPS, and maps....and OpenStreetMap. Con-
tact Randal Hale at
rjhale@northrivergeographic.com
TN State & Federal GIS Users Group
The group meets twice each year with one meet-
ing in Cookeville and the other in the Nashville
area. The focus is on statewide GIS issues re-
quiring multiple partners at a State and Federal
level. Contact Jason Duke at 931-525-4986 or
at jason_duke@fws.gov for more information.
Cumberland Chapter of URISA
Contact: Louie Greenwell, Treasurer
Serving Kentucky and Tennessee's GIS Com-
munity, The Cumberland Chapter of URISA is a
collaborative community of GIS professionals
with a local focus and an international per-
spective. Our mission is to encourage the ad-
vancement of geospatial knowledge through
education, professional development, ethical
practice and advocacy. This chapter formed in
2013 has annual meetings and local work-
shops.
West Tennessee GIS User Group
Contact Shawn Anderson at 901-476-0234 or at
sanderson@tiptonco.com. The group meets annually
usually in Jackson to discuss GIS events and activities
in West TN.
Middle Tennessee GIS Users Group
Contact Suzanne White, email Suzanne.white@tn.gov
or telephone 615-253-4799 for meeting dates. The
group has been meeting annually in the fall for many
years to discuss GIS events and activities in Middle
TN
North East Tennessee GIS Users Group
(NETGIS)
Regional GIS users group with membership open to
any person having interest in North East Tennessee
and surrounding areas. Contact David Light at
dlight@eastman.com or call him at 423-229-2189.
Clarksville—Montgomery County (CMC) GIS Users
Group
Contact Mike Wilson, GIS Manager at 931-221-7500
or wilsonm@apsu.edu for information.
Website: gisweb.apsu.edu
Memphis Area Geographic Information Council
(MAGIC)
MAGIC was established in 2003 with the purpose to
stimulate and encourage the advancement of GIS in
the Mid-South Region. Contact Justin Abart at
magicmemphis@gmail.com for more information.
Crossville GIS Users Group
Regional GIS Users group located in Crossville, TN.
Contact Rob Harrison at (931) 484-5535 or at
reharrison@charter.net for more information.
USER GROUPS J U NE 2016
GIS User Groups in Tennessee
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Vacant, Chair
Kurt Snider, Board Liaison
JOIN TODAY J U NE 2016
TNGIC Committees Sign Up Today!!
Communication Committee Our purpose is to sustain effective communication between the TNGIC membership,
the Board of Directors and the geospatial community. We produce “TNGIC Today”, the quarterly newsletter and strive to improve the communication throughout TNGIC through:
• Newsletter • Email New Members
Membership Outreach
Membership Brochure
Education & Outreach Committee The goal of the Education & Outreach Committee is to foster educational opportunities and promote awareness of TNGIC throughout the geospatial community. These opportunities may include: Training
Virtual campus discount link
Metadata training
GISP
Academic contacts lists
Membership map / stats
Promote / support regional meetings
Student / university outreach
• Get class curriculums
• Continuing education / graduate courses
• Invite participation at conference
• Post conference scholarship announcements
• Get school links / logos for TNGIC.org
Promote GIS day
Local government / planning outreach
YOU can provide leadership and participation by helping with one of TNGIC’s com-
mittees. Four of the five committees do not require travel. Please contact the com-mittee chair if you are interesting in joining.
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Tim Prather, Chair
Kurt Butefish, Board Liaison
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JOIN TODAY J U NE 2016
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TNGIC Committees Sign Up Today!!
Web & Data Committee The goal of the Web & Data Committee is to maintain a web presence for TNGIC and facilitate data sharing and distribution for the geospatial community.
Web master
Website link check
Data sharing TNGIS.org
Metadata server TNmetadata.org
Need data for TNGIS (shape, kml, geodatabase, image)
Check for updates to data served on TNGIS
County GIS contact list
Internet mapping sites
GIS jobs (website)
Conference Planning Committee The purpose of the Conference Planning Committee is to organize, plan and facilitate the TNGIC Annual GIS Conference. This committee handles all of the details and decisions that are required to make this a successful event for TNGIC members. Responsibilities include:
Conference coordination
Agenda/Program creation
Regonline for member registration
Student Volunteers/Student Scholarships
Training Classes
Map Gallery and Poster Contest
TNGIC Sponsorship
Exhibit Hall/Vendors
Food, Socials, Raffles, Hotels, etc…
Marc Pearson, Chair
David McMillen
Board Liaison
Bill Avant, Chair
Jason Duke,
Board Liaison
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The opportunities listed by no means limit the scope of the committees, each is as unique as its members. The committees are designed to be flexible so that what you have to offer will fit in—somewhere.
Contact a Committee Chair Today!!!
JOIN TODAY J U NE 2016
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TNGIC Committees Sign Up Today!!
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The Tennessee Geographic Council was established in 1994 to improve the links between various groups working with GIS in Tennessee. At present, there are over 400 members representing a variety of organi-zations. Tennessee Geographic Information Council (TNGIC) is a non-profit group of Geographic Information System users, designers and those who influence the use of GIS in federal state and local governments as well as private sector representatives within the State of Tennessee. TNGIC holds quarterly board meetings and an annual general membership meeting. The annual meeting includes panel discussions, work-shops, vendor displays and poster displays. Another chan-nel for communication among GIS professionals across the state is the quarterly newsletter.
JOIN TODAY J U NE 2016
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TNGIC, Inc.
P.O. Box 330906
Nashville, TN 37203
Write for TNGIC Today!! Email the Editor, kurt.snider@gmail.com
to submit articles or for more information.
www.tngic.org
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