For recognition of her years of service as the Arizona State Land Department Deputy State Cartographer and the numerous achievements she made while coordinating AGIC and its activities.

I would like to nominate Kasey Green for the Outstanding Service Award. Kasey has managed the state’s data clearing house, AZGeo, over the past several years. He is an active member of the AZGeo Advisory Committee, and he has supported AGIC with kindness and customer service in mind. Kasey recently supported ADOT with language translation functionality for improved discovery of research documents. Something that required him to perform research and coordinate with others. Kasey is a pleasure to work with and deserves to be recognized. 

I would like to nominate Sage Donaldson for the AGIC Chairperson’s volunteer award. Sage is the co-chair of the outreach committee and she has been instrumental in the success of the committee’s activities but also in its work groups. Sage took the lead on developing documentation on defining authoritative data sources for AZGeo. She has supported the logistics of AGIC quarterly meet ups throughout the state. She has supported the AGIC mentoring program with her time and expertise in the community. I depend on Sage greatly. Furthermore, Sage is kind and a big star wars and harry potter fan like I am. 

In 2019, volunteers working at the S’edav Va’aki Museum (an archaeological site and park owned by the City of Phoenix) began PMAP, the Pueblo Grande Mapping Project. The goal was to digitize archival material including field maps, data forms and excavation reports and then enter that spatial and attribute data into a geodatabase. At first the small group (5 people) of mostly retired archaeologists and GIS specialists focused on one large Hohokam archaeological site, Pueblo Grande, located on land owned by the City of Phoenix and now renamed the S’edav Va’aki Village. As more volunteers joined the effort, work has expanded to include several dozen Hohokam archaeological sites within the City of Phoenix, and PMAP has become the Phoenix Mapping Archaeology Project.

Archaeological survey, testing and excavation has been conducted in Phoenix for over 140 years. During most of that time maps, notes, records and reports were hand-written, hand-drawn, and typewritten; only in the last 20 years have digital records been available. Typically, these notes, maps and reports were not published, and few copies of the documentation from each site exist. Not only does that limit the accessibility of the information, but it creates a dangerous situation because these unique and valuable paper documents are at risk of damage, loss or destruction. PMAP volunteers scan the documents, georeference the site information and create attribute data that links the separate tables and charts found in the reports.

To succeed with such a massive undertaking – compiling spatial data from dozens of sites, containing hundreds of thousands of excavated archaeological features and examining thousands of field maps, forms, and reports – required a well-designed geodatabase that could then be made available to a wide audience of users for analysis. The City of Phoenix has agreed to host the data and make it available through Story Maps, as well as more directly to students, researchers and others with GIS training.

Through staff members at the S’edav Va’aki Museum, PMAP volunteers are able to collaborate with members of local Native American descendant communities. Hohokam sites were the villages of their ancestors and represent important, tangible landmarks that relate directly to the oral traditions and values of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the Gila River Indian Community and others.

Team Members:

• Laurene Montero, City of Phoenix Archaeologist

• Steve Rascona, Arizona Department of Water Resources GIS Hydrologist (retired)

• Mary Whelan, GIS and Archaeology

• Zach Rothwell, Volunteers with team, currently working as a GIS Developer for PaleoWest Consulting

• Doug Mitchell, Archaeologist (retired)

• Stephanie Sherwood, Volunteer with team, currently working for Desert Archaeology Consulting

• Lauren Tennison, Volunteer with team, currently working for North Wind Consulting

• Margaret Tueller, Volunteer with team, currently working for WSP USA

• Chris Caseldine, Volunteer with team, currently working as a professor with the Arizona State University School of Human Evolution and Social Change (ASU SHESC)

• Matt Peeples, Volunteer with team, currently working as a professor with the Arizona State University School of Human Evolution and Social Change (ASU SHESC)

• Chis Schwartz,  Volunteer with team, currently working for Terracon Consulting (archaeology no GIS)

Jack Avis has been a long time contributor to AGIC.  As a member of the Arizona Professional Land Surveyors (APLS) Jack chaired the APLS Geospatial Committee and led the initiative to update the APLS bylaws to include geospatial professionals. This effort was instrumental in bringing APLS and AGIC together to provide a venue for ensuring the interest of all geospatial professionals (surveyors and GIS) are recognized.

Jack also served on a variety of other AGIC workgroups including the 911 Working Group, the Cadastral workgroup (co-chair), and the State Plane Coordinate System 2022 workgroup (co-chair).

Jack has often given presentations at the annual AGIC Symposium and never hesitates to help others with geospatial guidance. He is a true professional who has continual given back to the AGIC community and deserving of the Gene Trobia Lifetime Achievement Award.