The 17th quarterly Salt Lake GIS Users Group (SLUG) meeting was held on August 14, 2013, from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at the DNR in SLC. There were about 135 in attendance.
Business
Michael Duncan, SLUG Board
Welcome to all, thanks to DNR for the venue and the food and drinks. Food and drinks were sponsored by the Department of Natural Resources. A special note- the fresh cooked corn on the cob was provided by Mike Styler, Executive Director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources.
The next SLUG meeting would normally be on November 13th. However, this would conflict with the ESRI Southwest User Conference in SLC, which runs Nov 13-15. A vote was taken to see if people would rather cancel that SLUG meeting, or move it to another week. The result was to not cancel, but move it to another week. No date was set.
Mike Styler explained the functions of the DNR, their extensive use of GIS, and gave some examples. He had a lot of praise for the local group of GIS professionals, as represented by SLUG members.
Presentations
Cindy Clark, National Director for the Intermountain Region of ASPRS & Lloyd Blackburn, Membership Chair for the Intermountain Region of ASPRS, What is ASPRS?
Cindy and Lloyd explained that ASPRS (American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) recently subtitled the “Imaging and Geospatial Technology Society”, is the national organization to belong to for geospatial knowledge and networking to enhance your value as a professional. There are several Divisions you can belong to, such as the GIS Division, the newly created LiDAR Division, and other divisions and committees. They work to guide the development of the geospatial industry. The Intermountain Region would like to invite you join this organization and widen your geospatial knowledge, and even run for office. They are planning workshops on aerial imagery and how it is gathered and another workshop on what LiDAR is and how it can be used.
Buck Ehler, GIS and Technology Manager, Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands ew historical Aerial Photography available from UGS, Urban Tree Canopy Assessment and Tree Inventory Data Collection
Buck explained how they have been working with building an urban tree inventory app using ArcGIS Collector.
GIS Humor
Buck Ehler, DNR
Buck showed a short video where people in a small town sing about salting Slugs, with a lot of funny imagery. Watch it here. Check out our Geography Humor page, where most of the humor videos we have shown at SLUG meetings can be accessed.
To our presenters and our sponsor, “Thank you!” And thank you for your interest and support!