The revised Bylaws also reflect the decisions related to our stronger relationship with the chapters, such as forming the Chapter Advisory Board as part of the governance of the URISA International operating unit. The Chapter Advisory Board will lead the effort to develop a path to achieve a unified membership position by the end of 2017-hopefully sooner. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that every URISA member is a member of a URISA chapter and that every chapter member is a member of URISA. Not only is such a policy common to most professional organizations, it is also vital to realizing the Board's direction to work more closely with the chapters to deliver hands-on service to our members in the form of chapter meetings, conferences, and workshops. We want URISA and its chapters to represent two parts of a single Association, with each being responsible for those member services and activities that it can best provide.

The Board also went through a strategic visioning exercise led by Director Teresa Townsend. She had each of three groups of Board members develop a list of up to five key elements of the Association's future work plan. We then got together and selected those of the highest priority and developed a set of six areas of emphasis for URISA over the coming years. Every URISA activity needs to fit into one of these areas of emphasis. Although these areas apply across the entire organization, it is possible to identify the operating unit that will have the lead responsibility for each area. The following table presents the six areas of emphasis and identifies the lead operating unit.

Although URISA was originally formed to provide technical education and support research in the field of urban and regional information systems, half of the areas of emphasis identified by the Board deal with personal growth and responsibility. This shift in direction is a result of our having established the GIS profession over the last 50 years. With professionalism comes responsibility for ourselves, our peers, and our society. We are no longer just a technical education organization. We are now a professional association. We have a responsibility to each other, the people who use our products, and the communities we serve. URISA's programs need to reflect that breadth of responsibilities.

The Board of Directors also undertook other key decisions during the meeting. With the relocation of a senior staff member to the Washington, DC area, we will create an office in the nation's capital that can serve as a base of operations for a number of activities, particularly those of our new Advocacy Division. We appointed Past President Pete Croswell to serve as URISA's representative on a NASA committee that will review the satellite and data collection missions of that agency.   This is the first time URISA has been asked to join this deliberative body and is a direct result of the efforts of the Past Presidents Council leading up to the success of the 2012 Annual Conference-our 50^th such event.

Growing the organization is also a key activity. We accepted the application for charter to create the Cumberland Chapter to serve our members in Kentucky and Tennessee, and we charged our new International Division with identifying key actions we can take in the near term to start the process of growing our membership outside the United States. This effort begins with a strong set of ranked proposals from Past President Greg Babinski, who has been a consistent champion of international outreach.   We left Providence just as the Annual Conference Committee began its work to put together another great program for the 51^st installment of that event. You will hear more about that program in the coming months.

Our next face-to-face meeting will be held in Chicago in June. Please contact me if you have any questions about the Board's activities and the new direction for URISA.

J. Allison Butler

President of URISA

407-376-3258

abutler@mpzero.com 

• Web based addressing applications
• Site structure location  (address point) & how to show it in a GIS
• How is the MSAG going to work in a point based system?
• 911 mapping solutions - CAD/NG911 and mapping integrations
• Occupancy and alternative addressing
• Pseudo addresses - Mile posts (highways, parks, trails, beaches, campus situations)
• The economics of Addressing - how to save or make money with good addresses
• Addresses to support broadband
• URISA/FGDC and NENA Address Standards