[Agenda]
Host: Michael Sherman, NCPC
[Attendees]
Action 1: Please help identify the senior official in your agency and ask them to participate in the March 16 Geospatial LoB kickoff meeting at DOI.
Action 2: Ivan will inquire about the role of USACE as a senior official in the Geospatial LoB effort.
Action 3: Please provide Alison Dishman (adishman@fgdc.gov) feedback on the proposed governance model for the FGDC.
Action 4: Please attend the FGDC Strategic & Business Plan workshop to be held at the NSGIC midyear conference on Sunday, March 19 at 8:30 a.m.
Action 5: Leslie Wollack (lwollack@usgs.gov) will send the grant language to the Coordination Group within the next couple days.
Action 6: Please send your comments on the grants language to Leslie Wollack (lwollack@usgs.gov), who will forward them to OMB.
Action 7: Leslie Wollack will post her yellow pages of agency resources to the FGDC website.
Action 8: Please contact Leslie Wollack (lwollack@usgs.gov) if you would like to serve as co chair of the FGDC Outreach and Communications Working Group.
Geospatial Line of Business – Ivan DeLoatch, FGDC
- Memorandum went out March 3 to President’s Management Council (PMC) – Deputy Secretary level
- Three Lines of Business are being created – Information Technology Infrastructure Optimization, Geospatial, and Budget Formulation and Execution
- Kickoff Meeting for the 3 new LoBs is March 16 at DOI - PMC members, invite only
- At the Kickoff - Clay Johnson, Karen Evans, Lynn Scarlett will frame the whole process and give their expectations
- OMB is reaching out to DOI to serve as Managing Partner of this LoB
- This LoB hasn’t targeted specific agencies – it includes Circular A-16 and GOS participants, targets all agencies in the federal sector
- There is a six-month time frame for the task force of senior level officials to scope and shape this LoB. We have the opportunity to help inform these decisions
- E-Gov resources will provide administrative and contractor support for this activity
- This effort will have the opportunity to affect the President’s budget for FY 08
Action 1: Please help identify the senior official in your agency and ask them to participate in the March 16 Geospatial LoB kickoff meeting at DOI.
Q: Is there a role for external stakeholders in Geospatial LoB?
A: Absolutely, they could be part of work group developing this LoB.
Comment: OMB keeps talking about duplication. Do they have an expectation of cost savings to be achieved through this LoB?
There are opportunities for coordinating and developing efficiencies. That is why it is important to have the right people at the table who understand the technical needs and uses. It is an opportunity to leverage our resources.
Comment: The geospatial profile is a great idea. The profile cross-cuts all LoB. We should discuss the geospatial profile in relation to the language in this memorandum.
The geospatial profile will be a tool to organize around. OMB will use the profile as a launching point for the work in this area.
Q: How does this affect the current geospatial profile effort?
A: We can point to the DOI approach to inform others – it won’t side track it but might influence outcomes of the geospatial profile effort.
There might be confusion about who will represent the Departments – DOD should coordinate among USACE etc. Be proactive in helping to identify your representative.
Action 2: Ivan will inquire about the role of USACE as a senior official in the Geospatial LoB effort.
Memorandum re: Designation of a Senior Agency Official for Geospatial Information – Ivan DeLoatch, FGDC
We may need to revisit the Steering Committee and Coordination Group charters to include additional agencies identified in this memo. Several agencies were mentioned that are not currently FGDC members, including Social Security administration, Office of Personnel Management and Agency for International Development. OMB is taking an E-Gov approach to this.
Imagery for the Nation – Ivan DeLoatch, FGDC
Q. How does IFTN relate back to the remote sensing work of Greg Snyder’s civilian imagery task force?
A: IFTN is focusing mainly on airborne imagery.
Comment: The Geospatial LoB might need to target both airborne and remote sensing imagery – this should be discussed.
Comment: The directive from the president on remote sensing imagery should include airborne imagery. Greg’s group has spent a lot of time on this. Please touch base with Greg Snyder so these linkages are made up front. It is important to convey these ideas in the initial scoping of this process.
EPA includes remote sensing as geospatial in grants.gov.
NDOP and NSGIC were heading up initial discussion. Greg Snyder and Shirley Hall will touch base. We need a unified front on this. We need to scope this appropriately.
Governance – Ivan DeLoatch, FGDC
[Overview] [Proposed Org]
Intergovernmental Subcommittee:
Lynn Scarlet will be sending out a letter regarding the Intergovernmental Subcommittee. The letter lists the next steps.
The Intergovernmental Subcommittee’s draft charter will flesh out the roles and responsibilities and will be vetted with community itself. It may be similar to the GOS Board of Directors (BOD).
The FY07 budget institutionalizes GOS into USGS.
Q: What will happen to GOS BOD? What can we do to ensure that level of participation continues in our ongoing work?
Q: How do we make it a permanent subcommittee that informs the Steering Committee on recommendations that they feel are important to geospatial activities?
FGDC Structural Components:
FGDC staff has listed the components’ roles and responsibilities and includes recommendations of governance team.
The intergovernmental subcommittee would provide information directly to the Steering Committee.
Comment: This is a great first step - in line what we’ve talked about during the governance process. However roles and responsibilities seem focused on federal agencies. The Intergovernmental Subcommittee will be advising the Steering Committee – whose role is federal coordination. Those outside the federal government had hoped the group would take on more of a national focus.
This is the first step. The second step is developing a charter that will be shared with stakeholders and exploring FACA. Lynn and Karen wanted to be proactive – this is the first step to formalize the process. We will continue to look at the options presented by the governance team.
Comment: Private sector and academia will be important in the geospatial LoB.
The roles and responsibilities will be formalized within the legal constraints. The FACA or additional legislation will need to be considered.
Comment: The GOS BOD was successful because Scott Cameron valued the information that the BOD provided. Will a senior level official be in charge of the Intergovernmental Subcommittee? This could be included in the charter.
Scott Cameron moved to private sector as of March 5. There have been some political changes within DOI as well.
Action 3: Please provide Alison Dishman (adishman@fgdc.gov) feedback on the proposed governance model for the FGDC.
Implementation Plan for a Multipurpose Marine Cadastre – Lee Thormahlen, MMS
Q: Can agencies use your cadastre to identify the areas where research is currently taking place?
A: It is evolving – will soon reach the point of being current, but continue to identify data layers that need to be incorporated. GOS might house the data so people can extract to build their own maps. Example – sand and gravel leases needed to take into account undersea cables. The grid is set and most of the state boundaries are computed but there are going to be ambulatory boundaries that will update with the changes of the coastline – they are dynamic.
Q: Working with states – how is that going with their individual grid systems and the National Grid?
A: Some states have moved their grid to the Marine Cadastre system. But they can’t dictate to a state what kind of grid they use.
Q: Have you looked into the standard for the US National Grid?
A: No, they are using a 50 year grid that is a legacy and legal requirement. It is a standard grid used for leasing.
Comment: Framework data development methodology standards have been developed for data exchange. You should use some of these as neutral exchange mechanisms to move data back and forth between providers.
Q: Is there DoD representation?
A: They are still looking for reps from Air Force and USACE.
Review of FGDC Standards Program of Work – Julie Maitra, FGDC
[Document] [Program of Work] [Presentation]
CAP Update – Alison Dishman, FGDC
Category 3: Fifty States Initiative grant is awarding 10 states for $50K each. This will move us forward on the Fifty States Initiative. EPA may provide funding for an additional state.
The CAP selections should be announced on March 14.
Milo – NSGIC midyear
[Presentation] [Strategic Plan] [Business Plan] [Planning Map]
NSDI liaisons (USGS) will be participating in this year’s NSGIC meeting.
Please evaluate the value of the Fifty States grants and strongly encourage your agencies to contribute to this category in next year’s CAP.
The Fifty Sates CAP proposals were fabulous. The templates that Bill Burgess is developing are going to be very helpful. Please consider funding the Fifty States CAP grants next year – this grant category will help us work with state and local governments in the future.
Action 4: Please attend the FGDC Strategic & Business Plan workshop to be held at the NSGIC midyear conference on Sunday, March 19 at 8:30 a.m.
Grant Language – Leslie Wollack, GOS
OMB passback language has included grants – asking that you highlight geospatial grants through grants.gov. But grants are handed out in different ways. The ultimate goal is that all geospatial information created by federal funding will include FGDC metadata, and be available through the GOS portal. EPA, DOJ, DHS, DOT, HHS have been involved in a working group developing grants guidance. Working with the board of grants.gov they have developed language that will go out for comment soon. OMB will send it out as a memo and you are encouraged to provide comments.
Comment: Bruce Edwards has been instrumental in creating the language – Leslie did a great job in harmonizing by agency. There is language in the passback that says that EPA has to do this by the second quarter. We need some kind of process to do this quickly. Technically EPA is supposed to have it on the website by March 31.
Comment: USDA seconds that. It would be advantageous to have grants guidance language ASAP.
Action 5: Leslie Wollack (lwollack@usgs.gov) will send the grant language to the Coordination Group within the next couple days.
Action 6: Please send your comments on the grants language to Leslie Wollack (lwollack@usgs.gov), who will forward them to OMB.
FGDC Outreach and Communications Working Group – Leslie Wollack, GOS
The FGDC Outreach and Communications Group is working to create a yellow pages of your agency’s resources – including contacts, activities, and ways to share information.
Action 7: Leslie Wollack will post her yellow pages of agency resources to the FGDC website.
John Clark serves as co-chair of the working group and will be retiring from GSA soon.
Action 8: Please contact Leslie Wollack (lwollack@usgs.gov) if you would like to serve as co chair of the FGDC Outreach and Communications Working Group.
The next FGDC Coordination Group meeting will take place on April 4. The National Capital Planning Commission will be the regular meeting location.