TNGIC! Wow – what a great feeling to be back in person. The board agrees and we hope you do too… that was a smashing success. First, the energy was excellent. There was not a dull moment the entire time, as folks chatted with one another and caught up on all things GIS! The presentations were interesting and informative. The venue successfully protected us from some crazy storms! No one got pooped on by a hawk, despite its best efforts…

TNGIC is nearing its 30^th year and this is entire due to the passion of the leaders that have come before us and the strength and camaraderie shared by our membership. Our membership is now roughly 450 members strong!

So how do we sustain this success moving forward?

We presented on our priorities and actions for the next year, with an opportunity for the membership to react and provide feedback with the panel discussion. That proved fruitful and we received some excellent suggestions that we plan to evaluate and carry forward.

• Expand Our Membership Base

While we have strength in numbers, most of our membership work in government or private consulting. This will likely always be the case, but as GIS technology has become more ubiquitous, we need to begin reaching out to industries where GIS professionals may be embedded. Healthcare, Airports, and the Entertainment industry all come to mind. The benefit will be that we begin creating a community that can look at how GIS technology is applied in vastly different ways and inspire one another with new ideas and applications.

I occasionally hear someone – or myself, for that matter – bemoan the idea that we don’t have time for training and professional development. We often get so caught up in keeping all the day-to-day plates spinning that we often miss the value or importance of keeping up with the industry trends and technology and planning for the future of our organizations. In the very popular book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, the late Dr. Stephen R. Covey broke down tasks into four quadrants based on 2 axes – Urgency and Importance. Training and professional development, for most of us, falls into Quadrant II – Not Urgent, but Important. Thus, the reason many don’t make time for it.