MSGIC Members,
Over the past two years, I have seen MSGIC grow from a fledgling, non-profit organization into a robust organization providing opportunities to its membership and reaching out to develop relationships among the different entities in the State of Maryland.
Since becoming a non-profit in 2012, we have worked hard to build a direction for the organization to both grow and to provide benefits to its members. But without direction and guidance, we worked towards what was the best path we knew. Though Training and Outreach were the main directions, they are not the only direction we should be heading. At the Fall Quarterly meeting this past October, Past Chair Pat McLoughlin introduced the Executive Committee’s 3 Year Strategic Plan to the membership. This document outlines MSGIC’s mission, vision, and goals which will guide MSGIC and the Executive Committee. To see the Strategic Plan, click here.
The Executive Committee is already taking action on the 1st year’s goal: Standardize Communications. You may have noticed that the member’s area of the MSGIC website won’t allow updates to your membership information or to renew your membership. The Executive Committee is working to migrate to a new membership tracking system which should be available at the end of January. This new system is more robust than the previous system, allowing us to integrate seamlessly into the website and social media outlets, as well as with PayPal. It will allow us to standardize how we reach out to our members with the tools to provide targeted updates.
The Executive Committee is developing a budget that we hope to have in place in the next couple of months. This allows us to establish a base of what we are spending your membership dollars on. Along with this budget, we are preparing a survey to find out what we can do for the membership. At our past Executive meetings, we have talked about creating a “wish list” of opportunities that members are looking for from MSGIC. MSGIC is our member’s voice to Maryland’s GIS community, and I hope you take advantage of this by completing the survey when we release it.
Lastly, 2018 is a great time to reach out and volunteer a small portion of your time to the MSGIC organization. I am so impressed by the close-knit GIS community here in the State of Maryland. Everyone is willing to reach out and help others in projects, career enhancement, and promoting GIS in the State. Let us know if you have some time to help out by talking to one of the Executive Committee members or emailing us at support@msgic.org. Our next Executive Committee meeting is on January 10th at 9am in Crownsville, Maryland and is open to everyone to attend. Additionally, I do hope to see everyone at our MSGIC Quarterly meeting on January 26th at 9am, at the Crofton Library, 1681 Riedel Rd, Crofton, Maryland. We have a great lineup of speakers, plus an opportunity to meet with your Caucus Chair to discuss topics of interest. A full agenda will be coming out shortly.
Until then, I would like to thank you all for your dedication to helping MSGIC grow, your patience in the membership portal update process, and your continued membership with MSGIC. Without you, we would not be the distinguished, professional organization we are today.
Patrick
Patrick Callahan
MSGIC Chair
ptcallahan@co.pg.md.us
