President's Message for September 2002 Strategic…

President's Message for September 2002

                 Strategic Planning Retreat Pays Off

                 At this year's strategic planning retreat, the Board of Directors created vision
                 and mission statements to reflect the organization's focused direction.
                 BAAMA is the vital organization of GIS professionals in the San Francisco
                 Bay Region that promotes partnerships and teamwork with users of GIS
technology to improve our environment and community. The mission of BAAMA is to be the
primary forum of the San Francisco Bay Region geospatial community that provides
education for professional development; networking opportunities; leadership, coordination,
and representation- and has fun doing it. A document containing the vision and mission
statements along with strategies to that take us down this path, over the next three years, can
be downloaded from the BAAMA web site at www.baama.org/about/strategicdirection.html

Join Us

Have you renewed your membership? Have you become an individual member or sponsor?
Now is the time to respond to our recent letter. We are approaching 1000 members - an all
time high. We need your support to get there. So far about 66% of sponsors have renewed
their membership, but only 50% of individual members have done so. We are determined to
offer our membership responsive services. The details are presented on our web site at
http://www.baama.org/membership/index.html.

Volunteers Needed

Say "yes" when a Board member asks you to join an action team in support of our
strategic direction. Committees are forming to support the 2003 CALGIS Conference in
Palm Springs, and the 2004 CALGIS Conference in San Jose. Finally, there is still room
to become active in making GIS Day in San Francisco and USGS (Menlo Park), an
exciting event - put 20 November on your calendar to attend. The goal of our volunteer
efforts is to have fun networking to get productive results by using your valuable time
wisely.

We Appreciate Your Membership

Finally, we appreciate your membership in our growing body of GIS professionals who are
actively promoting teamwork and partnerships with users of GIS technology (e.g. GIS
Metadata Survey and offering vital support for BAR-GC) to improve our community. Our
August 22 education session on" Green GIS" and the upcoming October 17th
          nd


education session on "Planning and Responding to Earthquakes and Landslides using GIS"
represent actions that are consistent with our vision.

George A. White
BAAMA President