2000-2001 Executive Director Report
by James R. Plasker
Editor's Note: This report was given by Mr. Plasker at the ASPRS Awards Luncheon and Installation of Officers on April 26, 2001 in St. Louis, Missouri.
As I begin my fourth year as executive director there are many highlights from the past year I would like to share with you. First, let me express my continued appreciation for the support that the officers, Executive Committee, Board, and the staff have provided during this significant time in our Society's existence. Without the many extremely good ideas, and the extra effort afforded by each of these groups, the past year would not have been anywhere near as productive. This report will highlight accomplishments and address issues related to finances, headquarters computer and web modernization, staff development, programmatic changes, publications, and meetings and conferences. If I have not addressed an item of your particular interest, please let me know and I will gladly provide you with additional information.
Financial Issues
During 2000-2001, we continued to experience a financially healthy organization. For the third year in a row we did not need to use the available line of credit during the traditionally low cash flow period in late summer. For the second year in a row we also did not need to utilize any of our operating reserve funds. In fact, we continued to reap the financial benefits of conservative fiscal strategies and a very successful annual conference in Washington, DC.
The Board moved to utilize the resulting 2000 surplus funds to increase ongoing investments in the Society's future. For instance, we prepaid the publication of the Commercial Observation Satellites book, set aside funds for minor construction in 2001 to improve headquarters efficiency, and set aside additional matching funds to support the building fund drive. In addition, we continued systematic payments to the ongoing Capital Investment and ISPRS reserve funds.
The Building Fund Drive initiated in early 2000 has been an outstanding success. Roger Crystal led the overall effort, and Lawrie Jordan and Bruce Rado worked to recruit sustaining member donations. Overall, between early 2000 and early 2001, the Drive netted $30,000 in corporate donations, in excess of $20,000 in individual and regional donations, and $20,000 in matching donations. The Building Fund drive, combined with ongoing payments from operating accounts, resulted in a decrease in the Building mortgage balance from approximately $350,000 in January 2000 to $256,000 in February 2001, a net decrease of nearly $100,000. The Board set aside an additional $10,000 in reserve in December 2000 to be used to match donations from members and regions toward future payment of the first mortgage, and authorized a continued building fund drive effort again in 2001. The goal remains to pay off the mortgage no later than 2008 when the current note will come due.
Roger Crystal also led a very successful past-president's fund drive to replace the headquarters' conference room chairs. The existing chairs had become dangerous due to age and use, and the replacement effort resulted in twelve new conference-style chairs. Recognition of all past-presidents contributing to the conference room over the years will be noted on a new wall plaque.
In other financial news, account receivables remained essentially current throughout the year, as did account payables. Our budget and cash flow for 2001 look solid at this time, with the results of the St. Louis conference being critical to our overall health. Publication sales have been steady, as we have seen the benefit from several new offerings in the field of photogrammetry, strong booth sales at the ISPRS Congress in Amsterdam, and the volumes of the Manual of Remote Sensing. We continue to meet projections for Advertising, and Dues revenue appears to be growing slightly, with renewal rates in excess of 90% again in 2001, a continued indication that the Society's health is returning.
Communication Technologies and System Upgrades
As many of you know, the Society benefited greatly from the generous assistance by Sustaining Members Intergraph (now Z/I) Corporation and Microsoft Corporation to modernize our office systems during the past two years. Combined, the two Sustaining Members provided nearly $50K worth of in-kind donations to support the modernization effort, and Microsoft has continued to provide software updates. We continue to benefit from these corporate "good citizens" with upgrades to both hardware and software in a timely manner.
These technologies and support have been critically important as we have modernized our membership system and have implemented e-commerce solutions to enhance our online services. The modernized system, including the membership software, facilitates Web services to both members and the general public alike, including a members-only area, online directory, online and real-time publication of the "Resource Guide" and the list of certified mapping scientists and photogrammetrists. In addition, e-commerce capabilities, including meeting registration, dues collection, new member applications, directory updates, etc. are supported by the new systems.
On line publication sales continue to grow, with approximately 25% of sales in March coming from the web. In addition, nearly a third of 2001 dues renewals occurred online, and planned upgrades will make that process even more efficient both for members and headquarters staff. We routinely utilize the selective email capabilities to target messages to students, individual divisions, and to support regions in their communication efforts.
Region, Committee and Division rosters are currently being served live online. In addition we relocated our main web site from a server in Virginia to a server collocated on the Missouri campus with the Webmaster, Jim Hipple. This has enabled us to provide no-cost web hosting support for all ASPRS entities, with individual control over content located at the region, division and committee levels.
Staff Development
First, let me again tell you what a dedicated and hard working group the headquarters staff is-a situation with which both your officers and the Executive Committee are very familiar. They continue to work very hard to serve and support the Society's membership and the profession as a whole. The past several years have not been an easy time for the staff, and they have needed to make many and continuous changes to support the strategic vision of the volunteer leadership.
We have continued staff development, including both formal and informal training on each of the new systems. We are very proud to have supported, through time allocation and tuition sharing, the graduation of Rae Kelley, Communications Production Manager, with a degree in graphics design.
We have continued our effort to improve and expand services, with the staff contributing very clever implementation and extensions of office system capabilities. We have continued to clean up and organize headquarters with enthusiasm, or at least without complaint. We are also now preparing to undertake minor construction to improve our operations and office environment. This effort will result in collocation of similar activities and functions, slightly expand the conference room, and eventually relocate the front entrance to the office suite.
Staff-based conference management responsibilities have increased significantly since the pre-Tampa era, and every staff member has borne a greater workload. As evidenced by the success of the Washington, DC meeting last year and the St. Louis meeting this year, I believe the staff deserves to be commended for their dedication to ASPRS.
With the very tight employment market, and the fact that ASPRS is a small association with limited growth potential, staff changes are inevitable. During 2000, Carolyn King, whom many of you knew as our membership assistant, left to pursue other opportunities. Connie Bitanga has replaced Carolyn in the membership department in addition to handling cash receipts accounting. Connie is talented in both systems operations and has a keen understanding of the need for overall process improvement.
As a means to offset a growing workload on our outside accountant, and to bring strength to our financial management, Lindey Brown has joined us as finance manager. Lindey is a CPA, and is working closely with Connie to develop modernized processes to streamline transaction processing.
We continue to employ as interns several very talented high school students, and recently added a college student, Susana Crespo, to assist in reviewing our outreach material directed at students and to determine how the messages could be improved. Susana will be with us through the summer, and then will enroll in Clark University graduate school to study geographic information science.
Kim Tilley continues to serve the Society as assistant executive director and director of communications. Kim recently completed an outstanding five years with ASPRS, and we hope she will be here for at least another good five years, if not longer.
Please join me in recognizing the dedicated efforts of the staff, for without them very little would get done.
Program Initiatives
We continue to address external issues and proactively work to address areas of concern to the overall community. Consequently, we continue to grow in relevance, with the combined voice of our membership being heard on a wide variety of subjects.
We contributed to the final determination of industry codes for the North American Classification System, working in collaboration with our colleagues in Canada and Mexico and at the request of the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Labor, and State. This effort, undertaken in cooperation with the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) and the Management Association of Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS), provides the foundation for the final classification codes for the geospatial information industry and will be first used in the 2002 economic census of the US. We anticipate that data derived from the next economic census to be very useful in quantifying the size and scope of the industry, and support future decisions concerning investment in our technology and profession.
Since delivering an excellent report on the review of existing camera calibration capabilities in the U.S. Geological Survey, we have continued to monitor the agency's activities and make recommendations for future investment in the USGS Optical Science Laboratory and its operations. We continue to offer the advice and service of the community as USGS moves forward with budget and technological developments.
We monitored the budget situations in several federal agencies, including NASA, USGS, NOAA and NSF. We expressed concern in situations where Congressional actions would negatively affect our profession, particularly in the research and commercial areas. We supported NOAA in their request for assistance in developing outsourcing strategies that serve the programmatic objectives of the agency, and assisted NIMA in broadening their search for expert advice in the areas of hyper-spectral and multispectral sensors and related software processing.
We continued the ten-year industry forecast effort under the Space Act Agreement with the NASA Commercial Remote Sensing Program, completing the first phase focused on the producer segment. The effort is multi-phased and multi-year, but preliminary results are already assisting the community in a variety of ways. Early survey results showed an estimate of the industry size at over $2.2 billion, with a growth rate of 10-15% per year. Major market segments have been outlined, and a good picture of the industry population and company size range portrayed. More information on survey results is available at http://www.asprs.org under the News and External Affairs tab.
Working with six other organizations, ASPRS addressed a series of issues of concern to the geographic information system (GIS) user community related to the NCEES Model Law on Surveying. Completed through 32 two-hour telecons, comprising nearly 650 hours of professional deliberation, the GIS/LIS addendum to the original Task Force report was delivered to NCEES in late 2000. NCEES accepted the report, and has begun an effort to incorporate the recommendations into future versions of their policies and the model law. As a member of the Professional Organizations Liaison Council of NCEES, ASPRS will fully participate in the NCEES process through our representative, Karen Schuckman.
The Certification Program continues to do well, with increased applications and greater visibility, both within ASPRS and throughout the broader community. To that end we have improved the accuracy of published information about certified professionals through the web search functionality, and have improved the timeliness and processing of applications. The examination-based certification puts the ASPRS certificate on general parity with state licensure. This has lead several states to consult ASPRS to obtain examination materials in support for the implementation of the recently modified Model Law on Surveying published by the National Council of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCEES).
The Education Initiative articulated by the ASPRS Education Committee continues to be well received. We implemented a "Partners in Education" program in late 2000 to facilitate support for the overall ASPRS education agenda. Participants to date in this important program include ERDAS, SPOT Image, and ESRI, with several other organizations currently under consideration. Education activities supported by the program include the continued operation of the Remote Sensing Core Curriculum, development of the 2000 and 2001 Conferences on Remote Sensing Education, and, most visibly, the production of a very well received career brochure.
Membership retention has been better the past several years than for some time. While we will always lose a few members due to occupational changes and changes in the industry, we believe that by providing quality service to the members, and being highly relevant in the profession and the community we can maximize our retention and continue to attract new members. Our goal must be to grow our membership numbers, and we need help from every member in each of the sectors. Please take a moment to make the most important contribution you can achieve for the Society-by recruiting a member or two. Better yet, strive to recruit ten members and win the Ford Bartlett Award.
We continue to increase publicity concerning the availability of awards and scholarships, and this year had another good group of applicants. It is our continuing goal to ensure that successful candidates are identified for each award, and that the competition for scholarships is enhanced. This effort will continue into 2002 as we implement recent decisions and actions. Again, every member can assist by recommending to those qualified, especially the students, that they apply for these very valuable awards and scholarships.
Publications
Our world-class journal, PE&RS, continues to do very well both in technical content and advertising revenue. We have begun to transition the Editor-in-chief position from Stan Morain, who has done an outstanding job over the past years, to Jim Merchant who I am confident will do an equally outstanding job. Stan and Jim, together with Kim Tilley and Jim Case, make an excellent Journal management team. Robyn Gleasner contributed many hours of expert service as manuscript coordinator, but is now ready to move along with her professional career. We wish her well as she does.
Advertising revenue from PE&RS is a critical resource for ASPRS, and the support shown by the sustaining members through the Journal continues to be very much appreciated. We are committed to maintaining PE&RS as robust as possible, and have fully linked the non-refereed portions of the Journal to the web site. With the implementation of the full e-commerce web site, we continue our plan to make available full electronic versions of the technical articles via a members-only login capability in the future. Of note, we have placed our first commercial advertisement (Kodak) on the web site, and we view this action as an experiment both for the advertiser and for the Society.
We are very pleased with the recent co-publication, with RAND Corporation, of the book Commercial Observation Satellites - At the Leading Edge of Global Transparency. Rand is a well-regarded Washington think-tank, and brings strong credentials in the policy area to the book. By marrying those credentials with ASPRS' strength in the technical aspects of remote sensing, we believe this book will serve both communities very well, and form a basis for future public debate on many aspects of remote sensing in society.
This is the first ASPRS direct-funded publication since the financial crisis of the mid 1990s, and was fully funded with year 2000 surplus funds. It is also the first time ASPRS has partnered with an organization like RAND to develop the intellectual material in the book. Initial reaction to the book as been very good, both in sales and in book reviews.
Work is also well underway for publication of a book with a working title Manual of Digital Elevation Technologies and Applications. The concept for this book was outlined during last year's annual conference, and Dave Maune has done an outstanding job as editor in developing the chapters and recruiting world-class authors. We are planning to have copies of the book available by Fall 2001, hopefully in time for the "Measuring the Earth" specialty conference in St. Petersburg, Florida.
We continue to work on additional volumes of the Manual of Remote Sensing, and are well along in development of the 5th edition of the Manual of Photogrammetry. Both Manuals are being published with John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The 5th edition will be comprised of nearly all-new material, chapter preparation is well underway, and we are looking for a 2002 publication date.
Meetings and Conferences
It is clear now that the 2000 Washington, DC Annual Conference was an outstanding success, both technically and financially. The proceeds from the conference clearly helped us make it through the year in excellent financial condition, and a great deal of the credit for the success must go to Walt Boge and his staff of volunteers. This current St. Louis conference also looks to be outstanding, again both technically and hopefully financially-and special credit must go to Co-directors Kari Craun and Dave Kreigbaum and to their team's ongoing efforts.
In July 2000, ASPRS actively participated in the ISPRS Congress in Amsterdam, with a very large and active delegation, led by (then) ASPRS President Alan Mikuni. The delegation successfully campaigned throughout the Congress to host ISPRS Commission I during the 2000-2004 period, and Dr. Stanley Morain and Amy Budge were elected as Commission President and Secretary for the period. ASPRS member Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI, was named by ISPRS as the 2000 recipient of the Brock Award, the highest honor bestowed by ISPRS, and the traditional Brock Award reception was held by ASPRS in Jack's honor. We also developed a very professional exhibit hall presence through the hard work of Director of Communications Kim Tilley, and were overwhelmingly successful in selling nearly $17,000 of books and publications while on site. The Congress was certainly a world-class event, and ASPRS's presence was equally impressive.
Last December we joined with ACSM, for the first time since 1998, in organizing a specialty conference on Practical Applications in the Geospatial Information Sciences in Providence, Rhode Island. With over 700 attendees, 55+ exhibits, and many excellent technical papers and workshops, the conference was considered a success, both technically and financially. Our thanks and congratulations go to conference chair John (Jay) Doody of the Connecticut Department of Transportation and his local committee, who worked behind the scenes, for their outstanding support.
In the plans this fall is a joint conference with MAPPS on, "Measuring the Earth - Digital Elevation Applications and Technologies," to be held October 28 - November 2, 2001, in St. Petersburg, Florida. This conference will take advantage of a reknowned hotel property (the Vinoy Renaissance), and will include an outstanding technical program coordinated by Bryan Logan (EarthData International) and Ken Osborn (USGS). In addition, the fall 2001 Board of Directors meeting and related committee meetings will occur in this venue. Exhibits and poster sessions are planned, together with local technical tours. Gail MacAulay is the onsite coordinator - get your hotel reservations early, as we are sure this event will sell out.
The 2002 Annual Conference will be held in conjunction with ACSM and the International Federation of Surveyors quadrennial Congress in Washington, DC from April 19-26, 2002. Mary Clawson is the Congress director, and ASPRS Past-president Alan Stevens is the ASPRS deputy director. Jan Gervin, ASPRS Remote Sensing Division director is the overall technical program coordinator, and this meeting should be one of the largest held in the United States. More information is available at www.fig2002.com/.
Building on the very successful conference in December 1999, planning is also well underway for the Pecora 15/Land Satellite IV conference in Denver during November 11-15, 2002. This conference will be held in conjunction with the ISPRS Commission I Inter-Congress symposium and will be titled "Integrating Remote Sensing at the Global, Regional and Local Scale." Incoming ASPRS Vice President Don Lauer is currently chairing the conference steering committee, with Tom Palmerlee (Transportation Research Board) and Stan Morain (ISPRS Commission I) co-chairing the technical program development. Watch the ASPRS (http://www.asprs.org) and ISPRS (www.isprs.org) web sites for more information on this conference as it becomes available.
In summary it has been an even busier year than last. It has been challenging at times but very rewarding to see us move from worrying about survival to becoming forward thinking in our service of the membership, the profession, and the community. While we can not become complacent, we have demonstrated the ability to plan and execute financially and technically, and to take the long-term view on both fronts.
As I said during each of my past reports, my goal in leaving USGS was to find a way to have fun-and this past year has been yet another year of fun! Thank you for all of your support - I look forward to a very productive 2001-2002.
Copyright © 2001 American Society for Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing
5410 Grosvenor Lane, Suite 210, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-2160http://www.asprs.org, for assistance select here.
(15 June 2001)