The National Alliance for Public Safety GIS Foundation (NAPSG) and a small group of volunteers produced a charter document to establish a working group under this 501 (C) (3) not-for-profit organization.
Here is an excerpt.
"The Goal of this Working Group is to create an international network of SAR-based GIS and public safety officials who can share lessons learned, best practices, maps/apps, and other tools and experiences utilizing GIS."
What does this mean?
This means we have representation.
After seven years of coming together as a community via the SARGIS discussion group, we finally have an affiliation to connect ourselves to. This will provide support for our yearly meeting through accountable fundraising and help us produce training materials and best practice documents. We can interact with government agencies and tell them who we are and what we stand for.
Plus this will connect us to an international community of GIS and public safety professionals who work on similar challenges may be interested in sharing best practices and collaborating.
After seven years of coming together as a community via the SARGIS discussion group, we finally have an affiliation to connect ourselves to. This will provide support for our yearly meeting through accountable fundraising and help us produce training materials and best practice documents. We can interact with government agencies and tell them who we are and what we stand for.
Plus this will connect us to an international community of GIS and public safety professionals who work on similar challenges may be interested in sharing best practices and collaborating.
Who is NAPSG?
The National Alliance for Public Safety GIS Foundation.
Their mission is "to support the public safety and homeland security communities in the advancement of data interoperability and information sharing, through geospatial technology, in support of local and national emergency preparedness."
See their website for more information: http://www.napsgfoundation.org/
Their mission is "to support the public safety and homeland security communities in the advancement of data interoperability and information sharing, through geospatial technology, in support of local and national emergency preparedness."
See their website for more information: http://www.napsgfoundation.org/
How can I get involved?
We will continue to use the SARGIS discussion group.
Howerver, over the next year we plan to:
- Host our first meeting, in conjunction with SARGIS7 (date and location TBD).
- Provide a list of software and training resources on an interactive website.
- Review the operational and functional needs for GIS in all search and rescue operations.
If any of these initiatives interest you, stay tuned for more information on how to get involved. We will need your help!
This is another major landmark in the development of the use of geosptial technologies in search and rescue. We've created some outstanding tools and trained others how to use them, but without a recognized organization to help implement those concepts into daily SAR operations, we were just spinning our wheels while visiting some very good microbreweries once a year.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.giscorps.org/documents/EvolutionMapSAR.pdf