We’re excited to announce that a virtual option will be available for Day 2 (Friday, June 27th) of the MSSCAUG and MAST Joint Meeting. This gives those who are unable to attend in person the opportunity to participate remotely via Microsoft Teams.
To attend virtually, please register using the link below and select: “I will attend Day 2: Via Microsoft Teams (Virtual)”
We’ll be having our last General Meeting of 2024 this Friday, December 13th at 12:00 PM! Join us to connect with the geospatial community and round out another excellent year.
Know someone who may be interested? Forward them this e-mail to invite them! MAST is about growing the geospatial community in the state and connecting with each other to collaborate and share information.
Not on the mailing list? Click here to sign up! You’ll need to confirm the generated e-mail to complete the process.
Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you there.
The Mississippi Geospatial Conference starts next Thursday, October 10th!! The registration table will open at 9 AM. Further details are available in the agenda below.
The conference will be held in the Fleming Education Center (FEC) on the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Park Campus. The address for the conference is:
Location: https://goo.gl/maps/1Fa7FURWQuSpXnnr8 USM Gulf Park 730 Beach Blvd. Long Beach, MS 39560
The Mississippi Geospatial Conference coincides with a large coast wide event, Cruisin’ the Coast, which will likely cause delays and heavy traffic on Hwy 90. We suggest taking an alternate route and using the entrance at E Railroad St and Beach Park Dr.
The attached parking pass below is required to be printed and placed on the dash of your vehicle while parking on the USM campus. For your convenience, additional parking passes will be available at the registration desk. A campus map is also attached. If you have any questions, please reach out to leadership@mastgis.org.
Attendance for this conference is free for students – though they must register. This year, the conference will be Thursday, October 10th and Friday, October 11th. It will take place at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Park Campus in Long Beach, MS.
This year, the scholarship will be as follows –
First place – $500 award
Second place – $250 award
More information about the poster competition, including the judging criteria, can be found in the PDF attached to this e-mail.
If you know any students or educators, please pass this information along! Creating and investing in opportunities for new spatialists is a great way to ensure continued growth in our geospatial community!
Elections will take place at the Mississippi Geospatial Conference on October 10th and 11th. Nominations will be closed at 5PM CST on Friday, October 4th.
Please join us in Honoring 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Kevin Schultz
Kevin has more than 37 years of experience in the geospatial information technologies industry and more than 20 years of experience in conducting business analysis and developing software requirements. He is a founding member of the Mississippi Association for Spatial Technologies (MAST), a Certified GIS Professional (GISP), an Entellitrak Certified Administrator (ECA), and a Certified Scrum Master (CSM). Kevin earned a BS degree and an MS degree in Forestry, with a specialization in Outdoor Recreation Resource Management and a Minor in Plant and Soil Science, from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1982 and 1989, respectively. After finishing his graduate studies, he started his career in December 1985 working at the U.S. Army Engineer (USAE) Waterways Experiment Station (WES) in Vicksburg, MS and worked there for more than 3 years. With his mentor, Dr. Bruce E. Davis, Kevin co-developed methodologies for use in allocating resources and minimizing conflicts (e.g., cultural, natural resource, forestry, wildlife habitat, and military use) for Fort Benning, GA. As part of this work, he co-authored a paper titled “Conflict Resolution for Natural Resource Management”, which he presented at the GIS/LIS ’88 Proceedings: Third Annual International Conference, Exhibits, and Workshops in San Antonio, TX.
In January 1989, Kevin joined Dr. Davis at Jackson State University (JSU) where they established the Center for Spatial Data Research and Applications (CSDRA), conducted research, developed GIS and Remote Sensing databases and applications, and taught GIS and Remote Sensing classes. He and Bruce co-authored the “Geographical Information Systems: A Primer” as a Final Contract Technical Report for the USAE WES Information Technology Laboratory, which included a comprehensive bibliography. In July 1990, Kevin began working for the JSU Biology Department, where he continued teaching science classes and helped establish an interdisciplinary Earth System Science (ESS) academic curriculum, a community outreach program for minority students, and an Earth Observing System (EOS) research program. He conducted GIS and Remote Sensing workshops and hands-on training sessions for participating ESS faculty and students.
For the next 12.5 years, Kevin worked as the GIS Manager for the City of Jackson, MS, Waggoner Engineering, Inc., Sverdrup Technology, Inc., the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System (MAWSS), the City of Gulfport, MS, and the MS Department of Marine Resources (DMR).
For the City of Jackson, he managed all municipal GIS-related activities, digitized Hinds County tax/parcel maps, established RFP requirements and evaluation criteria for a citywide digital orthophotography and digital planimetric mapping project, and gave William “Sonny” Beech his first full-time job before he joined Geographic Information Services, Inc. (GISinc (now Axim Geospatial)) and ESRI.
For Sverdrup, Kevin worked on several projects, including developing an Environmental Site Management System (ESMS) for Environmental Management Services, Inc. to better visualize and manage their hydrological and geological datasets, boring logs, soil lithology/geology, water flow measurements (well and groundwater treatment system), laboratory chemical analysis, contaminant plumes, and remediation activity results.
For MAWSS, he developed long-range GIS program goals, objectives, and resource allocations and supervised, coordinated, and managed all GIS activities for scanning engineering drawings and using digital orthophotography to update GIS planimetric base map data layers and utility features.
For the City of Gulfport, he managed all municipal GIS-related activities; established RFP requirements and evaluation criteria for the citywide digital orthophotography acquisition, chaired the City’s GIS Policy Committee, served as the 2001 & 2002 ESRI SCAUG MS State Representative, used digital orthophotography to update planimetric feature data layers and critical infrastructure data layers, supervised the 2003 City of Gulfport Redistricting Plan, and helped organize, host, and conduct “GIS Day 2001 at Gulfport High School”. Kevin also gave David “The Kracken” Hansen his first internship to help the city with its street address updating tool.
For DMR, Kevin supported the Comprehensive Resource Management Plan (CRMP) Bureau, participated in regular coordination meetings with the MS Coast GIS Consortium (6 coastal counties and 15 cities), and provided geospatial data layers, ArcView, PCs, and technical support to the MS Coast GIS Consortium. He planned and coordinated GIS training program with PRCC, MGCCC, USM GCRL GCGC, and USM Center for Higher Learning. He served as the 2003 & 2004 ESRI South Central Arc User Group (SCAUG) MS State Representative and organized, hosted, and conducted “GIS Day 2002 at DMR” and “GIS Day 2003 at USM Gulf Park – Long Beach”. Kevin developed aerial photography/digital imagery, scanning, and georeferencing requirements for a seagrass mapping project and designed, conducted, and supervised GPS ground control point and seagrass habitat point field data collection on / around the MS Barrier Islands for georeferencing aerial imagery. In 2003, he co-authored the paper titled “Coastal Mississippi Land Development Suitability Model” in the “Twenty-Third Annual ESRI International User Conference Proceedings” and presented it at the conference. At the CRMP Coastal Development Strategies Conference in 2004, he and Jeffrey Taylor presented the “Harrison County Smart/Sustainable Growth Plan”. Kevin also provided input for 2 of the state’s Geospatial Framework layers – Orthoimagery and Cadastral.
For the next 5.5 years, Kevin served as the Proposal Manager for 3001 International, Inc. and NVision Solutions, Inc. He worked for 3001 for 5 years and achieved a 60%-win rate for proposals greater than $1M and a 50%-win rate for proposals less than $1M. While he was with NVision, he authored an article in 2009 titled “NVision Adapts HazNet Emergency Management System for NASA Projects” in the NASA Technology Innovation publication and gave a presentation titled “Post-Katrina Emergency Response Data Sharing” at the 2009 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting / Conference, Las Vegas, NV.
After leaving NVision, Kevin did some consultancy work for GISinc before he joined General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) in November 2010. For 11 years, he supported the US Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) & Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in the petroleum industry. He served as the Principal Business Analyst for overall IT and GIS requirements and application development for 9 years. For the last 2 years, he served as the Program Manager on the BSEE Geotechnical Data Management Services contract. In January 2021, he began supporting the USDOI Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) enterprise ECOSphere application based on the Entellitrak Case Management solution and specifically supported the Fish and Aquatic Conservation (FAC) Program’s Fisheries Information System (FIS).
As a reminder, students who register are also eligible for the Mike Miller Memorial Scholarship. Scholarships will be awarded to the winners of the student poster competition. Students who wish to present their research are invited to do so as well, but entering the poster competition is a requirement to be eligible for the scholarship.
This year, Board Elections will be held for the offices of President, Vice President, and 5 Board Members. To nominate someone, e-mail leadership@mastgis.org, and we will add them to the ballot. Nominations will be closed at 5PM CST on Friday, October 4th.
Know someone who may be interested? Forward them this e-mail to invite them! MAST is about growing the geospatial community in the state and connecting with each other to collaborate and share information.
If you have any questions about the conference, feel free to reach out. We look forward to seeing you there.
Not on the mailing list? Click here to sign up! You’ll need to confirm the generated e-mail to complete the process.
The University of Southern Mississippi campus is located at 730 Beach Blvd E, Long Beach, MS 39560 .
The conference will be held in the Fleming Education Center indicated by #4 on the attached map.
This year’s Mississippi Geospatial Conference ( October 10th and 11th ) overlaps with Cruisn’ the Coast ( October 6th – 13th ). This annual event is driving up hotel prices. For those who are coming to the coast and staying in a hotel, we recommend looking a bit north of where you might typically stay, then driving down in the morning for the conference.
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