This meeting took place in Jackson, MS. There were 16 attendees.
Review MAST Board Meeting Minutes from 10 Jan 2020
MAST members expressed support for awarding Walter the Lifetime Achievement Award.
MAST members expressed support of MAST moving to become a non-profit.
Discussion of Legislative Bills
House Bill 566
This bill would amend state boundaries to be closer to the shore than they currently are.
Senate Bill 2282
This bill looks at increasing exclusions for UAV regulations.
House Bill 495
Create the Mississippi Emergency Telephone Service Charges Committee.
Investigating charges to the State of Mississippi for emergency telephone service.
Lots of involvement by energy utilities.
Senate Bill 2330
Additional funding for Emergency Communications Districts
Senate Bill 2216
State agencies will have to “manage and maintain information, date and datasets†as open data.
If passed, agencies must have a plan in place by June 2021 and start implementing that plan by June 2022.
Scott Delano of the Mississippi Senate asked for MAST’s thoughts on the bill.
- Some state agencies expressed concerns about hosting the data, especially in more rural areas.
- There were questions in regards to how frequently the data would need to be updated.
- How would perpetually-ongoing projects be handled? (i.e. MSDEQ, MDOT).
- Recommended that they be updated annually
- Would the data be hosted just from implementation onward, or will it be retroactive as well?
- MAST suggests the formation of an inter-agency committee, should the bill pass, to foster cooperation between agencies in developing implementation plans.
Open Forum
Geoforum
MARIS has created a forum for the geospatial community in the state of Mississippi.
There are various boards for focused discussions.
It is free to register and participate.
NENA
NENA has drafted a GIS Stewardship document. The template is available through them.
NSGIC
The National States Geographic Information Council will have their Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA on September 21 – 25, 2020.
MGC
The Mississippi Geospatial Conference will be held October 15th and 16th at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Long Beach, MS Campus.
MDEQ
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality will have a database of all the levies in the state, including FEMA and Corp of Engineers levies.
They will also be doing a statewide survey of all parcel data.
DMR
The Department of Marine Resources is working on a new coastline map using LiDAR, as well as remapping all coastal floodzones.
NOAA has a 2018 topographic map of the Mississippi Coast as well.
MAPDD
The Mississippi Association of Planning and Development Districts is currently looking at a new GIS Analyst.
They have a new building under construction.
Almost all of the viewers in their portal have updated to HTTPS.
The Annual MAPDD Conference will be held at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, MS on April 28th – May 1st.
ArcGIS Pro
As ArcGIS Pro becomes a more prominent tool, there is an increased demand for accessible training materials on how to use the software.
