Reminder about the upcoming Missoula GIS Coffee Talk scheduled for Friday Jan. 28.

This is a friendly reminder that we have confirmed the next Missoula GIS coffee talk for Friday, Jan. 28th from 10:00AM to Noon at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in their north conference room. Please enter through the visitors center. RMEF Headquarters is located at 2291 W. Broadway.

We will be having a special presentation on how RMEF utilizes GIS. Ken Wall, President of GeoData Services, has been working for years with RMEF and helping them with GIS. He will give a presentation of the usefulness of GIS in their mission. It was the feature article in the October 2004 issue of Geo-Spatial Solutions magazine. Anyone interested in GIS, GPS, satellite imagery, NGOs, land trusts, conservation, wildlife & land management, and effective stewardship should attend. It should spur productive information sharing and discussion.

Besides this presentation please bring your thoughts, ideas, and/or wishes for additional GIS related presentations for future meetings. Keep in mind we are trying to keep this as informal, non-commercial, informative and friendly as possible. So far so good!

Some ideas to date:

1. A GIS "resources" presentation – where to go for help, people to know, forum for sharing experiences, etc,

2. The convergence of GIS and Engineering

3. An update on Montana GIS data layer development

4. Professional development opportunities of the Montana Association of Geographic Information Professionals (MAGIP).

A portion of the Missoula GIS Coffee focusing on the National Wildlife Habitat Registry and collaborative tools for wildlife biologists will be broadcast in a WebEx seminar to remote sites in Montana and throughout the country. We will be joined by biologists from several regions of the US Forest Service and US Fish and Wildlife Service and non-governmental organizations. Those of you in Missoula are encouraged to attend in person at RMEF headquarters, and drink real coffee. For others you may know who would be interested in some virtual coffee talk from locations outside Missoula, have them sign up at the link below:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=5927823762

Ken Wall, Geodata Services, Inc.

Feel free to forward as appropriate.

See you there,

Bryant Ralston

[email protected]