AZSITE Management Meeting
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Arizona State Museum South
Tucson, Arizona
A. Call to order – 10:15
1. Selection of 2006 AZSITE Chair
a. Beth Grindell has offered to take over as chair of AZSITE, provided someone else will take the minutes.
b. Grindell as 2006 AZSITE chair approved on motion and second by Carol Griffith and Michael Barton
2. Current Funding and Status of AZSITE funds
a. Karl provided the following financial standings for AZSITE: January income approximately $18,000 plus an additional $17,000 coming. This excludes $25,000 from the BLM. Approximately $60,000 in total income.
b. Griffith reminded all that formal invoices are needed to request funding from the consortium.
i. ASM request for funds: ASM requests $30,000 to provide for Rick Karl’s position. Approved on a motion and second by Griffith and Barton.
ii. MNA request for funds: Wilcox reported that all MNA funds had been spent but that he still has data entry left to complete. Volunteers at MNA are helping digitize maps. Wilcox requested the amount of $4,000 to cover the cost of an assistantship. All other work will be done in house. Approved on a motion and second by Griffith and Barton.
iii. ASU request for funds: Barton reported that no funds are needed at this time. They are experiencing changes in the student personnel and they may need funds later in the year to hire extra help.
iv. Griffith reported that SHPO internship money will run out in June.
c. 2005 Numbers: Karl provided a report of all AZSITE users.
i. Approximately 214 authorized individuals from 46 agencies used AZSITE in 2005. Karl is already expecting a 40% increase in users for 2006.
ii. Approximately 615 electronic record searches conducted in 2005, an average of 2 per day.
iii. Approximately 18 unique searches on AZMAP per day and 15 unique attribute searches per day.
3. Database/Technical Committee Update
a. Karl reported ASM is making headway on paper submissions, approximately 200 remaining from as far back as May 2004. About 1858 electronic submissions remain from November 2004 to present.
b. Griffith reported that SHPO is still having issues with overlapping projects. They are getting caught up on legacy projects and expect to soon have a handle on current projects. They have about 100 boxes of projects to get through.
i. Karl reported that ASM is currently working to link 17 record sets to SHPO reports and projects.
ii. Griffith discussed the problem of companies using different titles for the reports they submit to SHPO and ASM. Karl mentioned this is due to the fact that ASM gets the first draft of projects while SHPO gets the final draft.
iii. Griffith reported that SHPO is starting to require all final projects to be in paper and electronic form. SHPO is not updating new BLM, ASLD, or ADOT projects under the assumption that these projects are being sent to ASM and uploaded there.
c. Karl reported the number of data without shapes: ASM has 1644 sites and 880 projects without shapes. MNA has 8129 sites without shapes. ASU has 190 sites and 106 projects without shapes.
i. Wilcox expressed concern for the missing MNA shapes. Karl reported that these shapes are missing because of the discrepancy in numbering sites at MNA. Karl said the number is slightly misleading because some shapes are there, just cannot be linked to the correct record because of the errors in numbering.
ii. Wilcox recommended a standard convention for the numbers from MNA. Karl reported that Lindsay Hunt at MNA is being consistent in using no spaces and no commas.
d. Karl reported two security issues. These issues were discussed and it was further suggested that Karl and Barton talk with the technical people at ASU to find solutions.
i. Karl and Barton mentioned they learned of some of the problems with ESRI software at an ESRI conference. Wilcox said it was important to attend conferences in order to help AZSITE find holes and problems with the programs.
e. Griffith reported SHPO maps are on hold while the student who is working on them completes her last semester. She expects they will be completed this summer.
4. Management Committee Updates
a. Status of Forest Data: Karl reported that he met with Kevin Halverson, USDA Forest in Albuquerque. Halverson and Candace Beauguard are excited about adding New Mexico data into AZSITE.
i. Karl will initiate additional contact with the Forest Service, including scheduling meetings before fire season starts and before the next public meeting in April. Wilcox recommended a representative from SHPO, specifically Jim Garrison, should attend the meeting to add more weight to AZSITE.
ii. Wilcox inquired on the status of handheld entry modules for the Forest Service and BLM. Karl reported that Dave Stephen of Pima Community College has submitted data from a handheld module and it looks good so far. Kaibab National Forest is also having some success with the handheld module.
iii. Barton suggested contracting with Stephen and Pima Community College to get the handheld module working. Griffith said it might be possible through an interagency government agreement.
iv. Wilcox suggested extending the BLM to handheld modules. Karl was nominated to look into the possibility and will initiate contact with the forest regarding the handheld modules.
b. Discussion on User Access Policies: Griffith reported the need for minor modifications to the user access policies. She has been busy approving and disapproving many applicants, but has run into several problematic situations that required discussion.
i. Griffith presented some suggestions for modifications and reiterated that AZSITE currently uses the Secretary of Interior standards when granting access to the database. These standards are required for any federal project or undertaking in archaeology, historic architecture, etc.
ii. It was decided that further discussion was warranted regarding revisions to the access policy because SHPO, ASM, and AZSITE have a responsibility to manage the data in AZSITE as securely as possible.
iii. A meeting before the next general meeting in April was suggested.
c. Distribution of AZSITE Data: Karl reported an issue regarding the distribution of AZSITE data by AZSITE users and their clients. Specifically, a CRM firm is working with Maricopa County who is also working with another engineering firm that wants the data.
i. Griffith said that Maricopa County may have access to the data, but the engineering firm cannot. The topic was deferred discussion until the afternoon public meeting.
5. Tribal Committee
a. Karl reported that SRI requested data for the San Carlos reservation. Karl reported that TetraTech requested the procedures for requesting tribal data.
i. Griffith said SHPO needs a letter or email and ASM needs a formal letter from the APPROPRIATE tribal officials. This topic will be discussed in the general meeting.
b. Griffith reported that Navajo Nation wants an AZSITE permit to retrieve Navajo data.
C. New Business
1. What’s Rick working on?
a. Karl provided attachments to the agenda outlining what he has been doing for AZSITE.
i. Griffith asked about the status of new projections. Barton reported that there are too many inaccuracies with the NAD 1983 projections to put online. Karl said that the errors would be brought up in the public meeting.
ii. Griffith/Wilcox brought up the issue of including ancestral lands as a layer in AZMAP as a way to help with Section 106.
iii. Wilcox asked if it would be too politically controversial to include ancestral land on the website. Griffith suggested that it might be possible to include only those currently recognized and that AZSITE should seek guidance from the tribes.
2. Arizona State Parks Update
a. Natalie reported that State Parks has set up the ORACLE Database, SDE, and GIS as well as the first version of Enterprise Database. They have given some money to state cartographers to make aerial fly-over maps. They are working on sub data layers including safe drinking water, SHPO data, and invasive species maps. The core structure of the application is complete and working to meet compliance for SHPO.
i. Barton suggested State Parks contact Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman about invasive species for one of the sub data maps.
D. Public Comment
a. Jon Schumaker agreed to defer his comments until the public meeting.
E. The meeting was adjourned on a motion and second by Wilcox and Griffith at 12:04 PM.
View Open Meeting Minutes from 1:30pm, February 16, 2006 Open ManagementMeeting February 2006