SCGIS-SD - Spring Questionnaire, Follow-Up and Plans

[Society for Conservation GIS - San Diego Chapter]

Hi SCGIS-SD Community,

Thank you everyone for showing up to the SCGIS-SD meet-up at the Buena Vista Audubon Society on Saturday, March 9th! We had an awesome time at Buena Vista Lagoon thanks to host Natalie Shapiro, the Executive Director of Buena Vista Audubon and the volunteers at the nature center. Natalie gave us a tour of the center and of Buena Vista Lagoon where we contributed data to iNaturalist and we learned about the plans for the wetland restoration project at the Buena Vista Lagoon that will convert the freshwater lagoon back to tidal wetlands. Other items we discussed:

I. Chapter Projects. We will build projects based on three themes: Conservation in San Diego County, human disturbance, and promoting indigenous cultural practices (like natural resource management). We anticipate meeting virtually to work on the projects outside of chapter meetings.

II. Tabling during “Celebration of the Planet” at Scripps Aquarium, April 20th and 21st. Kristina McCowin is leading this effort and if there is enough interest, our chapter may lead an outreach event in April that will focus on Algae supporting the new “Holdfast” exhibit. Please contact Kristina at kristin...@gmail.com.

III. Meet-up event during the ESRI UC conference, July 15th-19th. Are you interested in having a meet-up during the conference week after conference hours? Let us know if you are interested. If there is enough interest, we will organize an event.

IV. Chapter Communications. Josh Logsdon recommended several alternative ways we could communicate Spatial Community slack (waiting for approval), WhatsApp, or discord.

V. Other Events. We will share upcoming events hosted by other organizations that may be of interest to you on our calendar.  

IV. Chapter Meeting in May. Our next chapter meeting will be at San Elijo Lagoon on Saturday,  May 18th. A volunteer restoration event is planned from 9 am to 11 am and the meeting/discussion will be held at 11 am. A separate meeting invite will be sent out. 

If any of the items interest you, please fill out this questionnaire. Attached is the group photo from the meeting. Please let us know if there are any objections to posting the photo on the web.

We'd like to encourage people to be on Google Groups (this listserv) so that we can collaborate, learn more about each other's work and support each other as needed. Any questions, concerns or suggestions regarding the Chapter are welcome.

Thank you,

Lesley Handa and Jacob Helfman, SCGIS-SD Organizers

[Society for Conservation GIS - San Diego Chapter]

Hi everyone,

This is just a friendly reminder for those of you who haven't filled out the survey yet. Please do so here: https://forms.gle/W459Tx5NsThvHRwc9

Thank you,

Lesley Handa and Jacob Helfman, SCGIS-SD Organizers