A. TEXAS GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION COUNCIL
1. PURPOSE -- The purpose of the Council is to direct interagency coordination. The Council will establish goals and objectives for developing a mutually supportive environment for the use of geospatial systems at the State of Texas, and to direct the efforts. The Council will be assisted by the Technical Advisory Committee, which is composed of members from the same agencies represented on the Council.
2. MEMBERSHIP -- Council members must be executive level personnel authorized to make executive level commitments for their agencies. Appointment shall be made by executive directors of the agencies (or statewide elected official, commission, or board chair should there be no executive director). Members will select an alternate for their agency from the Technical Advisory Committee. The term of appointment shall be two years (to coincide with the biennium). DIR will request a reappointment of membership at the end of each biennium.
3. LEADERSHIP -- The Council will be served by two elected positions: a Council Chair and a Vice-Chair. The Council Chair and Vice-Chair will be elected by a simple majority of the Council, using a blind ballot in the event of multiple nominations, at the first meeting of each even number calendar year. The Chair and Vice-Chair will serve for a period of two years with the option, if elected, to serve a maximum of two terms. The Administrative Co-chair, described in IV.A.4.a. will work to support the Council.
The Chair will be responsible for managing council meetings, signing correspondence, resolutions, and proclamations, presiding over meetings of the Steering Committee, and representing the council in public meetings.
The Vice-chair will work in partnership with the chair and will be responsible, when the chair is unavailable, for managing council meetings, signing correspondence, resolutions, and proclamations and representing the council in public meetings.
A Council Steering Committee will guide the development of the agenda for both the Council and the TAC. In addition, the Steering Committee will be empowered to make administrative decisions on behalf of the Council in circumstances when it is not feasible to call a vote in a timely manner. The Steering Committee will meet once a month.
The Steering Committee will be composed of the following members based on five elected positions and four permanent working positions:
- TGIC Chair (elected position)
- TGIC Vice-Chair (elected position)
- TGIC Administrative Co-Chair (DIR State GIS Coordinator) (permanent position)
- TAC Chair (elected position)
- TAC Vice-Chair (elected position)
- At-large Position (elected position)
- TAC Administrative Co-Chair (TNRIS permanent position)
- TNRIS Director (permanent position)
- DIR Senior GIS Analyst (permanent position)
The At-large position will be nominated and elected by the Steering Committee. The At-large position may serve for a period of two years with the option, if elected, to serve a maximum of two terms. The appointment of the At-large position is based upon the need to ensure the Steering Committee represents a diversity of ideas and interests.
4. ADMINISTRATION AND SUPPORT -- The Council is sustained by its member agencies through administrative support, attendance, voting, study of issues, and participation in discussion. Two agencies, the Department of Information Resources (DIR) and the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), will provide primary administrative support.
a. DIR is responsible for providing statewide leadership in the use of information resources technologies. DIR advises agencies, sets standards, and administers guidelines for state information procedures. DIR shall be responsible for administrative tasks including maintenance of the TGIC web site, official files, and official membership lists in both hardcopy and electronic formats. The DIR State GIS Coordinator shall serve as Administrative Co-chair of the Council. This person shall chair meetings in the event of the absence of the Chairs.
b. TNRIS, working on behalf of TWDB, is the state clearinghouse and referral center for natural resource data. It serves as a state resource center for those data. TNRIS will support the Council through implementation of Council policies directed toward data collection, storage, and dissemination. TNRIS will also support the Council through administrative assistance with meetings, training, and outreach. TNRIS' representative to the Technical Advisory Committee (Committee) shall also serve as Administrative Co-chair of the Committee. This person shall be responsible for administrative tasks (meeting agendas, meeting summaries, mail-outs, room scheduling, etc.) and support to the Committee and the Chair.
5. COUNCIL DUTIES
a. The Council will meet at least once each quarter. Any member may request that the Chair call additional meetings. Written summaries will be produced for all meetings.
b. The Council will maintain strategic plans for development of coordinated, cost efficient and non-redundant GIS systems in the state. This plan will identify data layers of interagency interest, the custodial agency that will create and/or maintain the data layers, and assign time lines as well as other items identified by the Council.
c. The Council is responsible for providing guidance to the executive administrator of the Texas Water Development Board on the direction and long-term planning for TNRIS. The Council may create TNRIS oversight subcommittees as needed to assist in advising the executive administrator. The Council will help promote TNRIS as the state's clearinghouse and referral center for geospatial data.
d. The Council is responsible for providing recommendations to the Department of Information Resources to adopt and promote standards that facilitate sharing of digital natural resource data and related socioeconomic data among federal, state, and local governments and other interested parties
e. The Council will produce implementation plans which, will serve as blueprints for the direction of the interagency GIS coordination effort for each fiscal biennium.
f. The Council will act as a forum for member agencies seeking cooperative development opportunities.
g. The Council will utilize the resources of the Technical Advisory Committee to provide input and advice on technical matters.
h. The Council has primary responsibility for addressing administrative issues. These include border issues, TNRIS operations, and legislative issues. The Council may also create and authorize committees to address these and other issues, as it deems necessary to support the interagency coordination role. The Council will determine the role, size, length of duration, and membership for the committees.
i. The Council will inventory and track geospatial programs and projects with a survey. A summary report will be produced at the completion of the survey.
j. The Council will coordinate with federal agencies through the Texas Federal Geographic Information Workgroup (TFGIW).
k. The Council will coordinate activities with the Texas Mapping Advisory Committee (TMAC).
B. TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE
1. PURPOSE -- The Technical Advisory Committee (Committee) shall advise the Council in all matters related to the technical and operational issues of statewide geospatial coordination and integration.
2. MEMBERSHIP -- Technical Advisory Committee members should be a senior staff member with day-to-day responsibility involving geospatial activities at the agency. Members appointed to the Technical Advisory Committee serve at the discretion of their agency. It is the responsibility of TAC members designated as the agency alternate to TGIC to function as a liaison between their agency and the Technical Advisory Committee.
3. LEADERSHIP -- The Committee will be served by two elected positions: a Chair and a Vice-Chair. The Chair and Vice-Chair will be elected by a simple majority of the Committee, using a blind ballot for multiple nominations, at the first meeting of each even number calendar year. The Chair and Vice-Chair will serve for a period of two years with the option, if elected, to serve a maximum of two terms. The Administrative Co-chair, described in IV.B.4, will work to support the Committee.
The Chair will be responsible for managing TAC meetings and representing the committee in public meetings.
The Vice-chair will work in partnership with the chair and will be responsible, when the chair is unavailable, for managing TAC meetings and representing the committee in public meetings.
4. ADMINISTRATION AND SUPPORT -- The Committee is sustained by its member agencies through administrative support, attendance, voting, study of issues, and participation in discussion. A designated TNRIS representative to the Committee shall also serve as Administrative Co-chair of the Committee. This person shall be responsible for administrative tasks (minutes, mail-outs, room scheduling, etc.) and support to the Committee and the Chair. This person shall chair Committee meetings in the event of the absence of the Chair. Both DIR and TNRIS will supply additional primary administrative assistance as required.
5. TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE DUTIES
a. The Technical Advisory Committee will meet at least quarterly. The Technical Advisory Committee will facilitate agency efforts and provide policy recommendations to the Council on implementation of GIS related technologies.
b. Agency GIS related activities shall be reported in the Technical Advisory Committee meetings and appropriate summary information shall be conveyed to the Council.
c. The Technical Advisory Committee will facilitate interagency communications and provide policy recommendations to the Council on Census TIGER file updates.
d. The Technical Advisory Committee has primary responsibility for working on technical issues. These include standards, geospatial data acquisition, and data exchange. The Technical Advisory Committee may form subcommittees as required to address these or other issues. Chairs for the subcommittees must be Technical Advisory Committee members or alternates. Other individuals from state agencies, local governments, and academia with technical experience in appropriate technologies may also join and vote on Technical Advisory Committee subcommittees.
e. The Technical Advisory Committee will review data development or revision plans submitted by base map or other data layer custodians in an effort to ensure their consistency with interagency strategic plans and approved standards, and report results and make recommendations to the Council.
f. The Technical Advisory Committee will advise the Council on the best and most efficient methods to ensure custodial roles of agencies are met so that data are updated, distributed, and made available to the public.
