Final Project Report – Category 3 – Hawaii Geographic Information Coordinating Council
Date: September 30, 2009
Agreement Number: 08HQAG0009
Project Title: Strategic and Business Plan Development for the Hawaii Geographic Information Coordinating
Council (HIGICC)
Organization: Hawaii Geographic Information Coordinating Council
P.O. Box 10678
Honolulu, HI 96816
www.higicc.org
Principal Investigator:
Ron Salz, Past President HIGICC (2007-2009)
(808) 257-5838
Arthur J. Buto, President, HIGICC (2009-2010)
(808) 587-0423
Collaborating Organizations:
• NSDI Partnership Office
USGS Geospatial Liaison, Hawaii and Pacific Basin Islands
Henry B. Wolter, [email protected]
http://hawaii.wr.usgs.gov/
, 808-587-2409
• State of Hawaii, Office of Planning, GIS Program
Craig Tasaka, [email protected]
http://hawaii.gov/dbedt/gis/
, (808) 587-2894
• County of Hawaii
Lisa Nahoopii, [email protected]
http://co.hawaii.hi.us/maps/gis/gis.html
• City and County of Honolulu, Department of Planning and Permitting
Ken Schmidt, GIS Manager, [email protected]
http://honoluludpp.org/gis/
, 808-768-8057
• County of Kauai
Lea Kaiaokamalile, lkaiaokama[email protected] (808) 241-6677.
• County of Maui, GIS Program
Bill Medeiros, Geographic Services Manager, [email protected]
http://www.mauicounty.gov/index.asp?nid=972
, (808) 270-7518.
• Pacific Disaster Center
Chris Chiesa, Chief Information Officer [email protected],
http://www.pdc.org/
, 808-891-0525,
• ESRI Hawaii and Pacific Office
Royce Jones, Manager, [email protected]
http://www.esri.com/
, 808-947-0993
P. O. Box 10678, Honolulu, Hawaii 96816-0678
www.higicc.org
P. O. Box 10678, Honolulu, Hawaii 96816-0678
www.higicc.org
Executive Summary
With input from the Hawaii geospatial community, a unified vision of the role of the Hawaii Geographic
Information Coordinating Council (HIGICC) was formulated on the auspicious occasion of its 10th
anniversary. The strategic and business planning processes captured the current thoughts and desires of a
broad spectrum of participants. Funding provided through the Fifty States CAP 3 process, enabled HIGICC
to collect information through online surveys, group interviews, and individual meetings with key
stakeholders. The resulting Strategic and Business Plan goals were both internally and externally focused --
internal to strengthen the Board's governance, solidify the Council’s finances, and focus the organization's
efforts; and external to improve outreach to the geospatial and broader communities, and coordinate data
acquisition, development, and synthesis among stakeholders.
The plans were approved by HIGICC's Board and the results shared at a conference jointly sponsored by
HIGICC and the Hawaii Congress of Planning Officials (HCPO), "Building Resilient Communities"
(http://resilientcommunitieshawaii.org). There are many challenges ahead, including coordinating and
motivating volunteers, and continuing to reach out to underrepresented segments of the broader geospatial
community. But the nature of this community, these islands, is to work together to create better products and
services through stronger and more supportive relationships.
Summary of project activities
HIGICC has completed the Fifty States strategic planning process. HIGICC is an all volunteer 501c3
geographic council, with most activities funded by revenue raised through nominal membership fees. The
additional funds provided by FGDC's CAP Grant program facilitated HIGICC's planning process, enabling
the Council to hire a consultant and to gather information across the state in face-to-face meetings with
stakeholders. As a result, significant input was received and incorporated into the plans that will guide the
Council’s work in the short and long term. In addition, interested organizations and individuals not earlier
associated with the traditional geospatial data producers, distributors and consumers are now part of the
HIGICC community.
A Steering Committee, formed as a committee of HIGICC's Board of Directors, worked with consultant
AppGeo to develop the method of information gathering and a timetable to complete the strategic and
business plans. Over the course of two months, the Steering Committee held a series of statewide meetings
with stakeholders in the geospatial community – federal, state, county, education and private interests were all
represented. In addition, an online survey was posted and individual interviews with key policymakers were
conducted.
Four strategic goals were discerned from this input and incorporated into the Strategic Plan:
· Ensure that HIGICC completes the Strategic Plan to set an agenda for the next five years
that is aligned with the expressed needs of the HIGICC membership and the Hawaii
geospatial community.
· Develop an outreach and communications strategy that targets constituencies throughout
the state, reaches underserved portions of the community, and increases membership,
participation, and collaboration with activities.
· Develop a strategy for assisting data acquisition projects and developing geospatial data
standards that cross geographic and administrative boundaries.
· Develop a funding strategy that maintains Council fiscal viability, enhances the ability of
HIGICC to apply, compete, receive and administer grants, and expands the Council's
ability to identify funding opportunities that support the Council and stakeholders across
the state.
P. O. Box 10678, Honolulu, Hawaii 96816-0678
www.higicc.org
In order to successfully achieve these goals, the Board recognized that the general membership would have to
take a more active partnership role – the Board alone does not have the resources to plan and execute these
strategies. Therefore, the first Business Plan in support of the Strategic Plan addresses strengthening the
organization of the Board and the Council and gathering those resources necessary to tackle the strategic
goals.
Like the Strategic Plan, the Business Plan was developed collaboratively – the Steering Committee enlisted
the aid of the rest of the Board and received substantial help from AppGeo in formatting and maintaining a
consistent writing style throughout the document. A draft of the plan was also posted on a wiki site, where
community input was sought. The Business Plan lays out a committee structure that will enable focusing the
energies of the Council, and calls for the participation of non-Board members. The intent is to divide up and
spread out the workload, so that Board members will not be overly burdened and more non-Board members
will become actively engaged in the work of the Council.
The Board met and discussed the drafts of both the Strategic Plan and the Business Plan at its meeting in July
2009. Discussion continued via email and the plans were formally approved and adopted in July and August,
respectively. A summary of the planning process and the goals of the plans were presented in September 2009
to geospatial and planning professionals at a conference jointly sponsored by HIGICC and the Hawaii
Congress of Planning Officials (HCPO).
Key accomplishments for the Strategic and Business Planning process included:
1. Formation of Steering Committee as sub-committee of the HIGICC Board of Directors.
2. Understanding and using the grant administration sites to draw down the CAP funding.
3. Migration of the HIGICC email and contact database to the Wild Apricot contact management
software that has enabled general and targeted email outreach across the State of Hawaii as well a
better member and event management.
4. Selection of Applied Geographics, Inc. as consultant on the project.
5. Creation, deployment and analysis of an on-line survey with 112 respondents.
6. Five Strategic Planning information gathering meetings were held the last week of August and first
week of September, 2008. Eighty-five people attended the 2 meetings in Honolulu and 1 each on
Kauai, Maui and the Island of Hawaii.
7. Individual interviews with significant stakeholders, including representatives from the State,
Counties, and the University of Hawaii.
8. Hosting the draft Strategic Plan on a Wiki site for input from the Board, HIGICC membership and the
geospatial community
9. Review, approval and publication of the Strategic Plan.
10. Development of the Business Plan, focused on goals described in the Strategic Plan.
11. Hosting the draft Business Plan on a Wiki site with input from the Board, membership and the
community.
12. Review, approval and publication of the Business Plan.
13. Presentation of the Strategic and Business Plans at the 2009 Hawaii GIS conference
(
www.resilientcommunitieshawaii.org).
How inclusive is the HIGICC effort? What have we done to bring new stakeholder groups or organizations
into statewide coordination?
HIGICC made every attempt to be as inclusive as possible. In addition to numerous emails from the contact
management database, personal phone calls were made to a number of key stakeholders and collaborative
organizations to be sure they could participate. We made sure that there were many opportunities for input,
including the surveys and meetings as well as advertised opportunities to review and comment on the draft
Strategic and Business Plans. That being said, the survey and meetings pointed out that while over 400 people
P. O. Box 10678, Honolulu, Hawaii 96816-0678
www.higicc.org
were contacted to participate, there are still stakeholders that have not been reached. HIGICC and the
Steering Committee are contacting numerous individuals and organizations to expand the contact database
and ensure communication in the future. While never excluded, feedback during the plan demonstrated the
need to reach out more to the academic community and particularly to K-12 teachers, to smaller community
organizations, as well as to the business community and to professionals in related disciplines (e.g., planners
and surveyors). As a lesson, HIGICC recommends that FGDC encourage all new Fifty States CAP recipients
to focus very early on an outreach and communication plan. And as a result of greater outreach, the HIGICC
contact database now contains close to 500 entries.
How has (or will) statewide coordination change as a result of this project?
This project demonstrated the ongoing relevance of HIGICC. In particular, it showed how HIGICC can bring
geospatial education, activities and services to underserved sectors of the community while also providing
needed coordination for the more traditional developers, distributors and consumers of geospatial data. In
addition, HIGICC is now no longer seen as an Oahu-only activity, which is reflected in the most recent Board
elections. There are now representatives from 3 of the counties, with involvement from the 4th. In addition,
the current vice president is from Maui.
In addition, HIGICC and the community have been strengthened by more clearly understanding the roles of
the Counties and the State in geospatial data coordination. For most activities the Counties and State maintain
their autonomy. The Council fills a need in shepherding projects and activities outside of the governmental
scope. These include pursuing and administering grants, addressing cross boundary issues and encouraging
participation from members in the community in developing geographic skills in the population. The strategic
and business planning process has captured the current thinking about the role of HIGCC in promoting and
enhancing geospatial technologies, data and relationships in the 50
th
State.
What practices or activities led to success? What practices or activities have not?
The practice or activities that led to success include:
• Continual outreach to the community
• Hiring a consultant who knew the purpose and process, was skilled at guiding the meetings and
interviews and had experience in analyzing the information collected from participants.
• Establishing a calendar of events and sticking to it.
• Focusing on how HIGICC can provide better service to the community. Not focusing on the issues
that are already led by other organizations, such as the State of Hawaii.
• Participating in the NSGIC midyear meetings in Annapolis.
The practices or activities that possibly limited success were:
• Our dependence on volunteers to complete writing assignments, when real life competes.
• Expecting that the schedule of activities could be met when other priorities get in the way.
Next Steps
With the completion of the Strategic and Business Plans, the next steps that challenge the Council are (1)
outreach to the community; (2) implementing the priority tasks and (3) sustaining the interest of both the
Board and the community; and (4) maintaining the momentum begun in the planning process.
The Business Plan calls for creating standing committees made up of both Board members and non-Board
members, with responsibility for addressing broad issues that impact governance and are strategically
important:
P. O. Box 10678, Honolulu, Hawaii 96816-0678
www.higicc.org
• Finance Committee responsible for budgeting, fiscal accountability, funding sources, and managing the
scholarship program;
• Policy and Compliance Committee
responsible for reviewing the bylaws and policies, and for monitoring
legislation that may impact and be of interest to the geospatial community;
• Membership Committee
responsible for retaining current members and soliciting new memberships;
• Education and Outreach Committee
responsible for professional development and networking activities
that reach out to membership (e.g., Luncheon Speaker Series, conferences), as well as educational and
informational activities that reach out to the community at large (e.g., GIS Day, curriculum development);
• Information Technology Committee
responsible for investigating and recommending technologies that
may benefit the work of the Council;
• Data Inventory and Assessment Committee
responsible for facilitating data acquisition, developing and
promoting data standards, and facilitating data distribution.
The Standing Committees are currently forming with participation required of each Board member in at least
one, but not more than three committees. In addition, participation has been solicited across the membership
rolls by email solicitations, conference announcements, and individual invitations. The committees have some
flexibility in how they approach their respective responsibilities; they will meet initially in early November
2009 to set their goals, milestones, agenda, and timetables within the framework laid out in the Business Plan.
Thereafter they will submit reports of their progress to the Board at each regularly scheduled Board meeting.
The planning process itself has already registered successes in reinvigorating the Council in its 10th year, as
evidenced by the increased membership and the level of participation in the information gathering process.
Another unintended, but desired benefit is dispelling the perception that HIGICC is an Oahu-only
organization – three of the eleven Board members this year are from the neighbor islands. In addition, the
Business Plan seeks to increase ongoing participation from neighbor island members by utilizing technologies
such as video- and web-conferencing and Skype, as well as the more traditional teleconferencing. Board
members also plan to travel to the neighbor islands to present updates of the Strategic and Business Plans.
And outreach to the geospatial community in general will increase in order to maintain the momentum
generated during the planning process. The contact, member, and event management site will be central to
that effort and the website will be used as a venue to share information.
How will this project continue into the future and remain viable?
• By developing a well considered outreach strategy.
• By continuing to use the Wild Apricot contact management software for membership and event
management.
• By creating opportunities for involvement for all types of interest.
• By sharing information through meetings, publications, events and email about the progress and status of
HIGICC initiatives.
• By appealing to both the self interest of participants (professional growth, GISP certification) and the
desire to make Hawaii a better place to live.
Where do you need assistance? What type of assistance?
While the Business Plan describes the activities to enhance both internal and external activities, one of the
greatest challenges is relying on volunteer participation, particularly at the officer level. To succeed as a
Council there is a need for a part time staff person to carry out the organizational activities that become
burdensome to current council members who all have day jobs.
The Council also needs training assistance in leadership of committees and running organizations. We are
fortunate that HANO, the Hawaii Association of Non-Profit Organizations, has ongoing fee based training on
topics such as budgeting, leadership and membership recruitment.
P. O. Box 10678, Honolulu, Hawaii 96816-0678
www.higicc.org
Attachments
The completed and approved Strategic and Business Plans, as well as photographs and documents are
available at the HIGICC web site, www.higicc.org
.
Feedback on Cooperative Agreements Program
What are the CAP Program strengths and weaknesses?
• Strength - The CAP Program funded an important project that Hawaii and the Council didn’t have the
ability to finance.
• Strength -The templates were instrumental to our success. They helped explain the process and products
to the HIGICC Board and to participants in the planning process.
• Strength - The CAP staff – Gita and Milo – assisted whenever possible or asked.
• Strength – That CAP 3 now links FGDC with the needs of the state or council. HIGICC experienced a
disconnect when completing the I-Plan, under the direction of FGDC. Although the I-Plan was an
effective effort that brought together Subject Matter Experts in Hawaii, policy changes left the Council’s
efforts being dismissed at FGDC. CAP 3 brings all councils and FGDC into alignment.
• Strength – Attending the Mid-Year NSGIC conference to in-brief the Principal Investigators on the CAP
3 templates, the process and the products.
Where does it make a difference?
• If the question is “Where does the CAP Program make a difference?” the answer in Hawaii is that the
funding allowed HIGICC to bring the geospatial community together for this special project at the
Council’s 10
th
anniversary.
Was the assistance we received sufficient or effective?
• The assistance HIGICC received was sufficient to accomplish the tasks at hand. The funds HIGICC
received via the CAP 3 program let us do what we could not accomplish on our own – paying for travel,
hiring a consultant, using and managing online services. In addition, when we had questions on reporting
or project extensions, Gita and Milo provided quick and helpful assistance.
What would we recommend that the FGDC do differently?
• The only change that came up is if the proposal submittal period wasn’t so close to the winter holidays.
Are there factors that are missing or additional needs that should be considered?
• Every state or territory has its own unique circumstances, whether composition of the Council, budgets
and financial resources, travel requirements, development of a project plan and hiring a contractor.
• Perhaps assistance to councils on developing RFPs to help get the process moving.
Are there program management concerns that need to be addressed, such as the time frame?
• The FGDC CAP program is flexible enough to react to time constraints. HIGICC did apply for one
extension, which in retrospect should have been longer. Maintaining an aggressive, funding required and
deadline driven project is really the only way to make a project such as this succeed.
• A second program management concern might be helping Councils develop RFPs for hiring a consultant.
If you were to do this again, what would you do differently?
• As described in our mid-year report, having a stronger outreach plan built into the initial proposal would
benefit the entire project. It would create greater buy-in for the Council and the community by being
explicit about a necessarily aggressive schedule.
