GIS Stakeholders Group Chartered

By David Kirouac and Mary Cloutier, OIT

The State Chief Information Officer (CIO) has chartered the GIS Stakeholders to replace the GIS Executive Committee (EC) to reflect the shift from a governance body to an advisory role.

The purpose of the GIS Stakeholders is to “realize the potential benefits of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Maine state government. This realization is accomplished through the promotion and facilitation of collaborative interagency efforts; information exchange; advisement to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and senior agency management in the use of GIS resources; and the development, maintenance, and facilitation of the implementation of a strategic plan.”

GIS have been employed since the 1980’s in Maine state government to support effective decision making, and efficient service delivery. The GIS EC was chartered by the Information Services Policy Board in 1996 to coordinate spatial services across State agencies and to negotiate and administer service level agreements (SLA) between agencies and the Office of Maine Geographic Information Systems (MeGIS). In 2005 the Legislature established the Maine Library of Geographic Information (GeoLibrary) to, in part, operate a coordinated, cost-effective electronic gateway to provide public access to State and non-state spatial data.

The MeGIS, within the Office of Information Technology (OIT) has worked collaboratively with the GIS EC and the GeoLibrary to provide spatial data via the Internet; and with the GIS EC to provide core spatial services and technical support to agencies. Since 2006 many State technical employees and the services they deliver have transitioned to OIT. With the consolidation of information technology functions into OIT, funding of MeGIS core services has shifted from Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to the central OIT budget.

The GIS Stakeholders recently approved a charter and has been working on completing a GIS Strategic Plan to accompany the new charter. The strategic planning process is a continuation of a lot of work accomplished by the GIS EC. The strategic planning process has included workshops and focus groups working on various aspects of the architecture portion of the strategic plan (known as the “GIS Roadmap”). When completed, the GIS Strategic Plan will include sections on business needs as well as the architecture. The goal of the GIS Stakeholders is to have the GIS Strategic Plan completed by July 1, 2007.