How do I start a Community?

In order to start a community, you will need to be a Geospatial Professional Network member and find another the Geospatial Professional Network member and three other people (who can be members or not) who share your passion or interest. Some examples would be:

• Emerging Professionals
• GISP Hopefuls
• Book Club
• ValTech
• Utilities
• Public Health
• NextGen911
• Cartography
• One Person GIS Departments
• GLA Alumni
• Small Business Owners
• GIS Managers
• Working Parents in GIS
• Large Organization GIS Departments

The form to apply for a community can be found here. It should take no more than 5-10 minutes to fill out. The Board will review your application and let you know if it is all good or if they have questions. If you wish to create a geographic area Community, you will need to let us know if you overlap any existing Community or Chapter and if you do, have you talked with that group? Once your application is approved, you will sign the Geospatial Professional Network Community Agreement.

Maintaining your Community

In the Geospatial Professional Network Community Agreement all the details of maintaining your community are listed. In general, you need to have 2 events each year of any kind, maintain at least two the Geospatial Professional Network members to share leadership, three other people participating, and fill out the annual report (which should take no longer than 10-15 minutes). It is suggested that each community aim for four events per year and that they write a short article for The GIS Professional to share what they are doing. the Geospatial Professional Network will provide each community with a page in Connect that the community can use to advertise themselves to the membership.