WOW!! It’s been a couple of months since the last update (since Father’s Day actually). In that time so much has happened that it seems like a blur. Maybe it just seems like a lot when you’re in the middle of it.

Niagara GoGeomatics Back to School Social:

On Saturday, September 27, 2014 at Fresco’s in St. Catharines – The Niagara GoGeomatics Back to School Social. Sponsored by ESRI Canada, The Canadian Remote Sensing Society and Geospatial Advancement Canada 2015.

It is a social to connect new and returning students with the GoGeomatics Group communities across Canada.

Education and Capacity Building Working Group (CGCRT):

A couple of teleconferences have occurred with respect to the Education and Capacity Building Working Group that Geospatial Niagara sits on for the Canadian Geomatics Community Roundtable (CGCRT). There are several initiatives and action items that are underway. Specific to Geospatial Niagara is the creation of a grass roots organization inventory across Canada. We want to know about volunteer organizations that orbit the geospatial realm. It might be a bit of a challenge though…. What constitutes “grass roots”? 5 people – 10 people. All volunteer? Non-profit/charitable? Should be an interesting and rewarding exercise. It will be great to share resources and  ideas across Canada as it pertains to student and community engagement in all things Geo.

Day of Geography:

This was a whirlwind of a project….. Back in February after hearing a podcast make reference to the “Day of Archaeology“. That sounded like a stellar idea, so we purchased the dayofgeography.com domain to make it happen. But what day? After the unfortunate passing of Dr. Tomlinson we discovered that his birthday would have been the Monday of Geography Awareness Week. As James Boxall mentioned to me, it seemed almost serendipitous.

Monday, November 17, 2014 is the Day of Geography. Check out the website to find out how to contribute your day to the world wide repository. Let’s kick off Geography Awareness Week with a bang to honour the memory of Dr. Roger Tomlinson who would have turned 81.

Niagara College GIS/GSM Thesis Projects and Brock University Honours Internship Projects:

Geospatial Niagara has submitted 6 projects for consideration to Niagara College (3) and Brock University (3) for the very capable 2014-15 GIS/Geospatial Management students and 4th year Brock University Honours Internship Program. We are happy to announce that as of this posting 4 of the projects have been accepted. These include:

1. Niagara Geoparks Infrastructure Inventory Project

2. Niagara Minecraft Project

3. Multi-criteria Vineyard Site Suitability for Grey County

4. Niagara College GIS/GSM Thesis – Spatial Catalog/Inventory

We look forward to working with our seven partners on bringing these projects to fruition and will be providing updates as the projects progress.

Brock University Geography Alumni LinkedIn Group:

Geospatial Niagara has created and will manage the Brock University Geography Alumni LinkedIn group. This group was created to reconnect past graduates of the Geography program with the program itself, to find out where do our Geography graduates go? It’s also hoped for that this group will provide a network that new graduates can engage with to find careers upon completing their degree.

We want to be able to provide current and past graduates with news about the department. We want to hear about the success stories of our graduates.

In Conclusion:

Well, that’s about it for now. I’m sure I’m forgetting something. With some luck we’ll be able to stay on top of things and post updates on a more regular basis. We’re super excited about all the projects and look forward to sharing updates about those.

Cheers!