Meeting & Agendas

ACC GIS Committee Chair George Strebel welcomed attendees, including new full-time ACC GIS Faculty member Sally Holl and acknowledging founding GIS Advisory Committee Member Claire DeVaughn for her service.

ACC GIS Department Chair Sean Moran updated the Committee on enrollment, employment, internships, and continuing education using the following slides.

Committee Chair George Strebel introduced the agenda item at 1 PM and requested a call for discussion. Committee Member Dr. Nathan Currit moved to open discussion on the bylaws and Committee Member Tracy Haywood seconded the motion. Committee Member Michael Ouimet said it would be inappropriate to vote on bylaws at this meeting. He stated that no input was given by the committee on the draft bylaws supporting this agenda item and that the item deserves an open discussion. He recalled from the last meeting, the committee discussed holding a Fall Advisory Committee Meeting to focus on bylaws. We did not hold the Fall meeting and only received the draft bylaws supporting this agenda item a week ago. Rather than voting on bylaws today, Mr. Ouimet proposed a Spring workshop focused solely on bylaws. Ms. Haywood said that she would support the creation of bylaws. She said the draft bylaws are a good start, but the committee should have more discussion on term limits, racial diversity, and staggered tenures. She then stated she needed to leave the meeting. Committee Member Thomas Brown asked if the committee could have a special meeting? Mr. Strebel replied that we could have a special meeting this Spring. Mr. Brown suggested holding a special workshop focused solely on committee bylaws. Mr. Ouimet stated the draft bylaws supporting this agenda item are a good framework for starting the discussion. ACC GIS Faculty Member Sally Holl followed that the draft bylaws attached to this agenda item could be posted on Google Docs for committee members to review and edit prior to the proposed Spring workshop. ACC GIS Department Chair Sean Moran stated that the committee should consider voting on whether to have bylaws or not, before holding a workshop to revise bylaws. Committee Member Ouimet seconded Ms. Holl's suggestion to post the draft bylaws to Google Docs for committee members to review and edit before the proposed bylaws workshop. Committee Member Devon Humphrey forwarded a motion to hold a Spring bylaws workshop and Mr. Ouimet seconded the motion. Dr. Mary Beth Booth asked if the bylaws would need to be approved by ACC Administration. Mr. Moran responded that he did not believe so, but that any bylaws approved by this committee could not conflict with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Guidelines for Instructional Programs in Workforce Education (GIPWE) that requires community colleges to create workforce advisory committees. He said that all of the text highlighted in blue in the draft bylaws are directly from the the GIPWE and should not be altered. Committee Chair George Streble noted that with Committee Member Haywood gone, the committee no longer had a quorum and could not vote on Committee Member Humphrey’s motion. Instead, he stated that the committee was in general agreement to hold a Spring bylaws workshop and asked that Mr. Moran send out a follow-up email next week with the background information and a tentative date for the bylaws workshop.

in 2015, ACC Provost Dr. Charles Cook introduced a requirement that all ACC Associate’s degrees to include EDUC 1300 Effective Learning: Strategies for College Success. This course was added to the list of GIS Elective course included in the GIS AAS Degree and the GIS Level II Certificate. Also, the GIS Capstone internship course was reduced to only GISC 2164 Internship (7 hrs/wk) - GISC 2264 Internship (14 hrs/wk) was removed from all awards. The Committee did not have a quorum and did not recommend approval (or disapproval) of this item.

Discussion was deferred to a future meeting

ACC Associate Professor of Geography Dr. Mary Beth Booth described her frustration with GEOG 2470 Introduction to GIS students and their lack of Windows file management skills. She asked Committee Members whether they were having a similar experience with younger new hires. A number of Committee Members weighed-in with descriptions of younger professionals and their lack of file management skills.

ACC Associate Professor of GIS Sally Holl summarized plans for relocation of the GIS Department to the ACC Highland Learning Center Campus as part of the Phase II redevelopment scheduled for completion in 2018.

ACC GIS Committee Chair George Strebel summarized the Committee Member’s desire to have two GIS Advisory Committee Meeting per year (i.e. a Fall and a Spring meeting), rather than one annual meeting. Meetings should have a shorter agenda with time for more in-depth discussions.