Welcome to the Northern Rockies chapter of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (NR URISA). We are a non-profit, grass roots group of professionals that organized together to establish a chapter whose mission is to promote educational and professional training opportunities for the effective and ethical use of spatial information and information technologies. When Northern Rockies was originally founded, we worked in cooperation with the state of Montana primarily to fund conferences. Since that time we have separated into different professional organization, however, we still work together to an annual Intermountain GIS Conference held bi-annually either in Idaho or Montana. Northern Rockies’ primary focus area is the state of Idaho and is the host on odd calendar years of the Intermountain GIS Conference. We at Northern Rockies are always looking for your input and value your suggestion to better meet your professional and education needs. Please give us your feedback and we will try to incorporate your suggestions.

Northern Rockies has received the Chapter of the Year Award for 2009!

At the 2009 National URISA Conference, URISA President, Hilary Perkins presented the 2009 Chapter of the Year award to NR URISA President Donna Phillips.  What does that really mean? It means that NR URISA has excelled in innovation, education, outreach and community impact. This is not only measured against the chapters of National URISA, but also on how much growth is seen in a chapter from year to year. Over the last several years, Northern Rockies has continued to grow its chapter with respect to expectations set out by the National Organization. What we are most proud of is that we excelled in innovation. But how to excel in innovation…we asked for a review of our Intermountain GIS Conference by a non-GIS individual…we asked to be evaluated. How else do you grow? As a chapter we are always looking for ways to a “think outside of the box”, so as members we would hope that you continue to share your ideas with us. Education has been a shining star for us…our workshops are well attended and we offer a little something for all users, novice to the well versed. We, however, would like to offer more educational opportunities in our non-conference years…what would you like to see? Outreach is always difficult, but we try to include opportunities for many groups of people. Community impact is shown by the coming together of the framework data layers, the Idaho Spatial Data Infrastructure (ISDI), and we now have a champion in Gail Ewart. Northern Rockies chapter of URISA has written letters of support for these plans. Membership input on state issues is critical. Many voices can speak louder than one. Northern Rockies professionals who have been working for years independently, now have the champion in our GIO to blend all of our individuality into seamless layers for the state. We have come a tremendous way with the strategic plan and the business plan. Chapter of the Year means that we have grown a great deal in a year, what it doesn’t mean is that we have reached the top. We want to keep on growing!