Fostering GIS in Local Government: Non-GISers Using GIS    

The City of Grapevine began its GIS journey over 20 years ago, and within a few years most, if not all departments gave complete buy-in.  As with any small government GIS shop, an obvious pain point developed; too much work for limited staff resources.  Furthermore, to provide value-driven GIS services efficiently for all customers with no chance of increasing staff time or positions was not only frustrating, it seemed impossible.  The concept of empowering customers with GIS technology became a new business goal.  The foundation of this goal was achieved by fostering the use of GIS by non-GISers through web-based services and apps such as Map Viewer, ArcGIS Collector, ArcGIS Survey123, ArcGIS Tracker, and Community Analyst.  The examples showcased in this presentation may not necessarily fit into your organization, however it is guaranteed the technology utilized can be leveraged by your customers.

Betsi Chatham, GISP, City of Grapevine GIS Manager

Betsi has been serving in the Texas government GIS industry for the last 28 years at both the state and local levels. In 2017 she began to manage the geospatial efforts for the City of Grapevine focusing on developing strong customer relationships and implementing solid location strategies to achieve departmental business goals. A large part of her career was spent in Fort Worth managing the Environmental GIS as well as playing an integral role in implementing geospatial technology into Emergency Management workflows. Prior to 2000, she worked for City of Dallas Storm Water Quality ensuring compliance of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, and also provided status and trends analysis of natural resources along the Texas Coastal Bend for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. Betsi received a Bachelor of Arts in Geomorphology from Arizona State University, and a Masters in Applied Geography from Southwest Texas State University. Throughout her career, she has been recognized by governing entities and industry organizations through receiving awards such as Esri’s Special Achievement in GIS Award, Environmental Protection Agency’s Excellence Award, Public Technology Institute’s GIS Vision Award, South Central Arc User Group’s Thumbs Up Award, and several project and team awards. She served as Conference Coordinator for the South Central Arc User Group for 13 years, a Senior Analyst on Fort Worth’s GIS Mapping Team during response and recovery of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike, a program member of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Local Integration of NARAC with Cities, and Fort Worth GIS Steering Committee Chair. In her down time she enjoys gardening, BBQing, and Texas Rangers baseball.