year in review

The Year in Review – 2021 Edition

December 28, 2021 by rjhale

Just to prepare for the 2021 edition I went back and re-read the 2020 edition. Yikes. So I started writing and I’ve changed this post up several times. I’ve decided much like I did last year “this is the final shot with a few edits”.

2020 was messy for everyone especially on my end of things. So in January of this year I started making some changes. It’s becoming overhaul of North River Geographic Systems, Inc and Randy, Inc. Through the last few years I have been making small changes business wise like “No I don’t want this project” and “PAY ME” but nothing like “What do I want to accomplish?”. I had found myself saying negative things about the business. I haven’t said anything really great about NRGS for a bit actually. Business can be frustrating especially for me. The bad parts were way outweighing the good parts and there are a lot of good parts that I never acknowledge.

So I started with “A Plan to get me back on my feet”. I don’t think I’ve had a coherent plan in the last few years so this was step 1. New attitude. A better direction. The “Shiny Bigger Plan” is being written now.

If I were to sum up this year it was “Challenging but Better than I Hoped”. Which is weird to say. If this hadn’t been good I think I’d most likely be doing something else at this point. Yeah – my January 2021 decision was an A. Fix This or B. Do Something Else. I was that frustrated with everything.

I ended up picking up more clients in 2021. The clients I picked up centered around two pieces of software: QGIS and PostGIS. I did have multiple calls about Geoserver WHICH is still something I’m getting better at and I still don’t feel like an expert by any stretch. The best paying jobs were PostGIS centric. The fun weird ones were all QGIS. I solidified my docker game somewhat. I started diving back into Python.

Strangest call: One day I received a call out of nowhere from someone who noticed I did QGIS support. Their job was laying irrigation pipe in farm land in Northern Ohio and they were stringing together a process to patch up some old Trimble Software that ran in a tractor/ditch digging thing. One zoom call later and I figured out something of a process with QGIS (not my greatest work by any stretch). It’s enough to get him working for the twice a year he needs data to run the tractor to do irrigation. He occasionally calls and I enjoy hearing about his work. So far I’ve seen his pics of the Ditch Digging Tractor Thing, farm as he shoved the laptop out his kitchen window, and we’ve traded jokes over the phone.

Training: Training went virtual with two classes with a third class in the works. I think 2021 was affirmation I can do virtual training. So much so I’m unconvinced I will ever train “for me” in a classroom setting again. In the next few months I’m going to have three classes: “Intro”, “Intermediate”, and “Final” (which could be advanced or something – I’m still drafting it out). When I get the third class completed I think I’m done with classes. I’ll be happy to do those three.

Life in General: Good and Challenging. I had some personal goals I didn’t meet. I had some I did. Parents got older. I got older. I didn’t get COVID. So far I’ve had no one close to me die from it. I count myself exceptionally lucky. One friend passed from a brain tumor which was a bit surreal. Get through almost 2 years of a pandemic and then die from something that had nothing to do with COVID. It was a very hard reminder that life is short.

Phillip made the next big adventure this year. F*ck Cancer.

I decided part of the way through this year to start learning about software I don’t normally touch just for kicks plus I needed the mental stimulation. I miss learning new software just for fun. So I did things randomly when time permitted- What did I do?

Mapserver – I feel like I owe it to myself to learn about a piece of software that is one of the foundations of Free and Open Source Software. I installed it. Created a mapfile. I was able to look at the data I created.
Leaflet – Believe it or not – I hate “web maps” mainly because I never have time to learn anything about them. So I sat down and made a map in leaflet. Easy? Mostly. I’ll probably make some more but nothing too fancy. There are people better at this than I ever will be. All 100% hand crafted in VIM with some “Copy and Paste” for taste.
OpenStreetMap – I know plenty about OSM but what about downloading the data and doing something like displaying it in Leaflet.
PyQGIS – I sat down and made a few small scripts to run in QGIS. Why? Because I love QGIS but the whole programming part is still a bit cloudy for me. So I started doing small things and eventually the smaller things got bigger and MAYBE I can make a plugin. Maybe.
AWS – I had a complete implosion with my first dance into Amazon Web Services. I signed up for the free tier and 1 months and $400 dollars later I was attempting to explain HOW I racked up that large of a charge to Amazon Support. Thankfully Amazon refunded my money. I cancelled my account. We all lived happily ever after.

In 2022 I’m also focusing on “personal things I want to do”. That’s going to leave less time for technical but that’s OK. I need self improvement as well as “tech skillz”.

Found a cemetery near my house that I had no clue existed!

I made several conferences as “The weird guy that talks about QGIS”. I made my second FOSS4G International Meeting. WHICH I KNOW THIS WILL BE UNPOPULAR……BUT….. : I miss in person conferences as much as anyone but the amount of knowledge getting out into the world through these virtual conferences is astounding. It’s a low bar of entry for everyone and it’s become something of great value for me. SO – for you who are planning conferences – Consider some virtual offerings even if you’re doing in person.

Anyway – that’s about it. Social Media became less a part of my existence in some ways. It became a better outlet in others. Twitter did get fine tuned to be 99% Geo. Linkedin was Linkedin. I am debating a “virtual” get-together” for this year. I’ve missed 2020 and 2021 with the local QGIS Meetups. I don’t think Covid is going any where for a while still SO – maybe we do something virtual. Don’t know. I’m still figuring that one out.

So with that – Enjoy some noise from the southern part of the United States.

The Year in Review – 2020 Edition

January 1, 2021 by rjhale

For my own sanity I usually do a year end Health Check on the business and see what went well and what didn’t. This blog post has went so well I’m on the 7th re-write. The first post was exceptionally dark and put me in a funk for a week….the next six became increasingly easier to deal with by acknowledging the current situation…..and that situation is covid-19. Covid and Me. Life in general.

I decided to do this one last time – and this will be the final attempt whether it’s rambling or to the point….who knows. I did some editing because I’m me.

I feel like I’ve lost sight of what makes me tick and why I started this business. The last 6 months of 2020 was like a giant spotlight on a lot of things that were making me uneasy.

There’s a ton of things I enjoy doing I’ve stopped doing. There are interests I’ve stopped pursuing that bring me a lot of joy. Reading. Camping. Intellectual pursuits grow dusty. Tech for the sake of tech.
The business was a money making endeavor that was going to occasionally allow me to do some fun things and “help”. It turned into a struggle this year – and 95% of that wasn’t caused by me – but it was and continues to be tough.

If you came here for glorious tales of awesome business stuff…….stop here. If you haven’t noticed this year has been…well….A giant flaming pile. I’ve had worse years – but not where the entire Flat Earth was having them too. I’ve been lucky as I’ve not gotten sick nor had any friends pass from Covid. It did wreck business a bit. It has caused a lot of stress on my end for multiple reasons. From arguing with friends and family to watching job after job stop and go on hold. I’ve watched several on social media lose friends and family and had friends lose people they care about. That made this post a bit hard to write as the first post was filled with complaining and that didn’t feel right. Each subsequent iteration got lengthier as I tried to convince myself and you – that I had a handle on things.

I don’t. That’s fine. I’m not sure many do.

I’m still here though.

By the time summer had arrived we had been in lock down 2 months. I think. Honestly I can’t remember. I have a general policy that if a job makes no movement in 90 days it’s dead. It’s not always the case – but in this case they ended. When you do consulting and the phone just stops ringing it’s a bit unnerving. So there wasn’t much to do but:

Do some Hiking
Do some Canoeing
Do some Bike riding
Do some Thinking

After leaving a job this summer for non-payment I had to take a step back. I usually don’t stop for non-payment. Which is stupid on my part. I try to make things work and finally I got to the point of “I can sit here getting yelled at and not getting paid or I can go for a hike and not get paid”. At the end of the hike I sat down and made a list of things I love and hate. Things I hate and things I like and Why am I doing or not doing those things. Why am I letting this startup make me miserable. Why Why Why………

I found myself working on the weekends part time for the non-profit for which I volunteer. They run an outdoor store full of camping and hiking gear. So during the week I would scream at NRGS and covid and on the weekends I lived a life I wanted 30 years ago…back when I was more familiar with Geology and the best spots to camp in the southeast. During that time I had a lot of invites for camping, canoeing, and hiking. It was a nice change.

There were come positives this year – so all wasn’t lost:

Work continued on the 911 project – I added more functionality and branched into the NENA standard.
Renewed one contract that will help fund the 911 project
Conquered my fear of github
Docker is less mysterious as I’ve got it working with minimal screaming.
I fell more in love with PostGIS and did more things with it. Really if my life just boiled down to QGIS and PostGIS I’d be happy until I was dead.

There were enough loss to fill out several pages. It is frustrating when things spin out of control. Especially when you can’t do anything about it. If you were sick there was nothing I could do. In general there wasn’t much of anything you could do. Out of all of this and the sitting and the fidgeting I did find things that absolutely fascinated me. Like:

……..as well as a whole host of youtube videos and other small bit of information that made this all a little more bearable. I rebuilt an 50 year old coleman stove. I fixed several things on my jeep that were broken. I have so curated my twitter feed that what was termed “doom scrolling” really wasn’t for me. I had all this information from blogs, github, and videos that appeared on twitter and I could watch it night and feel…well….better. Twitter is still a dumpster fire – but a fire I’ve seemed to curate into something enjoyable.

Many of you hate virtual conferences. I completely get it – BUT the things I had the chance to attend this year were awesome. From England to the US to Canada. I didn’t even have to put on pants. I did though. I know virtual conferences are different and not what you want. You want small Danishes and coffee and the chance to hassle people in person…..BUT – I would have never gotten to see different talks live (and yeah I could go rewatch but I like ‘live’).

NRGS is getting a reboot of sorts. It’s not the end. Covid has changed things. I’ve changed. We scream “Get things back to Normal” but I don’t think things will…or really they should. We say the new normal with some hope it’s not. I think in general it is – and that new normal means the way I was working won’t be sustainable anymore…or if it is – It’s still half a year from being back to normal or maybe longer. Plus I have this great list of things I need for personal and professional peace of mind. Jeep – you’re gonna do a road trip shortly. Yosemite National Park – I’m coming for you. Probably not both at the same time. Maybe. Although………

Good People we all must change some. Here’s to a better 2021. To all of you – I thank you immensely.

The Year in Review – 2019 edition

January 9, 2020 by rjhale

2019 was weird. If you want to stop there that will sum it up. This will be a long post.

2019 started as an anniversary for me. It was 10 years I have been full time in this business – by that I mean “I have fed myself and existed for one decade doing this”. Small dates took on more meaning. Small ripples turned into waves and small noises amplified. If you look back at 2009 I had recently left my job at the feds and started consulting, had recently become an ESRI business partner, and was recently single. 2019 – I’m still single, 10 years as a company, and up to my neck in Open Source. Looking back over the 10 years was a journey. Interns had come and gone. One employee came and went. I moved. Moved back. Lost Friends. Gained some new friends. People died. People were born. Screwed up some jobs. Nailed other ones. It has been a long year of looking back. On Dec 31st I went to bed early and woke up Jan 1 somewhat relieved I wasn’t dealing with this even number anymore. I actually got up and worked Jan 1st 2020.

Work

I did two things I hadn’t done before this year: Made every new client sign a contract and started stepping away from the small jobs. I know – “You’re insane you always do contracts”. Well my normal base of clients didn’t either want them or refused to sign them. I have signed a lot of contracts. I’ve occasionally did them. Just not regularly. It’s no longer negotiable. In a lot of cases small jobs take as much effort in some cases as large ones. Couple that with “No Contract” and it was turning into a gamble I was starting to lose over 2019. I looked for larger jobs. NRGS refused some smaller clients. I networked/advertised more than I had done in the past.

NRGS made the IT Vendor List in North Carolina. With that I became (as far as I can tell) the only vendor centered on Free and Open Source Software for Geo. That took some time and some work to put together. The effort will hopefully be worth it this year as I start advertising that contract.

I spent half the year solidifying the TN 911 database I created for Henry County. Parts of it have been running for over a year now with no breakages and no crashes. That became a product I could market and sell. Out of that I actually got the NENA 911 standard running in QGIS/PostGIS but hadn’t said anything about that (well I just did). I started offering support for what people had called the “OpenGeo Suite” and the “Boundless Suite”. I’m just not calling it by anything that can get me sued. No I don’t build installers for them (already been asked). I hadn’t come up with a name yet…maybe “The software formerly known as the Boundless Suite” and then make some symbol for it….like Prince. It’s not anything magical – you too can install PostGIS/Geoserver with extensions. I’ll do it for you if you hate doing it though.

Oh – and I did one more thing. Offer a services based support contract. If you had QGIS/PostGIS/Geoserver/ETC running and wanted support here I am. I will continue advertising that this year. I’m making this more than “maintenance” as I’m actually going to work on your project/system/provide some sort of value add to your organization. Two organizations signed up for it – I was a bit dumbfounded by that as I really didn’t expect anyone to sign up. I’ve done this before and had no takers – but this time people agreed and contracts went out.

My biggest questions of the year:

Can we switch to QGIS?
Can you help us fix our data?
Do you support open source software and how much do you charge?

Training

Training took me to Denver Colorado and Dumas Texas as well as Downtown Chattanooga.

Todd Barr brought me out to work with his employer on moving off Arc to QGIS. So I spent three days teaching a class out in the “flat part” of Colorado. Learned something about drones and watched as an organization worked with Amazon Services. Out of that the one day QGIS class was revamped to two days and there is a third day sketched out. Is there a need for 3 days of QGIS training? I have no clue. Maybe specialized training for companies is where that lies.

You occasionally get to meet a twitter person in some far away place called COLORADO – I present @geofeminina.

I went to Texas. I went there under Respec and taught a three day class for their client that was making a move from Arc to QGIS. Yes there is a theme for the Training.

I partnered with the local Community College here in Chattanooga and the QGIS Class will be offered four times in 2020.

The city of Chattanooga brought me in to talk to their Environmental people on using QGIS. So I did a one day class on “You too can do things with data”. It was a good experience. Someone yelled “Holy Sh*t” in the middle of class when they accomplished some analysis task they had been struggling with. While I do condone as much profanity as is appropriate – that caught me off guard and made me laugh in the middle of class more than I should have.

Conferences

February took me to the North Carolina GIS Conference. Yes I jumped in car and drove the long way to the middle of North Carolina. It’s a Good conference. It’s a great blend of open source and proprietary. Yes – there is a lot of “We made a story map” but you also get a GRASS Developer and some other open source aficionados roaming the hallways.

Nantahala Outdoor Center on the way to the NC GIS Conference

I made the FOSS4G-NA Conference out in San Diego. That was fun. It would have been more fun if I hadn’t caught a bug halfway through the conference. Granted it’s not a huge like some conferences – but it’s a good time had by all. It’s a good crowd and well worth your time.

I made the TNGIC Conference and taught one class on QGIS. I did a couple of talks. Annoyed a lot of people. I struggle every year on the idea of getting a booth or just being a “mobile booth”. So if you ever see me at TNGIC sitting in the vendors area drinking a coke and eating whatever snack is out – “Welcome to my Mobile Booth”.

The biggest smallest conference happened in Chattanooga this year – The QGIS Chattanooga Conference. We had 50 people ranging from Canada, California, New York, Georgia, Boston, and Florida. We blew out the Tap House with half the conference coming out for a social. So what am I going to do in 2020? News is coming shortly.

Stu

If you go back to the first paragraph I had mentioned the work anniversary. In mid 2009 I was recently single and my neighbor brought me a cat. I said “I don’t want a stupid cat” and out of spite I named the cat Stupid. I shortened it to Stu.

For almost 10 years to the day Stu became my shadow. We talked. We hung out. We did some bird watching and some ball fetching. In a quiet house you’re going to do one of three things: talk to no one, talk to yourself, or talk to your pets. Stu grew on me. It was a rough relationship though. He desperately wanted to be the alpha male and that is my job as the bringer of food and the provider of cat litter. We would battle over who was running the show. He hated the cold so this time of year found him in my bed or hiding in a giant comforter I left crumpled on the floor for him.

In early 2018 Stu got sick. One trip to the vet left me with two possibilities. One treatable. One not. We tried the easiest treatment and one year later the problems resurfaced. I pretty much knew what the problem was….. I went to Texas for training and got a call from family: “He relapsed hard. He has a month at best”. I came home and he lasted a few days. I went to the vet and had him put to sleep. He was ready. I wasn’t ready. I owe Stu a blog post. I have yet to be able to make one I’m happy with. It’s a tough thing losing a pet. It’s harder when you’ve attached a lot of emotional baggage to the pet. I had no clue that had happened. There is no doubt some psychological study that has this all laid out and fully explains my end of things and why. It did make me deal with a lot of baggage I had been ignoring since day 1 in 2009. So if there is a silver lining to this story I walk into 2020 with a clearer head.

Social Media

Linkedin is crawling with Fake Accounts. I started deleting people and refusing to “connect” if the connection was out of Russia, The Middle East, India, or an account with a glamour photo with no background image. I don’t pay for the service. It’s never helped me get work as far as I can tell. So I use it but sparingly.

My personal facebook account became harder to find. I clamped down on the service – thanks to politics I’ve unfollowed probably 1/4 of the people up there. Removed all the apps from my phone. I actually became a heavier user of whatsapp but I’m attempting to leave that one this year. If you follow my facebook business page you’ll notice posts are falling off as I’ve decided it’s not worth the effort I was putting into it. I will keep posting info – but maybe once a week or twice.

I started using twitter more than I had – with that increase in usage also brought the removal of a lot of accounts that were posting political info or just things not related to Geo. I started deleting my tweets slowly. I signed up for a service and I’m working in keeping nothing longer than 1 year. Which I think I have to manually delete anything older than 2011. That’s slowly happening.

Personal

Did a lot of Hiking.

I did a lot of Canoeing.

I need to do more bike riding and I have no good picture of that. I expect to get a new bike this year.

Giant Shout Out

A job resurfaced this year I’d been working off and on to land for 6 years. I didn’t get it. My random shout out goes to – Michael Terner. I did a lot (and have done a lot) of talking to him about business and about life in general. He offered advice as he always does and it’s good advice. I have said and will continue to say not having a business background has hurt me – so I tend to rely on people for advice and direction. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s bad. His advice has always been solid and great. The best part is the advice is just the facts. I get to make my own mind up and “follow my bliss”. I did. It was a good thing.

Anyway – the year that was. Work was done. Sweat was produced. Overall it was good. I look forward to 2020 as things get serious around here and I start the uphill hike of growing by the end of 2020.

2018 Year in Review

December 17, 2018 by rjhale

I’m going to do this a bit different than in previous years – I would do these huge multi-posts covering all sorts of things from work to life to social media etc. As I’ve not been particularly motivated to write much over the last couple of months I’m going to boil this down into one longer post.

Social Media.

In general, this year Social Media was one giant dumpster fire. I started removing people off Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook. I actually unfollowed probably half of my facebook crowd just because. I’m still fairly active on twitter – but the posts aren’t that serious or relate to work. I put less out there on social media – which if you follow me you’re probably going “no you’re quite active”. While yes – it’s silly stuff or music. I decided my personal life and social media need some separation. I probably tossed 300 people on twitter. Maybe 100 off Linkedin. I need to toss more. Everyday I see less need to be on Facebook except I have people from far and wide on there and enjoy the stories. The increasing security blunders and data mining though makes it harder every month to stay.

After some internal arguing over the Newsletter – I restarted it and am doing one about every 2 months. It’s tough – I may stop doing it in 2019. I really feel like it’s outlived it’s purpose for me as people are finding me through the QGIS community or the open source community. It does serve as a “I’m not dead yet” reminder to people though.

Geohipster

I didn’t get a ton of interviews done this year – but the ones I did were a blast. I think I ended up with 3 – and they were a good 3 (or 4). Howard Butler, Tina Cormier, and Maggie Cawley all made the pages. I did a quick search and pulled those out – if I missed one Sorry! I’ve got a few more lined up – and I’ll get to you just bear with me.

Life

So 3 or so years ago I figured out I was working too much. Which – as a one person shop it’s easy to do. So I started Canoeing again. Biking. This year I probably biked and hiked more than I’ve done in a long time. I need to do more of it because I like junk food. My habits are slowly changing and I’m shedding some weight.

I did get some spectacular sunsets in my canoe though

On the personal personal front – A good friend died back in 2017 and this year we made large steps into wrapping up his personal affairs. No will and no plan will cost you about a year and a half of blood, sweat, and tears for those that are left. It’s tough. Many a day I would work here and leave to go to his place and work…then leave and come back and work more on my stuff. It’s hard – I do wished he was back – but if he was I’d probably kill him.

Double Bonus this year – the jeep made it’s appearance back on the roads of Chattanooga. Too much neglect had left it in disrepair – and the cure for that is money. So tires, thermostat, hoses, 2 U joints, a top, some fuses, some paint….and it’s back and sucking gas like it’s the year 1999. I should get rid of it but it makes me happy.

and in this picture I hadn’t yet to realize a u-joint was about to break. Luckily it didn’t.

Conferences

I made way too many conferences this year: TNGIC, FOSS4GNA (in STL), 2 FOSS4G SE Meetings, and the Alabama 811 Conference. With all of those I did some sort of training on QGIS or I spoke about Open Source Software.

Slightly different view of the Arch in STL

I had the first ever flat on the way to the 811 conference which made me late rolling into Montgomery Alabama. I left with plenty of time – IF NOTHING HAPPENED – and something did. I did break a land speed record making up lost time – but I was still late. Planning is not for dullards. I have to allow myself some wiggle room where people are relying on me to be “there”. In general I don’t – and I have to break that bad habit.

Finally – WORK

Work was up. I moved two clients into a mixed environment this year of ArcGIS/QGIS/PostGIS/Fulcrum. In doing so I learned a lot. What did I ultimately learn though from these two exercises:

Both were were concerned with data and making sure that data remained accessible, usable by everyone, and was maintainable. 110% doable with all the software I’m using.

In both cases the movement from ArcGIS to QGIS/PostGIS was mostly painless. What was painful was process. Customers don’t want to change their process. You have to change the way you work. So almost every wall I hit fell back to process. That made me tired. When I point and go “You can’t do it this way anymore” I’d no more get out the door before the phone rang “Hey we tried it the old way and it doens’t work this ain’t good”. Which – as a reminder ArcMap has been out now 20 years(?) – so I understand the change isn’t easy and it’s something I’ve got to work on more and more.

I desperately need to spend more time with postgresql/postgis. One of my clients called with a problem: the database was slow. Things were not working and I spent an inordinate amount of time trouble shooting database size, table size, triggers, the VM it was running on, and anything else I could figure out. I don’t want to be a half-ass database admin – BUT – I need to be knowledgeable if something doesn’t work right. So – I’ll be a better than a half-ass database admin.

I talked to more people this year. There is a general “want” to know about Open Source Software – be it out of general “I want to know” or “I’m tired of doing what I’m doing”. I’m also forgetting ArcGIS Skills and that bugs me a bit. I haven’t cracked open ArcGISPro and really have no desire to do it. On the one hand I need to as a consultant. On the other hand I’m busy enough with plenty to learn and enjoy on this side of things.

Conclusion

Overall I felt fulfilled with work this year – and that’s a rarity. I’m not burying jars of money in the yard but things are working better, I’m busy, and I’m funding my existence. I want to do more – and in doing so I assume I’ll have to get pickier in what I pick up as far as work. No was once again my favorite word as I did turn some clients away as it was work I couldn’t do or didn’t want to do. It’s hard saying no when you’re pushing possible income away I always have to stop and weigh “Is this the right thing to do for me”. In general – I think it is if I remember to stop and ask that question. Which – A happier me is better for everyone these days.

It was a good year. That’s weird to say. I’ve had enough bad years to make any normal person insane. I always second guess myself – but this year there was less insanity and less second guessing. It’s a good thing. More work. More technical. More enjoyment.

So – for those of you who helped – thank you. If you lent an ear – thank you. If you hired me to do something – I thank you most of all. If you stopped to hassle me at a conference thanks for the conversation. I don’t do what I’m doing without a little bit of a push from all of you.

So what do I do in 2019? Fight until I can’t. There’s a ton of bad data out there that needs fixed and explored. Bills gotta get paid. I need to learn more.

Year in review: Conferences and Orgs

December 13, 2015 by rjhale

I haven’t done a year in review in a while. To be honest I’m not entirely sure why I’m doing one now except I feel like writing about a great many things so I might as well.

2015 was the year of pulling back and re-organizing on several fronts. 2014 had personal and professional challenges beyond anything I had dealt with in a long time. 2015 wasn’t any better in some ways with a lot of personal issues cropping up. When New Years Day hit my first order of business was finding a heating pad for the small cat. Yes her ancient heating pad that never turned off did just that. In all of that driving around with one goal in mind I decided that (and of all things to think about) I was too scattered. So I decided to get less scattered.

I dropped everything that looked like a professional affiliation. I kept one active – Georgia URISA – because that has pretty much been my dysfunctional family in Atlanta. Yes – putting the fun in dysfunctional. I’ll always be a fan. Period. So that may be the one organizational relationship I keep. ASPRS dropped rather gloriously. URISA ran out sometime in 2014. In 2013 I had dropped OSM. Depending on timelines my GISP may drop before 2015 starts. What? You’re dropping it? Yeah that’s a whole other blog article….and it’s not going to be a typical bashing article. Technically I only dropped two orgs in 2015 – but I stopped worrying about renewing the memberships of the others. That was something that always ate at me – I just stopped even thinking about it.

So what am I a member of currently? Well if you held a water balloon on me and say “PICK ONE” I guess it would be OSGEO for now. I’ve been trying to kickstart a Southeast Chapter. Will I continue – yes. What will it look like? Hell if I know. Will I serve on the board if one actually forms – probably not.

If I had to really pick something that isn’t an org that I’m a part of – geohipster. That has been quite rewarding although I fell silent this summer. It’s a good group of people and it’s challenging, it’s fun, and there’s no central organization except for this Bike Riding/Sailing man named Atanas Entchev….. Who will no doubt refuse to be the center point…..but he sorta is.

I’m currently on one conference committee – that is the FOSS4GNA 2016 conference committee. I don’t really count committees as organizations although it sorta kinda is one. So I guess I belong to that until they throw me off for either A. Violently offending someone B. Being a Disruption. C. Both

Conferences? Three. That was two more than I planned on but all three were well worth the effort. North Carolina GIS put on a conference in a snow storm. I went. I drove close to 900 miles in 24 hours to make it. It was one of the best statewide conferences I’ve been to….and I’ve been to a lot of state conferences. I will never drive that far in a jeep again in one day. Two and a half tanks of gas. 4wd for 35% of the trip.

I went to FOSS4GNA in Burlingame CA. These are my people. It’s fun. There’s an energy to it. It’s different. I was shocked at how many people were there from State/Local Government this year. Open Source GIS is a thing and it’s not the “I don’t want to pay money for software because I’m cheap” thing. People recognize the professional aspect of it. These people are fired up about it. I was lucky enough to be provided a couch from Michael Terner from AppGeo. We even had a party when his mom left. It was good times all the way around. So much so that conference it headed to Raleigh in 2016. I also learned what Hoark is/was. Not that I hoarked.

I did one last conference this year and it was in NE Tennessee. TNGIC puts on three regional conferences and this year it fell again in the NetGIS Domain. So I drove up to Kingsport to learn about drones, preach the word on QGIS, and meet a lot of good people. I will always say that NE Corner of the State has some good things happening with GIS and the Community. You should go to anything they do in that corner.

The one oddball thing that was Part Conference/Part Workshop I did with Georgia URISA on the coast. We went to Jekyll Island and I did a four hour QGIS Class. How do you do a four hour QGIS Class? Quickly. 29 people learning about some non traditional software and the fun part on that one is I turned it into I guess the closest thing I’ve had to a vacation – I spent one day on the beach. Sitting. Being Quiet. We had several people deviate from the class. One guy in particualr started doing “work” in the back. He started working through all his projects in QGIS and I lost him as a student – but QGIS gained a new fan quickly.

I was busier than I had planned on being – but in general I felt like the word/work/outreach of North River Geographic Systems solidified a bit. For may of you in small business going “WELL I DO A, B, AND C AND IT WORKS”. I’ve always been a bit scattered in offerings and that hasn’t helped. Although I hate the word “reboot” maybe that’s what 2015 turned into – A “Randy Reboot”…a “NRGS reboot”. Am I now a company that offers a menu? No….BUT – I am a company that is getting more focused on clients and work and it’s showing with two more clients acquired the last half of this year. To quote the HVAC guy that came out to my rental a few months ago – “I’m a generalist – give me these tools and an hour and I can fix 90% of everything that is wrong with anything”.