SSSI SICC News - December 2019

November 30, 2019

Message from the Chair

I'm pleased to let the members know that 2020 will bring several new streams of webinars to Spatial Information and Cartography members. We aim on getting some of the best of regional seminars presented to a national audience where the content is relevant. Watch out as we announce a calendar of lunch and learn short webinars to enjoy with your colleagues and fellow members.

Angus Scown

Committee Meeting Report

November Committee meeting

The November meeting focussed on a new initiative to introduce and run a webinar series for Spatial Information and Cartography professionals.

This will provide a new, nationwide avenue for continuing professional development and be available to members and non-members.

The plan is for specialists in the industry to present at these webinars, much like they would at a live seminar, but with a nationwide reach.

The national SICC Committee will be organising these under the SSSI banner using existing resources.

The Committee considered the finer details of how these should operate. URISA in the USA hold successful webinars so will be a source of good advice.

Stay tuned for further updates about these webinars including how to view the program and register for them.

SSSI - URISA Relationship

SSSI has a very important and useful relationship with URISA in the USA.

Look out for the next Position magazine where Kerry Smyth will detail the strengthening of the SSSI URISA relationship during her recent exchange visit to the URISA conference in New Orleans.

Important News

Second year of Mentoring Program outstanding success

The SSSI National Young Professionals Mentoring Program 2019 has just wrapped up. It’s been very well received, with a huge jump in numbers from 92 participants in its inaugural year in 2018 to over 200 graduates in 2019, only its second year.

Participants would meet every two weeks for a total of 8 fortnights, discussing a set topic each fortnight. The program had two streams, one catering to mentees who were just about to enter the workforce, and the second catering to mentees who had been working for a few years and were looking to level up their game and push their careers further. Participants rated this program very highly in Mid-program and End-of-program surveys.

Not only do the mentees gain greatly from this experience, but mentors found they enjoyed realising how much knowledge they can pass on, and also gained new perspectives and an appreciation of how far they had come and what they were taking for granted.

Instrumental to establishing this program was Roshni Sharma, 2019 SSSI Young Professional of the Year. See Roshni’s Linkedin article for a full summary of the 2019 mentoring program, elaborating on the experience by participants.

The next mentoring program will take place in 2020. You can submit your Expression of Interest now to be a mentor or mentee .

Member Highlights

New SICC Members

The SICC Committee welcomes the following new student members to SSSI.

Lerubo Ge		NSW
Rocio Peyronnet		WA
Baden Coates		Victoria
Austin Odo		WA
Ryan Haynes		TAS
Ellen Saxon		NSW
Shaun Blackmore		QLD

Event Highlights

SSSI-QLD Northern Group Conference

The Northern Group Conference in Cairns highlighted the co-operation between different Spatial Professionals with the attendance of a large contingent of Navy personnel from the Cairns Hydrography office. Highlights of the conference included the presentation on the two internationally recognised autonomous car projects of Qld Transport. The Australian Navy educated the audience on the large amount of mapping and charting activities that they undertake with a variety of vessels. Everyone agreed that collaboration between the various spatial professionals drove out new ideas and approaches.

Events Coming Up

SSSI SICC related events coming up:

December	Various regions	End of year / Christmas Events. Check communications from your region
21^st January	VIC	SSSI-ISV Summer Seminar 2020
4^th February	NAT	YP Webinar: Fisherman's Bend Digital Twin
April 28-30 2020	National	Locate 2020 SSSI’s national conference Call for Abstracts