Anderson & Associates’ GIS Project Manager, Susan Moore, knows that the term GIS is unfamiliar to most people; but she’s working hard to change that. Moore spends much of her time at A&A promoting GIS technology and explaining its uses.

Since the early 90’s, Anderson and Associates has provided GIS services such as consulting, GIS development, geodatabase design and implementation, and web GIS.

For those of you who don’t know, GIS is a digital mapping technology that allows unlimited amounts of data to be linked to locational information for the creation of "smart maps". These high tech maps help us map objects or people and see how they relate to other things at or near that location.

GIS is widely used in business and government operations for everything from marketing analysis to defense mapping. The technology helps local governments track changes, trends, and problems while serving as an invaluable informational tool for decision makers.

One of Moore’s efforts in expanding people’s GIS knowledge is participating in GIS Day. The National Geographic Society, which has promoted Geography Awareness Week since 1987, declared the week of November 12-18 for this year’s celebration. As part of that observance, Wednesday, November 15 was declared International Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day.

This year, Moore teamed up with Melissa Scott, Greenbrier County, West Virginia’s Building Permit Officer and GIS Coordinator, to bring GIS Day to the county’s local citizens. Greenbrier County government is moving ahead with the support and application of GIS within several Courthouse departments by utilizing GIS, and they are excited to share the technology with local citizens. GIS Day provided them the perfect venue to accomplish this goal.

Scott requested that the Greenbrier County Commission declare November 15, 2006 as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day in Greenbrier County. The declaration was made by the Commission to show support for the GIS educational event that the county co-hosted on Wednesday, November 15th with Anderson & Associates, Mountain CAD Corporation, Earth Vector Systems, and Greenbrier Communications at the New River Community and Technical College in Lewisburg.

The morning session was set aside for students from Western Greenbrier Middle School and Greenbrier Episcopal School, and included a "hands on" educational activity for the students. The afternoon portion of the event, which was free and open to the public, focused on educating the professional community on the benefits of GIS. The event, designed to promote GIS and GPS (Global Positioning Systems) education for students and professionals, successfully educated and entertained all who attended. &