ACE in the Hood

Tonight I attended the 2008 Annual Meeting of Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE) - an environmental justice community organization based in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. The work that ACE does, and has done, for Roxbury and other neighborhoods in the greater Boston area is serious and impressive, but these events are always like carnivals. We elected four new members of the Board (congrats to T.J. in particular) and enjoyed some particularly funny skits lampooning the MBTA experience of students (thanks to REEP) and the T Riders Union. As always, the food was great and the company warm.

GIS Day 2008

For GIS Day 2008 I drove up to the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire to man a booth advertising our Department. This is the 10th year that UNH has hosted GIS Day activities (and my second year attending). The staff honored Mike Routhier with a glass clock for his decade of organizational success. Interestingly, I met Mike's father who had volunteered to drive the van that shuttled attendees from Morse Hall to the guest parking lot. Very pleasant gentleman and very proud of his son.

As usual it was a good turnout, although a slightly younger crowd. I recall speaking to more high school groups last year. This year I spoke to mostly middle school groups. I took posters by three of my students to show off (thanks to Jim, Jen and Bill Sr.), although I found myself explaining what an "undergrad" is more often than the GIS projects I showcased. One student was very interested in the quality of food on campus.

I also met up with two of our alums, both of whom made a point of stopping by to say hi. One works for GeoVantage - Dan Shinnick - and the other for Pictometry - Matt Deal. Very friendly people. They pushed their products, I pushed my students (for internships). It all works out very well.