USGIF Selected to Coalition of Geospatial Organizations

December 21, 2009

HERNDON, Va., December 21, 2009 – The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) today announced it was unanimously voted into the full membership of the Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) during a meeting at the ASPRS/MAPPS 2009 Conference.

“To be voted into COGO by our peer national geospatial organizations is not only a great recognition for our organization, but is also a great way for USGIF to accomplish its mission of bringing together geospatial intelligence stakeholders,” said USGIF President Keith Masback. “With this partnership, we hope to bring more awareness to the GEOINT Community as a whole.”

COGO is a recently formed coalition of 16 national professional societies, trade associations and membership organizations in the geospatial field, representing more than 30,000 individual producers and users of geospatial data and technology.

The purpose of COGO is to provide a forum for organizations concerned with national geospatial issues that will improve communications among member organizations and others; provide educational information on relevant issues for their respective memberships; align and strengthen their respective policy agendas; and facilitate development of strategies to address national issues.

“We are excited to welcome USGIF as a new member organization of COGO. We believe the inclusion of USGIF greatly strengthens our ability to influence national geospatial policy in a direction that will benefit the entire geospatial community,” said Cy Smith, COGO Chair. “Geospatial intelligence is rapidly becoming recognized at the highest policy levels across the country as vitally important to the health, safety and welfare, security and prosperity of the nation.”

COGO grew out of a series of stakeholder meetings among the leaders of national organizations involved in geospatial data and policy issues over the last several years. The groups realized that they had common interests and concerns and that they could increase their effectiveness by speaking with one voice wherever possible.

Members of COGO include the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), Association of American Geographers (AAG), Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS), Geospatial Information Technology Association (GITA), GIS Certification Institute (GISCI), International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO), Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS), National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC), United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) and the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA). For more information on COGO, please visit www.urisa.org/cogo.

USGIF is a non-profit educational foundation dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and developing a stronger GEOINT Community with government, industry, academia, professional organizations and individuals whose mission is the development and application of geospatial intelligence to address our national security. For more information, please visit www.usgif.org.

Contact:
Jordan Fuhr
Director of Communications
United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation 703-793-0109
jordan.fuhr@usgif.org