In light of varying opinions within the membership, MAPPS President Kurt Allen has appointed a Task Force on Offshoring. The purpose of this task force will be to review the issue, understand all points of view within the MAPPS membership, and develop a recommendation to the MAPPS Board for a policy position and implementation strategy for MAPPS that represents the consensus of the task force and can be accepted by the membership at large.
Among the topics the Task Force will consider are the following:
• How MAPPS can better inform its members, and Federal agencies, of the legal opinion MAPPS secured, regarding compliance with current procurement-related law when engaging in offshoring;
• How MAPPS can assist its members who are licensed professionals, as well as state licensing boards, regarding compliance with current law with regard to “responsible charge” obligations when engaging in offshoring;
• How MAPPS can ensure that the Department of Homeland Security, or other appropriate Federal agencies, appropriately review the practice of offshoring engineering and geospatial data, drawings and information, to assure that there is no threat to the Nation’s homeland security;
• How MAPPS can assure that commercial remote sensing satellite companies’ ability to sell remote sensing imagery is not adversely affected by a government review;
• How MAPPS can assist its member firms in exporting their products and services, including but not limited to programs of the World Bank, AID, UN, TDA, and the International Trade Administration;
• How MAPPS can assist its members with knowledge of and compliance with ISO 17799, the information security management standard and other measures to assure data security.
The Task Force is comprised of the following MAPPS members (none of whom are from firms with an individual currently on the MAPPS Board of Directors):
John Voycik, Greenhorne & O’Mara — Chairman
Herb Satterlee, DigitalGlobe
John Copple, Sanborn
Dee Vaidya, Techni Graphic Systems
Gregg Tilley, VARGIS
Jim Page, James W. Sewall Company
Susan Marlow, Smart Data Strategies
Jeff Lovin, Woolpert
Mary Brauer-Cox, LSI
Jean Carter, Aerial Data Service
Eric Sandberg, BAE Systems
The task force will meet in-person at MAPPS Conferences, separate from those meetings, and communicate via telephone and email in the interim. They will be supported by the MAPPS staff. A session will be held at the MAPPS Winter Conference in January, at which the Task Force can present its recommendations to the membership and solicit feedback. Formal recommendations shall be presented to the MAPPS Board at that time.
Inquiries can be directed to:
John Palatiello
MAPPS Executive Director
john@mapps.org
703-787-6996
