As we draw nearer to celebrating 30 years as an Office, one thing seems clear. Change is upon us once again. Talented staff, unique project opportunities, and a creative and supportive team of students have always been some keys to success for the SCO. In creating that mix in an academic environment, change is nothing new to us. But this spring, its simply more pronounced.
We are saying farewell internally to Bob Gurda, Assistant State Cartographer and member of the office for the last 16 years, as well as Mary Jackson, our Financial Specialist. Likewise, on the student side, we’ll miss Jesse Adams, who has graduated and is pursuing internship and graduate school opportunities.
With a few other students departing temporarily for unique summer training opportunities and a few grant projects expiring this summer, we expect to see a few others leave us and plenty of new faces join us here shortly. Rose Barr, has already joined us as an LTE, to assist us with financial work.
Of course, none of this feels strange as we see plenty of change around us at present. From federal to local levels, budgetary constraints, higher priorities (e.g. homeland security) and advancing technologies, particularly on the Internet, are changing the way we look at and operate within our industry – the way we do business is different now.
As we continue writing grants for new projects in the next few years and even consider a physical move of our office (within the building); we have less time to reflect so much on where we’ve been and what we’ve done as focus on where we’re going and how the sum of our next 30 years’ activities might best contribute to a successful Land Information Program in Wisconsin.
Indeed, change is upon us – and we’re excited to see what’s just beyond the horizon there.