2006 Executive Committee Opening Welcome & Remarks

Good morning! It is always a pleasure to add the Executive Committee’s welcome and a few challenging words for thought. As I look out and see the COGNA family, it occurs me that another year has passed much too quickly, and that my hair is a touch grayer. I wouldn’t want to say that it’s also happening to some of you as well, so I will say that it is always a pleasure to see everyone again. I especially wish to welcome each of you who are here for the first time and our delegates from Canada and Australia.

For me, this is not a once a year event, but a continual struggle to keep everything moving forward. During the planning of this conference, at the eleventh hour, Bill Bright had to step down due to health problems. After a quick trip and meeting with the Colorado Board the reins were placed in Andy Cowell’s capable hands. At this time, I wish to thank Andy Cowell, Terry Ketelsen and the Colorado Board for their work. I especially wanted to extend a special thanks to Bill Bright for the hard work of getting things set up. With his passing on Sunday, it is sad that we must start the conference without him being able to see the fruits of his work.

For most State Geographic Names Authorities, or as Jenny Runyon prefers to call them, State Points of Contact, working full time on name issues is not the case. State Authorities have different levels of who is responsible for the geographic names work. All too often it is an added responsibility to someone’s normal duties. Names work generally takes a back seat! A few States have well established board, but the number of meeting that they hold each year varies drastically. This often places a backlog on the overall process when proponents are expecting action within a reasonable time frame. This raises several questions. Should the process be streamlined? Should time restraints be placed on State Authorities, County Commissioners, City Councils, Tribal governance, and other interested parties to respond more quickly? Is it unreasonable to set a goal of administering name cases within a one-year or less timeframe? I will leave the answers up to you. 

As I look back, I see that as an organization we have made tremendous progress since those seven States came together at the First Intermountain States Geographic Names Conference twenty-nine years ago. With each conference we continue to find common interest problems to discuss in our responsibilities to administer and deal with geographic names issues. This was the theme at the first conference and continues to be our focus during the State/Federal Roundtable discussion. Some of our discussions have led to improvements in policies and procedures. However, it seems that we often come back to discuss certain issues again and again. Should we take this to mean that we have not come far enough? In Baltimore, I suggested that after each State/Federal Roundtable, the Council draft recommendations for the U.S. Board to consider. Although we have not drafted any recommendations, I offer the suggestion again.  

While it is important to keep elements each year; such as meetings of the hosting State and U.S. Boards that provide the opportunities to view the naming processes in action. The State/Federal Roundtable is the most important discussion of our conference, but do we need to be doing more? We continue to have a problem of trying to get more State Authorities to attend. This problem is major since most of the States that are absent indicate that they have no funding for travel, especially out of their State. Another problem is that many people who could represent their State Authority choose to attend another conference such as linguistics, cartography, or GIS thus eliminating the COGNA geographic names conference from their plans. A third problem in this area is conflicting with other conferences on the same dates. Even though we are planning with a two year lead time our meeting often is at the same time as the North American Cartographic Information Society. 

This year has been an extremely troubling one with the planned reorganization of the geospatial units of the USGS in the works. We were in fear of loosing the entire US-BGN support staff. Other members of the COGNA organization were affected as well: Jane Messenger’s position in Rolla was included in the “RIF” plans. This meant that she might have to step down as Executive Secretary of the Missouri board. Every one kept saying that they would not have a job after September 30 and may not be able to attend COGNA. This placed great pressure on our minds as to how many would be able to attend the conference. I put out a call for the State Names Authorities to write letters to the people in charge. At one point I received a letter stating that the support for the BGN would continue, but on careful reading the wording seemed nothing more than well crafted government gobbledygook. In May, Roger Payne retired from government service after a long career.  As State Names Authorities, we had all counted on his advice. The U.S. Board immediately named the very capable Lou Yost as Executive Secretary of the Domestic Names Committee. He has taken up the duties admirably. But this did not mean that everything was secure. We hear the “RIF” will not take place until January. So, at this point, we are still unsure of what changes will take place, where the support will come from, or who will be responsible for the GNIS. To address these issues, we invited Karen Siderelis to come and say a few words on her vision of how the National Map, Geographic Names Information System, and related topics after the reorganization process. Unfortunately, Ms. Siderelis could not make it due to a conflict this week, but Bill Carswell has agreed to give us the report.  

What does all of this mean for COGNA and future conferences? Your guess is as good as mine! I have always hoped to increase the number of states in attendance. Most often it is the federal partners that make up the largest number attendance. If the changes take place, we may have to scale back, but rest assured, we will make the necessary adjustments in an effort to continue the work that was started many years ago.  

 Thank you and enjoy the meeting.

 Wayne Furr, Executive Secretary, COGNA