National Association of Counties * Washington, DC / Vol. 30, No. 14 * July 20, 1998

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NACo and Integraph Corporation are offering a GIS "Starter Kit" to member counties.

The Department of Information Technology (also called the Information Technology Center or ITC) manages NACo's internal and external information technology programs. This includes NACo's Web site, the Information Technology Premier Member Program and NACo's internal computer and telecommunications operations.

GIS "Starter Kit"

NACo and Intergraph Corporation, a NACo Premier Member partner and leader in the geographic information system (GIS) industry, are offering at no cost a GIS "Starter Kit" to qualified NACo member counties. The offer includes not only Intergraph's latest, industry-leading GIS software package, Geomedia, but also the critical elements of an entire GIS infrastructure: data specific to member counties, initial software training and ongoing service support. NACo will announce this program to its membership at the Annual Conference.

Premier Member Program

The Information Technology (IT) Premier Member Program was established to develop partnerships with leading companies in the IT industry. This collaboration taps into the expertise of the private sector, informing county officials about hardware and software applications that improve their ability to communicate with constituents, deliver services to their citizens and address critical operational problems. 

NACo's current Premier Members are AT&T, EDS, GTE, IBM and Intergraph. Premier Members pay annual dues of $15,000. NACo and current Premier Members are working together to identify additional Premier Members that can provide significant additional information technology services to counties.

Education and training

Premier Members sponsored computer laboratory training classes, special training seminars and workshop sessions for county officials during the past year. Premier Members also increase NACo's education and training capacity by contributing significant staff time and in-kind resources.

The education and training capacity of the ITC significantly expanded this year with the sponsorship and donations by NACo's Premier Member corporate partners. 

At the NACo Legislative and Western Interstate Region (WIR) conferences, the ITC and Intergraph Corporation built a computer classroom, complete with computer workstations provided by Intergraph, and held a series of hands-on, entry level "Communicating Geographically" GIS training sessions.  The computer classroom will be expanded at the Annual Conference.

A pre-conference training session, "Survival Skills for the Information Age," will be offered by IBM at the Annual Conference. IBM will soon offer classes on navigating the Web and communicating by e-mail.  The County Technology Fair also expanded, with growing participation by government agencies and Premier Member corporations.  The ITC continued to hold a technology session during every workshop block at NACo major conferences, and the Technology Column now regularly appears in County News.

Y2K initiatives

The ITC assists counties with the Year 2000 computer problem, often referred to as "Y2K." 

NACo joined with the International City/County Management Association, National League of Cities and Public Technology, Inc., to create a local government Y2K campaign. The campaign focuses attention on the Y2K issue and assists local governments with practical solutions, available resources and contingency planning. The key component of the campaign is a "Y2K Tool Kit" which will be introduced at the 1998 NACo Annual Conference. A video teleconference also is planned to assist counties with Y2K.

In addition, NACo is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), to utilize its network of extension agents and field office personnel to help rural counties with Y2K issues. NACo's Web site offers a special section devoted solely to the Y2K problem, and the ITC offers workshops on Y2K at every major NACo conference.

IT directors survey

The ITC is seeking insight into county government information technology operations and to increase the ability of IT directors to communicate with NACo and with other county IT directors. 

Funded by a grant from Public Technology, Inc., the study will: (1) identify the individual in every county who oversees the county's information technology operations; (2) survey each identified IT director to obtain a summary of county IT operations, applications, hardware/software, policies, procedures and projects; (3) produce a report based on the findings; and (4) design a web site for county IT directors and related groups containing relevant information and an electronic bulletin board.

Intergovernmental efforts

The ITC works with other associations, governmental organizations and agencies to advance county interests on information technology policies and programs. 

To provide county input into data standards related to geographic information systems (GIS), NACo appointed at least one county representative to each of the 23 subcommittees and working groups of the Federal Geographic Data Committee. The NACo representatives are members of the new NACo Geospatial Information Committee, which held its first meeting at the Legislative Conference in March. 

The U.S. Geological Survey has detailed a liaison at the NACo office to assist with county GIS efforts, a very important development as counties move to use GIS technology. NACo worked with American Forests to publish a national study of GIS capabilities in urban municipalities and counties.

The ITC continues to work closely with the National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC). This relationship was so effective that NACo entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Association of State Information Resource Executives (NASIRE). Other organizations on which NACo representatives also serve include: Intergovernmental Advisory Board coordinated by the General Services Administration, Institute for Land Information, Federation of Government Information Processing Councils (FGIPC), Management of Change Advisory Board and the Department of Commerce Evaluation Panel for Innovative Computing and Telecommunications Grant Applications.

In June, NACo, Howard County, Md. and Fairfax County, Va. hosted a delegation of government and industry executives from Italy interested in innovative local government applications of information technology.

NACo Web site redesign

NACo'sWebsite (www.naco.org) is widely regarded as among the best of any trade association. A new redesign will even better accommodate the variety and quantity of information NACo disseminates to members and the general public. The new design will allow web site pages to be generated directly from NACo databases. New site management software will improve NACo's capability to track utilization patterns. The redesigned site will be launched at the 1998 Annual Conference.

Operations and internal data bases

NACo employees seek to use new technology efficiently to serve our members. Sixty desktop and laptop computers were upgraded as part of a planned desktop replacement strategy, and the office migrated to a new network operating system.

NACo continues to improve the association management system installed in 1995. Working closely with SACO, the system provider, staff identified specific areas requiring improvement. An orders processing module, installed in the spring of 1997, has yet to be fully tested, the logistics portion of the conference module needs further review and the grant tracking mo-dule still requires further adjustments.