The 2023 MAGIP Board of Directors Election was held April 27 - May 12 at 5pm.

If your MAGIP membership is up to date, you should have received your e-mail ballot on April 27.

The ballot was sent using Wild Apricot (the email may appear to be sent from admin@magip.org) and is unique to each MAGIP Member. If you are a MAGIP Member and you did not receive a ballot, please check your spam and junk folders, and then contact MAGIP to have one sent to you.

If you want to become a MAGIP Member (or renew your membership) and participate in future elections, please go to the MAGIP Membership page to join.

Election Results

Vice President: Gail Jorgenson, City of Bozeman

Elected to three (3) year term (Vice President, President, Past President)

Treasure: Nate Wold, Dept Natural Resources & Conservation - Elected to a two (2) year term

Secretary: Hilary Kauth, Department of Military Affairs - Elected to a two (2) year term

Technical Committee Chair: Tessa Switzer, City of Great Falls - Elected to a two (2) year term

:Scholarships & Grants Chair: Rob Ahl, USDA Forest Service - Elected to a two (2) year term

Bylaw and Constitution Amendment Results

The proposed amendments to MAGIP’s Bylaws in Article II & Article III, PASSED with 87% of the respondents voting 'For', 9.1% voting to 'Abstain' and 3.9% voting 'Against' the changes.

The proposed amendments to MAGIP's Constitution in Article IV, PASSED with 88.3% of the respondents voting 'For', 9.1% voting to 'Abstain' and 2.6% voting 'Against' the changes. 

Thank you to everyone who ran for the various positions and for your dedication to MAGIP!

A special thank you to the out-going Board members,  Jeff Hedstrom, Jason Danielson and Aaron Vaughn, for your time, dedication and commitment to making MAGIP a great organization to be a part of.

Schedule  |  Open Positions  |  Bylaw Amendments  |  Nominees

2023 MAGIP Elections Schedule

Open Board of Directors Positions

Vice President - Elected to three (3) year term (Vice President, President, Past President)

Treasurer - Elected to a two (2) year term

Secretary - Elected to a two (2) year term

Technical Committee Chair - Elected to a two (2) year term

Scholarships & Grants Chair - Elected to a two (2) year term

Note: All Elected Members of the Board must be MAGIP members in good standing for their entire period of membership. Meetings of the Board shall be held at times and places specified by the Board, but there should be no less than four (4) board meetings per year.  Board members must attend at least one (1) board meeting in person.

Constitution & Bylaw Amendments to be Voted on by the Membership

Constitution Amendments to Article IV - View Proposed Changes

Bylaw Amendments to Article II & Article III - View Proposed Changes

Meet the Nominees

Vice President

Gail Jorgenson, City of Bozeman

Born in the southwest city of Tucson, AZ my family migrated to Idaho when I was in my teens. After raising my family, graduating college, and many years of a great life in Boise I moved on to Bozeman and began my role as GIS Program Manager at the City of Bozeman.

While in Boise I had the great opportunity to serve in many roles on the Southwest Idaho GIS User Group (Volunteer, Coordinator, VP and President). I also served as a conference committee volunteer for the Northern Rockies Chapter of URISA and supported the Idaho Geospatial Council Executive Committee (IGC-EC) with the process of researching and writing the 2021 Idaho Strategic Plan for GIS.

I believe in the power of education, sharing of knowledge, and connecting with people. It would be my great pleasure to serve on the MAGIP Board to help further GIS in this wonderful state, Montana, that we call home.

Treasurer

Nate Wold, Department of Natural Resources and Conservation

Nate has worked as a GIS Analyst for the MT DNRC's Sage Grouse Habitat Conservation Program since February 2022. He has previously worked positions with the Montana State Library, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management. His experience includes greater sage-grouse habitat modeling, assisting in maintaining MSDI layers, using GIS to strengthen citizen science projects, and using GIS technologies for field data collection.

Secretary

Hilary Kauth, Department of Military Affairs

Hilary Kauth is the GIS Specialist for the Department of Military Affairs’ Planning and Environmental divisions. I do a little of everything from map production, data management, application development, to field deployment and data collection. I moved back to Montana in 2020 after a few years of chasing degrees at Gonzaga University followed by a Master’s Degree at South Dakota State University. After joining MAGIP two years ago and attending the conferences, I want to contribute and be involved in the organization. When not behind a computer doing GIS, you’ll find me on the mountain, on the water, or behind a book.

Katie Shank, Guidewire Software

After recently leaving a position at the DNRC for an opportunity, I'd really like to continue to participate in the GIS network for the state and be involved in helping MAGIP thrive as it has for years. I'm a very energetic, outgoing person who has a passion for GIS in all aspects. I have a background in GIS, lidar, and cartography. I specialize in floodplain mapping and managed all the lidar collected for the DNRC. I think I would be a great addition to the MAGIP board as I've built a good relationship with several agencies over the years and I have a connection with UM, as I went to grad school there. I look forward to the opportunity to join the MAGIP team!

Technical Committee Chair

Tessa Switzer, City of Great Falls

Tessa Switzer works as the GIS Specialist for the City of Great Falls. Since 2020, she primarily assigns new addresses, maintains the City’s geospatial enterprise database, uses Python scripting to increase efficiencies whenever possible, and frequently works with the public and other City Departments for ‘all other duties as assigned.’ Before her current role, she processed land splits as a Cartographer for the Montana Department of Revenue, worked on several GIS projects as an independent contractor, and was a Teaching Assistant for MSU’s final GIS course. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in GIS from Montana State University’s Earth Science Department in 2019 and a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology from Pacific Lutheran University in 2012. Tessa was born and raised in Belgrade, Montana but has only been a MAGIP member since 2020. She looks forward to increasing her involvement with the MAGIP community and the opportunity to serve as the Technical Committee Chair.

Scholarships & Grants Chair

Rob Ahl, USDA

Dr. Robert Ahl has degrees in Biology, Environmental Science, Forestry, and is affiliate faculty in the University of Montana Department of Geography. He works as Geospatial Systems Specialist for the USDA Forest in Missoula, MT, for a National Land Status team. At a MAGIP conference in Billings, MT Robert was approached by member of the MAGIP Board of Directors and asked if he would be interested in serving on what was then called the Education Committee. He has had the honor of serving on what is now called the Scholarship and Grants Committee chair since 2014. This has been an extremely rewarding experience, and over the years Robert has helped the committee increase the annual budget and give awards to undergraduate and graduate students alike, as well as Tribal, private, and public schools. This year the committee is excited to initiate a collaborative K-12 Education Grant, where multiple schools will be working together on a joint project. This will take more coordination than usual, but we think the effort will be worthwhile. With your approval, Robert will eagerly serve another term as committee chair.

Craig Threlkeld, DJ&A P.C.

I currently run DJ&A's diversity scholarship, and enjoy the experience very much. I think I'd be able to bring some experience in this type of work and I enjoy supporting students and grants very much. I also enjoy the MAGIP community and want to be more involved in the work this organization does.

Additional information on Elections, current Bylaws, and the Board can be found at the following links:

Additional Election information can be found on our Election Overview page

Contact MAGIP for more information