July 26, 2013 -- Rockport, Maine - MAPPS, the national association of private sector geospatial firms, elected new officers and members of its Board of Directors to serve the association for 2013-2014.

Jeff Lower, Vice President of Operations, Magnolia River (Huntsville, AL) took office as President of MAPPS. Lower succeeds Dick McDonald, PLS, CP, T3 Global Strategies (Bridgeville, PA). Lower begins a two-year term as President of the association. He served as President-Elect for the past year.

"I am honored and excited to be taking over as MAPPS President for the next two years," said Lower. "With the state of the economy and the pressure of 'cost cutting' jeopardizing budgets related to the geospatial profession, I am dedicated to be leading MAPPS in the advocacy, awareness and growth of our markets."

Susan Marlow, President and CEO of Smart Data Strategies, Inc. (Franklin, TN) was elected to the position of President-Elect and will succeed to the office of President in 2015. Marlow has been an active member of MAPPS serving as the chair of the MAPPS Cadastre taskforce. Ms. Marlow has testified on behalf of MAPPS at numerous Congressional hearings on parcel and cadastral data, and was a member of the National Research Council panel on Land Parcel Data. Ms. Marlow was also re-elected to the MAPPS Board of Directors.

Mitch Long, CP, LSIT, of GRW Aerial Services, Inc. (Lexington, KY) was elected as a director on the MAPPS Board. Tim Stagg, Vice President, Federal Programs of AeroMetric, Inc. (Easton, MD), was re-elected as Treasurer and Claire Kiedrowski, CP, President of Kappa Mapping Inc. (Bangor, ME), was re-elected as Secretary by the Directors.

Eric Andelin, CP, GISP, of Survey and Mapping, Inc. (SAM, Inc.) (Austin, TX) and Mike Tully, CP, GISP, of Aerial Services, Inc. (Cedar Falls, IA) were re-elected as directors by membership to the MAPPS Board.  Also serving on the MAPPS Board are Robert Hanson of Michael Baker Jr., Inc., (Harrisburg, PA) and Brian Raber of Merrick & Company (Greenwood Village, CO).   

The vote of new directors by the MAPPS membership was held during the association's annual business meeting July 23 and the Board's election of officers occurred on July 25, 2013, at the MAPPS Summer Conference at The Samoset in Rockport, ME.

About MAPPS

Formed in 1982, MAPPS is the only national association exclusively comprised of private firms in the remote sensing, spatial data and geographic information systems field in the United States. The MAPPS membership spans the entire spectrum of the geospatial community, including Member Firms engaged in satellite and airborne remote sensing, surveying, photogrammetry, aerial photography, LIDAR, hydrography, bathymetry, charting, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS, and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS also includes Associate Member Firms, which are companies that provide hardware, software, products and services to the geospatial profession in the United States and other firms from around the world. Independent Consultant Members are sole proprietors engaged in consulting in or to the geospatial profession, or provides a consulting service of interest to the geospatial profession. 

MAPPS provides its member firms opportunities for networking and developing business-to-business relationships, information sharing, education, public policy advocacy, market growth, and professional development and image enhancement. 

For more information on MAPPS, please visit www.MAPPS.org.