WAURISA is pleased to announce that Josh Greenberg has been named the recipient of the 2020 Summit Award for the “GIS Person of the Year”. Josh is a former President and long-time Board member of WAURISA who currently works as a senior GIS Analyst for Skagit County. Through his creativity, willingness to lead, and passion for creating opportunities for others, Josh has significantly changed the GIS profession in Washington State for the better. As the long-time chair of the Professional Development committee, current chair of the Marketing committee, member of the Technology committee, and the lead of the Washington Government GIS Leaders special interest group, Josh remains among WAURISA’s most active and influential volunteers. It is hard to imagine our group being as successful and relevant as we find it today without the contributions Josh has made.
Nominating statements and earlier award announcements:
I’ve known Josh for numerous years; however, it wasn’t until I joined the WAURSIA Board almost eight years ago that I discovered what an amazing asset he was to the WAURISA Board. If any of us had any questions about almost anything WAURISA related, its bylaws, its policies, our management software (Wild Apricot), our budget, our workshops, our annual & regional conferences, OneURISA, etc., etc.) our immediate response was to ask Josh and 9 times out of 10 he had the answer or knew who had the answer and quickly replied to us. When I served as WAURISA president I continually sought his sage advice and was always rewarded with practical, insightful assistance and guidance. Josh is funny, clever, engaging and a joy just to sit down and share a beer with and I consider myself very lucky to have him as a friend. Thanks Josh for all the energy, joy, and commitment you bring to everything you do and congratulations on your well-deserved WAURISA Summit (GIS Person of the Year) award.
Ian Von Essen, WAURISA past president
The traits that have helped him {Josh} significantly change the GIS profession within Washington State include his creativity, willingness to lead volunteer professional organizations and he is passionate about creating opportunities for others in GIS to grown and learn.
He was the keynote speaker in 2018 for the State GIS Day in Olympia and creatively thought about the future of GIS. Josh has actively volunteered and lead technical workshops for the WAURISA members both at the conference and mid-year workshops in Spokane.
He is always interested in promoting learning opportunities for others in the GIS profession.
Joanne Markert , WATech/ Office of the CIO
Josh has always been an active part of the GIS community, even before joining the WA URISA board, and he remains actively involved with WAURISA even after leaving the board. Once on the board, Josh was quick to get involved, and offered great suggestions to help the chapter bring even more value to our members. Above all, Josh is great at listening to and thoughtfully offering solutions to ideas and issues brought forth by chapter members, and keeping the GIS community at large at the forefront of everything he does. He’s a great resource for historical WAURISA activities – I can always go to Josh with a question and he has the information or knows where to get it. Sage Josh.
Heather Glock, WAURISA board member
I met Josh in 2015, it was the night before the conference in Vancouver, a bunch of us had volunteered to put badges together. By dinner time everyone had dispersed and i realized i didn't know where everyone had gone and was getting hungry. In the lobby i noticed Josh and recognized him from earlier, i smiled and was about to walk out the door when he asked where i was going to go for dinner. i said "i am just going to grab a sub from subway" He immediately responded " no you are not, let's go find some good food" we walked over a mile and finally found a restaurant, split a pitcher of beer, shared our life stories and had a blast. We have been friends ever since. What I didn't know at the time was, if you are friends with Josh he will try to recruit you for something. In the 5 years since then, I have been on 3 different conference committees and became the secretary of the board. I credit 95% of that involvement to Josh. Thanks for all the energy you bring and recruitment you do!
Christina Chelf, WAURISA secretary
“I enthusiastically endorse the nomination of Josh Greenberg for the Summit Award. Since I became involved with the group, no one has contributed more time, energy and enthusiasm to the Washington State Chapter of URISA than Josh. His contributions to the Technology committee have ensured we have the tools to communicate with our members and with each other and to present ourselves in a professional manner on our web site. His work on the Professional Development committee has resulted in dozens of useful training sessions that help the members of our community advance in their careers. Not to be overlooked is his work to form and operate the Washington Government GIS Leaders group, which provides supervisors and managers with a forum to learn practical approaches to solving the problems we all face and to develop leadership skills to benefit their agencies and the staff and communities they serve. It’s hard to imagine our group being as successful and relevant as we find it today without the contributions Josh has made.”
Stephen Beimborn, City of Seattle, WAURISA President
