Associations/Groups – URISA

Urban and Regional Information Systems Association is a multidisciplinary group that has been around since 1963. In their own words:

URISA promotes the effective and ethical use of spatial information and information technologies for the understanding and management of urban and regional systems.

The association supports this mission in many ways and is very active with several publications per year including their journal, newsletter and conference proceedings. URISA organizes several conferences each year such as their annual conference, the Caribbean GIS conference, GIS in Public Health and their new Leadership Academy series. While the organization itself is international in reach, it focuses on North America and has regional chapters throughout the US, Caribbean, and Canada. Perhaps the association is best known outside of its membership for its survey of the GIS profession which it conducts once every three years which has acted as a guideline for professional expectations and a metric for companies to consider when hiring. Membership isn’t too expensive and is especially reasonable for students and comes with subscriptions to URISA’s journal and newsletter.