More about our agenda

Am following up on the discussions to set our agenda for this year.
It has taken me a while to get back to this task--while I have reasons, I shall refrain from listing them as excuses, eh.

A quick recap from your responses:

• Stephen C. suggested: could we consider authoring an AAG one page briefing sheet highlighting the key college-level skills that greatly boost employment opportunities in geography
• Dagmar B. favors: A panel discussion of the consequences of the NRC report for higher education geography programs, and adds that such a panel's mission would have to be very focused
• Michael G. noted: On the NRC report, my view is that we have a long, uphill battle as we are talking about “geographical sciences” or “geospatial technologies” as though the rest of the world accepted or understood these and suggested that perhaps the top-down NRC approach in this report could be contrasted with a bottom-up process.

Meanwhile, the AAG has issued the call for papers, with a deadline of October 20th.  (In the recent past, such deadlines have always been later extended, as I recall.)

So:

• Regarding Stephen's suggestion, I suppose it might be better to get a response from the organization's rep, Michael S.  If in case such a briefing-sheet or a comparable document already exists, then we might be better off not replicating that.  Or maybe we could fine-tune it, or update it ....
• Regarding the NRC report as a panel discussion item, I continue to have strong doubts:
• The ideas of the report might not have diffused through the community of academic- and practitioner-geographers, and waiting a year appeals to me.
• It is also highly likely that the AAG or some of its other committees might also be interested in discussing the NRC report at future meetings.  Again, Michael S. can brief us on this aspect.  We can then team up with those ventures.
• Perhaps, for starters, we could begin to talk about this, and listen in on conversations, at the upcoming regional meetings.  This way, we can also get a sense of any "ground-level" thinking on the NRC and thereby even identify and target colleagues who might be excited about the panel discussions we would like to organize.

That is where I am.  We have not heard from a couple of fellow-members ....

Michael G. and Jeff Y. had a couple of other observations about "geography" and "geographers," and the usage of "Geographical Sciences" in the NRC report.  I suppose this is a good time for a full-disclosure on my part: I have no degree in "Geography." (BTW, I hope I am not repeating myself on this point!)  As I wrote even in the AAG Newsletter, am absolutely convinced that there couldn't be a better academic home for me though :)

Let us know what you think, even as we wait to get updates from Michael S.