PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
June 2017
399
Society is the U.S. Member of the International Society for
Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
Society Membership
The Society has three classes of members: Individual
Members (people), Corporate Members (organizations,
e.g. commercial entities, government agencies, academic
institutions), and Friend Members (anyone with whom
ASPRS conveys membership via a negotiated agreement,
e.g. cross-membership with a sister society). These categories
were created in recognition that people and organizations
both require a distinct member value proposition. All
Individual Members enjoy equal privileges. Those who were
formerly Honorary Members, Sustaining Members, or Fellow
Members have been converted to Individual Members, yet
they retain their former unique rights, privileges, and titles.
Former Student Members have also been converted to
Individual Members, but now enjoy full rights and privileges,
including voting and holding office. All Corporate Members
enjoy the right of representation via the Corporate Members
Council. Former Sustaining Members were converted to
Corporate Members.
Governance of the Society
The governance of the national Society is vested in its
Board of Directors and its Officers. Of the twelve members
of the Board, nine are voting members. The voting
members are the elected officers (Vice-President, President-
Elect, President, and Immediate Past President) and the
representatives of the five Councils. The non-voting members
are the appointed officers (Executive Director, Secretary, and
Treasurer). Responsibility for the day-to-day management
of Society affairs rests with the Executive Director. The
Society has established and supports a series of committees,
which are responsible to the President. Their function is
advisory. However, committee chairpersons may act for the
President when directed to do so. The Society is subdivided
geographically into 15 Regions, some of which have organized
additional Chapters. Each of these regions selects its own
officers and directors, and selects two members to the Region
Officers Council, whose Chair sits on the Board of Directors of
the national Society. The Society organization includes seven
Technical Divisions: Remote Sensing Applications, Primary
Data Acquisition, Professional Practice, Photogrammetric
Applications, Lidar, Geographic Information Systems, and
Unmanned Autonomous Systems. The purpose of these
Divisions is to bring the Society closer to its members who
tend to specialize in one or more of these areas. The Division
Directors and Assistant Directors comprise the Technical
Division Directors Council, whose Chair sits on the Board
of Directors of the Society. In addition, the Chair of the
Corporate Members Council, the Chair of the Early-Career
Professionals Council, and the Chair of the Student Advisory
Council each sit on the Board of Directors.
Society Foundation
In 2004, ASPRS launched the ASPRS Foundation, Inc.,
an independent 501 (c) 3 organization that raises, invests,
and grants funds to the ASPRS Awards and Scholarships
Program. The original American Society of Photogrammetry
(ASP) Foundation was formed initially in 1979, and later
transformed to become the International Geographic
Information Foundation (IGIF). In late 2003, oversight
of IGIF was transferred to The Association of American
Geographers (AAG), a sister society and longtime co-sponsor
of the IGIF. ASPRS subsequently negotiated an agreement
with the AAG for ASPRS to re-establish stewardship over the
organization.
The ASPRS Foundation maintains an extensive and
broadly- based program that provides grants, scholarships,
loans and other forms of aid to individuals or organizations
pursuing knowledge of imaging and geospatial information
science and technology, and their applications across the
scientific, governmental, and commercial sectors. A key
short-term goal of the Foundation is to fully endow all
existing ASPRS awards and scholarships. The activities,
bylaws, operating procedures, and Board of Trustees are
listed at
and donations may be
made online at
tion/Donate-to-
the-ASPRS-Foundation.html.
GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION SOCIETY
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