Frequently Asked Questions

The budget should include the cost of one trip to Washington, DC, for one or more members of the UCGIS research team, to meet with FGDC staff and others with metadata training experience as requested by FGDC.

Question: Is this in addition to the scoping meeting?
Answer: No.

UCGIS team will facilitate at least one scoping meeting that brings together metadata trainers from several segments of the geospatial data community including but not necessarily limited to educators and trainers who offer GIS courses or GIS certification classes in the following situations:
a) federal training centers
b) universities and community colleges
c) professional societies
d) trainers in state and local government.

Question: Who is responsible for identifying these trainers?
Answer: FGDC will provide names, and if you know some the lists can be combined.

Question: Who pays their way to attend?
Answer: FGDC will pay for government people to attend. The subcontract just has to budget the offerer's personnel travel.

Question: Where will the meeting be held? Will FGDC chose the site?
Answer: In DC, unless the proposers have a strong argument to hold it elsewhere.

Question: Who pays to host the meeting (ie, meeting rooms and other facilities, refreshments, etc)?
Answer: FGDC will host the scoping meeting and you need not include these costs in your budget.

The UCGIS contract budget must include travel for UCGIS senior personnel to attend this meeting. FGDC will pay travel for the people that they request to be part of the meeting.

Question: Who are "senior" personnel?
Answer: That normally means the faculty PI and any co-PIs, the research leaders, and normally would not include technical or other support staff. You could budget travel for staff as well.

As the ISO metadata standard becomes more of a known quantity (following the plenary meeting of the ISO Technical Committee on Geographic Information/Geomatics in September, 1998), the UCGIS team will prepare a metadata course, with accompanying material, that can be used by the various audiences described above, with particular emphasis on situations (b) and (c).

Question: Does "material" include 1 master copy or should the budget include x number of copies?
Answer: Prepare 1 master copy.

last update Sept 17, 1998.