At USGIF, our purpose is to promote the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and develop a stronger community of interest among government, industry, academia, professional organizations and individuals whose mission is the development and application of geospatial intelligence to address national security objectives.

This partnership with KMI Media Group to facilitate the launch of the foundation’s very own publication epitomizes what we strive to accomplish for the GEOINT community.

Establishing an official publication for a foundation isn’t necessarily an “earth-shattering” event. However, when you put this partnership in the context of the history of the foundation, we believe it is pretty impressive.

This past January, USGIF celebrated its fifth anniversary as a nonprofit educational foundation. In just five short years, USGIF, its board of directors and its membership have achieved a great deal, and created a unique organization that has established itself as a leader in the tradecraft’s continuous growth and success.

In 2003 following the success of GEO-INTEL—the predecessor to the annual GEOINT Symposium—a group of community leaders realized an inherent need for a unified vision and approach to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft. The hard work of this small group resulted in the official establishment of USGIF, and two superb conferences in New Orleans.

While our legacy traces back to those early, memorable symposia, and the ones that have come since, it is important to remember that USGIF is not an event-planning organization. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, educational foundation. While we sponsor, conduct and support a variety of events and programs that bring together the community to tackle current and future challenges, everything we do relates back to education—whether that is giving grants for Earth-science related matters in K-12 classrooms, awarding scholarships to promising students (totaling over $250,000 so far), establishing accreditation guidelines for institutions of higher learning, fostering professional development in our Young Professional Group, or enabling life-long learning through tradecraft competencies and development.

All this is made possible through the remarkable partnerships that make up the foundation, and the commitment of our corporate and government members. This is both in the form of generous financial support, but moreover, with the tireless work of volunteers, the lifeblood of a nonprofit. This is what has enabled us to accomplish so much in our first five years, and I’m confident that even greater opportunities await us in the coming five years and beyond.

I especially look forward to increasing the foundation’s educational outreach, and we are all excited about the future as we continue to foster the GEOINT community and further establish this tradecraft as both an intelligence discipline and as the underpinning for all intelligence and operations activities.

So, it only makes sense that USGIF partner with the most well-read and respected geospatial publication available. From Capitol Hill to the Pentagon to the Dulles Corridor and beyond, spanning the breadth and depth of the defense, intelligence and homeland security communities, Geospatial Intelligence Forum, and indeed all of KMI’s publications, are noted for providing consistently interesting, valuable content.

Since its beginning, Military Geospatial Technology magazine (founded, I add proudly, by our own director of marketing and strategic communications, Jordan Fuhr), has provided its audience with insightful articles on technologies, policy, programs and issues facing the GEOINT community and all who are served by GEOINT in its broadest context. This high-caliber content will continue, and indeed be expanded with its name change to Geospatial Intelligence Forum.

This new publication will retain all of the enriching articles and briefs subscribers have come to expect, but also will now include USGIF news, event announcements, opinion and additional member-focused content. USGIF will serve in an editorial advisory capacity to KMI to ensure that the issues concerning our community are always considered for publication. We will suggest and help secure, if needed, leaders to feature in cover interviews, we will provide ideas and thought leaders on particular topics of interest that might not be in the mainstream news, we’ll comment when needed on certain issues in print, and you can always be assured we have the best intentions when it comes to the GEOINT community and our national security.

In each issue, I will provide a column, like the one you are now reading, focusing on the issues that are most important to the GEOINT community. Perhaps it is new policy you should know about or an opinion on current trends or thoughts on the current state of GEOINT. We, of course, also look forward to hearing your suggestions as to how we can better provide you, our audience, with timely, accurate and relevant intelligence.

I’d like to conclude by thanking KMI Media Group—specifically Jack Kerrigan, Kirk Brown, Jeff McKaughan, Harrison Donnelly and Scott Parker—for being true partners in every sense of the word. We have discussed this project for more than a year, and I simply couldn’t have asked for a more professional group of folks to work with us. At every step, they were motivated to find ways to help us accomplish our goal of providing USGIF and its members with an official publication.

Again, we are excited about this fantastic opportunity to enrich the value of your membership in USGIF, and to further promote the tradecraft and the GEOINT community.

Best regards, Keith J. Masback President USGIF