Thank you, Linda and Mike, for allowing me to be part of this workshop and to say a few words about the Council of Geographic Names Authorities. The concepts of the Council were originally established in 1977 at the Intermountain States Geographic Names Conference. That first conference was the idea or the brainchild of Dr. J. N. Hayman; he is now the Executive Secretary emeritus of the Utah Committee on Geographic Names. His vision was to be able to confer with people working on a regular basis with place names. The goal was to be able to apply and administer geographic names in an orderly fashion, according to the will of the people, but without suffering the effects of the indiscriminate interstate naming and renaming or name changing. The success of that first conference led to the organization of the Western States Geographic Names Council and, most recently, the Council of Geographic Names Authorities. And as Roger pointed out, out of the 50 states and assorted territories there are 45 recognized State Geographic Names Authorities. That doesn't mean that all are active members on the Council, but they are recognized as being able to participate and take part in our meetings and our conference. The Council is an association of representatives from the officially recognized Geographic Names Councils in the US. The Council also recognizes as members the Chair and Executive Secretary of the Domestic Names Committee of the US Board on Geographic Names, as well as the chairman of the Place Name Survey in the US. Additional members are the federal advisory and international advisory group.
The Council over the years has established sound purposes, principles really, which I would like to share with you today. One is to promote standardization of procedures in assigning or authorizing the names of geographical features within governmental jurisdictions in the U.S. The second is to promote cooperation among federal and state agencies who have some degree of responsibility in maintaining databases for geographic features or cultural entities mandated by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The third is to make available geographic name information to officials of governmental agencies, public and private enterprises, both foreign and domestic, and to the general public. Four, to provide a professional and educational forum at which members of the Council, federal advisory groups, international advisory groups and interested citizens may present research papers or workshops, and learn about the principles, policies and procedures concerning geographic names and the naming process in the U.S. And five, to co-sponsor an annual conference at which members of the Council may take appropriate action or make recommendations relevant to federal and state agencies regarding the aforementioned purposes.
Over the past 23 years now, the annual conference has provided an excellent
forum for furthering the goals and objectives of the Council. Each conference
has provided a wonderful exchange of information; we discuss policy matters,
we try to resolve problems we have between member states and, lastly, the
conference provides a forum to educate the public about the principal policies
and procedures concerning geographic names within the U.S. So that the
others will have a little bit of time, I'll go on unless there are any
questions.