Providing a new level of Customer Satisfaction – How we made GIS Work at the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District
Convincing Management and the Board
Although senior staff recognized that GIS could provide the District with real and lasting
benefits, the opportunity was not nearly so clear in the minds of the District’s managers and its
Board of Directors. With some investigation it was learned that their lack of enthusiasm was
attributable largely to a lack of understanding of what GIS was and how it could serve the
District. So in the middle 1990’s the Planning Administrator began an aggressive process of
education, advocacy and consensus building.
First, the Planning Administrator started to spend time with the senior staff and managers of each
of the District’s divisions, briefing them on GIS technology. While this initially took the form of
discussions on what GIS was, it evolved over time to briefings on what GIS could do for the
District and why the District should implement GIS. This effort continues on a frequent basis
now that the District is implementing GIS, Routine briefings are conducted that inform managers
and the board on the status and accomplishments of the GIS program.
Second, individuals were encouraged to attend presentations sponsored by the several GIS
professional organizations that were active in Southern California. The information gathered
during these sessions was brought back to the District and efforts were made to make sure staff,
managers, and the Board received periodic briefings on GIS developments in the water industry.
A third factor of importance occurred in 1995 when funding was approved for the hiring of a
consultant to perform a GIS needs assessment and feasibility study. The hiring of the District’s
GIS consultant and preparing the needs assessment was a real turning point for LVMWD’s
program. The needs assessment involved all of the District’s divisions and played a significant
role in building enthusiasm for the project and documenting the District’s GIS needs, a GIS
system concept and preparing an overall budget for GIS development.
With the preparation of the needs assessment, the Planning Administrator had a vehicle with
which to increase his advocacy and to prepare an implementation budget request that was
supported by management contingent on the approval of the District’s Board. To achieve this
final and critical step, the District sought the assistance of its GIS consultant. The GIS consultant
was asked to prepare a presentation to the Board that provided an executive summary of the GIS
needs assessment findings and recommendations and allowed the Board to ask questions and to
get answers to any of their concerns. The preparation work performed by the District prior to the
Board meeting, combined with the skills of an experienced consultant, won the day in the Board
room and funding for the GIS project was approved.
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