Dear GIS Community,

The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) is poised to bring some of the most up-to-date and comprehensive demographic information about our communities that our nation has ever seen. With the successful adoption of ACS, local and state governments can begin to make policy decisions based on demographic information received within the last year, as opposed to the last decade. Also, Businesses can better take immediate advantage of ACS data by applying it to their GIS applications.

A continuous measurement of our nation's population would naturally benefit many of us in our work. However, as the main article ("U.S. Census Bureau Focuses on More and Better Data") explains, ACS cannot continue without full congressional funding and support. This is why I encourage you to support ACS by writing to your local representative. Here is the URL to the Write Your Representative Web site: www.house.gov/writerep You may also find useful Esri's Congressional Locator Tool at maps.esri.com/congressviewer.

I know that your time and commitment to this will make a difference. Thank you.

Jack Dangermond