Internship Week 2: Blog 1 out of 2

Technical Difficulties:

In the MSCP Annual Report, there are figures and tables used to display how many acres were gained/lost, where they were gained/lost, how they were gained/lost, etc. I have made contact with Gary Ross, the Senior GIS Analyst from Land Use & Environment Group (LUEG), and he said he would provide me with the 4-7 tables by the 18^th and the figures 1-3 by the 21^st, but that still leaves tables 1-3; that’s where I come in. It’s my job to make some sort of neat graphics that aren’t boring to the public and would display a lot of information through a visual instead of a text. I have been making these charts in Microsoft Excel, but I’d consider myself a beginner with that program- especially with creating charts. Many times it will tell me that the chart type I want to use doesn’t work with the information I have, which doesn’t make sense because I’ve created the same type of chart with the same information. It gets frustrating using Excel so I often go to their website for troubleshooting tips… Still, creating the charts is only a small portion of my project. Towards the end of January, my involvement with compiling the MSCP should be wrapping up which means I get to work with making it more visual (comparable to the strategic plan: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/reusable_components/images/parks/doc/DPR_Strat_Plan_2010-2015.pdf ). The thing is, if you look at past MSCP Annual Reports (2009 for example http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/dplu/mscp/docs/SCMSCP/FINAL_MSCP_ANNUAL_REPORT_2009.pdf ) they are completely different. The strategic plan is completely visual and technical, while the MSCP is purely documentation…I think the plan my mentor, Trish Boaz, has of making MSCP more visual like the Strategic Plan is such a fantastic idea, but I have no idea how to use Adobe PDF program! I shouldn’t worry though because I can always talk to other employees here, especially since the guy who worked on the Strategic Plan is just a one minute walk away.