Oak Park staff recognizes the advantages of belonging to a regional geographic data sharing group. The staff brought together the Village Board and the Civic Information Systems Commission (a citizen run technology advisory board), and together they recognized the benefits of joining the GIS Consortium. The Village Board, staff, and the citizen commission understands that joining the GIS Consortium is about creating an alliance with other communities to pool resources and achieve access to information by investing long-term in GIS. Oak Park became the 26^th member of the GIS Consortium in 2014.