President's Message

Robert Johnson is the 2025-26 FSMS President.

December 2025

bob johnson

Members,

Last month I was able to attend the South Florida Global GIS Day Celebration at the UF Research and Education Center in Davie. A Story Map student competition with undergraduate and graduate student categories was held, and I must say, I was blown away with the ways that data can be conveyed and made easily understandable. I want to wish all competitors a job well done.

This month I was privileged to be invited to speak at the Indian River Chapter Christmas Party. It was a great event led by Chapter President Marla Moore. Cobb’s Landing is a great location, and we were fortunate enough to have our President-Elect, Brion Yancy and Board Members Howard Ehmke, Earl Soeder and John Liptak in attendance.

On a personal note, I would like to share a recent story from within my family. I grew up in the sun. When the weekends rolled around my family and I were boating, camping or working in the yard, rarely with sun protection. My wife, to a lesser extent, did the same. But as we had our family, to my wife’s credit, she always made sure that our two boys wore sun block, sometimes to the point of my annoyance. Fast forward, my boys are now 20 and 22; they too love the outdoors.

My youngest decided a few years ago to start detailing cars for college money. He was moderately good about wearing sun block, but not always. Recently, he had an appointment with his dermatologist and found out that he had Melanoma. Thankfully, it was caught fairly early and two surgeries later, we were done; or so we thought. His latest appointment found an abnormal mole that will now need to be removed. Again, we are so thankful that it was caught early, but I want to make a point to all the membership that due to the profession we are in, cancer — skin cancer especially, can’t be ignored.

The three main types of skin cancer are: Basil Cell Carcinoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma, and the most serious of the three, Melanoma. All are curable if caught early.

Several risk factors that make us more susceptible to skin cancer, including light colored eyes, blond or red hair, fair or freckled skin, if you spend a lot of time in the sun, or have family history of skin cancer, have numerous or irregular-shaped moles, if you're easily sunburned or have a history of sunburns.

Things to watch for:

New growths, changing moles, scaly patches, or sores that don’t heal, and the ABCDE’s of existing moles or new growths.