Affiliate organizations carry out the state’s data dissemination activities at the local level. Affiliates are familiar with the needs of their particular service area and with the data resources that are pertinent to that area or clientele. The affiliate mission is to provide localized assistance and services to data users. They must have some established means of communicating with data users and have demonstrated the capacity to deliver local data user services. Among affiliate activities are such things as making referrals to other organizations in the network, cosponsoring seminars and training sessions, or offering expanded data services such as GIS or data analysis.