The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 38, No. 4
4
FROM THE PLSO CHAIR
Summer 2015
John Thatcher, PLS; 2015 State Chair
A
s I write this, we are a few days away from the
summer PLSO board meeting. Every surveyor I’ve
talked to has been somewhere between busy and
swamped. Here’s hoping you are getting your share of the
work out there, but that you are also taking time out to
relax and decompress. If you are retired, you are going to
have to move over a little as more of us “honored citizens”
join your ranks.
An issue that is bound to generate some lengthy
discussion during the upcoming board meeting is the
proposed PLSO Foundation. Today our Executive Secretary
Aimee McAuliffe and I met with an attorney who specializes
in non-profits in order to try to get a handle on how to
proceed with establishing the foundation, given the current
state of things. The current state of things is that some of the
legwork and paperwork has been completed, but a lot more
needs to be done in order to get the foundation up and
running and compliant with state and federal regulations.
It is a little early to go into a lot of detail, but suffice it to say
that the board will have some serious decisions to make
regarding the foundation. You will be hearing more on that
issue in the coming months.
We are still in the renewal season, and it is critical for
chapter leaders to continue contacting members who haven’t
renewed. One side benefit of this effort is the chance to get
the membership list updated with current information. A
robust membership is the best tool PLSO has to fund our
many activities and populate the committees that serve the
membership and further the
profession. The Membership
Committee provides the chapters
regular updates on delinquent
renewals. Let’s reel them back in!
I was pleased to join a large group of colleagues for the
Layne Caswell Final Point ceremony in Hillsboro on July 11.
See the article and pictures on pages 16 and 17 in this issue.
I have three more Final Points in the planning stages.
At the April Pioneer Chapter meeting in Cascade Locks,
I passed the hat to start a fund to purchase monuments.
The chapter members responded very generously, so now
with enough funds in hand for the disks, I look forward to
completing two or three Final Points this Fall. If you have a
reputation for being a GPS whiz, I may be pestering you
later this year.
The TwiST Program was held again this year at Clark
College. Look for Tim Kent’s report in a future
Oregon
Surveyor
issue. PLSO was able to sponsor three teachers.
Not to be outdone, LSAW sponsored five teachers. So half
of this year’s class of 16 came from Oregon and
Washington. We typically get good feedback from the
participants about the program, and we ask them to
provide testimonials to use as recruitment tools. PLSO
traditionally provides a full ride sponsorship that includes
registration, travel expenses, meals and lodging, if needed.
For the past several years, NCEES has provided a matching
grant to the state societies that sponsor teachers. That
means half of the dollars that PLSO spends to sponsor
teachers is returned, and that allows the sponsorship by
PLSO to stay within a modest budget. The “business” of
TwiST is facilitated by the Western Federation of
Professional Surveyors (WFPS), which represents the
professional societies of 13 western states.
Precious time is slippin’ away (apologies to Van
Morrison). The 2016 Annual Conference is coming in less
than six months. I have been attending a few Conference
Committee meetings, and I think 2016 will be a good one.
The committee decided to shake things up a bit. As of next
year, the conference will start moving up and down the I-5
corridor between Portland, Salem and Eugene. The
committee has negotiated with venues in all three cities
which will meet our needs. See you in Eugene in January.
Here is this issue’s puzzler: What’s another name for a
gravity powered vertical indicator?
◉
It’s time to market
your business!
Advertise in The Oregon Surveyor
CONTACT
Nicole Gardner
LLM Publications, Inc.
800-647-1511 x2233
