If you want to capture the interest of a young “sapling” who is considering coming into this profession, tell them a story. 3 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org TEXT Seasoned „ Greg Crites, PLS FROM THE EDITOR Well, the picture of the GLO bearing tree from 1872 that graces our cover brought a smile to my face. Throughout my lengthy career, I’ve had many opportunities to find old bearing trees, though the most memorable ones involved a great deal more scrutiny to verify their origin and antiquity. The subject of bearing trees always brings a flood of memories into my head—some better than others—but thanks to Aimee, she threw me a curve that I simply had to swing at. Though I was unaware that we’re in the home stretch toward the World Series until last Sunday and haven’t watched one minute of baseball this year, Aimee’s comments served up a fertile field of ideas for my editorial. Thanks, Aimee! You see, I’m now considered a “seasoned” member of our profession. Yep, just like that old tree on the cover, a little gnarly, a little twisted, some decay, a bit lumpy, some evidence of physical injury and a lot of history. There is one inalienable fact about me though that no one can take away. All those “stripes” have given me enough ammunition to write a few things about our profession, drawing entirely from personal experience. The reader will very likely notice that there is so much content in this issue that can be directly attributed to me that it wouldn’t be a big stretch to say that this is my issue! Half of that isn’t my fault so if you wish to point fingers, just remember that at least three of yours are pointing back at you! If you want to know the entire story about why so much of my writing appears in this issue, you can take it up with Lisa Switalla if and when you see her at the conference in January. If you wish to complain, I’d suggest you write your own article for publication so that when this magazine needs content, we can draw from a multitude of sources! Now, back to the old bearing tree. If you want to capture the interest of a young “sapling” who is considering coming into this profession, tell them a story. Don’t tell them about the ebb and flow of opportunities for work in our field because that’s not going to change until we do something to convince the consuming public that the work we do should not be commoditized and has a great deal more importance than any of them have been led to believe. My article on title insurance is meant to bring up this concern as it relates to an industry that could rely a lot more on our services than they do, more so now than in the past. The popularity of first person shooter video games should be some indication of how we might appeal to those considering surveying as a career path. I know I’m dating myself but one of my all time favorite games was Turok on our old Nintendo 64! The basic premise of the game involved moving around in a digital world hunting dinosaurs. As you accumulate experience, study the geography of each level, figure out the locations of special weapons and learn how to respond to the different sounds indicating the approach of predators, your skills increase while you advance and kill more fearsome dinosaurs and ultimately other enemies who appear to be some imagined variation on indigenous people. The fallacy of all this is that it’s unlikely that homo sapiens and dinosaurs could coexist, ergo why are they extinct and we’re here (at least so far)? The horror of “Jurassic Park” should tell you that! The parallels with our profession are striking. As you move along the career path you become more adept at interpreting evidence, understanding the nuances of property descriptions, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of records of survey filed by others, the value of narratives and so on. What we need to do is transmit the enthusiasm these skills instill in us to those considering land surveying—the question is how to package the product in a way that promises the potential candidate a view beyond the hurdles of acquiring the education and experience and focuses on the outcomes. After all, most of you who have had the experience can attest to the deep satisfaction derived from solving a complicated boundary resolution that results in the discovery of irrefutable original evidence! ◉ The views expressed herein are mine and mine alone and in no way should be construed as representing ANY opinions shared by our membership or a stance on political issues by this organization.
PLSO Issue 5 2015 September October
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