National Society of Professional Surveyors Fall Business Meeting Summary „ Bob Neathamer, NSPS Oregon Director The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 38, No. 6 8 NSPS FALL BUSINESS MEETING SUMMARY The NSPS Fall Business Meeting was held during the week of October 6–10, 2015, in Sandusky, Ohio at the Kalahari Resorts & Conventions. e following is a list of initiatives and observa tions from the meeting: • e ALTA/NSPS Standards have been approved by both organizations and the new standards will be eective February 23, 2016. is adoption date was selected to honor the anniversary of the Roman God Terminus, protector of boundary markers! • NSPS will prepare a position statement on U.A.S. (unmanned aircra systems) regulations and operations. We’ve also signed on with other mapping organizations in craing a letter to urge the F.A.A. to codify, in a more urgent manner, the government's regulations for operating this technology. • e Young Surveyors group had a productive meeting and has started thinking about bylaws, sub committees and addressing tasks that many have oered up for them to consider. Approximately 11 of them attended the Board of Directors meeting on Friday. Oregon’s young surveyor, Chris Glantz, was in attendance. • We intend to broaden the awareness of the Young Surveyors and our National Society at educational institutions across the country by inviting a student to attend our meetings and write a short review that will be shared with all surveying programs. e program will be administered by the Young Surveyors and funded through NSPS Board of Director donations. We intend to have a student in attendance at the 2017 spring meeting. • Our president, Jon Warren, and president-elect Tony Cavell, have each made a signicant eort to re-align our committees and oer specic charges for these committees to work on. • e Director from Alaska requested support regarding the setting of monuments by the BLM when creating Townships that would be further subdivided and sold by the State of Alaska. BLM is proposing subdivision of open lands in Alaska with coordinates and no monuments. BLM referred to the process as “bearing trees in the sky!” NSPS Government Aairs Committee will review and comment on the matter. • Certied Survey Technicians (CSTs) at all levels and existing membership can have their annual certi cation fee waived by maintaining a membership in NSPS. • e NSPS Joint Government Aairs Committee shoulders a great deal of responsibility in representing surveyors across the nation on Capitol Hill. Please review their report for the many tasks and/or accomplishments they have had over the last six months. Mr. Pat Smith, Chair of the Committee, requested direction from the Board of Directors on the following matters: NSPS will provide a position statement on the PHMSA (Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Agency} Proposed Rule which contains a number of references to surveying and mapping- and provide a standardized position to our state aliates NSPS will provide a position statement to the House Financial Services Committee which is considering modications to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), either to implement an improved working process or privatize the eort NSPS supports the addition of the Small Business Administration (SBA) to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Council- given that many small businesses are eected by FAR regulations. • During the meeting, Curt Sumner presented to the Board the issue with Hydrographers request in Oregon to be exempt or receive a special license to practice surveying without meeting the minimum qualications or being examined. e majority response from the directors in attendance was what Hydrographers in Oregon are requesting is the practice of land surveying. NSPS Joint Government Aairs Committee is prepared to assist the Oregon membership with this issue if PLSO requests their assistance. • e NSPS 100% Membership Program has been very successful. We currently have 47 states and the District of Columbia participating, just under 17,000 members, and continue to oer our help to those still considering the program. • We continue to collaborate with NGS and participate in quarterly meetings on various initiatives • We are designated by ABET as the Lead Society among its professional organization members for evaluating Surveying Programs seeking either initial accreditation, or renewed accreditation. Currently, NSPS evaluates 31 such programs. » continues on page 15
PLSO Issue 6 2015 Nov Dec
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