13 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org profession faces with the looming retirements of many licensees. It is not just the peril of our profession, but that of society as well if land surveyors don’t exist in sucient numbers to do all of the various types of work expected of us. We all know that nothing gets built without us, so why not candidly point that out and promote what a cool place we hold in the fabric of the world? Aer the PLSO conference I posted on social media regarding career opportunities and retirements. Within hours I had four youth approach me about what the profession has to oer. Will all four of them enter the surveying profession? Likely not, but this is a great venue to get the word out to a much wider audience than any other method we have ever tried before. YouTube videos oer a great opportunity to educate friends and family about what we do and all you have to do is post it. For those four youth and their families who approached me on social media, I have been meeting with them individually about the opportunities that surveying oers. Social media is a powerful tool, but it must be used regularly and it must be followed up with face to face contact when requested. Next, our societies must do more to promote the profession in a commercial manner. is means state societies and NSPS need to take to the airwaves in a true campaign to get the word out. It means educating Congress or others with inuence who can provide grants and funding to promote a critical profession in our society. It could also mean contracting with one or more advertising agencies to create professional grade public service announcements about what our profession has to oer. PLSO tried this once a number of years ago utilizing radio announcements on Oregon Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio. I believe it was a big step in the right direction, however, the PLSO Board ran into a roadblock from short sighted members who did not agree with the chosen venue. In short order the ads stopped before they could make an impact which I believe was unfortunate because I think it was our rst step outside of the “tried and true” process that still is not working. Advertising campaigns are an expensive proposition and the societies don’t have very deep pockets. Building partnerships with other organizations to promote common goals would be one solution to accomplish this task. Would you be willing to pay more dues, help write grant applications or develop public service announcements? If it is important to you then you must be willing to contribute in some manner. e last option is educating the professions and trades that depend on us. I would be willing to bet that most of the related professions such as engineering, architecture, real estate, construction and others have little inkling of the number of retirements facing the surveying profession. We as state societies need to get the word out to our clients and business associates of the possibilities that could occur with the pending retirements in our profession. We as individuals need to get involved with their organizations and speak at their luncheons, conferences and meetings about what we do and why they should support our recruitment eorts. is aects every walk of life and every public improvement project around us. Our related business’ need to know what is coming and they may very well be inclined to steer some folks our way when confronted with a possible candidate that is on the fence about what they want to do for a career. is really isn’t the “chicken little” syndrome folks. We have all known this was coming for some time and no matter how seriously you have taken it in the past, the issue is fully upon us now. e results of my informal poll at the PLSO meeting are the handwriting on the wall. We must do something dierent to get new faces into the profession and to replace the knowledge base that is soon to retire. I urge you to seriously consider helping to form a new path to licensure that is both measurable and regulated and which parallels the college degree path. I truly believe that unless we change our course and follow a new path, society at large is in for a very rude awakening when it comes to building the infrastructure that we depend on let alone having a solid land ownership system with reliable boundaries. I urge you to take ownership in this eort and work to immediately create new opportunities to move our technicians to become our future surveyors and to replace all of us with new faces that will carry on a rich and prosperous tradition of land surveying around the world. It’s easy to give lip service to the joke about Mt Rushmore being three surveyors and another guy, but who will be the next face on that mountain if we don’t start diligently replacing ourselves? Are you willing to commit your time and resources to not only reinventing the path to get here, but to promoting it? ese I believe are the questions of the day and time has just about run out to answer and address them. If we don’t do it, the “powers that be” will nd a way to replace us with technology and I guarantee you that will not be a satisfactory outcome. More importantly, if we don’t do it soon our successors will have to learn all of our lessons from scratch. ose of us with experience dealing with large agencies and the loss of institutional knowledge that ensues when key personnel retire without benet of grooming suitable replacements can attest to the negative results. Take one-step when you nish reading this and go post on your favorite social media or whatever other method you are comfortable with and get the word out about how great your job is and welcome someone to come talk to you.
PLSO Issue 1 2016 January February
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