The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 39, No. 1 4 FROM THE PLSO OFFICE Year’s resolutions. Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with my pledge to achieve weight loss but more to the point, I’m talking about resolutions for PLSO. Now, some people don’t believe in them, and in looking for inspiration, I found out that only 12% of people actually stick to them. So you must be thinking why bother, right? I like to think of New Year’s resolutions as recognition of the present state of things and hope for the future. ey are a way of quantifying what we want to see happen. Now, more practical people or perhaps just the business world may call this something else, probably something less romantic sounding and more apt to make your eyes glaze over when it gets brought up in a meeting. Now I remember; it’s called a Strategic Plan. “A rose by any other name.” Realistically, there is a philosophical dierence. While 88% of people fail at achieving New Year’s resolutions, I’m going to assume it’s because there was no plan. You can’t wish to be healthy and then do nothing to make it happen, which of course is similar to being upset about decisions and actions being made by your organization and not taking any steps to be a part of them! For those that don’t know - PLSO actually DOES have a Strategic Plan. In fact, it’s even available for you to read in its entirety in the Membership Resource E-Binder, which is located in the Members Only section of www.plso.org. Created with great care, it was the brainchild of the BOD and continues to be maintained by your volunteer leaders. If you think of the strategic plan as a table, it has four legs that keep it standing. ey are the foundation of PLSO’s mission to serve the professional community and public. e rst leg is Membership Development. Our Membership Committee is led by Gary Anderson, who is quite prolic at coming up with new ideas or things to think about in regards to PLSO. Gary – I appreciate you always thinking of your community. Presently, the PLSO has 552 members, with a slight increase in Associate members over last year. I nd this encouraging. To our Associates that are here today, you are wanted and you are needed. Tell us where you nd value in your membership, and please, get involved. e true value of professional membership is about making an impact on your career (giving back something of yourself as recompense for your rewards). Contact your chapter president and assist in meeting programming/scheduling or a Committee Chair about participating in committee activities. Whatever it is that you decide, I ask that you use your voice, because we want to hear it. For our nonmembers at the conference today, I encourage you to talk to our active members and see what they get out of their membership and how you might be a contributing part. If there is a reason why you think being a member is not important – tell us, but if the reason is because you know OTHER people will donate their time to important legislative issues or outreach eorts, then you are still beneting from membership. I like to think of this like drinking water from a rain barrel. If you keep taking water without replenishing the supply, sooner or later it will dry up! e more members we ocially represent; the more impact we will have in reaching our goals. e second leg of the table is Education & Outreach. Now, we talk a lot about these two items synonymously. at’s because this is an important part of our future! e Educational Goals and Outreach Committee, led by Lee Spurgeon, is the caretaker of this important part of our mission. We strive to support our Geomatics programs anyway possible, not only through our scholarships, but by doing things like serving as adjunct professors or promoting the survey profession at career fairs. Most recently, our own Tim Kent fought a battle for us all in keeping the Clark College Surveying and Geomatics program open. In Tim’s own words, we still have a lot of work to do to continue the program for years to come. You can count on Tim to keep us apprised of what needs to happen and it is our duty to step up to the plate and prove that we need this program for our future work force. Another way we can support Education and Outreach is to support our auction fundraiser at the conference. Bid on our silent auction items, buy rae tickets and attend the evening banquet/auction. Our third leg of this table is to Advance Legislative Agendas. Our Legislative Committee is led by our newly minted Chair-elect and last year’s Surveyor of the Year, David Williams. Now, Dave had a true baptism by re when he stepped into the committee chair position last year, but with the assistance of PLSO Lobbyist Darrell Fuller and the other members of the committee (which is required to be made up of a member from each Chapter), Dave was able to handle it like the pro he is. Darrell Fuller does well working with the committee and representing the needs of surveyors in Salem. For those that would like to learn more about the legislative activities of the last session and future activities, his door is always open and is more than willing to baptize you into the legislative process. I’d also like to take this moment to thank State Representative Paul Holvey from District 8 for participating at our conference. e fourth leg of this table is Fiscal Responsibility. I work very closely with Finance Chair Gary Johnston each month. He audits our nancial reports and keeps the budget straight for the Board of Directors. Both of us take the responsibility of the membership’s money very seriously (as there can be grave consequences if we don’t). We know you work hard and honor the trust the membership has in us to manage revenue and expenses. Yes, it’s true that costs go up every year, and yes, it is a challenge if our revenue doesn’t keep pace, which is why keeping reserves is so important! Many of you are business » continued from page 3 »
PLSO Issue 1 2016 January February
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