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PLSO Issue 2, 2016 March/April

3 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org FROM THE PLSO CHAIR Chairman’s Comments „ Leland Myers, PLS; 2016 State Chair Nancy and I recently returned from attending the Idaho Society of Professional Land Surveyors conference in Coeur d’Alene. It was a bit rainy on our trip up to Northern Idaho, but a beautiful drive back through the Palouse Country of Eastern Washington on our way home. e next day was very rainy, so we picked the best day for our return. While in Coeur d’Alene we spent three nights with my cousin who is a retired county surveyor and we did a lot of reminiscing in the evenings. His home was only a few blocks from the convention center—very handy. I enjoy living in the mountains of Northeast Oregon, but it does have its inconveniences. Once in a while I think about ying to some destination such as Las Vegas, but I need to drive half the distance or more to get to an airport that has a plane going to where I would like to be, so driving all the way is an easy alternative. Meeting people everywhere you go is an enjoyable experience. And as happened in Coeur d’Alene, it is almost inevitable that you will run into a person you know, or has a relative in your home town, or used to live in your area. It just goes to demonstrate how small our world is. My congratulations to Albert Hertel for being selected as the 2015 Surveyor of the Year. Until our January conference, I had not yet met Al, but I found his hobby and/or vocation of repairing and/or building old clocks to be very interesting. I have an old family heirloom clock that works, but I want to clean it and tune it up someday. Another ‘round tuit’ project. I became acqauinted with Pat Gaylord several years ago and it seems to me that we share some of the same sentiments. In No. 1 of Volume 39 of e Oregon Surveyor, Pat has written an article entitled “Reviving the Surveying Profession.” I agree whole-heartedly with his thoughts. ey are well stated, so I encourage all our membership other natural wonders those of us who live in Oregon have come to take for granted. How many times have many of you enjoyed experiences that, though perhaps not as signicant in magnitude, at least stirred in you the same sense of wonder and awe, all brought to you through this career choice we call land surveying? I wonder if a collective eort at gathering stories similar to Pat’s or career paths similar to my own might spark to read it carefully. As I stated in my last column, the same problems persist that were with us y years ago and Pat has oered some options that may be helpful. Pat’s closing paragraph says, “if we don’t do it, the powers that be will nd a way to replace us with technology and I guarantee that will not be a satisfactory outcome.” Aer reading Pat’s views I found the following excerpt from the March 09, 2016 NSPS email newsletter which states, “A national campaign at the state level to do away with occupational and professional licensing is underway with broad legislation to rescind or restrict licensing having already been introduced in several states. e surveying community must be ready, vigilant and armed! With that in mind, NSPS is beginning an eort to dra a white paper that makes the case for preservation of licensing of surveyors. is document will explain why licensing of surveyors is essential to protecting public health, welfare and safety. Such a white paper can be used by all state surveying societies to proactively defend licensing and prevent legislation to delicense surveyors.“ Please see the rest of the article as emailed to the NSPS membership. is is not very good news for those of us in the surveying profession. PLSO is not draing any legislation this year but our lobbyist Darrell Fuller and the Legislative Committee are monitoring proposed legislation for any that might aect surveying. At the request of some members at our conference in Eugene, Aimee and I have formed a BOLI Task Force. is task force has its own agenda and will ll us in with an article in the near future. is is my rst eort, hopefully, to begin resolving questions which are being asked by the membership. Stay tuned. some shred of curiosity on the part of a student or person trapped in a dissatisfying career to explore further? Forget about worrying whether the profession will continue to exist. If enough people become passionate enough about land surveying to sing its praises so loudly that they rattle down the canyons of all the Valhalla’s in Oregon, maybe the career will take care of itself! » WHY BECOME A SURVEYOR? continued »


PLSO Issue 2, 2016 March/April
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