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The Oregon Surveyor
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Vol. 40, No. 1
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From the PLSO Office
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now the NSPS Young Surveyors Network Vice President
—a group that now has a non-voting seat on the
national board. Last night, our state group had their
Inaugural Open House Meet up, which was sponsored
by Clark College. Thank you, all three of you, for seeing
a gap that needed to be filled and—to borrow from
Maya Angelou—becoming the rainbow in somebody
else’s cloud.
Someone else that has worked on the future is EGAC
Committee Chair and Past- Board Chairman of Board,
Lee Spurgeon. Most of you in this room know Lee. If
you don’t, make sure you read the conference speaker
biography he wrote for this year’s Program of Events.
If it tells you anything, it will show that he doesn’t take
himself too seriously. But I take Lee seriously because
the man cares about where we’re going. He has since
been meeting with schools and like-minded groups to
find better ways to work together.
One of our goals last year was to start creating a
more organized Mentorship program. A request that
came to him from our schools was to create more
meaningful opportunities for students to easily find
and apply for. This is where our community comes in.
You want a smart work force—you have to help them
get there.
A recent step we took to protect PLSO and its
members, was to create a Waiver Form for those
that want to participate, which is available online for
members to use as a boiler plate as a template.
One of my most favorite phone calls this year has been
from a Mom in Eugene. She called worried about her
son. He was a smart kid with 4.0 GPA, but he told her
he didn’t want to go to college. He said he didn’t think
college had anything to offer him. He didn’t want to
sit behind a desk and he didn’t want to graduate in
debt without any actual skills to apply to a job right
away. So this mother, trying not to worry, asked her
son to start researching career options, whether they
included minimum training or college didn’t matter.
She asked him to think about the subjects he liked
about school and how he would prefer to spend his
days in the future. This kid did what his mother asked
and came upon the PLSO web site. He liked math. He
liked to be outside. He was interested in planning. And
low and behold, Surveying was listed as one of the
“Top 25 Most Promising Jobs for Millennials” by Forbes
Magazine. So, he goes back to his Mom and tells her
that he thought he found something. Something he’d
never once thought about. Something he’d like to look
into as his Senior Project. As she’s telling me this story,
I can hear her son in the background say something
like “geeze, Mom, you don’t need to share my life
story.” You know, the thing we say to our parents when
they’re bragging, feel like we should be embarrassed
but secretly like it type of thing. I tell her that I didn’t
know of any mentorships in her area, but that I’d check
in with the local chapter. It took a couple hours for
someone to agree to work with him, a day for him to
schedule an interview and another day for his mother
to call me back thanking everyone involved profusely.
She told me how shocked she was that it was so
easy. And yes, Pat Gaylord and Ben Stacy, I did pass
along the scholarship information. But when I think
of that story and the goals we have for PLSO and the
challenges we face, I think of the word SYNERGY - the
interaction or cooperation of two or more organiza-
tions, or agents to produce a combined effect greater
than the sum of their separate parts. Sounds a little bit
like a school of fish or a rainbow in somebody else’s
cloud doesn’t it?
PLSO is not a large organization. For those that
don’t know, the staff is made up of a grand total of
one. You’re looking at her. I’m the Receptionist, Web
Tech, Controller and Executive Director. My job is
to work closely with Committees and your Board of
Directors which is, of course, made up of the Executive
Committee, Chapter Presidents and President-Elects
from all corners of the state. We meet quarterly.
They are your voice at the state level. So if you don’t
know their names, you should meet them. Yes, simply
smiling in their direction may lead to a volunteer
position. But that’s beside the point. Get to know them.
But just knowing this—that your organization is able
to accomplish what it does because of its volunteers.
Some may say we are too small to do anything of
impact. That we are David in the story of Goliath. But
just maybe, instead we’re his sling shot, shooting rocks
into the pond, watching each ripple get bigger. Nobody
knows the true impact they have on other’s lives. But I
know that PLSO is a member driven organization that
works for you.
Before wrapping up, I would be remiss if I didn’t thank
a few people in particular. John Thatcher, who is
rotating off the board of directors this year, has held a
really important place to me. John thank you so much
for everything you’ve done these past three years.
To our newest Past-Chairman Leland Myers, I thank
you for stepping up and helping run things this year.
I know it wasn’t an easy year for you for a variety of
reasons, so I really appreciate what you were able to
do for PLSO. Dave, I look forward to working with you
more this year, but since you were thrown on the fire
last year when you stepped up to be the Legislative
Committee Chair, I already know you will work from
the heart. Also thank you to all our incoming and