PLSO March April 2017

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Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon |
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By David Williams, PLS
Chairman Comments
From the PLSO Chair
Continuing with my thoughts on Professionalism.
I believe one of the hurdles we face is that the
public and quite often other professionals do not
understand all that we do. Surveying encompasses a
very broad range of skillsets. Some of us work in the
public sector and some work in the private sector.
Each of us needs to develop different tools beyond
our primary surveying skillset.
My experience has been in the private sector
working in small to medium sized firms primarily
providing services for property development. To play
in this arena, it is mandatory that one be skilled in
boundary resolution. This includes proper research,
understanding the exceptions and encumbrances
that may be attached to the specific property, and a
thorough understanding of the project purpose.
However, being an expert at surveying is not enough.
Knowledge of local and state land use laws is a
necessity. Codes vary widely from county to city and
from city to city. Often a basic knowledge of civil
engineering is required. It is not uncommon that
planning and engineering requirements are at cross
purposes with your client’s project. You need to
understand these regulations well if you are going to
be effective. The nature of land use regulations is that
they are constantly changing. Local codes are always
being revised and rewritten. Every time a case goes
before the Land Use Board of Appeals, new rules are
written; keeping current is an imperative.
Become familiar with your local title companies
and their personnel. These people are a valuable
resource. I have always looked upon them as being a
member of the team. They usually have much better
access to public records than ourselves. Remember,
their role is to ensure the subject property. I have
had many meetings with title examiners and their
attorneys to resolve difficult issues. Often, they can
provide a different perspective that helps reach the
best solution to a tough problem.
Positive relationships need to be developed with
planners and engineers in the various jurisdic-
tions where you operate. This is not always easy.
Confrontation is almost always counterproductive.
One thing I have always tried to do is to look at the
issue from the perspective of the official. There is
very little incentive for a person in a public position
to bend the rules in favor of you or your client. If
something goes wrong, which
seems to happen quite often,
their superior will generally hand
them their head and you will
come away with a bad rap. In my
experience, it is always better
to come up with an innovative
win-win scenario or aid in negotiating a compromise
that works for your client. As stated above the
only way to accomplish this is to have a thorough
knowledge of rules and requirements for the project.
While we are discussing relationships, I am going
to use this venue to make a plug as your Legislative
Chair. This is for Chapter Presidents or anyone who
knows a legislator. Arrange to have them come to
a Chapter Meeting and give a talk about what they
are doing. It’s an easy arrange a speaker and topic at
one of our meetings. These people need to know us
and we need to develop relationships with them. No
matter if you work in the private or public sector, we
are in business with state/local government and they
make the rules!
Communication is a mandatory skill that one must
develop, both written and oral. The “Record of Survey”
is a form of communication. When communicating in
writing it should be clear, concise, and in my opinion
always use good grammar. If possible, have another
person review the document before it is sent to make
sure your thoughts will be understood correctly.
I always apply the same rules to emails. Once a
document is transmitted it is difficult to retract. The
nature of my business required me to attend and
speak at neighborhood meetings and public hearings.
Speaking publicly does not come naturally to most
of us. However, I have found that if you know your
subject thoroughly it is not that difficult. Like most
skills, it will get better with practice and experience.
Also, do not be afraid to dress the part. Stepping it up
a notch gives you credibility and confidence.
If you are in private practice and often in the public-
sector, budgets are critical. A good project starts out
with a good budget. All too often surveyors take a job
for far too less than it is worth. This is an issue that
requires more space than I can put in this discussion
and it will be the subject of a future article.
Mastery of software is important. We live in the 21st
Century. When I started in this business we routinely