September October 2017

7 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org From the PLSO Office F ocusing on the possibilities and oppor- tunities of rebranding for PLSO over the past few months has led to some really important conversations about our pro- fession. While it’s true that not everyone necessarily agrees on how to move to- ward the future, I have noticed recurring themes on the challenges we’re facing: workforce, technology, education, and awareness. Even more interesting is that these themes seem to be worldwide. From members commiserating with Australian surveyors while on vacation to researching articles online, it’s clear that most of us are in the same space. Coming from a slightly different angle, one such article found online was Irish tech- nology, science and start-up news source Silicon Republic , which featured Mapping the Future of Geospatial Technology.* Now, perhaps not quite at the level of infamous Irish American feuding families Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, it’s no secret that surveyors and geographic information system (GIS) professionals have had a history of tension. Often thought of as two separate disciplines, each camp has had past opinions regard- ing the other. Lack of innovation for the former and lack of precision for the latter. However, what I found interesting about this article, which is essentially just ques- tion and answer format for Paul Synnott, ESRI’s Director and Country Manager for Ireland, is when he discusses the biggest challenges his sector faces. Synnott, who’s career began as a licensed surveyor, notes that the geospatial technologies and ser- vices arena’s biggest challenge is “getting on board with the fact that knowledge, knowhow, skills, and expertise are far more important than the technology.” Synnott goes on to explain that it’s important to educate his staff on knowing how to in- tegrate the technology into the human process and workflow of their customer. Like the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, who end- ed their feud in 1891, again in 1976, and once more for posterity in 2001, this arti- cle brings up good points when discussing why surveyors are important and relevant. As discussed in an earlier column, PLSO has created a Rebranding Task Force to continue this conversation. Recently, we met in Tigard to interview appropriate marketing partners to collaborate on com- municating to prospective students, the public, professional colleagues, and allies the how and why surveyors are important and relevant . The Task Force is made up of various members of PLSO that hold a spe- cific volunteer position, have experience in graphic design or marketing, or specif- ically approached us with enthusiasm for working on this process. It’s a member driven group that has PLSO and its mem- bers’ best interest at heart. They are also working on respecting our history, while moving towards the future. Conversation flowed easily, between the task force and various creative firms that day. Topics ranged for “oooing and awing” over designs done for other non-profit trade associations, getting into the nitty gritty analytical processes of demograph- ic marketing research and participating in brand exercise questions like, “if PLSO was a car, what kind of car would it be and why.” Now, this sounds silly. And the answers started off kind of funny. But as we took it a bit more seriously, the group agreed upon a Ford F-150 pickup. Steady, utilitar- ian, keeps going, but never really changes and yet the creative team turned this into “Reliable and Rugged.” I’m certainly not going to argue with that. We will be presenting our next steps to the Board of Directors and more in The Oregon Surveyor as time goes on. I’m truly looking forward to the process. We are a diverse group, and I know we all won’t agree. But the important thing to note is that we all want to see PLSO succeed and keep on rep- resenting the needs of surveyors and the interest of the public in the future. *Article Source: www.siliconrepublic.com/compa nies/paul-synnott-esri-ireland) ...we all want to see PLSO succeed and keep on representing the needs of surveyors and the interest of the public in the future.