The Oregon Surveyor July/August 2018

6 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 41, No. 4 From the PLSO Office Aimee McAuliffe PLSO Exec. Secretary I have been very pleased with the way our magazine has been taking shape, keeping up with PLSO and always answering to what our purpose is—to represent and advance PLSO and the surveying profession. I would like to make sure Greg knows what an important role he holds at PLSO and that my appreciation for him and his valuable time knows no bounds. PLSO Magazine Takes Home NSPS Excellence in Journalism Awards E veryone knows that good employ- ees are hard to find. Well, imagine trying to find good volunteers! They already have a full-time job for which they are being fairly compensated, yet they know I will keep coming back, ask- ing for their precious time. It’s my job. I’m a professional volunteer wrangler. After all, they are what makes PLSO go ‘round. They are the life blood of our organization. It’s especially difficult to fill volunteer positions that need consistent leader- ship. One such position is being Editor of this magazine. I was lucky to have Greg Crites in the position before even starting my tenure at PLSO. “The Or- egon Surveyor” magazine is a tool to accomplish PLSO’s mission statement, which, in quick summary is to unite and advance the professionalism of Oregon land surveyors within the professional community and to serve in the best inter- ests of the public. The magazine needs to reflect this mission and the position of editor is the watch dog. It is much more than catching every typo (if we’ve missed a couple, my apologies—we’re human). The position requires someone that works within monthly deadlines and isn’t shy about telling someone “no” or making edits to a piece of writing they labored over. I worked with and appreciated Greg for a while before meeting him. It’s rath- er odd to only know someone through email for a while before actually meet- ing them in person. It’s a hard medium to understand context and humor while getting to know someone. Greg has a very dry sense of humor that once de- coded in email is quite delightful. I will admit to a couple weeks of wondering if he outright hated me. I don’t think he’d admit it, but I’m sure he thought that was part of the joke (I’m laughing as I write this, Greg). He started with being unsure whether I would take his ed- its personally (I don’t). I, in turn, wasn’t sure how personally he would take me sticking my nose into processes and top- ic ideas (he didn’t). Together we had to break in a new owner of LLM Publica- tions as well as a new designer of the magazine. Benjamin Caulder has proven