March April 2018

Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org 7 From the PLSO Office One of the most fun activities the season brings to PLSO is allocating fundraising money from the Rifle Raffle and Educa- tion and Outreach Auction. This year was a record breaking year—raising a total of $35,309! I can’t tell you how much I ad- mire and appreciate all the attendees that participated in auction and raffle activi- ties. Your support and belief in PLSO has brought so much energy to the mission of the association and professional com- munity at large. In March, the Board of Directors reviewed our fundraising suc- cess and voted on fund allocation. The breakdown is as follows: • Scholarship Funds: $16,464 • Outreach Materials/Activities: $16,816 • Costs of Raffle and Auction Materials: $2,029 Each spring, PLSO gets the scholarship fund statement from The Oregon Com- munity Foundation (OCF). If you aren’t aware, PLSO’s scholarship foundation is run through OCF, which pools money with other organizations to become the eighth largest community foundation in the United States, annually award- ing approximately $55 million in grants and scholarships. Each donor member of OCF awards their recipients through their annual dividends of the account. PLSO’s account has been slowly building over the years through annual donations from the Education & Outreach Auction and various members donating directly to the account. As of December 31, 2017, our OCF account totaled $262,780.29, with dividends for 2018 scholarships coming to $11,258. From the $16,464 raised at the auction, $1,536 will be added to the dividends, making our total 2018 scholar- ship awards total $18,000. The remaining amount will go to the OCF account to build dividends for future years. The PLSOSchol- arship Committee Chair, Daren Cone, is gearing up to start work with Office of Student Access and Completion (OSAC) who manages the application process for all OCF accounts. The Committee will then work together and determine who is awarded. Recipients will be notified and announced to the membership in June. Something else that recently sprang up at the March Board meeting was the an- nouncement of the Girls got STEM camp at Oregon Tech. The camp is a residential summer camp where high school girls will be given the opportunity to participate in hands-on activities from a variety of disciplines, including Geomatics/GIS. The camp will be led and taught entirely by women. Aquila Reed, who is an Ore- gon Tech alumnus and works for HWA in Bend, will be teaching the geomatics portion. Oregon Tech is also hoping to have a couple of other geomatics alum- ni give short presentations during the lunch and dinner hours. If you would like to sponsor a student or be a part of a presentation, please contact Mason Marker (email mason.marker@oit.edu or call 541-885-1523. The Board will be voting on PLSO’s participation in May. For attendee information, go to www. oit.edu/academics/ youth-programs/ summer-camp/girls-got-stem. As we Spring into Summer, and see the fruits of our labor, ready to be preserved for Fall (I know, can you stand how kitschy clever I can be), I will be sure to keep you up to date as your time in the field increases. Just know, that while you’re busy, PLSO is also hard at work, finding new ways to improve your professional community.  x