May June 2018

4 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 41, No. 3 From the PLSO Chairman Pat Gaylord, PLS Chairman of the Board MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN Don’t forget that the Oregon Surveyor is always looking for articles and materials. Do you have a story to tell? Every surveyor does, so try your hand at putting it on paper and sharing with your peers. Who knows, a chicken story might win you article of the year! H ello fellow surveyors. Another few months have passed and by the time you read this summer will be in full swing with long days and full workloads. As I write this article it’s now two weeks since I attended the West Fed meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico and only five days until our May PLSO Board of Directors meeting. In April, PLSO Lobbyist Darrell Fuller, Randy Povey and I met Congressman Walden in Salem at a coffee hour event coordi- nated by Darrell and others. Subsequent to that event, Darrell, Bob Neathamer and Randy Povey attended NSPS Lobby Day in Washington DC on our behalf and again met with Congressman Walden and other legislators to convey the chal- lenges facing the surveying profession as well as important legislative needs at the national level. Repetition is what gets our legislators to remember us. When it comes to politics PLSO has a full plate with the upcoming QBS bill in 2019 and being recognized by our representatives will be very important. PLSO leadership and ACECwill bemeeting on May 15 to begin strategizing and pre- paring for many meetings with the QBS proponents to strategize on how best to defeat the groundswell of opposition to QBS by local governments and others during the 2019 session. Now is the time to meet with your local representatives in the state legislature and educate them about what we do and how QBS benefits the public. Darrell has long encouraged PLSO Chapters to adopt a legislator and invite them to a meeting or invite them to ride along with a survey crew or even visit your office. We’ll be discussing this at the BODmeeting this weekend as well, so be ready to help out your chapter and get these folks to at least one of your meet- ings. Speaking of chapter meetings, I’m happy to attend and speak on whatever topic you would like, but I have not yet received any invitations! With adequate notice, I would welcome an opportuni- ty to attend with one of your legislators. Our initial phase of rebranding is wind- ing down with our marketing materials nearly complete. This phase of the re- branding process has been very slow to materialize as there are many views on how we should represent ourselves with images and text that will be in front of the public. There has been some great conversations and I think you’ve been very well represented by the rebranding task force. The next phase to consider is updating our website and updating our Strategic Planning to move us forward in the next few years. Speaking of strategic planning, where do you want PLSO to go? Where do you see the profession five or ten years fromnow? Every day we turn around we see incur- sions into what we do by technology that