PLSO May June 2019

22 Vol. 42, No. 3 The Oregon Surveyor | The Lost Surveyor ? across the street to the house offices to begin a long day of meetings. I learned from this trip two tidbits you will never hear in civics class or in the media: it is easy to be a part of what takes place in our government and Washington D.C. is actually run by 20+-year-old staffers. Among other things, these staffers meet with constituents and keep the elected officials informed. While killing time be- tween meetings we sat in on a portion of an Energy and Commerce hearing in the house office building. Three surveyors fromOregon were able to walk in and sit down in the front row of a hearing likely televised on C-Span or the nightly news. Although decorum dictates you aren’t go- ing to raise your hand and ask a question, in that setting it was empowering to me to know one can participate quite easily in the workings of our government. As an added bonus, my representative was in the hearing. Opinions can be contrib- uted any time via phone or email, but in this setting one can just walk down the hall to a representative’s office. This trip definitely erased some of the mystique of Washington D.C. from my mind. I found it truly fascinating to observe the halls filled with Americans from every corner of the country and every walk of life. These folks were there to meet with their representative and have their voic- es heard on a multitude of issues. On my flight to D.C. I sat with someone who was scheduled to meet with the Oregon con- gressional delegation the day after us on a completely different topic. While it may not always work well, it was refreshing to see the system working in small part the way it was intended. Throughout Wednesday we met with ev- ery office of the Oregon delegation in the House and the Senate. Meeting person- ally with Greg Walden and meeting with other high-ranking staff members in oth- er offices was a great experience. PLSO’s support of sending Darrel Fuller with us to this event helped greatly in making these meetings happen. While the process is slow, I believe NSPS is truly making an impact in D.C. which benefits all of us in the long term by ensuring land surveyors are not left out of the process. Many of the people we spoke with remembered prior NSPS visits and were sympathetic if not supportive of our positions. Proof of the impact we can have was evident the next day when news arrived at the NSPS meeting that Bernie Sanders had signed onto a letter of support for some of the legislation we promoted the day before. After lobby day on Wednesday, I spent the next two and a half days attending a variety of NSPS committee meetings and board meetings with our NSPS Oregon Director, Bob Neathamer. NSPS is work- ing hard on behalf of surveyors and I can assure you Oregon’s voice is being heard on topics from ALTA standards to Drone/ UAV regulation, NGS 2022 coordinate systems and many others. One big top- ic of conversation was Oregon’s recent rebranding efforts. Many states are tak- ing notice of what we have accomplished and are very interested in pursuing sim- ilar efforts to retell their story as well. After three and a half days of meetings on my vacation it was time to take a walk. I ventured out to see the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin only to find I was a week too late. My second attempt to see this spectacle ending again in brief dis- appointment. However, there is so much to see here that my attention was quickly diverted to Martin Luther King, the Wash- ington Monument, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and, of course, Thomas Jefferson—the founder of the Public Land Survey Sys- tem and this issues Lost Surveyor. Thomas Jefferson gazes towards the Washington Memorial and the White House. The statute stands 19 feet tall from the top of the pedestal.