PLSO The Oregon Surveyor January/February 2020

5 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org From the PLSO Office rebranding, being proactive towards the changes in our social and political culture, working with Darrell Fuller in advocating for our professional community in Sa- lem, and encouraging the direction of our Strategic Planning activities. I have every confidence that Jeremy Sherer will pick up the torch and continue to light our way into the future. PLSO currently has 601 members, which represents an encouraging increase when compared to last year’s 574 number. The breakdown is as follows: • 373 Corporate Members • 111 Associate Members • 39 Special members • 20 Retired • 30 Students • 28 Life Members (which includes two new honorees: Mike Berry and Dave Williams) As I say every year—it is a consistent goal to grow our numbers, which means we need to try to help people understand that for the land surveying community to have any sort of voice in the state of Oregon, we have to speak with a unified voice, with one consistent and powerful message to be heard. To me, that is the primary benefit of membership, and is the most difficult one to measure. This is especially true for someone who doesn’t quite understand why they should join or continue to renew each year. I’m a Gen- Xer myself—as the original members of the Breakfast Club, we are defined by our unwillingness to be called a joiner and as a generation, we revel in the idea of be- ing the overlooked outliers—happy to let the Baby Boomers and Millennials duke it out. However, despite being labeled as considering themselves self-important, Millennials are now starting to feel com- fortable with the babies they’ve had and the career they’ve been in, for more than a minute and a half, to see the benefits of self-improvement and being a part of their respective associations. Of course, right now we are all looking towards Gen Z, who’s first wave just entered the work- force last year. Without a doubt, they are the most technologically savvy and glob- ally aware generation in history. It’s going to be important in the coming years to engage and involve this generation so that our association can play a role in shaping PLSO to fully serve the entire membership and to have the broadest possible appeal to everyone. The Board of Directors and I look forward to gaining insight from our Oregon Young Survey- ors Network and students such as the ones who attended the conference, but most importantly – our awesome Oregon Tech volunteer students, who continue to show up and give their time and energy to helping this conference happen year after year. Even better, simply donate to PLSO, or invest in the Land Surveyor’s Guide to the Supreme Court of Oregon, now available through the PLSO Online Bookstore, to support our Education and Outreach goals and to help support the development of even more outstanding OIT students.  x