PLSO The Oregon Surveyor May June 2020

2 The Oregon Surveyor  | Vol. 43, No. 3 From the PLSO Chairman Jeremy A. Sherer, PLS Chairman of the Board MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN The Lost Ticket E insteinwasonce traveling fromPrince- ton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn’t find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets, and in his briefcase, then the seat beside him. He still couldn’t find it. The conductor said, ‘Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t wor- ry about it.’ Einstein nodded appreciatively. The con- ductor continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket. The conductor rushed back and said, ‘Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don’t worry, I know who you are. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one.’ Einstein looked at him and said, ‘Young man, I too, know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going.’ It’s been said that a person has never re- ally experienced the feeling of being lost until they are lost while following a land surveyor. The experience, skill, and ed- ucation of a surveyor is of little value if he doesn’t know where he is going. This is true of individual surveyors as well as our organization. Has our professional organization lost its ticket? Our organizational train represents the mission to unite licensed surveyors, to improve our professional status through education, legislation, and to advance the profession through high ethical and prac- tical standards. A train is ameans to reach our destination, and without a ticket, our organization is like Dr. Einstein, scram- bling around trying to figure out where we are going. We shouldn’t need to look any further than our Operations Manual and compare it to how each committee operates. Our committees are exception- al, and most are a well-oiled machine, producing excellent results. However, the Operations Manual has become ir- relevant because each committee has worked under its own set of rules, going in different directions. It’s not anyone’s fault that this happened, just represen- tative that the manual wasn’t updated as often as it should have been. Over the years, people made the decisions that they thought were best, and rightly so. Our Operations Manual contains instruc- tions for each committee to accomplish our mission. Recently, the committees were assigned a task to determine the vision for their committee and how it fits within the overarching vision for our organization. This has not been an easy