PLSO The Oregon Surveyor November December 2020

8 Vol. 43, No. 6 The Oregon Surveyor  | From the Conference Committee CONFERENCE COMMITTEE FROM THE PLSO Jered McGrath, PLS (OR, WA, CA) Conference Committee Chair Pioneer Chapter President H ow does one summarize the un- predictable crazy year of 2020 while still going through it? Long and never-ending seems to describe it well. My wonderful 90-year-old grand- parents would summarize it as, “at our age everything seems crazy, but you just keep going and focus on what you can control.” Grandparents and our senior experienced citizens are great for grounding us in reality when things seem so far from it. From murder hornets to tragic wildfires and more, we have all been through trials and tribulations that are typical- ly reserved for a good Michael Crichton novel. The global elephant in the room of the COVID-19 pandemic has come to guide our personal and profession- al lives as its effects change weekly, and our understanding of it must change with breakthroughs, studies, and hard data we can all rely on. It is somewhat like surveying, in that we are following those who went before us and hopeful- ly we can learn from past successes and mistakes to guide us forward for our own health, safety, and survival, personally and professionally. The Conference Committee started 2020 on a high note, coming off of a great conference in January. We possessed a renewed zeal to enter a new decade with advances in technology lifting us to new heights. New instrumentation would al- low us new capabilities and an increased understanding of the additional roles we all do daily to increase our capacities. After our standard small break in Febru- ary and March, we began planning the 2021 conference and had to start talking about some non-traditional controlling elements. Large in-person gatherings had been banned, stay at home orders were in place in many counties, and at that time, many people were also finding themselves as in-home substitute teach- ers, myself included. We pushed forward with optimism and hope that we would be planning for a traditional conference by the time Jan- uary 2021 rolled around. Based on last year’s conference exit surveys, we be- gan laying out a schedule of presenters and topics that we wanted to address. Midway through summer it became ap- parent we needed to start not only talking about a virtual option but most likely planning for it. I want to say thank you to all of you who responded to the various surveys we put out over the summer, as it definite - ly helped us with our new decisions on this new adventure that we are all fac- ing. This part of the planning phase took us through evaluating a variety of plat- forms out there that host virtual events. We started conversations with Lori Servin at Action Registration, who we have used for many years to run the conference reg- istration front desk. Her company was also going through the similar evaluation I want to say thank you to all of you who responded to the various surveys we put out over the summer, as it definitely helped us with our new decisions on this new adventure that we are all facing. Wrapping Up An Odd Year, From Conference 2020 to Conference 2021