PLSO The Oregon Surveyor July/August 2024

3 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org From the PLSO Chair How to Send Us Your Work Please email the editor Vanessa Salvia with submissions: vsalvia@gmail.com. Your submission should be in .doc format. Please send images separately (not embedded in the document) and at the highest file size available (MB size range versus KB size range—larger sizes are encouraged). Please include the author’s name and email address or phone number for contact. We all know that family and work responsibilities require much of our time. Both require and need our time and attention. However, if we assume that someone else will pick up the duties of leadership for PLSO then we will be heading toward trouble. In the article by Bert Mason recalling the inception of PLSO, he wrote, “We intend to support and promote with all our power the aims and activities of the only collective effort in history of Oregon’s surveyors to lift themselves by their own bootstraps—the organization of Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon. If you’re too busy to spend one evening a month in fellowship and self- advancement among your colleagues, YOU’RE WORKING TOO HARD!” This statement was mailed out to the PLSO members at the time (1960) and still rings true. PLSO needs your involvement as a leader or member attending the monthly chapter meetings. Without your involvement, your ideas or concerns are not communicated, and nothing can be done about them. It’s easy to complain, we all do it every day, and it’s a bit more difficult to do something about it. However, when you get involved and help resolve the issues people are complaining about, there is satisfaction in the knowledge that at least that problem is resolved. Times have changed since 1960 and the inception of PLSO, and so has the motivation to get involved in PLSO. The past leadership of PLSO made real progress addressing issues that made the profession better and this also improved our services to the public. Presently, PLSO is not getting the participation and involvement that we should have. The organization needs YOUR input and leadership. You have the option of sitting back and reaping the benefits that membership offers with the only skin in the game being the annual dues. Or, you can devote some of your time and talents to improving the profession that has given you so much. Is two or three hours at your chapter meeting, and three to five hours if you choose to become a leader (not including travel) per board meeting for two years too much to ask? I think not! When your chapter is looking for leaders, take a moment to think it over, and consider stepping up. Don’t worry about making mistakes or not being a good leader. We all make mistakes. Making mistakes shows you are attempting to do some good and everyone understands and respects the fact that you tried.  Editor's Note: Dick Bryant had a comment related to the article titled “The Riparian Boundary Challenge” by Dr. Richard L. Elgin, PS, PE, published in the May/June 2024 issue of The Oregon Surveyor. “My comments deal with a legal issue back in 1977. It dealt with a lawsuit brought by the Oregon State Land Board against the Corvallis Sand and Gravel Company. The company had been mining rock from an area that had once been the Willamette River bed. The river had changed course in 1909 due to a flood. The state still claimed ownership to the disputed property and the case went to the Supreme Court. The case had some interesting twists. I would urge the readers to study this case as movement of water can, at sometime, be an issue on how they might have to resolve someone’s ownership. It happened to me one time much to my displeasure. To research the gravel case go to: Oregon State Land Board v. Corvallis Sand & Gravel Co.”  Riparian Rights Tim’s Retirement Please join us in congratulating Tim Kent, PLS, on his retirement, which was celebrated at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, on June 11. Tim is retiring from his role as Surveying & Geomatics Program Coordinator at Clark College, his position since 2008. He also worked as assistant professor at Oregon Institute of Technology and for the BLM and the Forest Service for many years. He was named Oregon Surveyor of the Year by the PLSO in 2009. He was also named Washington Surveyor of the Year in 1996 and 1998. Tim is a valued member of the Publications Committee for The Oregon Surveyor. He has been a member of PLSO since January 14, 1976. Congratulations on your retirement, Tim! 

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