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The Oregon Surveyor
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Vol. 39, No. 6
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field notes and so on come into play
and may offer up a critical missing
element in unraveling a puzzle
created when your field investi-
gation doesn’t jive with the records.
Where do you turn to sort out such
a mess? Someone with institutional
knowledge can be an invaluable help. Did you know that
the federal records center has most of the original field
notes from the original transmission line surveys done
in the late 30’s through early 60’s? Those records contain
ties to cadastral monumentation that may have long since
disappeared, making those records invaluable in your
recovery efforts.
I recently attended a PLSO Pioneer Chapter meeting in
Warrenton where Vance Swenson, the Clatsop County
Surveyor, gave a presentation on where old survey records
might reside. Having worked in Clatsop County for some
time, I can personally attest to how important it is to know
someone who knows where those repositories are and
can make a thumbnail assessment of the quality of the
work you might discover. Believe me when I tell you that
important records can be found in many places, some
of them even in private hands that only word of mouth
might uncover. Institutional knowledge can be a critically
important aid in the research process.
What about right here in Multnomah County? How many
practicing surveyors in the Portland-Metro area know of
the origin of all the brass screws in sidewalks throughout
Eastmoreland, the neighborhood where I grew up? If they
do, it was probably via word-of-mouth, especially if you are
an out-of-town surveyor. Here again, who will be around to
share this local knowledge once the “old guard” are gone?
I think you get my point. Part of the “Challenge of Change”
has to do with meeting it; that means carrying forward
all the knowledge that’s come before us. Isn’t that what
the conference should be all about? Information sharing?
In an effort to meet the “Challenge of Change”, many of
the conference presentations will revolve around sharing
knowledge gleaned from our own experiences. Some
of that knowledge serves as a warning for changes that
are coming. Other presentations share ways to deal with
the changes that are already upon us. I can’t emphasize
enough the importance of conference attendance, not just
for the viability of the organization, but for the viability of
your career as a professional. It is commonly understood
that our conference represents the best way to satisfy
meeting the PDH requirements for maintaining your
license. There are quite a few folks who’ve put in a fair
bit of their own time and effort to make this opportunity
available to you. Take advantage of it. I’ll see you at the
conference.
By Greg Crites, PLS
The Challenge of Change
From the Editor
I
happened to read an article on MSN’s website this
morning entitled “The 30 most in-demand jobs around
the world right now.” Wouldn’t you know it, number 9 on
the list were
surveyors!
The caption with the accompanying
image read, in part “There is no particular reason for the
shortage...” Now you and I both know what the reasons
are so it’s quite apparent the author hadn’t talked to a
real surveyor. Imagine that? We’ve been talking about
outreach for years and here’s a perfect example of yet
another sector of the population that hasn’t heard from
us regarding our plight. Many of us are baby boomers,
approaching retirement or at the very least thinking about
it. We all know of the declining number of licensees within
our profession. I’m not sure if there’s a correlation, but I’ve
had more notifications of the death of surveyors over the
past several years than the last 20 combined. Our Executive
Secretary points out that we are at the “edge of a precipice”
in our profession. No kidding!
So, let me get back to the theme of our conference
coming up in January and the title of this editorial. I’ve
been discussing outreach, professional development,
professional practice and mentoring within the pages of
our magazine for some time. I don’t think it’s necessary to
revisit those subjects so soon after they’ve appeared in our
magazine, but the theme of the conference got me thinking
about something regarding change. The massive change
that is looming after all of us “boomers” hang up our
tripods and move on to other pursuits in retirement; it’s
called the loss of institutional knowledge, something many
of us have experienced first-hand with the changed work
places with which we’ve grown accustomed to working.
The “old guard” who were familiar with the systems and
processes that built our infrastructure are gone. Finding
old records has now become an extremely laborious and
frustrating process with many wrong turns and dead-ends.
Think of how difficult it is to do title research now. I’m
not talking about simple conveyances with an unencum-
bered title chain, but complex conveyances that are full of
multiple conveyances of rights-of-way, grants of easements,
partitions, scriveners errors, and so on. If you think for a
moment that a title plant will get your complicated title
report right on the first try, well, then you’ve been smoking
something that is now legal in Oregon!
Some of you know that I work a lot with the Bonneville
Power Administration on infrastructure projects.
Oftentimes a proposed transmission line project will
parallel a much older existing line. This means all the old
records associated with the survey of that line become
critically important. Old right-of-way plats, structure lists,
L-line reports, POT-BM lists (a record of the monumen-
tation established along the transmission centerline to
perpetuate its location), acquisition documents, original