PLSO Oregon Surveyor

Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon

www.plso.org

2017 PLSO Conference

We on the conference committee would like

to formally invite all of you to the 2017 PLSO

Conference, to be held January 18 – 20, in Portland,

OR. As you may have already read, our theme this

year is “Challenge of Change.” The conference

committee struggled this year to find something that

was a bit different than what we have done in the

past. Let’s say it was a “challenge” to “change.” We

want to bring the Oregon land surveying community

something different, but not too different that people

wouldn’t recognize why we’re there. One of the bigger

changes is that we’re in a different venue again for

the third year in a row, which I’m pretty excited about.

The Sheraton Portland Airport will be hosting us this

year. I like exploring new places, and I hope all of you

feel the same.

The conference schedule was posted on the PLSO

website in early November and I hope that everyone

had an opportunity to take a look. I’m excited for our

lineup of speakers this year, and I’m ready to sit back

and soak it all in.

It’s a challenge every year to put together speakers

and events that people enjoy, but I feel like we have a

good group of sessions for all of you. We’ve brought

some old favorites back, such as Mike Pallamary

who will be here educating us about how to better

run our business and discussing some of the Curt

Brown chronicles. We also invited Dr. Richard Elgin

who will discuss marketing and how you can improve

your office practices. Another big name we brought

back, out of retirement I believe, is Dave Doyle who

is going to talk to us about transformation, datums,

and geodesy. I can still remember the first time I

heard Dave Doyle speak. I never knew someone

could get so excited about datums, realizations, and

geodesy. Talk about things changing, the whole earth

is changing by the day.

Althea Rizzo from the Oregon Office of Emergency

Management was such a big hit last year that we

decided to invite her back to talk about Geological

Hazards and what the future may have in store.

Royce Hill, from the BLM, will be reviewing Donation

Land Claims, and there are many more speakers

from around our great state that will give us some

wonderful things to discuss and learn about.

We also want to encourage everyone to attend the

auction dinner to be held Thursday evening, January

19th, as well as checking out what we have to offer at

the silent auction. Last year we raised nearly $13,000,

which is pretty good, but I feel like we can do better.

Another change this year is that the Oregon Young

Surveyors (OrYSN) will be holding their first annual

PLSO Conference OrYSN Meet Up. The OrYSN group

is planning a fun meet up for all of the young (and

young at heart) surveyors out there. The goal of the

meet up is to allow the group and its members an

opportunity to grow their professional network. The

group is welcoming everyone who wants to help

promote this wonderful profession that has been

good to all of us.

We also want to challenge each and every one of you

Corporate members to bring an Associate member,

because they are the surveyors that need to be at

the conference. They will benefit the most from the

classes and the experience. You’ll get to know your

employees on a much more personal level and they

will appreciate the time you are spending trying to

further their careers. When I was a student and a

young professional, I thought it was the coolest thing

when my boss or leader wanted to include me in a

conference. I felt like they were really taking some

interest in me professionally by helping me learn

about the industry. Plus, Shaun Fidler is going to

donate $10 per Associate member that attends. I’m

hoping that we can have him write a check that is big

enough to make him feel a little uncomfortable. So

please do your profession a favor and bring those

folks you want to invest in.

I feel the conference is one of the most important

things we do as an organization. It allows everyone

an opportunity to come together as a family and

learn. Learn about our friends, learn something

about surveying, learn something about someone

new, and hopefully learn something about ourselves.

The conference gives an excuse to not think about

our busy lives for a couple of days and have fun with

some old friends and hopefully some new ones. We

have an opportunity to look to the future and see

what changes we have ahead of us and how to best

handle them, not to mention who we might want with

us on that journey. I hope to see you all there!