The Oregon Surveyor Sept/Oct 2018

6 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 41, No. 5 Surveyors are Either Hoarders or Really into Time Travel From the PLSO Office Aimee McAuliffe PLSO Exec. Secretary It’s interesting, going through all those files. It’s much like time traveling, observing how the actual paper material changed (the 70’s used yearbook quality paper for their applications, the 80’s had switched to the Xerox), typewriters changed to computers along with the actual questions and answers on the forms. R ecently, I started reorganizing the PLSO storage unit and came upon hundreds of original membership applications ranging from 1968 to 2011. As there is no need to store such items, I boxed them up for appropriate docu- ment disposal, as per PLSO policy (all of which may be found online in the Member Resource section). However, before I destroyed the documents, I wanted to pull out names of members that are still active in PLSO. One of the frustrations long-time members have expressed to me is that PLSO does not have correct dates for how long they’ve been a member of PLSO. As this has come up a handful of times, and I don’t wish for people that have invested such a large portion of their career and life with PLSO to feel like it’s not important to the association. Now, to explain how this happened, let’s scooch back more than a couple years before I joined you all. When the asso- ciation first began, professionals filled out an application that included a small resumé. The Board and Chapter would approve their membership. Therefore, on the applications there is often a couple of weeks or even several months lapse (if it was summer) between the date of when the application was received and when the membership was approved. Once approved, it seems the original application was kept, seemingly forev- er. Renewals were not kept. If someone sent in a renewal form, without having an original application I found a letter on file telling them they need to fill out an original application first. You get the point—the process was fairly involved. As the years passed, themembership list got turned into an Excel spreadsheet, which merged into a printedMembership Direc- tory that evolved into an online database and searchable directory. For whatever reason, the “Member Since” date nev- er made it into the Excel spreadsheet (or the printed directory) and therefore, when it merged into the online system (which DID have this as part of its data- base), the information was not included though I guess this wouldn’t have mat- tered. If someone wanted to know, the office person just went searching through over 40 years of applications and let you