PLSO The Oregon Surveyor Sept/Oct 2019

4 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 42, No. 5 From the PLSO Chairman Shawn Kampmann, PLS Chairman of the Board MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN Now anyone with a few hundred dollars can provide ‘expert’ surveying services with their drones, Go-Pro cameras and GIS enabled iPads. Even title companies are getting into the game, in some cases substituting ALTA Land Title Surveys with their GIS sourced mapping deliverables showing tax lot derived property boundaries as being “close enough.” After all, their blanket liability disclaimer in their title policies excepts out “discrepancies, encroachments, shortage in area, conflicts in boundary lines, or any other facts which a survey would disclose.” How convenient. A s many of us have been experi- encing over the last few years, our profession continues to be under siege by interlopers into our do- main. Apparently, experienced, licensed professionals are just another unneces- sary, bureaucratic roadblock performing the same surveying services that others can provide much more inexpensively without worrying about such mundane, outdated statutory requirements like licensure, protecting the public, and all that. Now anyone with a few hundred dollars can provide ‘expert’ surveying services with their drones, Go-Pro cam- eras and GIS enabled iPads. Even title companies are getting into the game, in some cases substituting ALTA Land Title Surveys with their GIS sourced mapping deliverables showing tax lot derived property boundaries as being “close enough.” After all, their blanket liability disclaimer in their title policies excepts out “discrepancies, encroachments, shortage in area, conflicts in boundary lines, or any other facts which a survey would disclose.” How convenient. On top of that, there are populist calls around the country to eliminate or de- regulate professional licensing boards, including land surveying, which are