PLSO Announces New Rebranding Partnership PLSO is excited to announce its new partnership with creative services firm Pivot Group. Pivot is a Portland-based customer engagement company that specializes in telling their clients stories in a compelling way. And that is exactly what PLSO wants to do. Tell our story to the professional community, public and future workforce. PLSO's ultimate goals during this process are: 1.     Increase the public awareness of the importance of the surveying profession and promoting the image of the profession. 2.     Increase the number of young people coming into the profession. 3.     Make PLSO an easily recognizable organization to the public, Oregon legislature, and partner professions. 4.     Make PLSO relevant to Oregon surveyors and increase membership by giving a clear message about who we are and our value to professionals. With over half of their clients being non-profits, Pivot Group understands the unique culture PLSO brings to the table. The firm has dedicated staff members working in tandem on non-profit accounts, ensuring they are immersed in the language, trends, challenges, and opportunities unique to the non-profit world. Most recently, they have won national awards for their work, including projects recognized by American Marketing, MUSE, How Magazine, Print Magazine, and Graphis. The planning, approval and selection process went through multiple discussions at the PLSO State Board level prior to creating a member driven task force to work exclusively on the project. This summer the group selected three firms to interview from a larger pool that had responded to an RFP and unanimously voted on Pivot Group before sending it to the State Board for approval. Minutes of the State Board meetings are all kept online in the Membership Resource tab of Members Only section.

NSPS Radio Hour — April 10 at 11 a.m. EST

NSPS 
After a couple of unavoidable postponements for his appearance, Scott Fein (PLS, CWRE, CFedS) will join host Curt Sumner to discuss the far reaches of surveying in the modern world, beyond making maps and marking lines/corners. Scott is the County Surveyor for Jackson County, OR. He says that marijuana legalization has brought the need and desire to know who's is what and where it is to a new level in Southern Oregon. State law regulating the new legal crop points directly to platting statutes which have a multitude of related land use implications. To listen to archives of previous shows, visit americaswebradio.com/nsps-radio-hour. Archives for each show are typically available for listening within a few days after the show airs. Also check out this cool video created for the NSPS Radio Hour by GeoLearn: https://youtu.be/cwRjmfXE2Zw. 

Surveying Mentorships: From Prospects to Veterans

When a surveyor retires, a wealth of knowledge goes with them. Mix that reality with the fact that there is not necessarily a sufficient stream of incoming surveyors to replace their aging predecessors and it becomes clear that action must be taken. One way to address the issue is through mentorship.

Lee Spurgeon, LS, is the chairman of the Educational Goals and Outreach Committee for the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon (PLSO). The land surveyor of 40 years oversees the group’s mentoring program and says mentorship in the surveying profession is really important. “The average age of a surveyor in Oregon, I think, is 56 years old, which means we’re all going to retire in the next eight or nine years. So we need to find replacements or we might end up with things like a paralegal — a para-surveyor,” he says. “Institutional knowledge is lost when the old-timers retire, so mentoring will be able to pass that information on and just have a much more informed profession so everyone can do a better job of retracing those original monuments.”

[REAM MORE]

The Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering & Land Surveying (OSBEELS) is holding a Board meeting on Tuesday, March 14, 2017. The meeting will convene at 9:00 a.m. Interested parties are encouraged to attend. Please see the attached meeting notice and agenda for more information.

Additional information about OSBEELS can be found at:  http://www.oregon.gov/OSBEELS/pages/index.aspx.

Please direct any questions about the upcoming meeting to the Board office.

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9:00 a.m. – CALL BOARD MEETING TO ORDER1

1. ROLL CALL

2. PUBLIC INPUT

3. NCEES Presentation – Brian Hanson, NCEES WZ Vice President

4. BOARD CONSENT AGENDA

A. Approval of the March 14, 2017 Agenda

B. Approval of January 10, 2017 Board meeting minutes

C. Approval of January 19, 2017 Special Board meeting minutes

D. Approval of February 9, 2017 Law Enforcement Committee meeting minutes

E. Approval of February 10, 2017 committee meeting minutes

F. Registration Approval List

G. LEC Final Orders

i. Case #2887 – Comfort Flow Heating Default Final Order

ii. Case #3023 – Karr Default Final Order

iii. Case #3024 – Uzman Default Final Order

5. ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT – Mari Lopez

6. PRESIDENT’S REPORT – Jason Kent

7. EXAMINATIONS AND QUALIFICATIONS COMMITTEE – Shelly Duquette

A. OAR 820-010-4000

B. Engineering experience gained under supervision of a PLS [ORS 672.005(1)(c), (d), (e)]

C. EQC Denial Recommendation - Kloehn, Kurt

D. Lentz, Gordon – Proposed Order

E. Leshchinsky, Ora – Proposed Order

8. OREGON SPECIFIC EXAMINATION TASK FORCE – Oscar Zuniga

Schroeder Measurement Technologies, Inc. (SMT) update

9. EXTERNAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE – Amin Wahab

A. Surveyor registration record search / PLSO

B. 2017 Symposium update

C. Oregon Examiner Articles

i. May Board meeting to be held at OSU

ii. Upcoming legislative session and professional organization involvement

iii. 2017 Symposium introduction

iv. Board members wanted

v. Farewell to Ron Singh

vi. Investigation and Enforcement

vii. Preparing for retirement

viii. Social Security number reminder for license renewal

ix. What types of courses meet PDH requirements

D. Website update – Keith Van Norman

10. FINANCE COMMITTEE – Jason Kent

A. 2017 – 2019 Budget / OAR 820-080-1000

B. Review of financial information

11. LAW ENFORCEMENT COMMITTEE – Bill Boyd

A. Case #2964 – Camp, Jack

B. Case #3017 – Yang, GuiJang

C. Case #2989 – Hupy, Brad

D. Case #2925 – Smith, Joel

12. PHOTOGRAMMETRIC AND REMOTE SENSING TASK FORCE – Chris Aldridge

UAS and Land Surveying Regulations Brochure

13. CUSTOMER SERVICE AND COMMUNICATIONS STANDARDS TASK FORCE – Jason Kent

Draft Policy

14. LEGISLATIVE

A. Legislative Committee membership

B. HB 2935 (Sponsored by Representative Boone)

a. PEO Draft Language

b. SB 885 (Sponsored by Senator Roblan)

C. HB 3168 (Sponsored by Committee on Business and Labor)

15. UNFINISHED BUSINESS

A. Discussion of PDH requirements

B. Discussion on Academic Experience

16. NEW BUSINESS

A. Nominating Committee

B. GIS in Action Conference / Presentation on PRSTF

17. LEGAL BRIEFING – Katharine Lozano

Property Line Adjustments

18. BOARD MEMBER COMMENTS

19. NEXT MEETINGS

May 9, 2017 at Oregon State University (OSU)

It’s not breaking news that the annual number of retiring surveyors far exceeds the number of those entering the surveying profession. It’s up to us to reverse this trend. One of the best ways to do that is to introduce the newest generation to the surveying profession. Show them how interesting your job is and how it relates to their local community

Help PLSO, NSPS and NCEES get the word out! Check out the tool kit designed to help you promote the profession here.

A “live” link to the GPS on Bench Marks activity mentioned in Section 3 of the kit is found here.

Other great suggestions that some state societies and individual NSPS members are doing include: Geocaching activities, Survey Day in Mall, request to speak to a local civic club (Elks, Grange, Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary, Ruritan, VFW, etc.), Professional Organization (Realtors/Attorneys/Bankers/Title Agents/etc.), or Teachers organization (School Counselors, Teachers of Math and Science, etc.)

COOS BAY — National Engineers Week is Feb. 19–25, and the local chapter of Professional Engineers of Oregon and Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon have coordinated an exhibition program involving high school students from Coos, Curry, and Douglas counties, as well as students from Southwestern Oregon Community College. The exhibition will take place from 4:30-8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22, at Southwestern Oregon Community College, 1988 Newmark Ave., Coos Bay. A buffet dinner will follow the program. The buffet will cost $15 per person; students will eat for free.

Engineers Week is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding and interest in engineering and technology careers among young students, and by promoting pre-college literacy in math and science.

March 15: Oregon Coordinate Reference System Workshop

• 7:00 AM - 4:30 PM
• Umpqua Community College

Click for More Info and Registration

New Member Benefit - Discount membership to American Association for Geodetic Surveying

On September 2nd, PLSO became an affiliate member of the American Association for Geodetic Surveying (AAGS). This is at no cost to PLSO and offers discount membership to its members. Joining AAGS as an Affiliate Member costs $40 per year. Membership is not required, only offered as a benefit to our members.

The AAGS vision is to lead the community of geodetic surveying, surveying, and land information data- users through the 21st century. In this vein, AAGS is working to develop educational programs through presentations, seminars, workshops, and on-line videos related to the topics of geodetic surveying. In the near future, AAGS will be providing a Geodetic Certification program, which will be available on-line. All PLSO members who become affiliate members of AAGS will get webinars and Geodetic Certification materials at regular AAGS member prices. We can also join AAGS as Regular members and will get Surveying and Land Information Science, which is the only journal that routinely accepts – or even accepts at all – papers on boundary issues and is the profession’s only refereed journal. SaLIS has published four boundary-related papers in its last five publications. As GNSS, laser scanning, and other new technologies come into common use, AAGS will be at the forefront in developing the necessary education for proper use of these technologies.

Currently, the Alaska Section of the ACSM, Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, and Rhode Island and Oregon have agreed to affiliate with AAGS. More state societies will hopefully become affiliates of AAGS following their upcoming board meetings. 

CLICK HERE JOIN AAGS TODAY!

Within 24 hours of submitting a letter to his state’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) office, TJ Frazier, President of the Maryland Society of Surveyors received a response and a scheduled meeting to discuss workforce development in the surveying and geospatial community. 

The Maryland effort is part of the NSPS national workforce development initiative, designed to help attract the next generation of professional surveyors and technicians. That program begins with a letter-writing campaign by state surveying societies, as well as by local chapters and individual surveyors and firms. [READ MORE]

May 31, 2016, Tigard, Ore. – Oregon high school students competed in the state-level Trig-Star competition this past month as part of a national movement to introduce land surveying as a career. Participating schools hosted the annual high school mathematics competition based on the practical application of Trigonometry. The program recognizes the best students from high schools throughout the nation. The top three winners of each school earned cash prizes. The first place students from each school then competed for $500 prize money, Oregon State Trig-Star Champion title and a chance to go on to win $2,000 as the Richard E. Lomax National Trig -Star Award Winner, sponsored by the National Society of Professional Surveyors.

This year’s 2016 Oregon State Trig-Star Champion is Andrew Reimer-Berg of West Salem High School. As a senior, he will graduate in June and attend Eastern Mennonite University, a private liberal arts university near Harrisonburg, Va. in the fall, where he has been awarded an Honors Scholarship. While his favorite subject is math, extracurricular interests involve music. Not only does Reimer-Berg play the piano, but also the cello in the school orchestra. He is a member of the 2015 and 2016 Salem All-City Orchestra and a vice president of West Salem High School’s National Honor Society.

“We would be lucky if someone like Andrew considered surveying as a profession. Trig-Star is a great way to introduce students to the building blocks used in land surveying,” said PLSO Executive Director Aimee McAuliffe. “The retirement rate of many of today’s surveyors is creating a huge demand for entry-level employees. Surveyors and mapping technicians can work in government, engineering, architecture, construction, real estate, transportation, utility companies, and other industries. This year alone, PLSO is giving out $15,000 in scholarships. The money is out there. Students just need to find the right opportunities.”

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The Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon represents more than 500 land surveyors and associated suppliers. It serves the land surveying industry in Oregon through professional education and outreach, holding paramount the interests of the public. To learn more about surveying as a career visit www.plso.org/education&careers.