Thursday, April 5, 2012

Where are we Professionally.

When I started surveying in eastern Arizona 30 years ago; the primary reason was to provide cheap labor for my father.  This is not an unfamiliar beginning for many practicing land surveyors.  I have met quite a few surveyors who all started in a way similar to mine.  The biggest difference between surveyors who "grew up" surveying versus the surveyors who got started as a summer job in college or graduated high school and stumbled into it is this:  the passion..... I have observed that the passionate surveyor puts time into the profession outside of the 9-5 mentality.  I attribute this to my experience working evenings, weekends and holidays for my father.  I learned early "do the work 'til the work is done".  At this point your probably asking yourself where I am going with this.

Our profession has organizations that represent the surveying profession at the national level and the state level.  These organizations are populated with professional land surveyors whom all desire to make our profession better.  However our profession is not a easy one to break into and it requires a great amount of individualism and independence.  These attributes are not consistent with group think and rule making.  So it is no surprise that many of these organizations go ignored by the surveyor.  Fierce independence is not a bad character attribute to have.  However as the profession evolves and the tools become more technical, changes are inevitable.  As professionals we have a duty to stay abreast of these changes and apply them to our practice as our judgement dictates.  As professionals we cannot draw a line in the sand and say "I'm done, and not going any further"  because if you reach that point; I submit you may cause more harm than good.  Not in the sense that your practice will deteriorate but in the sense that the application of rules and regulations will change but the static practitioner will not adjust.  Although there is a large segment of our profession that believes that tools do not dictate practice; I couldn't disagree more.  GPS, LiDAR, and Data Collector have blown the lid off of the way we practice.  At this point technology has made the art and science of measurement to easy.  Technology has simplified the process to the point that the next generation of land surveyor will not know what it is to "run line" because they are point to point locators.  Thus ignoring a millineum of surveying principles.

This is why we need to make sure our standard of practice evolves with the existing conditions.  This is why our testing for licensure has to evolve to existing conditions.  And finally continuing education.  Those whom have drawn a line in the sand, I say this; If you don't wish to participate because you are in or approaching the twilight of your career; then don't.  But do not let your "been there, done that" position get in the way of those whom are trying educate and train the next generation.      

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