IN THIS ISSUE...
- A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
- NCEES SURVEYING RESEARCH
- CALIFORNIA EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION -- CAN MY EMPLOYEE REFUSE TO COME BACK TO WORK POST-COVID?
- NGS GPS ON BENCHMARKS -- APRIL 2021 UPDATE
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Spring has sprung throughout the state, another successful virtual conference is behind us, and the April Board of Directors meeting is just ahead. If this year is similar to those gone by, our field work is on the upswing as the days get longer. Hopefully you are employing the new technology our vendors showed us at the conference. Even if you are not using the latest tools available, be sure to use whatever technology is appropriate (Google Maps, Google Earth, Bing Maps, etc.) to preview the project sites and help improve safety and efficiency.
After a year of COVID protocols, hopefully most of us are fairly comfortable with on-line discussion platforms such as Zoom. This technology can be used to interface with clients, team members, and agency staff. Our CLSA Board of Directors obviously got a jump on most people since we have been holding virtual Board meetings for several years.
Conference attendees got the chance to see another amazing technology in action in the Exhibit Hall called Proximity Based Audio. Each vendor had a booth that participants could click on to enter. Once inside, we were represented by circles with our initials or avatar inside. The really interesting part was that if you dragged your circle closer to other participants’ circles, you could hear their conversation, just as if you were walking up to a group of people. If you moved away, the volume would reduce, until it was gone. The vendors also had the ability to set up “rooms” within their booth where people could move inside and be isolated from the sounds just outside the shape.
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These “rooms” provided a venue where a vendor could demo one item, and all inside could hear the presentation and ask questions. Another member of the vendor team could be in another “room” showing something else, and their audience would be separate from the first “room.”
Conference sessions are now available for attendees to watch on-demand. This is a great opportunity to rewind a particular session and review a complex sub-topic, or attend a session that you missed altogether. The recordings will be available to watch through August 31, 2021.
Be sure to reach out to others who are not yet CLSA members and invite them to join us. We are continuing to move forward on issues of interest to our members and the profession. Your efforts are much appreciated!
Keep yourselves and your people safe.
Robert M. McMillan, PLS, EiT
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CLSA STORE - 2021 PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE |
- 2021 PE Act and PLS Act with Board Rules
- 2021 Complete Package with DVD
- 2021 Subdivision Map Act & Index
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NSPS - STOLEN EQUIPMENT REGISTRY
Reminder - NSPS provides a registry of stolen equipment.
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Offers a $.07 per page discount and will automatically donate $.10 per page to CLSA when members download courthouse documents through this website. These instruments include Deeds, Easements, Rights-of-Way, Releases, Liens, etc. |
OFFICE DEPOT DISCOUNT PROGRAM |
Save up to 60% on your office supplies. Click on the Office Depot Logo to begin utilizing the CLSA-Office Depot Discount Program. If you do not know your username and password, or for more information, contact the CLSA Central Office.
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The CLSA Education Foundation was established in 1993 and is committed to supporting land surveying students and programs. Last year over $50,000 in scholarship aid was provided to land surveying students.
Donating to the Education Foundation is easy! Click HERE to donate via PayPal.
Thank you to everyone who clicks through to Amazon through the CLSA's Education Foundation Amazon Smile account! If you're not doing so already, please shop on Amazon with this link.
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As part of their effort to support the fields of engineering and surveying in the years to come, the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) is conducting a research study to better understand the perceptions and experiences of educators, students, and professionals in the field. NCEES would like to invite you to participate in a brief but critical survey to support this work.
Please participate today by clicking HERE.
This survey should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete. Their partner on this project, McKinley Advisors, will ensure your response remains non-attributable and confidential, so please don’t hesitate to share your candid feedback. If you have technical survey questions, please contact Senior Research Associate, Claire Roberts at McKinley Advisors: croberts@mckinley-advisors.com.
Thank you in advance for your participation.
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CALIFORNIA EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION -- CAN MY EMPLOYEE REFUSE TO COME BACK TO WORK POST-COVID? |
As the COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to decline and vaccinations continue to increase, more employers are requiring employees to return to the office. A frequent question on our HR Advisor Hotline is whether an employer can fire an employee if they refuse to come back to work. While we cannot stress enough that you must first consider all of the reasons someone might refuse to return to the office, it's unlikely that fear of the virus or preferring to work from home will be a legally defensible excuse for refusing to work in the office.
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NGS GPS ON BENCHMARKS -- APRIL 2021 UPDATE |
Go Find a Benchmark!
April is Global Citizen Science Month. We invite you to celebrate with NGS by GPS’ing a benchmark, submitting a mark recovery, and sharing your OPUS solution. While GPSonBM is more crowd-sourcing than citizen science, it does make that direct connection between citizens and science. We are proud to announce that our program is now listed on CitizenScience.gov!
In the past, when NGS was part of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, we had what we affectionately call the “roving bands of surveyors” who literally walked across the country, East to West, North to South, moving their families in caravans along the survey routes. The vast amounts of data they collected was used to create the geodetic datums we use today, NAVD 88 and NAD 83. Today, we are modernizing the National Spatial Reference System, but we don’t have the roving bands of surveyors anymore. Luckily, GPS technology has become so accurate, accessible, and affordable, and the Internet has made data sharing so easy, that we can now rely on a crowd-sourced data collection model to enable you to improve the local accuracy of NGS models and tools in the areas where you use them most.
Remember - get your data in by the December 31, 2021 cut-off date to ensure your data is used to improve the transformation tools.
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Want to help make a difference while you shop in the Amazon app, at no extra cost to you? Simply follow the instructions below to select "California Land Sureveyors Association Inc" as your charity and activate AmazonSmile in the app. They'll donate a portion of your eligible mobile app purchases to us.
How it works:
1. Open the Amazon app on your phone
2. Select the main menu (=) & tap on "AmazonSmile" within Programs & Features
3. Select "California Land Sureveyors Association Inc" as your charity
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to activate AmazonSmile in the mobile app
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