IN THIS ISSUE...
- A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
- TRIG-STAR 2021 – PANDEMIC EDITION
- IN THE NEWS
- BEWARE OF EMAIL SCAMS
- CLSA LOSES FRIEND, WARREN W. ROBERTSON, PLS 5014
- CLSA LOSES FRIEND, PHILIP R. MOSBACHER, PLS 7189
- CONGRATULATIONS NEW LICENSEES
- NGS WEBINAR SERIES
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Summer is here and the temperatures are rising. Be sure that your field crews have the statutory requirements for drinking water available.
“What are those requirements?” you ask.
- One quart of water (Ice is not considered water) per person per hour of scheduled work, or
- A plan for replenishing the water supply during the day as needed.
Watch your email in-boxes for the Annual CLSA Survey. Please complete the on-line survey as soon as possible. It is intended to collect information to help CLSA provide for our profession’s needs.
As mentioned in the last CLSA e-News, the League of California Surveying Organizations (LCSO) held their 2021 Geospatial Symposium. I had the opportunity to present, along with John Tosto, Dana Caccamise, Kevin Hills, Allan Ng, Mark Counts, Ian Wilson, and a group of graduating Cal Poly Pomona Students. Thanks to organizers Dana Robie and Chu Kow for a smooth and worthwhile event attended by 84 people, with proceeds helping fund LCSO’s future land surveying scholarships.
I also participated in the Indiana Young Surveyors Network (YSN) June webinar which featured a presentation on Survey Reports by Todd Bauer, ISPLS 2019 President. This discussion piqued my curiosity and led me to review some of the Indiana Administrative Code (IAC) pertaining to land surveying. The first part of Rule 865, IAC §1-12-12 identifies the requirements of a Survey Report and the four primary items which must be addressed:
(a) When conducting a retracement survey or an original survey, a registered land surveyor shall do the following:
(1) Furnish the client with a written surveyor's report that, in addition to other pertinent data, identifies the type of survey, explains the theory of location applied in establishing or retracing the lines and corners of the surveyed parcel, and gives the registered land surveyor's professional opinion of the cause and the amount of uncertainty in those lines and corners because of the following:
(A) Availability and condition of reference monuments.
(B) Occupation or possession lines
(C) Clarity or ambiguity of the record description used and of adjoiners' descriptions and the relationship of the lines of the subject tract with adjoiners' lines.
(D) The relative positional accuracy of the measurements.
While I don’t personally see a need for this to be codified in California law, I did find the content to be interesting, as was much of 865 IAC 1-12. Of particular note is that per 865-IAC 1-12-3, Indiana land surveyors are “personally responsible for planning and supervising the training, procedures, and daily activities of the nonregistered employees or subordinates.” A non-exclusive list of the activities expected in the training, providing the Indiana PLS a foundation for training curriculum. Take a look at that list and see if your organization’s training program includes all those subjects.
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Another item mentioned in the open forum portion of the IN YSN webinar was the possible inclusion of a track specifically for technicians at Indiana’s annual ISPLS Conference. This sounds like a great idea for our conferences in the future.
Speaking of conferences, arrangements are being finalized for CLSA to sell recordings of 2021 Conference speakers. With 2022 just around the corner, plans are being addressed for our upcoming IN-PERSON conference in Las Vegas, NV. Please review your contact list for potential sponsors.
The NSPS Trig*Star competition was held in a limited capacity in 2021. Sherry Toutges has an update on how it worked this year in this newsletter. Congratulations to this year’s winners, both from the Sacramento area. Hopefully the new format will allow us to reach out to more students, parents and teachers in the years ahead!
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The California Spatial Reference Center (CSRC) Coordinating Council “Spring” Zoom meeting will be hosted by CLSA on June 17th, 2021. As mentioned last month, NGS staff and CSRC members provided instrumental effort, expertise, input and guidance in developing the LDPs. |
California Spatial Reference Center (CSRC) Coordinating Council Spring Meeting –
Virtual Hosting by California Land Surveyors Association (CLSA)
Time (Pacific Time): 10 AM to noon (morning presentations); break from noon to 1 pm; and then resuming 1-3:15 pm (afternoon presentations)
GoToWebinar Meeting Registration (free registration, please register):
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Due to a previously unforeseen issue, our July Board of Directors meeting has been rescheduled for July 24, 2021. We are holding our first in-person meeting since February, 2020. I look forward to seeing many of our Directors, Liaisons and Committee Chairs in Oakland at 10:30 AM.
Please remember to reach out to others who are not CLSA members and invite them to join or re-join CLSA. Licensees, LSITs, Technicians and others are all welcome. I challenge every member to bring in at least one new member. Let’s achieve a goal of “2021 in 2021” – that is 2021 members in the year 2021. Thank you for all your efforts. They are critical to the success of our organization, and the well-being of our profession.
Robert M. McMillan, PLS, EiT
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TRIG-STAR 2021 – PANDEMIC EDITION
By Sherry Toutges
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Trig-Star is not just a math competition that recognizes and rewards high school students who excel in trigonometry, it is a gateway into our local schools to promote the land surveying and mapping profession, both to highlight an educational and career opportunity, and as a general public awareness effort.
Like many other planned activities, the COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on the Trig-Star program for California. The typical program includes three visits to a school including: education and promotion, testing, and award presentation. As surveyors, we’ve learned resilience through adversity and having already managed ten months of a pandemic, we knew that the program could still be done virtually.
January and February were key months for local professionals to reach out to high schools to promote the program and schedule visits, but California schools were operating through distance learning only. News of rapidly changing regulations provided little information or reliable timelines when schools would reopen. Many schools opted to wait until 2022 to take part in the program.
March approached with California schools still operating through distance learning and little hope that students would be able to “meet” for in-person testing. A few schools were willing to participate regardless and discussions to provide an alternative testing method with the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS), the national sponsor for the Trig-Star program, ensued.
By mid-April, NSPS had an online testing platform and California was given an opportunity to participate in this pilot program. Three of the four participating schools in California chose to utilize online testing and provided much welcomed feedback of advantages and disadvantages to NSPS. We are hopeful that the information provided will encourage NSPS to continue with this alternative testing method in the future.
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The four California schools who participated in the 2021 Trig-Star competition were:
- Florin High School (Sacramento, CA)
- Franklin High School (Elk Grove, CA)
- Liberty Ranch High School (Galt, CA)
- Vista Del Lago High School (Folsom, CA)
The 2021 California State winners for Trig-Star are:
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1st Place: Kendall Sutton (Galt, CA) completed the test with a perfect score in 26 minutes, 10 seconds. She’ll be a Senior at Liberty Ranch High School this fall and is excited to represent California in the National Trig-Star competition. |
2nd Place: Vien Le (Elk Grove, CA) completed the test with a perfect score in 40 minutes. He graduated this year from Franklin High School.
The commitment and dedication of the many students, teachers, schools, and volunteers to make this year’s Trig-Star competition a reality is to be commended. Special thanks go out to NSPS, CLSA (Kim Holtz, Kim Oreno), Caltrans (Russell Smith, Paul Tonn), Franklin High School (Michael Steele), and Florin High School (Katie Sutton) for their extra efforts this year and going the extra mile to make this happen.
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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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We land surveyors are usually the first boots on the ground for any endeavor. 55 years ago this month, NASA recognized the importance of land surveyors by naming the first US launched spacecraft intended to land (rather than impact) on the lunar surface Surveyor 1. Although we were not the first to “soft land” on the moon (Luna 9), our Surveyor 1 on June 2, 1966, was the first of the mostly successful US launched Surveyor series (Surveyor 3, 5, 6, & 7) to map the lunar surface in preparation for the manned Apollo 11 landing.
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Email spoofing is a growing problem and the association industry is often targeted. Spoofing occurs when an email from a scammer appears to come from someone you know and trust. The scammer will attempt to obtain your personal information or have you purchase gift cards or make a bank transfer. Please protect yourself! Any time you are responding to an email that looks suspicious, double check the email address that shows up in the "To" field when you hit reply. If you don't recognize that email address, it's most likely a scam. |
CLSA LOSES FRIEND
WARREN W. ROBERTSON, PLS 5014
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Warren Wilson Robertson passed away on March 15, 2021 at the age of eighty. He was born on October 1, 1940, in O’Neill, Nebraska. He was the eldest son of LaVerne Lillian (Hartford) Robertson and Dick Wilson Robertson. Warren lived on the family farm until his father passed away when Warren was eight. LaVerne later married John Allen Robertson. As a young teen, Warren worked in the Studebaker dealership that John owned, keeping it clean and even working in the parts department. He also had two newspaper routes and played in the school band. The family moved from rural Nebraska to San Jose, California, in 1956.
Moving as a sixteen-year-old was hard, but he excelled in school and played the cornet in advanced band and found a niche working as a bus boy at his Uncle LeRoy’s restaurant on 2nd street in San Jose. While in high school and college, he worked at the Studio Theaters as a manager. He graduated from Willow Glen High School in 1958 and attended San Jose City College and San Jose State University studying business.
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CLSA LOSES FRIEND, PHILIP R. MOSBACHER, PLS 7189 |
It is with heavy hearts and great sadness, we announce the death of Philip Raymond Mosbacher, of Placerville, California, who passed away on June 10, 2021, at the age of 61, leaving to mourn family and friends. Please take a moment and share a story or leave a sympathy message for the family on this memorial page.
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CONGRATULATIONS NEW LICENSEES
One objective of CLSA’s Strategic Plan is simply recognition of service and achievement. Within Objective #9, Goal #4 is to publicize new licensees and LSITs. To fulfill that goal currently, we present the California Professional Land Surveyors licensed and LSITs certificated from January 1, 2021 to June 4, 2021.
Congratulations! These are accomplishments of which you can be proud! VIEW LIST
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Special Edition Webinar
OPUS User Forum: New Capabilities in OPUS Projects
June 22, 2021 | 2-3:30pm, EST
Presenters:
Philippe Hensel and
Dan Gillins, NGS
Panelists:
Boris Kanazir, Dan Martin and Julie Prusky, NGS
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Webinar Description:
Join us for a short update on new capabilities available within OPUS Projects. After the update, the remainder of the time will be open for a question and answer period on any OPUS topics. If you would like to submit a question(s) beforehand, please email it tongs.training@noaa.gov, with the subject line, “OPUS User Forum”.
NGS has developed new capabilities for its online surveying software, OPUS-Projects. First, new tools are provided that streamline the adjustment and submission of GPS data for publication, leading to the updating of coordinates on NGS datasheets. Second, beta tools are being developed to enable uploading of previously processed GPS vectors, including from Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) techniques, for inclusion in the survey network for adjustment and publication.
Technical Content Rating: Intermediate - Prior knowledge of this topic is helpful.
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Thank You CLSA Sustaining Members
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