South Dakota Society of Professional Land Surveyors

What a great way to start my year as President by attending the Minnesota and North Dakota conventions. My little girl, Abby, has now been to three surveying conventions and she is only 6 weeks old. I have to thank everyone for their patience and acceptance of her attending the conventions.

What was neat at both conventions was getting to meet the representatives from Canada. It was a pleasure to meet 5 individuals and that the issues in Canada are pretty much the same as in the US. They also travel extensively once elected. They usually try to attend meetings at all 10 provinces and any of the US states that adjoin their province.

It was interesting to see that most of the societies were all working on updating bylaws and legislation. Montana is going through surveyor affidavit legislation at this time. Montana and North Dakota will be holding a joint seminar on “BLM Update” in June in Medora, ND. We will keep you updated on this. I gave an update on where we were on the surveying education requirements. I was able to talk to several surveying professors about their curriculums and concerns they see within survey education. I was also able to attend both MN and ND’s scholarship auctions. It was interesting to see the different items and how they run their auction.

It was a great pleasure to be present when Holly Beck took over as the first woman president of NDSPLS. She is truly respected by her peers and will do a wonderful job and I feel very lucky to have been able to spend time with her and her husband Mike. The ND and SD societies started out together and here in 2010, they are linked together again with both having their first woman presidents the same year.

I was looking back at Steve Peters’ first “From the President” in Feb 2009. A comment he wrote stuck with me. He wrote “the chance that our university system will step up and create a program seems remote.” And now I fast forward to the Jan 2010 BOD meeting, where both STI and SDSU had proposals for new surveying programs on the agenda. I would say that alone was good progress but we made more.



		What a great way to start my year as President by attending the Minnesota and North Dakota conventions. My little girl, Abby, has now been to three surveying conventions and she is only 6 weeks old. I have to thank everyone for their patience and acceptance of her attending the conventions. What was neat at both conventions was getting to meet the representatives from Canada. It was a pleasure to meet 5 individuals and that the issues in Canada are pretty much the same as in the US. They also travel extensively once elected. They usually try to attend meetings at all 10 provinces and any of the US states that adjoin their province. It was interesting to see that most of the societies were all working on updating bylaws and legislation. Montana is going through surveyor affidavit legislation at this time. Montana and North Dakota will be holding a joint seminar on “BLM Update” in June in Medora, ND. We will keep you updated on this. I gave an update on where we were on the surveying education requirements. I was able to talk to several surveying professors about their curriculums and concerns they see within survey education. I was also able to attend both MN and ND’s scholarship auctions. It was interesting to see the different items and how they run their auction. It was a great pleasure to be present when Holly Beck took over as the first woman president of NDSPLS. She is truly respected by her peers and will do a wonderful job and I feel very lucky to have been able to spend time with her and her husband Mike. The ND and SD societies started out together and here in 2010, they are linked together again with both having their first woman presidents the same year. I was looking back at Steve Peters’ first “From the President” in Feb 2009. A comment he wrote stuck with me. He wrote “the chance that our university system will step up and create a program seems remote.” And now I fast forward to the Jan 2010 BOD meeting, where both STI and SDSU had proposals for new surveying programs on the agenda. I would say that alone was good progress but we made more.		The education question was addressed in 1996 and now in 2010, it is moving forward with an education requirement recommendation to the BOTP. This is great! It has shown that the society as a whole is feeling that some formal education is needed for a land surveyor’s education. It will be exciting to see where the recommendation goes from here. Thank you to everyone at the Annual Meeting for their time and input into the final recommendation. It was truly a group effort. We all need to remember the men and women that are working for the Power Companies across the state. They are so dedicated and work hard to keep all of us with power during the worst of conditions. Winter is not over yet, and if they are in your area, please help them out in any way that you can. They are definitely working for all of us. In reminiscing, Brian Bernhard was president at the first surveying convention (1993) that I attended. This was back in the days of the King’s Inn in Pierre. One of the things I remember about that convention was Brian opened every session with at least one Ole and Lena joke or an Ole and Sven joke. Many times it was several. So as a final tribute to Brian, I will end with an Ole and Sven joke. Sven and Ole got a job putting in telephone poles. After the first day, they were talking to the foreman. The foreman asked how many poles they had put in. “Two” said Ole. “Only Two?” said the foreman. “All the other crews put in eight to ten.” “Yah!” Said Ole, “But did you see how much dey left sticking out?” I hope everyone has a safe and warm winter. I hope that spring is coming sooner than later, but that you find the time to enjoy the beauty of winter beyond the cold and snow. Kristi Goehring 2010 SDSPLS President