Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors Newsletter The
Pennsylvania Surveyor
Surveying Beyond Boundaries
Winter 2016
Surveyors' Week 2016
PSLS Plans Year Long Celebration
Inside... 3 The Hermansen Series...6
President’s Message...
National Surveyors Week is celebrated each year during March and surveyors are encouraged to use this week for public outreach. Historically in Pennsylvania this has involved putting advertisements in newspapers and speaking to students, boy scouts, or other civic organizations about the role of the Professional Surveyor. All of these are good ideas and expand the visibility of our profession but these activities are typically organized on an individual basis without conveying a central message. For the last several years PSLS has strived to expand the public relations activities to involve more practicing surveyors and to deliver a more focused message. Three years ago, PSLS introduced the Pennsylvania Reaching New Heights (PRNH) campaign which encouraged surveyors to occupy existing National Geodetic Survey (NGS) Bench Marks with dual-frequency GPS receivers for 4+ hours and share the resulting OPUS solution. This enables NGS to develop more accurate Hybrid Geoid models and helps provide a basis for a transformation tool from our current datums to the new reference frames in 2022. While performing these occupations, surveyors were encouraged to speak with local media outlets and send out customized press releases. The message was the role of the surveyor in establishing elevations and the link between elevations and flooding and new FEMA flood maps which were being released in many parts of the state. In 2014 and 2015 this was an overwhelming success. We had an unprecedented number of surveyors participate in these activities during and after National Surveyors Week as well as an unprecedented number of media publications. When discussing activities for this year, the Public Relations Committee and Surveyors’ Week planning team looked for opportunities for interaction with the public all year long and not only through newspaper articles or advertisements. Continued on Page 13
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Second to None ...
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Student Cafe...
14 Sustaining Firms...16 Photo Contest...
Out...Standing....In The
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Field....
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Conference and Awards...
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New Members ...