19 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org 2022 Surveyor of the Year 21 Questions with 2022 Surveyor of the Year Jered McGrath continues Where did you grow up? I grew up in rural Columbia County, about 12 miles southwest of Rainier, Oregon, where I graduated high school in 1997. I spent many of my days just out in the woods on our 80-acre Christmas tree farm. As I entered high school we moved a bit closer to town, but it was always a pretty rural setting. I think this isolation was great but it did create a small desire to check out and live in a big city someday. This desire is what pointed me south to Los Angeles after finishing my on- campus classes at Oregon Tech. Tell us a little bit about your time as an Oregon Tech student. Did you volunteer at the PLSO Conference? My time at Oregon Tech provided some of my greatest memories and wrote some chapters of my life that naturally had ups and downs. When I first started at OIT my main focus was being a track and field athlete, and the surveying program was a bonus to that. I stretched out my degree over five years to coincide with my eligibility to compete, which worked out when I had a medical redshirt year after separating a shoulder. I was lucky enough to qualify for and compete in the NAIA National Championships (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) for the other four years in pole vault. I personally did not attend a conference as a student while at OIT since we were generally starting to compete in the indoor track and field season. I will say surveying was love at first sight. I thought I wanted to be an electrical engineer but was soon convinced to switch majors before school started. There are many of my former classmates actively surveying throughout the state and it’s always a great time when we can reconnect. How long have you been a member of PLSO? I recall first learning about PLSO through the instructors at OIT after being in the program for a few years. In the early 2000s Dennis Findorff, Jack Walker, and/ or Mason Marker would encourage us to attend the local chapter meetings held in Klamath Falls. It was a sparse crowd then and as many chapters still face today, the attendance would bloomwith the scheduling of a presentation. When did you first get started in the profession? I took my first surveying job with the Winema National Forest in Klamath Falls in the summer of 1999. We had an exceptionally large group of students working that year mapping campgrounds, surveying and posting forest boundaries, and retracing all kinds of monuments. The next year I worked for Winema again in the summer and a portion of that was doing work for Crater Lake National Park. I don’t know if there has been another month of my surveying career that compares to working daily around the crater rim and in the park. What difference has PLSO made in your career? Undoubtedly, PLSO is the reason for many lifelong connections I have to other local surveyors. I have worked with many mentors through PLSO workshops, conference planning, outreach events, or local chapter meetings, and many of them are former Surveyors of the Year. I would attribute a lot of my continued support of the profession to seeing their previous leadership and dedication. To name a few would not be a complete list but Gary Johnston, Pat Gaylord, Greg Crites, Bob Neathamer, Gary Anderson, Joe and Jean Ferguson, Paul Galli, John Thatcher, Tony Brooks, Paul Landau, Lee Spurgeon, Mike Berry, Brian Portwood, and my close confidants of Shaun Fidler and Tim Kent all have helped me greatly along the path in learning what is needed to give back to our profession. What volunteer position would provide the most benefit for someone just starting out? I was the Pioneer Chapter secretary for a while and I feel that this position really helps one connect to local members within the chapter and other surveyors around the state. Jered assisting with tying some section corners. You have been the Conference Chair for 10 years and on the committee longer than that. What have you liked the most about your experience? I really enjoy the search process to try and find the next great presentation. I feel we have succeeded when we can bring in speakers that make people think and engage in the continuing education process. I feel every once in a while an individual, myself included, may see a presentation that makes you want to change the way you are doing things for the better. Maybe it’s boundary case law that you are newly aware of, or a presentation on a type of survey that provides you the confidence to seek out and take on that type of work. The last 10 years have exploded with technological advancements that many times need to be seen in a longer classroom setting than just a demo on a showroom floor. We are always looking at the presentation that can skip the sales pitch and push the technology, no matter the color of the units involved. I also take pride in comparing our conference to any other state conference track. I feel
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