4 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 47, No. 1 From the PLSO Office Aimee McAuliffe, PLSO Exec. Secretary Surveyors Are a Hardy Bunch D espite the wind and ice our area experienced the week of the 2024 PLSO Conference in Salem this year, we still had a great showing. For those who were not able to thaw their car out or get down the driveway, they were able to watch the seminar room sessions that were streamed live all day. If anyone lost power and didn’t get to finish watching the sessions, registered conference attendees can watch recordings of the streamed sessions for the next couple months. Once upon a time, before I knew so many of our members personally, I would have worried about the weather affecting attendance, but then came the year we were in Portland’s Shilo Inn during an ice storm. The weather had turned the night before, the gorge was only open for a short window of time, our ODOT folks were hard at work, and I was convinced nobody would show up. Day one that year, you all made your way in trucks and parked like little ducks in a row in that iced-over parking lot that wasn’t really big enough to begin with, and hunkered down in the seminar rooms and the hotel bar. By day three, the ice had melted, and the yellow lines had appeared again. It became very apparent that everyone had parked absolutely anywhere there was room, as long as it was at the same angle as the truck next to it. We had to find people in seminars on Friday to move trucks to let people out. To someone simply driving by, it probably looked like chaos. But you know what I saw? I saw a group of people with keen situational awareness who aren’t afraid of something getting a little hard. I saw problem-solving at work. Visualization skills were required for that new and better-functioning parking lot to work. Communication was happening. I saw ambitious and enthusiastic people ready to be part of their professional community. I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like there were a bunch of crazy good land surveyors in the house and they were all in Salem again, taking up space under the entryway porte cochère if their truck was too tall to fit into the parking garage. I consider myself lucky to represent the Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon and work with volunteers who care so deeply about their profession. I would be remiss if I did not make sure to thank Jeremy Sherer, who has officially stepped down from the Executive Committee, and Tim Fassbender, who is our only five-time Chairman of the Board in PLSO history. The passion that both men share for their professional community has been inspiring and beneficial to us all. Scott Freshwaters, our 2024 Chairman of the Board, and Dan Nelson, the Chair-Elect, have big shoes to fill. As of the end of January 2024, PLSO has a total of 565 members, broken out as follows: • 336 Corporate Members or Licensed Surveyors • 121 Associate Members • 27 Special Members • 25 Student Members • 26 Life Members • 13 Retired Members • 17 Sustaining Members spread among eight different companies Financials for PLSO remain solvent. End of year financials had PLSO covering all expenses from income largely received through membership dues and 2023 conference attendance, netting $17,738.25 by December 31, 2023. Net profits get voted on by the Board to be moved to the Reserve Fund Policy (may be found at www.plso.org/mbrresources) or rolled over to the next operational year. This past year, PLSO has had some successes. We sponsored the Oregon Association for Career and Technical Education where we made valuable contacts. This led to requests for drive alongs, as well as helping create a field trip for teachers
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