PLSO The Oregon Surveyor November December 2020

Letter to the Editor phase of virtual conference platforms. Through some discussions she helped us narrow our search down to three com- panies that we could meet with for more personal evaluation of the platforms. In the end, Whova Events was the platform that we felt would offer the attendees, vendors, and sponsors the best space to meet our conference goals. Oncewe had a platformselected it was full steam ahead in coordinating a schedule. This meant recontacting all of our previ- ous speakers to discuss the new format and see if their previously envisioned presentation would fit this format. Un - fortunately, as you might imagine, some presentations were not best suited for the virtual world and additional research was needed. In other cases, some speakers had to bow out until a future in-person presentation may be available. As you know, the typical conference play- book would have us meet for three days in late January. It was quickly decided that we wanted to limit the amount of screen time a full conference attendee would be subjected to on a conference day. We know that it can be hard enough to sit in a conference room and stay awake after lunch at a nice conference center, but if attendees were sitting in the comforts of their own home office, we figured it was going to be that much harder to stay en- gaged for an extended period of time. One of the major benefits of this virtual platform that we started to realize and discuss was not only the ability to space the event over two weeks, but the abil- ity to record sessions and offer those sessions at a later time for attendees. You could call this a light bulb moment. A scenario that allows an attendee the ability to watch a presentation prepared for PLSO at their leisure might just be a solution or option that could bridge the educational gap between the corporate and associate members. An associate member attendee seeking similar edu- cation in the industry may now have the option to attend on their own time while still working over those conference days. We on the Conference Committee truly hope that this format will work for not only the traditional in-person conference attendee but may also be a great option for an associate member to finally par - ticipate and feel a bit more connected to the reasons why many of us love a good conference.  x Letter to the Editor “I loved Lee Spurgeon’s corner cluster photo and text in the July/August issue. Where was the rule of following the footsteps of the original survey- or? It reminds me of a multiple corner problem that came up while our company was doing a cadastral survey for the Fremont National Forest back in ’77. It’s been a long time, but here’s what I remember: A public land survey corner we needed for control had been re-monumented by a private surveyor. He set a two-inch iron pipe with a brass cap per for- est service standards at the time, so I believe he may have set it under a contract with the Fremont. He set the corner off an original bearing tree. The Bureau of Land Management came in later and decided that the cor- ner, as set, was not close enough to where the original PLSS placed it so they set one of their own. I can’t remember how far apart the two pipes were, but I felt at the time the distance wasn’t enough to justify setting another corner thus causing the confusion that followed. Which corner to use to control our survey? I left the company before the project was completed so I don’t know which corner was selected.“ — Dick Bryant Editor’s Note: The corner cluster photo submitted by Lee Spurgeon in the July/August issue and the responses we got to that generated some contro- versy. As one person said in response, multiple monuments are the bane of our profession and we shouldn’t celebrate them. PLSO and The Oregon Surveyor aren’t condoning or celebrating them, but we acknowledge that it is an important on-going point of discussion to end this practice. If you have thoughts on this or another subject, let us know. We look forward to your participation! Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon |  www.plso.org 9