|
WSS-ACSM MINUTES
July 15th,
2004
www.wss-acsm.org
Attendees:
Dave
George, Tim Leach, Ben Petersen,
Steve Reding, Larry Signani, Jon
Warren.
WSS-ACSM Chairman Dave George
opened the meeting at 7:07PM.
Steve Reding reported on last
meeting. Dave created a letter and application form for WSS-ACSM membership
recruiting that was reviewed and well accepted. Dave reports that our existing operating
funds are very low at approximately $600.
We all wish Denise Haugen our best
and a speedy recovery. Our former
treasurer is recovering from injuries resulting from a traffic accident.
Funds were collected by friends and members of WSS-ACSM to
help fund Gavin Schrock’s professional sabbatical in Germany.
Gavin was ultimately funded by the City of Seattle. Friends and members at large,
suggested that since these funds were no longer necessary, they might be
contributed to WSS-ACSM. Gavin was a lead architect of the Washington County
of Council of Surveyors web page and is recognized for his technological
innovation in surveying, with his work on the concept of a Puget Sound
Reference Utility, to link a low cost network of GPS stations to create a “Virutal Reference Station” (VRS) for applications of GPS.
The Puget Sound area VRS is
currently running and being tested.
The system will be useful for both surveying and GIS applications.
Recent advances in software will allow corrections for GPS in RTK surveys.
Coastal beacons are also accessed for GIS resource grade applications. Cell
phones are used to communicate data between the VRS and the field. The system is outside of the City of Seattle’s
firewalls. The VRS network will be
expanding to Snohomish County,
probably by the end of the year. Northern
Pierce County
will follow.
Amazing results utilizing the VRS were encountered at a
recent meeting of the South Puget Sound Chapter of LSAW where Leica, TopCon, and Trimble
systems were compared. Horizontal
accuracies ranged from half a tenth, to a tenth, and 1/500th vertical. The
later, even from 22 miles distance from the baseline (“out-of-the-box”).
Jon Warren is
restructuring how the ACSM markets itself and how members can contribute to
membership. Ben Petersen suggested using methods, similar to magazine
subscriptions hat could potentially entice more of the small businesses. Steve Reding
emphatically concurred. The idea is that people would simply check the box to
subscribe, then other boxes to select a preferred payment options (single or multiple payments
and check, credit card, etc.). ACSM membership would be an option to
professional membership.
The program for the 2005 LSAW Conference in Everett
is nearly complete. The venue will include Dave Doyle from the NGS, on land
title and horizontal datums. The PRSN and SRCW
should be included for a block of 4 hours, which would be WSS-ACSM’s contribution to the agenda. Jon informed us the
WSS-ACSM dinner is set for Wednesday evening on 23 Feb. 2005. There will be a social from 5:00-7:00PM followed by dinner, from 7:00PM-9:00PM.
Tim is ready to reserve a room at the Muckleshoot Casino
for our October meeting.
We hope to confirm an update of the PRSU by Gavin
Schrock. It was suggested that these
smaller venues might be a good way to go to get the WSS-ACSM active in the
LSAW community. Ideas for additional,
educational, fun dinner meetings included utilizing local vendors for
technology updates and topical subjects that can intersect surveying and GIS:
- AutoDesk (new versions,
features), ESRI (new versions feature), and other popular products, maybe
even small business software
- Puget Lidar
Consortium, Lidar in general, the acquisition of
data a new technology, Galileo
- 3D scanning technology
- advances
in hardware; workstations, plotters, scanners, etc.
We all agreed that we have to be a little more creative,
broaden the scope, and increase the frequency of these types of meetings to
be perceived well by LSAW and others. The smaller venues are easier to
coordinate and can be really fun.
The meeting ended around 9:00
REGULAR MEETINGS ARE ON THE THIRD THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH
AT ANGELO'S RESTAURANT IN BELLEVUE
(1830 130TH AVE NE).
ARRIVE AT ABOUT 6:00PM.
|
