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STATE SECTION wss-acsm.org AMERICAN CONGRESS ON SURVEYING & MAPPING |
WSS-ACSM MINUTES
GPS www.wss-acsm.org Attendees: Dave George, Tim Leach, Steve Reding, Ken Swindaman, Jon Warren WSS-ACSM Chairman (The
meeting started later than usual to accommodate delays due to traffic
problems. As a result, a light turn-out was expected.) Both July and August minutes were approved.
Dave reports that new membership applications have been received that will help to increase our budget. Denise Haugen has continued to assist WSS-ACSM and has solved mailbox issues. She has acquired a new, larger postal box, which has consequently changed our official mailing address. Our new address is: WSS-ACSM Dave will begin the process of updating our mailing information. We wish to relay our thanks to Denise Haugen for her on-going efforts on our behalf. She continues to help smooth the transition to our volunteer, Julie Morland. Our meetings have changed to accommodate separate dinner checks for attendees for the near term. Tim has arranged a date at the Muckleshoot Casino for an upcoming WSS-ACSM sponsored venue on Friday, October 29th. This is the Friday before Halloween. Our regularly scheduled meeting will proceed on the 21st. Dave is preparing a flyer for distribution to announce the venue on October 29th. He hopes to get an update from Gavin Schrock on the status of the PRSN (Puget Sound Reference Network). The projected cost of the dinner meeting at the Muckleshoot Casino is $30. This is slightly higher then last October as we barely covered costs. We can accommodate up to 50 people (“first come basis”). Favorable comments were received regarding our use of email for distribution of the minutes. Tim is attempting to prepare text and complimentary “html” versions of the minutes to facilitate updates to our web site. We have more work to do to make this happen. We are appreciative of GeoLine’s help with the hosting of our site. Jon Warren announced that the WSS-ACSM’s
sponsored program contribution to the 2005 LSAW Conference in The program may shape up to be a panel representing the Puget Reference Station Network, the Spatial Reference Council of Washington and practitioners. Dave George will be coordinating the speakers and hopes to attract; Gavin Schrock, Dave Steele, Spencer Reeder, and others. This would match technology experts with practitioners, to obtain the facts about the new technologies - what will be available, when, and how it can be incorporated into practice. Dave may also try to incorporate practitioners successfully utilizing the technology. Jon affirmed the WSS-ACSM dinner meeting on Wednesday at the 2005 February, LSAW Conference and mentioned that it would be nice to have a speaker, possibly ACSM, Executive Director, Curt Sumner. It was noted during the meeting that SRCW actually refer can to the “Spatial
Reference Council of Dinner
Discussion: Members at large discussed possible impacts of all the new technology - all of the coordinate transformations that go on “behind the scenes” within software packages and the ease at which gross blunders could perpetuate: - People look at computer screens
to see differences in coordinate representations, but do they zoom to the
extent necessary to visualize the difference in 100ths, the 10ths? - Do people respect the fact that different stations report coordinates that “look
similar” but may be from different datums? Do they check? Are they aware? Jon mentioned that in practice, traditional methods of surveying had incorporated methods designed to validate and verify. But are these methods perpetuated as new tools are available through technology? Steve Reding iterated the fact that for the surveyor, GPS technology is and always has been another tool, not a replacement for professional practice. Dave closed the meeting at REGULAR MEETINGS ARE ON THE THIRD THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH
AT ANGELO'S RESTAURANT IN |
