WASHINGTON STATE SECTION wss-acsm.org AMERICAN CONGRESS ON SURVEYING & MAPPING

WSS-ACSM MINUTES GPS April 21^st, 2005 www.wss-acsm.org Attendees: Ben Petersen, Dave George, Jeff Kenner, Tim Leach, Julie Morland, Randy Sleight, Jon Warren In October, we hosted a presentation about the PRSN instead of our regular business meeting. After the holiday season, there was an informal dinner meeting in January (no minutes were produced) that primarily focused on coordination of the dinner and WSS-ACSM’s contribution at the LSAW Conference in Everett, in February. The last official minutes were produced in 2004. WSS-ACSM Chairman Dave George opened the meeting at 6:35PM. Dave reports we received a check from the Snohomish Chapter of LSAW, (contributions from the recent 2005 LSAW Conference) to add to our budget. He hopes to prepare a treasury report for our next meeting. We are seeking volunteers for the post of Treasurer. Dinner meeting discussions followed: Jon Warren distributed copies of the minutes from the national ACSM, “Council of Sections” in Las Vegas this March. The Council of Sections is a forum with representatives of other state and regional sections. Jon Warren representing the Washington State Section chaired the meeting. Member sections individually reported activities. They are working to produce a Council of Sections web page on the ACSM national website. They are also seeking liaisons from all other member organizations to attend future Council of Section meetings. Jon announced that the Southern California Section will be donating money on behalf of the Council of Sections to ACSM, for the Geography and Maps Division of the Library of Congress. Randy Sleight reminded us that Larry Signani devoted time and effort to documenting past activities and proceedings of WSS-ACSM. It would be nice to review this material and continue the effort. Randy discussed the origins of WSS-ACSM in Seattle in the 1980’s. Jon and Randy remembered one of the first WSS-ACSM sponsored, educational presentations at Sand Point NAS featuring GPS in its infancy in 1984. The GPS receiver was transported in the back of a pickup truck. It took two people to unload. Dave and Randy hope to look at continuing Larry’s effort in the near term. We were impressed with the LSAW Conference in Everett this year and appreciated the help of Jon Warren, Dave George, Gary Gervelis and many others - the Spatial Reference presentation was “standing room only”. A special “Thanks!” was expressed to Jim McDaniels for his assistance in arranging our annual WSS-ACSM dinner meeting at the conference. Julie Morland distributed brochures of the Lewis & Clark exhibit being held until June 12th at the Museum of History and Industry at the University of Washington. She highly recommends the exhibit and is searching for “camas root” for an upcoming dinner meeting (NPS). She mentioned that the entrance fee is waived on the first Thursday of each month. The recent passage of continuing education requirements for surveyors provided for some lively discussion. How and when would the educational requirements be reported? What types of training would be acceptable? It was mentioned that WSS-ACSM should have an active role in providing suitable, educational alternatives. Dave initiated a discussion about educational programs for 2005. He expressed continued interest in promoting involvement by other groups with WSS-ACSM. We previously acknowledged that smaller venues and more frequent programs might help. Several ideas were forthcoming: - Jon Warren asked Randy Sleight if he could provide a dinner presentation about the “Yellowstone Trail”, the northern most transcontinental road (circa 1913). - Tim Leach agreed to pursue vendor presentations (and volunteered for a future 2005 GIS oriented presentation). - Ben Petersen offered any of several presentations on tunnel surveying. - Improve our website hosted by GeoLine (at least post current minutes). - Investigate promotion with LSAW’s web site (content, linkage, educational programs, etc.). - Julie and Ben offered to post the WSS-ASCM minutes on the NPS chapter website to spark interest in the group. Dave arranged a larger room at Angelo’s for the June meeting with a program to be announced shortly. Dave closed the meeting at 8:07PM Upcoming events and programs mentioned: - Lewis & Clark Exhibit at the UW, Museum of Industry and History (through June 12th) - Fri. May 20th, “Power Tools & Power Tactics for Surveyors” this is a spring seminar at Renton Tech. College. Featured topics include Word and Excel tricks and tips for surveyors (among others). - Sat. May 21^st, LSAW Board of Trustees Meeting at the Museum of History and Industry, University of Washington. - Tues. Jun 21st, annual LSAW Mariners outing. (Special thanks to Ben and Julie for help editing these minutes.) 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.