Wisconsin Society of Land Surveyors

President

Allen J. Schneider
4460 S. 67th St.
Greenfield, WI 53220
Phone: 262-643-9028
Mobile: 262-617-9107
Fax: 262-241-4901
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February 19, 2012

Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyors 60th Annual Meeting

Written by Allen J. Schneider

I attended the 60^th Annual Conference of the Minnesota Society of Professional Surveyors in Bloomington, Minnesota last week. On Wednesday, I made the five hour drive along I-94 in time for the President’s dinner at the Kokomo Island Café at the Mall of America. The meal was excellent, not to mention great company. The event was hosted by outgoing President Henry Nelson, and the guest list included representatives from Iowa, North Dakota, and some of the providences of Canada. One of the highlights of the evening for me was hearing some of the history of MSPS as told by an original founder, Martin Mink, Jr. Some late “socializing” allowed for sharing of stories and comparing notes with a number of surveyors, many who are also licensed in Wisconsin.

The Minnesota program is very similar to Wisconsin in that it has education sessions with wonderful speakers.On Thursday evening, I attended the vendor’s social and live auction to benefit their foundation. At the Friday lunch, the society presented scholarships, surveyor’s awards and passed the gavel to incoming president, Paul Vogel.

I appreciated the opportunity to represent WSLS at the MSPS conference this year. It was a well-organized and fun event, that given the opportunity, I would encourage all of you to consider attending.

February 11, 2012

President's Message

Written by Allen J. Schneider

Fellow Surveyors:

I am truly honored and humbled to represent this fine organization as its President. I have been a board member for the past five years and during that time I have gained a great appreciation for the organization, its history and all of its talented volunteers.

WSLS has a long history of getting things done. Sometimes things take longer than we like, but that is one of the pitfalls of a volunteer organization. We must all, as a collective group work hard to solidify our role in the world of ever changing land information.

What can you do to help?

Join a WSLS Committee and actively participate in the local Chapter. I would like to see each you devout a minimum of 3 hours of your time this year in promoting the profession of land surveying. We need to do a better job of educating the public, marketing our profession, and collaborating with other professional organizations.

We will continue to work diligently on our ongoing effort to see the Surveying Modernization Bill passed into law. It is very important that we do all we can to help. When called upon we need all of you to contact your legislator to support this legislation.

Our last Strategic Planning session was in March of 2009. At that meeting we did a SWOT analysis and prioritized issues as raised by our members. I am asking the Strategic Planning Committee lead by Burt Naumann to meet this year to develop an action plan for the next 5 years to address the top issues identified in 2009. A big portion of that plan will be public relations and outreach.

I am asking the committee chairs and chapter reps to be diligent about providing reports of your ongoing activities throughout the year on the WSLS web site to make our members aware of all of the work we are doing on their behalf.

This year we will continue to build off of the 60 years of accomplishments of our hard working and devoted members. I plan to visit as many Chapters as time allows this year and I look forward to your input as we build a stronger organization and a stronger voice for all surveyors across the State of Wisconsin.