President's Message

April 2019

    It’s already April and the time seems to be flying by this year. I know everyone is busy, and that is certainly a good thing for all of us.

    In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed the first Presidential Proclamation recognizing National Surveyors Week. This Proclamation asked citizens to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities to pay tribute to professional surveyors and their contributions to society. This year, we celebrated it the week of March 17^th – 23^rd. We were grateful to receive the State of Florida Resolution announcing Florida Surveyors & Mappers Week at the Florida Cabinet meeting on March 12^th. Tom Steckler, Don Elder and I attended to represent FSMS, and we enjoyed meeting Governor DeSantis and Commissioner Fried. 

     I want to congratulate all the chapters who went through the effort to obtain Proclamations from their local cities and counties.  If you haven’t already, please email those to the administrative office in Tallahassee, so that we have them on record. By the way - did you know there is a Global Surveyors Day? I didn’t, but I learned just recently that it was celebrated on March 21^st.  Who knew?

     Don Elder and I attended the 3^rd International Congress of Land Surveying, Cadaster, and Geospatial Sciences hosted by the Association of Land Surveyors of Puerto Rico in San Juan on March 15^th and 16^th. This was a great opportunity to visit Puerto Rico and establish dialogue with a wonderful group of professionals. The group has been led this past year by Agrim. Ruth L. Trujillo Rodriguez, PS and will be led next year by Agrim. Carlos R. Fournier Morales, PS, the incoming President. I was very impressed by both of these young professionals. They are bright, talented individuals who are passionate about Puerto Rico and our profession. 

     Ms. Trujillo was selected by FIG to participate in their FIG Working Week in Hanoi, Vietnam later this month. Mr. Fournier is very enthusiastic about the future of their association and looks forward to addressing the challenges of working on the island and serving their communities. Mr. Fournier is also licensed in Florida. We have invited both of these professionals to attend our conference in July. If they are able to attend, please take the opportunity to speak with and get to know them. I know you will make them feel welcome as they did for Don and me. We are excited to establish a collaborative partnership with our Puerto Rican colleagues. 

     If you have not yet joined FSMS, or renewed your membership, please take the time to do that today. All Chapter Presidents should have received an email on March 11th with links to their chapter rosters, which also includes inactive members that have not yet renewed. These links will be maintained and updated in real time for your use. Sometimes, it’s the personal touch of a phone call that can encourage and remind our fellow professionals to lend their support to our Society. Speaking of which - our technical staffs should join as Associate members. They have a great deal of valuable input into the issues that we as a Society should be discussing.

    For those of you that have renewed or joined FSMS for 2019, you should have received notice of your NSPS membership as well. I would encourage you to visit and login to the NSPS website and review the Benefits of Membership page, as well as print out your membership card. 
    
    Our Annual Conference is July 24^th - 27^th at the Caribe Royale in Orlando. The full schedule and registration will be available soon and you can already make your hotel reservations. The Board of Professional Surveyors and Mappers will be meeting at the Caribe on July 23^rd, which means it’s another opportunity to observe and participate in our Regulatory Board meeting. See you there!

"Individual commitment to a group effort -- that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." – Vince Lombardi

Dianne Collins