Pub. 10 2015 Issue 1

29 Issue 1 2015 / UCLS Foresights www.ucls.org Western Federation of Professional Surveyors Report BY MICHAEL NADEAU, PLS/CFEDS I start this report out on a somber note, because of a man who deserves recognition in life, as well as a leader in the surveying community. The Western Federation of Profes - sional Surveyors (WFPS) mourns the loss of long standing Wyoming delegate Paul Reid. His passing was unexpected and heartbreaking to the people who knew Paul and worked with him on the WFPS board. Paul has a rich history with WFPS dat- ing back to the 1990’s and was the chairman of the scholarship committee for WFPS. His diligent work on this committee yield - ed thousands of dollars in scholarships to deserving Geomatics students on a yearly basis. Our next meeting will be held May 30th in Denver, Colorado and following the meeting on Sunday, delegates will drive up to Cheyenne to say their goodbyes and have a ceremony in which a “Final Point” monument will be built in his name. Many surveyors are deserving of this honor, and Paul falls into the top of the deserving list. Thank you Paul for your service to our profession and rest in peace, my friend. Now on to lighter news…WFPS held a Board of Directors meeting on February 28, 2015 in Boise, Idaho. At this meeting, the following mission statement for WFPS was voted upon and unanimously approved: The Western Federation of Professional Surveyors is a con - duit for interstate communication and provides resources to its member associations. WFPS advances the profession of sur - veying by fostering common goals and relationships within the western states, promoting public awareness of the profession, supporting education, and providing a regional voice. The Boise meeting also marks new territory for WFPS that coincides directly with the above mission statement with regard to “supporting education”. WFPS worked directly with the BLM’s Certified Federal Surveyor program (CFedS) to bring a one day CFedS training session to the conference held by the Idaho So- ciety of Professional Land Surveyors. This one day session was not only open to all members of the Idaho Society who regis- tered for the conference, but also any CFedS (who got the Idaho member discount, even if they came from another state). Those CFedS who did attend were awarded with 2 continuing educa - tion units (not hours) toward their CFedS renewal cycle. WFPS and Idaho both felt the one day session went extremely well and CFedS is would be more than happy to attend other state conferences. Maybe we should talk WFPS into bringing CFedS to Utah. Drop me an email at my email address below if you would like to see something like this happen in Utah. WFPS also remains steadfast in their commitment to bet- ter serve the individual state associations. With that in mind, a survey is being developed and will be sent to state association Presidents and Executive Directors. The survey will request in - put from WFPS state Associations regarding possible services and/or assistance that WFPS can provide. Other items that WFPS is looking to offer, or is currently offering, include: Programs being developed to promote the surveying profession: • 30 second “Elevator Pitch” • Brochure “How the Profession Serves the Public” • Continuation of the Teaching with Spatial Technology (TwiST) program Resources being developed to benefit all state associations: • Speakers bureau • Article bank • Quarterly book review articles (which will be found at www.wfps.org ) • Examples of WFPS serving as a regional voice: • Support letters (continuing education, four-year de - gree programs, etc.) • Compilation of QBS information I would love to see more UCLS members join the WFPS Facebook page. For those of you with a Facebook account, search out and click like using the following link: https://www. facebook.com/westfed As your representative, I represent you. If you would like anything survey related discussed on a regional level at these upcoming meetings, don’t hesitate to contact me at MikeNadeau.UCLS@gmail.com . My ending quote for this report is dedicated to the mem- ory of Paul Reid: “The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins.” – Edgar Allan Poe About WFPS The Western Federation of Professional Surveyors (WFPS) was formed in 1979. The Board of Directors includes two Delegates from each of the 13 western states. WFPS serves as a regional voice for land surveyors and meets quarterly to discuss practice issues affecting western state surveyors. For more information about WFPS and the state associations, visit WFPS.org