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As 2018 comes to a close, NSPS would like to wish its members, partners and other industry professionals a safe and happy holiday season. As we reflect on the past year for our profession, we would like to provide the readers of News & Views a look at the most accessed articles from the year. Our regular publication will resume Wednesday, Jan. 9.
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NSPS
From May 2: The NSPS Public Relations Committee has developed a new brochure for use by members to assist in providing information to the public regarding instances in which a Surveyor should be hired, tips on hiring, how Surveyors do their work, and what to expect from a Surveyor. To view the content of the brochure, click here. Copies of the brochure will be available soon by contacting Trish Milburn (trisha.milburn@nsps.us.com) at NSPS headquarters.
Brian Portwood series
From July 18: This 14th edition focuses on a Nevada case, centered upon the uniquely western issue of RS 2477 R/W, as this month we reach the 152nd anniversary of that highly controversial federal law. Here we will track a conflict which is steeped in history, observing how interaction between federal statutes and state statutes can operate to keep both historic laws and precious historical survey evidence vital in our modern world.
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NSPS
From March 21: I send greetings to those celebrating National Surveyors Week. Across America, professional surveyors fulfill an important role in the growth of our economy, the development of our infrastructure, and the daily functions of life.
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Carl CdeBaca, NSPS Director/Nevada
From April 18: This is a hypothetical situation — I want to make that perfectly clear. Any resemblance to actual people, places or projects is purely coincidental. I don't need a lawsuit, disciplinary action or to retain an attorney for simply projecting current trends into the near future. I am hoping that this little thought exercise will open some eyes, that's all.
The time: 2020. The place: Reno, Nevada. A routine cease-and-desist letter prepared by a licensing board kicks off a lawsuit, affirms a recent Supreme Court decision and ends professional land surveying as we know it.
The facts are these:
Chet, a longtime hobbyist control-line and remote control model airplane pilot purchases his latest toy, a DJI Mavic Air drone which comes complete with onboard GPS and Glonass and a gimbal-mounted 12 megapixel camera. In the process of mastering his new toy, Chet starts dabbling in aerial photography too. While doing some research on-line he discovers that shareware is available which would allow him to produce surface topography and ortho-rectified imagery easily. Chet is an assayer by trade and has an above average intellect. He finds that using the free mapping software is no challenge and soon he is making contours maps, 3-D viewsheds and color orthophotos. He spends another thousand bucks and buys a large format plotter and starts making poster-sized aerial maps for his friends.
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Land Survey Party Chief needed for high rise construction projects in the Greater Boston Area. MORE
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Galen Scott, NOAA/National Geodetic Survey, Geosciences Research Division
From Jan. 24: In early 2019, NOAA's National Geodetic Survey (NGS) will replace GEOID12B with GEOID18, a new hybrid geoid model to deliver improved GPS-derived NAVD 88-equivalent orthometric heights. This new model will serve as the official means for obtaining NAVD 88-equivalent heights via GPS. It will be the last hybrid geoid model that NGS will create before NAVD 88 is replaced by NAPGD2022.
NGS will use available GPS on bench mark data to create the new model. Recent analysis of existing GPS on bench mark data and a prototype of the new hybrid geoid model created using that data has highlighted areas where additional data is needed to either confirm or update the local relationships between the ellipsoid, orthometric, and geoid heights.
Included herewith is a prioritized list of bench marks for which additional GPS data is needed to improve the hybrid model. Data submitted on these marks will also support the development of the transformation tools that will be developed as part of the transition to the new datums.
Data to support the hybrid geoid model will be accepted through August 31, 2018. NGS will continue to accept data to support the transformation tools through 2020. New prioritized lists of marks to support the transformation tools will be made available over the next few years as analysis of data requirements progresses.
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Brian Portwood is a licensed professional land surveyor, federal employee and historian of land rights law, providing material for the ongoing professional education of all members of the land rights community
From Jan. 24: 
This article is part of a series on the wide variety of title issues associated with boundary and easement disputes which arise in the federal context, emphasizing the importance of understanding federal land rights, from the perspective of a professional land surveyor. This edition takes us on a veritable tour of the country, reviewing a variety of enlightening historical cases from several different states, which pertain to the topic of sovereign authority. Our featured case, which comes to us from Massachusetts and leads us into a discussion of the sovereign immunity concept, exemplifies the issues that arise at the intersection of state law and federal law.
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NSPS
From Jan. 4: As a professional society, rather than a trade association, NSPS operates a government affairs program that generally concentrates on surveying issues, not generic business issues. For the most part, NSPS members are individual surveyors, generally not firms of any structure. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, H.R. 1, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump shortly before Christmas signed by President Trump, has no provisions that specifically or uniquely affect the surveying profession. However, in response to several inquiries from members, NSPS is pleased to report on the new law’s treatment of the many surveyors who operate firms as sole proprietors, subchapter S corporations, or LLCs, wherein they are taxed personally and at individual tax rates, rather than as other forms of corporations at the corporate rate. Such firms are not exclusively in surveying, but can be in a variety of industries and professions. In order to assure that such "pass through" firms are not taxed at higher rates than other corporations, Congress provided specific treatment to lower the tax rates on these firms. For information on these provisions, click here.
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No matter what the future holds, prepare to meet challenges head on. Future-proof your resume by becoming a Certified Survey Technician (CST). This unique four-level certification program indicates official recognition by NSPS that a person can perform surveying tasks at a specific technical level.
Show what you can do! Decide between the field or office track. Visit http://www.cstnsps.com for details.
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Did you know that the CST reference book Definitions of Surveying and Associated Terms is available at www.nsps.us.com/store?
Gary Kent/Curt Sumner
From Aug. 8: The public is damaged when their boundary lines are disrupted; the cost to litigate a boundary dispute runs into the tens of thousands of dollars and routinely exceeds $100,000. This is ultimately why the surveying profession exists, and why Professional Surveyors are licensed in all 50 states.
Without the stewardship of Professional Surveyors, and the responsibility and authority they hold to determine and describe real property boundaries, the entire system of land tenure in the United States would literally break down because boundaries would become ambiguous and conflicted.
This imminent collapse is avoided by what is necessarily a combination of the Professional Surveyor's expertise as to boundary locations, and the title industry's business of insuring title.
The insuring of title is one thing; however, the location of those insured title lines is an entirely different issue. Thousands of times every day, title companies (not to mention lenders, buyers, sellers, and owners) rely on Professional Surveyors to locate boundaries and produce maps that are not simply precise, but that are also accurate. Precision is nice – necessary in many cases – but accuracy is imperative.
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Did you know your purchases can make a difference?
AmazonSmile donates to the National Society of Professional
Surveyors Foundation, Inc.when you do your holiday shopping.
NSPS
From Feb. 28: For the first time is quite a few years, the Student Competition was conducted entirely “onsite”. Teams representing 12 schools (11 4-yr. and 1 2-yr.) gathered in Las Vegas a few days ahead of the 2018 NSPS Spring Business meetings. On the first day the teams were transported to a plot of BLM (thanks to BLM for support) land to perform the assigned field work. Much lower than normal temperatures, and a strong wind blowing off the mountains, gave the team members a good concept of the elements often encountered in performing field work. Computations and map preparation were conducted on day two, with presentations before a panel of judges on day three. See the attached Press Release for more details.
NSPS is pleased to announce that, beginning with the 2018 competition, the First Place award will be named in honor of Mike and Anne Besch (University of Akron). They were largely responsible for the initiation and continued success of the student competition. Sadly, we lost Mike not too long ago; however, Anne is still active and accompanied the Akron team this year. She is seated second from the left in the “teams” photo included in the attachment hereto.
By Wendy Lathrop, The American Surveyor
From Feb. 7:  Once upon a time (1989 to be exact), Francis Galdo bought a home across the street from a vacant parcel owned by the City of Philadelphia. That parcel, along with others, had been acquired by condemnation in 1974 as part of the construction of the Delaware Expressway. The parcel was not needed for the highway project and sat dormant, tended better at some times than at others. Soon after moving in across the street, Galdo began using the vacant parcel.
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| President, Kim Leavitt (ID) |
Director, Bob Akins (OH) |
| President-Elect, Lisa Van Horn (WI) |
Director, Danny Martinez (NE) |
| Vice President, Mark Sargent (NH) |
Director, Cotton Jones (WY) |
| Immediate Past President, Jan Fokens (MI) |
Director, Thomas Brooks (AL) |
| Treasurer, Bob Miller (PA) |
Executive Director, Curt Sumner (MD) |
| Secretary, Tim Burch (IL) |
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| | SUSTAINING/CORPORATE MEMBERS |
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Note: NSPS members may receive calls from MultiView sales associates regarding advertising opportunities in News & Views. MultiView, a partner of NSPS, produces the News & Views newsbrief each week.
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