UCLS CONVENTION NEWS

The Annual UCLS Convention was held this past February 26^th, 27^th and 28^th at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah. The theme for this year’s conference was “Are We Surveying Right or Rite?”

The conference started off with the state of the UCLS by the State Chair, Brad Mortensen, who informed all the members as to the current affairs and dealings currently underway by the UCLS. This was followed by an address by the WFPS Chairman, Harold Baldwin, and how the UCLS and WFPS work together for the mutual benefit all members. The keynote speech was given by Wayne Larsen, the Professional Development Chair for Chapter 38, the International Transportation Committee (ITC) representative and Vice-Chair for Region 9. The rest of the afternoon was divided into two seminars, AutoDesk “Field To Finish” by Shawn Herring and a GIS Hands on for Surveyors by Sowmya Selvarajan, PhD.

Wednesday began the day with the seminar by Charlie Tucker entitled Railroad Surveying 101. At the same time the UCLS was proud to host the annual NSPS Student Competition wherein five colleges from across the nation came to compete. This competition was conducted Rich Vannozzi, PLS, the Assistant Professor for Civil Technology/Surveying and Mapping at the Thompson School of Applied Science University of New Hampshire and Andy Sturgeon. He challenged all the students through a day long competition of various surveying history, math skills and techniques.

The Awards banquet was very well attended and started with the awarding of the NSPS Student Competition winners. Honorable Mentions went to New Mexico State University and the University of Arkansas Monticello. Third place went to first time competitor Utah Valley University, second place to Southern Polytechnic State University Georgia and this year’s first place winner, California State University Fresno. The UCLS was honored to present Arthur LeBaron as the Surveyor of the Year and Robert Knox was awarded the UCLS lifetime achievement award.

Thursday started with the installation of Ernest Rowley as the new State Chair and Ken Hamblin as the State Chair-Elect. The rest of the day was divided into four different tracts with three different classes each focusing on different surveying rights and techniques. Charles Stormont returned for an encore presentation of The Surveyor & Court Room, Discovery & Reports and Brent Bateman from the Ombudsman’s Office lead an inspiring discussion on Property Rights and You. Aaron R. Smith, PLS (WFPS) taught two different seminars; Legal Descriptions and Marketing as a Land Surveyor and Water Rights was presented by Earl Morriss, Esq. PLS (WFPS). We were favored by Linda Smith, PLS, (WSPS) who offered “In Search of the Baptiste Mineral Surveys” while Jeff Hirst and Lincoln Harris helped us understand various contracts and how surveyors need to be aware of different language in them. The end of the day wrapped up with Shawn Herring providing an additional course on AutoDesk "Machine Grading" and Arthur LeBaron & Trent Williams providing a discussion on TrigStar and Bill Stone providing a NOAA update

The Survey Olympics were once again held this year to the delight of all those who participated and we have Walt Cunningham to thank for getting them running again this year and for the support of the venders who provided time, judging and most importantly, the awards.

The Scholarship Silent Auction was hosted by the Education Committee under the direction of Dan Parry. The auction provided a range of items and opportunities to help increase the fund for students in a survey related program. The raffle was very successful in raising over $3,159.50 this year.

Scott Bishop and I, James Olschewski, co-chairs of the Workshop and Convention Committee, would like to thank all those who made this year’s conference a huge success.

Convention 2013 Handouts

If you are coming to the convention, then you will be given a thumb drive with the handouts loaded onto it. If you would like to access some of the handouts before the convention, just click on each handout link below. We were not able to put all of the handouts on the website.

Aaron Smith

Land Surveyors and Marketing - PDF

Land Surveyors and Marketing - PowerPoint

Legal Description Workshop - PDF

Legal Description Workshop - PowerPoint

Arthur LeBaron

HHS TrigStar Presentation

Brent Bateman

Property Rights for Surveyors

Charles Stormont

Stormont handouts

Charlie Tucker