November 20, 2008

 I want to begin by thanking Jeff, Tom and Matt for their presentation, and thanks to Seiler Instruments for hosting.

 Prior to the elections last night the directors held a special meeting to determine the future needs of the directorship. It was decided that Ed Owen would leave the directorship allowing two nominees to be brought in (rather than just one). If we can add one new director every year, and no director leaves prematurely, we can achieve directors in office with sequentially consecutive years of service by 2014. The 2 new directors in 2009 will be Pat Bowman and Jim Exler. I welcome them to the executive board; they are sure to bring new ideas and enthusiasm to MSPS.  With the end of 2008 Ed Owen will complete his third year on the executive board and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his service. I am grateful for his support and guidance.

 In retrospect serving our local chapter and its members as president in 2008 has been a privilege and honor for me. It was a great opportunity but also a great responsibility. As this year comes to an end, I would like to thank the Directors for their service to our organization and for their help and support throughout the past year. They have all contributed their expertise and valuable time for the betterment of MSPS and its members.

 Last, but not least, as my term comes to an end, I would like to wish much success to the in-coming president Fermin Glasper. Fermin has only served as a director for one year, but his willingness to serve MSPS and his vision and wisdom is something we can count on advancing MSPS throughout 2009. I hope members of the executive board and our membership at large will be as supportive of Fermin as they have been of me. I have no doubt the new executive board, under Fermin’s presidency; will meet all the challenges ahead.

 I encourage every member to participate in the Chapter. Come to meetings and presentations or tell us what presentations you would like to see in the future.

Kurt Richeson Email me

September 18, 2008

 Mike and Brian’s panel discussion on the Aspects of Boundary Resolution was thought-provoking. Judging from the banter, everyone seemed to be engrossed in the topics. A special thanks to Bill for providing such an informative treasurers’ report. It was agreed that it would be fiscally responsible to eliminate the cost of entertainment and offer a cash bar at the banquet. Over the next few months the executive board members will determine what if any entertainment will be done at the banquet.
 The next local chapter meeting will be held in November at Seiler’s new office in St. Peters.  We will be holding elections during the business meeting. We currently have two nominations, Pat Bowman (Pat has not accepted the nomination at this time) and Jim Exler. If anyone else would like to nominate someone, or volunteer themselves please send me an email.

Kurt Richeson Email me


September 2, 2008

 Fermin’s presentation on reestablishing USPLSS corners was excellent. He showed how to use your calculator to reestablish corners using single proportioning methods. It was a perfect compliment to Jared’s presentation in July. The hp 33s is one of the few calculators allowed by NCEES on the LSIT and LS exams, and there appeared to be several participants that are planning to take there exams and found the presentation particularly useful.

 All of the local chapter members that were present, and non members that left me an email address, will receive a PDU certificate via email. Typically we only offer PDU’s to current members of our local chapter, however just like last month, we will extend free PDU’s for the second part of this series to everyone that put their email address on the attendance sheet.

Kurt Richeson Email me

 

July 24, 2008

 Jared’s presentation on the history of the division of townships into sections was outstanding. His ability to demonstrate how the sections were laid out and where the deficiencies and excess were placed, along with demonstrating how and where one might encounter section corners and closing corners will help the surveyor that finds himself dealing with sectionalized land. He made special note to explain how the Missouri Territory’s instructions differs from rest of the country. Everyone I spoke to afterward was impressed with his knowledge and his talent of explaining the subject matter in such an interesting and educational manner.

 Last nights presentation was the first of a two part series on sectionalized land. If you were not able to attend Jared’s portion of the series, do not assume that it is a prerequisite for the second portion that Fermin will present next month.

 I hope we will have as large a turnout, if not better, for the second half as we did for the first. All of the local chapter members that were present, and non members that left me an email address, will receive a PDU certificate via email. Typically we only offer PDU’s to current members of our local chapter, but as an incentive to motivate non members into joining, we will extend free PDU’s for this two part series to everyone. By my count we had 8 people in the audience that were not members, and of those 3 were not licensed. It is what we had hoped for. I hope those that are not members of our local chapter were impressed with what we have to offer as an organization and will consider becoming members in the near future. It takes a lot of planning throughout the year to put these presentations together. You can find an application by clicking the link above; fill it out and bring it to the next meeting.

Kurt Richeson Email me

 

July 8, 2008

 The July meeting date has changed. Typically meetings are held on the third Wednesday of the month, but this month the meeting will be on the fourth Wednesday.

This month will include the first of a two part presentation on sectionalized land; the second part will be presented next month. Altogether both presentations will offer a total of 4 pdu’s to current members. The July meetings presentation will be: USPLS History. This presentation is open to everyone. A flyer will be added to the email notification of the meeting, perhaps someone in your office would be interested in going. Please place a copy of the flyer on your company or student bulletin board. If you haven’t received an email, you can view the flyer here.

Kurt Richeson Email me

 

June 20, 2008

 The June meeting was strictly business and I feel we really accomplished a lot, even though there were very few members present. The meeting minutes are updated, read through them to learn what you may have missed. We managed to come up with PDU plans for the remainder of the year, be sure to take a look at the calendar to the left. Jarred and Fermin are putting together a two part presentation on sectionalized land. I had an opportunity to see the outline, and it looks to be very informative. It may be a good idea for anyone planning to sit for the LS exam in the near future to make sure they attend the June and July meetings. In the most current issue of the “Missouri Surveyor”, Dr. Elgin states that he has seen “…a general decline in the candidates abilities to accomplish relatively simple single and double proportion problems…”. If these presentations get a large turnout and are well received, we may offer them on an annual basis. Other PDU presentations will include “Business Practices” and “Field to Finish”.

 We also discussed the Annual Banquet held in January. Ed suggested that, due to our current financial status, maybe we should forego the usual “paid” entertainment for something more economical (i.e. free). Some ideas were: Texas Hold’em, Bingo, or Trivia.

Kurt Richeson Email me

 

May 27, 2008

 Fair weather, fun games, prizes, delicious food and drink, what more can one ask for? The MSPS annual picnic was enjoyable. A special thanks to Steve Borgmann for preparing the vitals. You may have noticed new pictures floating across the screen near the top of this page, click on any picture to be transferred to our photo gallery. Pictures of this year’s picnic, courtesy of Bruce Thomas, have been added to the gallery. The game winners this year were: 1st place Jason Flamm, 2nd place Ed Owen (Ed rescinded his prize to 4th place winner Chris Beasley), and 3rd place Mike Blansit. Fermin Glasper managed the games this year. He changed the games a little, requiring competitors to determine the height of a sculpture, the diameter of a tree, and the ever favorite pacing challenge.

 Next month we’ll get back to the business of surveying. A few of the directors and I had an informal conversation regarding future meetings. We hope upcoming meetings will include subjects that will be controversial and compelling. Be sure to check the calendar to the left for updates.

Kurt Richeson Email me

 

April 17, 2008

 We had to deal with quite a bit of Chapter business at the April meeting. As always the minutes have been posted. Press the MINUTES button above to view them. You can click on any month to check on previous meetings as well.

 We discussed the financial situation of our Chapter and talked about plans for some possible fund raisers. Michael Blansit mentioned that at past meetings we held a 50-50 raffle at every meeting. This is something we will try again, beginning at the May picnic and continuing throughout the year.

 Speaking of the Picnic, which usually draws one of the largest crowds, hopefully we will have a large turnout again this year. The picnic location will be at Vago Park in Maryland Heights at the Gazebo. The gazebo is located at the eastern end of the park (the same location as last years). See this map for directions to the park.

 We also continued the discussion on the Trivia Night. Bruce outlined the steps we need to follow to make it successful. A subcommittee has been formed to make arrangements (volunteers are always welcome). We plan to meet soon to answer the questions of: when and where.

 There was considerable discussion on the idea that this years “theme” regarding PDU’s will focus on “Back to Basics”. Over the remainder of the year we plan to have at least 3 meetings offering PDU’s on various topics that get to the heart of what we do as Land Surveyors, e.g. Field Methods, Angle Closures, Construction Surveying Methods, Hazards etc. We don’t have a shortage of topics, what we do need is volunteers willing to give a presentation. Keep in mind the presenter will get twice as many PDU’s as the attendees. We would like to attract survey technicians and LSITs that could really benefit from the education and hopefully boost our membership. During the meetings we don’t offer PDU’s we would like to offer a topic for discussion, preferably in the vein of “Back to Basics”, but could include a difficult survey that you have worked on and would like to share with the group.

Kurt Richeson Email me

 

April 8, 2008

I have created a graph to aid in understanding the directorship over the next 10 years. Click here to view.

Kurt Richeson Email me

 

March 21, 2008

I am pleased to announce that Jared Minnick has agreed to make the commitment to become a director. I believe Jared will make an excellent addition.

Kurt Richeson Email me

 

March 20, 2008

I want to begin by thanking Carol, Jacque, and Mike for their presentation. The fact that they were able to make such a professional and informative presentation at this difficult time is a tribute to Mr. Lashley. We observed a moment of silence out of respect for Dan, and Mike had a short power point presentation depicting photos of Dan that was very heartwarming and prompted several reactions from the audience. For those that may not know Dan Lashley passed away Saturday, March 15, 2008. You can read Mike Flower’s words here.

I spent a good deal of time trying to resolve MSPS’s problems with our executive director positions and I presented my ideas to the members. The resolution is a little complex, I may place a graph online soon to better illustrate, but the heart of it is: All our directors should make a commitment to be a director for a 6 year term. A director may become president within the first few years of their term, however they will continue as a director after their tenure as president and until their 6 year term is complete. Obviously, it is contingent on any unforeseen complications. Bill Hassall has been appointed our organizations accountant, although a director will still be responsible for presenting the treasurer’s report.

Fermin pointed out that this week is National Surveyors Week. I was not aware, and I don’t think anyone else was either. At least no one spoke up when the question “why is this week significant to us?” was posed. How embarrassing. This was, I believe, Fermin’s intent. We should try to make the public more aware of us. We have one year to make that happen.

Kurt Richeson Email me

 

March 17, 2008

Welcome to the St. Louis Chapter of MSPS’s new website!

    The directors met on Tuesday, February 19th for a planning meeting. During the meeting it was announced that Randy Brickey has decided to resign his duties as president for 2008 for personal reasons. The remaining director’s therefore installed me as the president for 2008.

    As many of you know we are having some difficulty filling our director positions. This is partly due to the fact that our bylaws require the executive directors to be licensed surveyors. We have two unlicensed directors on the board that do not have the ability to "move up". Both of the unlicensed directors have been an important part of our organization, but we desperately need to have PLS's make the commitment to be a leader in our organization.

    We hope to have a speaker in place for the March meeting that will give us at least 1 PDU in order to begin the momentum of offering PDU’s at all subsequent meetings. Keep an eye on this website for updates to the event calendar.

    We encourage feedback on the new website. Both positive and negative comments are welcome.

Feel free to contact any of the directors if you have an idea on how to make our organization better.

Kurt Richeson Email me