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Are We Pushing a Pull Door?... continued from previous page
In terms of advertising, we should showcase the diversity that is possible within surveying.

Instead of just showing surveying equipment in professional brochures, we should show more people. Instead of emphasizing the
physical labor and the construction side of surveying, we should also emphasize the educational aspects.

And when out in the field, we should do things like let women carry their own equipment and act like identical members of the team,
according to one female conference attendee.

Finally, to attract new adults we also need to provide flexibility and convenience when possible, and provide decent health benefits so
that we can attract and retain good employees.
Getting Surveyors Involved

Outlining these incredible outreach opportunities is one thing, but executing them is another matter. In order to tackle some of the
initiatives brainstormed above, we need active surveying professionals to step up to the plate.

Join your local outreach committee
Are you a member of your local state society, Young Surveyors Network, outreach
committee, or workforce development committee?
Not all surveyors have easy access to leadership roles and committee activism. Some
states and regions have thriving professional groups, and other areas hardly have any
to speak of, or are begging for volunteers behind the scenes.
Whenever possible, we should make our societies more inclusive. For example,
consider changing your bylaws to include more voting members in your state society
and encourage more involvement at the chapter level.

Information should be clear and standardized so that committees aren’t operating in silos and interested professionals know exactly
who to reach out to get involved in their chapter or apply for a board position.
The best way to take action is to get started. Join your local outreach committee, or ask about forming one. It requires energy, but
positive momentum is contagious. It’s more than possible to change a lackluster outlook on Outreach. It just takes determined
individuals ready to spark change.

Make outreach efforts a requirement
This may sound controversial at first, but one surefire way to increase outreach involvement
in the surveying profession is to make it a requirement.

Consider that many surveyors attend conferences in order to accrue professional
development hours. Yes, attendees learn, have fun, and benefit from the conference
seminars. But sometimes, they show up in the first place because it’s a professional
requirement.

The same philosophy can be used to establish a culture of Outreach, just like we use required
PDH to establish a culture of continued learning.

For example, Nevada has a new law that requires two hours of ethics and one hour of state statute update education per year. A change
to the NAC administrative code was all it took.
If every professional surveyor was required to have a certain number of mentoring hours per year as a licensing requirement, it would
immediately boost outreach efforts.
Yes, it would rely on the honor system. And yes, nobody likes to be “volun-told” what to do. But it’s also true that what starts as a
requirement can be the boost someone needs to form a rewarding habit. And there’s no doubt that Outreach and mentorship are some
of the most rewarding activities there are.
We also brought up this very topic in a recent Round Table Tuesday session. We discussed the options of being able to apply a few hours
of Outreach to our continuing education requirements, as we do for writing an article or presenting at our conferences. Again, I think this
is something we should bring to the attention of each licensing board!

Quick - Road map on how we get started with the school students
First step:

Create a presentation for each grade school level. We need to tailor our speeches to our audience. Develop a presentation for kids in
K-5 grade (elementary school). Then one for 6 to 8 grade (middle school) and one for 9 to 12 grade (high school). We need to
th
th
th
th
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create two separate presentations for both the middle school and high school, one for math students and one for history students.
12 The Nevada Traverse Vol.49, No.2, 2022