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Our Future There was a lot to consider after the roundtable discussions. I have
been pondering, why does everyone know what an engineer is, but
they don’t have a clue what a Land Surveyor is? Do engineers do
By: Shane Trotter, PLS a better job at marketing their profession? Why is Land Surveying
Outreach, survey camps, scout merit badges, incentives, such a niche that people seem to stumble on? Is it because we
are small in numbers? A quick google search yields the result that
marketing, Trig-Star, summer camps, and sponsorships; these there are 2 million engineers in the U.S., but only about 35,000
and many more concepts and ideas were heard throughout land surveyors. However, another quick search yields the fact that
most of the roundtables at the 2022 Western Regional Survey there are also only about 90,000 chemists in the U.S. Everyone
Conference. No matter what the topic at the roundtable knows what a chemist is, but nobody knows what a Land Surveyor
discussion was, it seemed to revert to the lack of incoming is? This led to more pondering. Is there one unique solution to our
surveyors. Threats to licensure? Need more surveyors. NALS problem? It seems like there is not a single outreach solution that
update? We need more surveyors. Public Awareness/Outreach/ would solve our problem. We need to use all of these strategies
YSN? We need more of it and more surveyors. Workforce together to make an impact. We need to use all our ideas and
development? Get us more surveyors. Advanced Education work as a team. A team takes organization, organization takes
panel? Need more surveyors. Even at Professional Practices rules and guidance. As Nevada licensed professionals, our
the topic came up. This is on the minds of everyone involved guidance comes from enacted laws and rules that govern our
with Surveying. We are running short on surveyors. Why are we profession, specifically the Nevada Administrative Code (NAC) and
worried about a shortage in supply, if this means demand goes the Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS).
up and our value goes up? Well, that topic can be debated in a
completely separate article but for this one, I want to focus on In my article, “The Four-Year Degree and the Future of Land
our outreach efforts, how they are working and what we can do Surveying” I made a suggestion, which I will restate as follows:
to improve them in Nevada. There is still time for Land Surveyors to change our future, but as
a community, we are not acting with purpose. One way that we
I will start with the fact that overall outreach has been increased could potentially change this is by creating an incentive for the
tremendously in Nevada, thanks to things like the Get Kids Into Land Surveyors in Nevada. For example, changing NAC 625.470,
Surveying program and other systemic efforts. While this is a the continuing education requirements, to allow for credit for land
huge effort, I don’t think we will be able to see the impact being surveying presentations and outreach would be is one way that
made by these programs until years down the road. I also think we can get our fellow surveyors to help out. In the same way that
that if only one or two or a handful of people are doing the surveyors are incentivized to teach a course or seminar we could do
outreach then it won’t be as effective as if all of us were doing the same with Surveying outreach. Furthermore, if every licensed
our part. Land Surveyor were required to complete 2 hours of outreach, every
other year, in order to renew their license, this would generate much
Let’s take a quick look at some of the outreach items that were more impetus for developing future land surveyors.
discussed at the conference. Trig Star was talked about a few
times, and the consensus was that it wasn’t working. The Boy In my opinion if we want to create a steady and necessary
Scouts of America (which includes girls now!) Surveying Merit increase in surveyors, we need to push this by revising our
Badge was brought up, but I heard from several participants that current rules and regulations. So, to all of the Land Surveyors
scouts aren’t going for it, because they can get 5 badges in 8 who had numerous great outreach ideas at the conference this
hours, or spend a full 8 hours to get one Surveying badge. It was past weekend, I will conclude by saying this: WE all need to come
suggested that some sort of revision may help. A few people together. If we want to make change it must be required by NAC/
threw around an idea of getting kids into Survey camp. This was NRS. In the same way that we created a degree requirement to
described as a camp where kids would go and campout, maybe better our profession, we need to make an outreach requirement
find some survey monuments and learn about Surveying. At face to save our profession.
value it seemed neat and interesting, if one likes camping and
cadastral type surveying in the woods. Day camps were brought
up as a solution, which is similar in concept to the campouts, but
kids would get to learn about Surveying and see cool survey tools
like drones and LiDAR. There wasn’t a shortage of good ideas
that were thrown around. Some seemed feasible, some didn’t.

We discussed marketing ideas. Throughout the discussion it was
stated by an attendee that “kids now-a-days don’t even want
to go outside or be outdoors”. Yeah, it’s the kids’ fault we can’t
find surveyors? This led to further discussion that one possible
strategy would be to continue outreach through social media. We
need to find a good hook to get these kids into Surveying. In my
mind, this seemed like a great idea. If we could get one cool reel
or Tik-Tok video to go viral then maybe, we could make a bigger
impact on the ‘future’ surveying community. There was further
talk of marketing our profession, possibly outsourcing it and
let professionals’ market our profession for us. Of course, that
would require a funding source.
14 The Nevada Traverse Vol.49, No.2, 2022