CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED The California Surveyor ... - CLSA

By: Delia K. Smith, PLS
Girl Scouts and the Basic Land Surveying Badge
no secret that the land surveying profession
is facing a shortage of qualified personnel…If
“It is
the land surveying profession is to survive, we
need to expand our pool of recruits” (“Women in
Surveying”, copyright 1994, P.O.B. Magazine). One
way that the California Land Surveyors’ Association is
taking action is by promoting one of the original core
merit badges of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA);
Surveying. A colleague asked me to apply as a counselor
for the BSA program since he and I had been to
a few career day events together promoting land surveying.
I assisted with one BSA Survey Merit Badge in
Highland, CA. After that experience, I began to wonder
if the Girl Scouts (GS) had a badge that promoted
land surveying. I was a Girl Scout myself when I was
younger and I have experience working with GS in a
staff capacity as well.
The GS website revealed a few math
and engineering badges, but nothing
specifically for land surveying. After much
thought, I wrote up the requirements for the
Girl Scout Basic Land Surveying Badge. The
backbone of this program is taken from the
BSA Surveying Merit Badge requirements.
The GS Basic Land Surveying Badge is
designed to focus primarily on measurements.
My vision is to educate the girls in this non-traditional
field without overwhelming them with
information. Once we have some interest, we
could create some more advanced surveying
badges, such as aerial photography, boundary,
construction, geodetic, hydrographic, mapping,
route, and topography.
While writing the requirements in 2006, I wrote
to all of the licensed female land surveyors in my
area requesting their assistance. I set it up as a one-day event open to as many Girl Scouts
as were interested. I would like to extend a very special thank you to our volunteers and to
Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation District (RCFC) for the use of their
facilities for the event. Volunteers include Angela Dorf (PLS) from Stantec, Gwen Gee (PLS)
from County of Santa Clara, Travis Kottwitz (PLS) from County of San Bernardino, Venyssa
Lopez (PLS) from California Department of Transportation, Cecilia Whitaker (PLS) from
Metropolitan Water District, Michelle Brown (LS Tech) from Stantec, Trish Ortega (LS Tech)
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