Fall - Saskatchewan Land Surveyors Association

President’sMessageBob Webster,SLS, P. Surv., P. Eng., CLSPresidentUpcoming EventsOct 12 - 14Oct 15 - 16Jan 18 - 19Jan 30Jan 31ANSLS AGMWolfville, NSCCLS AG-Wolfville, NSANBLS AGM(T.B.A.)U. of C. “Beefon a Bun”ReceptionMARLS/LSAW AGM’sJan 31 - Feb 2 ABCLS AGMFort St. JohnRing---Ring---Ring“Hello, Crosshair Surveys.”Voice on the other end of the phone:“Hello, I am looking to speak to the surveyorin charge of the Overhill Project.”“I’m Homer Pocus SLS, perhaps I can helpyou.”“Something is wrong with your survey, theAutoCAD fi le does not fi t into our GIS database.”“Who did you say was calling?”“I’m Joe the geo-technician from City HallMapping.”“What AutoCAD fi le are you talkingabout?”“The one that was e-mailed over from AjaxConsulting Engineers.”“Well, all I remember sending them wasa preliminary concept plan last year, buteverything has changed and anything theyhad was on a local grid. If you are havingproblems with their drawings, why don’tyou talk to them?”“Well they said to talk to you.”“We would be please to create a digital fi lethat fi ts your data base for a reasonablefee.”“What fee? The information is there on yourhard drive, just e-mail it to me.”“No, the information is not just on my harddrive,we would have to create it for you.”“Well, my boss said that if we do not get aplan that fi ts from you there won’t be anymore plan approvals coming from us.”Is this a conversation that we have all had?All levels of government would like their geographicdata to seamlessly integrate intotheir database with a minimum of effort.My initial reaction was, “Why would I want togo to the added expense of geo-referencingmy data and then providing it to the municipalityfor free?” I thought about it for a whileand I realized that we do not do anything forfree as Land Surveyors, our clients pay forit. We are all using GPS and AutoCAD sothe technical requirements to position oursurveys exist today.We have the technology, but do we have thedesire to integrate our surveys in the future?I would be willing to support the initiative ofthe regulatory authorities it they meet us halfway and open their database for us to freelyuse. If we don’t do it, some other entity willcreate the business model to extract theGIS data from our surveys, if it isn’t alreadyhappening. Are we willing as a professionto make this leap into the future? Feb 21 - 23Apr 26 - 28AOLS AGMOttawaALSA AGMLake LouiseMay 24 - 26 SLSA AGMManitou Springs,WatrousThank you to ISC for their generous contribution to the Surveyors’School Resource Kit project. With commitments fromthe ABCLS and the ACLS, the project outlined at the 2006AGM is much closer to becoming a reality.250 SLSA Corner Post Fall 2006