Money and job stability will attract the numbers.?ÿ Everything else is feel-good stuff.
When young people see this as a profession worth spending money to obtain a degree, with the ability to get a good job with comparable pay as engineering graduates, then more will choose it instead.?ÿ?ÿ
Also, when non-educated technicians can make similar money doing survey fieldwork instead of working construction, plumbing, electrician work, etc, then more will enter this line of work.
Unfortunately, I still don't think we're keeping up in that regard.?ÿ Laws of supply and demand somehow don't translate as much as they should for us
non-educated technicians
I'd like to think of them as educated in the survey field like anyone else in a mentoring apprenticeship like plumbing and electrical.
We should support non licensed people dedicated in the process as much as the license.
IMHO
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I totally agree, and I've spoken out every time I've seen a posting here about formal education/degree requirements.?ÿ I'm not for them.?ÿ Not against formal education, just don't think it should be or needs to be a requirement, and it shouldn't be an impediment for those wanting to pursue licensure.
My point was, when you're trying to attract field help, they're probably non-educated, non-experienced at the beginning.?ÿ And yes, their education starts with the first day of fieldwork.
It's a really difficult question, this one. Yes, the idea is good but...
Those of us from outside the USA who might offer support understand that realistically the main drive of the campaign would inevitably go towards the USA and the spin-off around the rest of the world would be marginal.
Even if kids don't go into surveying, they might gain some useful understanding, so that when they become architects, developers, engineers, financiers, etc. they might take with them the realisation that there is a benefit to having a survey input early in a scheme, rather than at the last minute.
Encouragement is needed at all levels, not just top-end professional. A survey assistant who cares is worth five qualified persons who don't.
What's the worst that can happen: you donate money to a good cause; some kids find out how fun it is to be a surveyor, and make it a life long career.
The key word is donation; do you expect a return on your donation to the foodbank; to the red cross; to Jerry Lewis and MD? Granted; these are different types of non-profits (charities), but the unconditional, warm fuzzy feelings are still there.
I'm all for donating to your donation, please keep us posted, as to what you decide to do.
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My $0.02
Dougie
But I wonder how much benefit we'd get in return? Would our membership numbers increase enough to justify the cost? Would the increase in traffic lead to more advertisers?
They should be able to show you that information on how much the average traffic increase is from their sponsors.
That's a fair question to ask.
It's a great place to get parents of kids Interested in getting their kids into survey, but not this forum is appropriate for most school aged kids, and I digress.
How much time do you have to make a decision?
The problem is that there's no real way to track traffic from a poster or printed materials.
I'm all about donating to good causes without expectation of getting anything back.
That said, SurveyorConnect isn't exactly rolling in dough, so when I look at sponsorships and the like, I do actually expect to get something out of it at this point. In the future, maybe not so much, if this becomes more profitable.
I really appreciate all of the discussion here! I love this place! I know that I can ask these questions and you'll give me hearty, honest and thoughtful responses. I have mostly decided to walk away from this sponsorship. There's a tiny piece of me that is still interested, but I'm not sure it would have the return on investment I would hope for. I believe in the cause, I just don't think the timing is right for us.
Thanks again for all of the helpful input! 🙂
@spmpls Agree that it's tough to measure the impact of the programs in the long term.
Get Kids Into Surveying is good for glossy, colored examples of some of the more interesting aspects of surveying seen through a very shallow lens, perfect for grade school or younger.
I think the area that's missing that you could see a dramatic impact in is the high school age population.?ÿ Everything mentioned about surveying at that age is about calculations, describing the math required, etc., but the fun and interesting parts of surveying are about history, discovery, searching for monuments, being outdoors, using clues, reading maps, working with your hands.?ÿ Rarely is there good content created which shows the surveying profession in this light.?ÿ This age loses interest or never even gain insight about the industry because it's portrayed as 60-year-olds doing hand calcs with paper and pencil while engineering is portrayed as people doing 3D renderings on 60-inch computer screens.?ÿ Neither is true, but that's what the marketing looks like when you look at colleges and industry information.
Also I'm gonna put this out there and people may not agree but I'd argue that Trig Star pushes the least interesting aspect of surveying.?ÿ It's a good idea, in theory, for finding people with some skills for doing mathematical calculations, but is that really the KEY skill set you need to be a good surveyor or is it simply the one that you can create an easy contest out of?
