Aren't war stories and case studies about the same thing?
Sometimes we define an expert as someone who knows more than us but
is unable to answer questions because we do not know the correct question.
John knows his business. He is better than other surveyors and seminar speakers
who claim business expertise.
Problems in the continuing education arena are:
1) Attorneys who can teach the law but know nothing about land surveying.
2) PHD's in mechanical engineering who can take the GPS unit apart and put it
back together. Most do not know anything about surveying.
3) OSHA trainers who give surveyors courses but do not even know what tools
surveyors use.
4) Land surveyors who run around the country giving history seminars but know
little about the history of the area besides what they studied at the local
library the night before the seminar.
5) Land surveyors on the board of registration who give rules seminars but remember
very little during their actual practice.
6) A land surveyor gives seminars on standards but most of the plats he has signed
are drive-bys, inspections, spot surveys, etc.
Several years ago I heard Gurdon Wattles at a seminar. He was very knowledgeable
about reading and writing legal descriptions. We broke for lunch and remained sitting
at the same tables used for the seminar. A friend and land surveyor and attorney was
very red-faced. He had not asked any questions. I asked if he was sick or ok. He said
Mr. Wattles had his gun loaded with court cases that my have been lower court rulings,
court cases unrelated to the point he was making, and court cases that were probably
appealed. Seminar attendees were being misinformed. As a result, I forgot the court
cases and tried to absorb the good points.
The other problem with continuing education is governor-appointed members have little
expertise with GPS, networks, laser scanners, and geodesy. They approve courses from
association seminars without checking the course material. Several editorial writers in
the surveying magazines have gone on the seminar route and been discovered as
incompetent and as a result have a very short seminar speaking career.
Knud is very entertaining. When it comes to liability for doing shoddy inspection surveys,
I think he is somewhat flippant. It appears if you do not get sued much, you are getting by
and the law suits are nothing to worry about.
I remember when both Walt Robillard and John Keen gave different seminars at a state convention.
John is very good at nuts and bolts land surveying techniques. Walt walked in on John's seminar
and said that John was full of baloney.
The Kentucky Assoc. of Professional Surveyors (KAPS) has invited one of the Beer Leg posters to present several times for a fall seminar session as well as at the annual conference.
I can highly recommend Dr. Frank Willis from Louisiana as a speaker. For KAPS, he has presented a case on re-tracing a rather tricky parish line, use of a robo-coptor with digital camera for aerial photogrammetry, and a session on surprising technology available at minimal costs.
We (KAPS) had him presenting at this past February's conference and had to stop booking for his course as the room had reached capacity. I would venture to guess that was the best attended course outside of the required standards and ethics that we have ever had. It was also the source for a good deal of the discussion at lunch.