If what we have to loose is the equipment then we have already lost.
Nate The Surveyor, post: 434853, member: 291 wrote: There is a land developer in my area, that bought a Topcon Total Station.
How would you feel, about helping him get it working? (i refused)
Another Reel Estate Agent, in another state, that bought a gps.
And, he wants help running it!
If you sold him your old gear, and he wants help! (not me!)
I'm wondering about "helping" bury this profession.
Do we really need non surveyors, plying their hand with it?
Just thinking out loud here.
The gps deal above is not my dilema. But it is somebodies....
Dangit, we have enough "equipment abuse" amongst our own!
N
I would not have a problem with a non surveyor buying a total station or gps unit but I will not help them take money from my wallet by provided training or advice, they bought it now they learn how to use it. Now the realty is that there are lots of folks who are not surveyors like you may think of but rather field engineers working for large construction companies and they are very good at what they do, theY do surveying functions with survey tools. But for the above mentioned developer or "REEL" Estate agent I would give them my special focus and extra attention and be alert for board violations and report them every single time. Oh yeah I would be watching this.
Nate The Surveyor, post: 434853, member: 291 wrote: There is a land developer in my area, that bought a Topcon Total Station.
How would you feel, about helping him get it working? (i refused)
Another Reel Estate Agent, in another state, that bought a gps.
And, he wants help running it!
If you sold him your old gear, and he wants help! (not me!)
I'm wondering about "helping" bury this profession.
Do we really need non surveyors, plying their hand with it?
Just thinking out loud here.
The gps deal above is not my dilema. But it is somebodies....
Dangit, we have enough "equipment abuse" amongst our own!
N
Nate, I'm not a PLS but I hear what you're saying and I think I understand your dilemma. I'd say in this scenario it would depend on if the folks asking for help were good customers or just someone expecting a free lunch. Very few people I've come in contact with will ever learn more than the rudimentary use of the tools and in short order decide it's more complex than they care to figure out. When that happened I would want them to think of me in the positive and hire me. The very last thing I'd want would be just the opposite and then getting bad-mouthed in the area.
Since I look to most of the public like I might be a surveyor I sometimes get asked if I can show them where there property corner/line is. Even though much of the control I'm given is surveyed property corners and I have linework that says it is property lines I only tell them, "I'm not a surveyor and just doing some construction staking. It's around here somewhere," and recommend they contact some of my favorite surveyors. We part on good terms and everyone is happy.
Sadly there is no law in our great Country that prohibits stupidity. We are free as a bird to pursue ANY activity our ego tells us we're qualified to perform. In the case of an untrained individual wishing to use any sort of precise equipment, I'd probably just tell them there's instructional manuals on line and leave it at that. It won't take most of them long to really screw up something and realize the mere possession of a tool is a small part of actually using it correctly.
If you want to see some really scary stuff, go to your nearest gun-shop and watch a few of the folks that come in to purchase firearms....
aliquot, post: 434918, member: 2486 wrote: You shouldn't need a licence to measure something for yourself. Other proffesionals have used surveying equipment for a long time, archeologists, geologists, forrestors, soil scientists, farmers, engineers, geodisits..., Now if they were planing on using it to tell other people where their boundaries are, or to stake out an intestate highway bridge, that's a different thing.
Police
