Howdy,
My name is Clark and I started working for a land surveyor when I was 19. I have been at it off and on for about 12 and a half years now. I even took some time to go to school, for surveying no less. I attended White Mountains Community College and completed their two year Survey Technology program (which is now closed unfortunately) before moving on to UMaine to finish a BS in Survey Engineering Technology. That was all around 2007-2011.
I remember my professor, Dave, from white mountains mentioning this forum as a good resource and now I have finally decided to register myself.
I sat for my first PS exam in October and recently received the good news that I passed both portions... sort of. I should be receiving the official notice from the agency handling the state specific portion sometime this week. According to my account on their website, there is a notice of congratulations with my name on it and a status of PASSED dated December 13th; which was good enough for me to start celebrating. So barring any gross clerical errors I should be able to register with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and become an official PLS.
It feels like an interesting time to be entering into the profession, but maybe every fresh crop of Surveyor has had a similar feeling. Because of the nature of land title and the reliance on the work of our predecessors, a surveyor is rooted in history. However, the technology, tools and way in which land is being utilized is constantly changing. That places surveyors in an interesting position of having to live in two (or more) worlds in order to make these divergent areas speak to each other in a coherent manner.
My primary area of experience has been in dealing with property boundaries in western Mass and southern Vermont. Often times in these locations the key to eliminating a lot of the unfortunate ambiguity of our land title is found in some of our earliest records. Yet these records are not always seen as the valuable resource that they are. The ones who do defend our history and heritage are to be applauded.
Anyways, I am sure there will be plenty of opportunities to go on about such things as I don't need to say everything in my first post on the forums.
I look forward to learning a lot and sharing some too.
P.S. When I clicked on the big green SIGN UP NOW button, it took me to the login in screen instead of the register screen. I had to manually enter the register page in the address bar. Not sure if that was just a problem on my end or not.
Clark,
Congratulations, and welcome to the ranks!
Hopefully, you can translate that shiny new stamp into a little more green in the wallet.
I practice in Eastern MA. Hope you plan to attend the MALSCE conference in March.
Kevin
Congratulations on signing up for SurveyorConnect. And for that other thing, too.
Congratulations on passing the Exam, Clark.
I work out on the Cape, mostly the Lower Cape but I venture just about anywhere!
Dtp
Congrats on passing....I grew up in Nahant, Mass.....what part of Mass do you reside?
Hello Clark. Welcome.
Welcome Clark. Congratulations on passing. It sounds like you got that boundary thing all figured out. Looking forward to your participation.
Nice first post! Glad to have you around.
Welcome aboard. Glad to see some younger blood in the profession....we need it. All these old guys take too many naps...:pinch:
Well, my wife would say that, while I am young(ish), I take far too many naps...
Nice introduction
Congrats on your education and professional registration journey.
It is always fascinating to hear about the practice and methodology of Colonial state surveying. It is like surveying on another planet.
Btw I need a nap now.
Welcome Clark, you will find this site extremely interesting, fun and full of technical support for anything! B-)
Education 'R' Us........welcome to the party. If there's anything you don't understand, just ask. We'll all come along and get you further confused because you can never get two surveyors to agree on anything on the first try. Chip in with some comments are questions frequently. As mentioned above, we need more inquisitive young blood around here. Especially when we geezers are napping or scraping mold off the wads of cash we keep stuffed in our mattresses.
Welcome. Things have changed, since I got on, 25 yrs ago (+-). What I'd say about changes in our profession is:
I used to be a coordinate, monument, and deed jockey.
Now, I am becoming aware of a NEED to understand Geodesy FIRST, then be a coord , Monument, and Deed Jockey.
The element of geodesy, has become very important, as a PART of the above.
Just gettin on board. Exciting! I bet you will never have to run long, complex traverses, and interconnected traverses. Things have changed. GPS, and all.
Don't forget to charge the batteries!
N
Welcome Clark!
Hi Clark, I am out on the Cape a couple towns away from Foggy Idea. I do some boundary but spend more time with the technology. I went to school in Maine, but I was over in Waterville.