I did an online search and found this from a July 2009 NSPS News and Views issue:
New BLM Manual to be unveiled!An unveiling ceremony for the ??next edition? of the BLM Manual of Surveying Instructions will occur on September 24 (Lobby Day) at the main office of the Department of the Interior in Washington, DC, beginning at 4 PM EDT. The primary speaker will be Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. In addition to BLM officials and Congressional speakers, ACSM Executive Director Curt Sumner will also participate. This ??next edition? is the first update to the manual since 1973.?ÿ?ÿ All ACSM Lobby Day participants are invited to attend the ceremony and the reception to immediately follow it. Anyone wishing to attend should contact Curt Sumner (curtis.sumner@acsm.net) within the next two weeks so that a comprehensive list of ACSM attendees can be presented to BLM in order for access to the ceremony to be arranged.
I was probably taking a nap.?ÿ Sorry, Gene.
I was there in DC for the signing ceremony as Alaska Chief Cadastral Surveyor.?ÿ ?ÿI'm sure I have photos archived somewhere.?ÿ I know I left them on the BLM Cadastral server when I retired.?ÿ
@northernsurveyor Been thinking of you and your adventures of late. Hope you are doing well.
The NSPS "journal" article had pictures of the Mont Blanc signing pens that John Matonich turned for the occasion. In his retirement, John continues with his woodworking projects.
One of my employees "won" a signed copy of the manual (including a photo of the signing ceremony) at the 2022 PLSO (Oregon) conference. He gets to keep it & display it until next year's conference.
First, a big thank you to Trish Milburn, NSPS for her professional courtesy in mailing me a copy of the October 2009 issue of the ACSM Bulletin, No. 241. Pages 28-30 contain the article I was looking for entitled, "Release of the 2009 edition of the Manual of Surveying Instructions."
Now for the rest of the story....
In early September 2009, Curt Sumner was visiting Denver to attend a WFPS meeting. I was asked by J.B. Guyton, one of the two Colorado WFPS delegates to speak on the continuing professional competency program for Colorado architects. The Colorado licensing Board for Architects, Engineers and Land Surveyors had formed a committee to promulgate Board Rules for a continuing professional competency requirement for architects. The Colorado Legislature had passed a law requiring all architects to participate in a continuing professional competency program as a prerequisite to renewing their licenses. At the time, I was the PLSC Executive Director and represented the land surveying community on the committee. After 18 months of hand wringing, the architects threw up their hands in frustration, ending the experiment of continuing professional competency. The continuing professional competency requirement was replaced by a simple continuing education requirement in the next Legislative session.
During a break in the WFPS meeting, I listened to Messrs. Sumner and Guyton discuss a problem. They had approached the BLM to see if the Colorado BLM would donate some wood from an old GLO corner post or bearing tree so that John Matonich, the then President of the NSPS could turn Mont Blanc pens that would be the official pens used in the 2009 Manual's signing ceremony. The BLM declined to supply a wood sample for the project.
I had just completed a mineral survey resurvey and suggested that I could "harvest" a portion of a dead bearing tree from my survey. After obtaining permission from the landowners, I harvested the wood and FedEx'd it to Mr. Matonich. The October 2009 issue of the ACSM Bulletin contained an article on the signing ceremony. The article (bottom right caption on page 29) described the source of the wood for the pen that was presented to Ms. Wilma Lewis representing the Hon. Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Department of the Interior.
Below are three photos of the original accessory bearing tree for Cor. No. 2 of the Red Star Lode Mining Claim, Sur. No. 13672. The first two show the tree before my harvest and the last photo shows which tree root was harvested. I also attached a copy of the ASCM Bulletin article in case some of you are interested in the article. The last attachment is the page of the official field notes for the Red Star that describes Cor. No. 2 and its bearing tree.
