Chatted with Ernie Cantu, Steve Corley and Kevin Lindsey who all post here from time to time. Saw plenty of others I know, or recognize at least, who aren't regular participants here. Suppose I could include Dave Doyle although he did all the talking (four hours worth).
Dave's presentation actually kept me awake all morning long. Now that's impressive considering the the subject was geodesy. Sort of a pearls before swine type of thing in my case. There was no need to tell someone nearby to SHUT YOUR YAPPER, which was a great improvement over the behavior on Thursday.
I thought that Dave Doyle's presentation was a 10. The presentation on Thursday on the Missouri Minimum Standards was a -10,000. I think that at least 90% of us in that room can read and we don't need someone to read the standards to us. We did get our required hours in minimum standards though. My agency is forbined from sending us to conferences and when I am footing the bill personally, I like to get my money's worth. I am going to talk to the boss about bringing in a hired gun to cover that base for the 4 Land Surveyors in my shop then go to the conference on my dime and get the most educational part of the conference while the others are covering that base. I would have learned a lot more visiting with Holy Cow than sitting through 2 hours that should have been covered in 30 minutes.
Overall it was a great conference and I will return in the future.
I also thought that Mr. Doyle's presentation was very good and well put together. He was by far the best that I attended. I wish I could have stayed for Dr. Elgin's presentation but I needed to drive back to StL. Overall, I wasn't too impressed by the conference. I think that MSPS have put together much better presenters in the past.
My personal highlight of the trip was a side venture over to Lawrence for a visit to KU and a few pints at Free State Brewery - followed by dinner at Oklahoma Joe's in Olatha.
I am gonna send in my paperwork for Kansas so if anyone has any good study suggestions and/or material please let me know.
I was there for NSPS and am only disappointed that I did not get to meet any of the friends I know from Kansas.
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Dang it! I wandered by the NSPS table three dozen times and never stopped.
One thing I found very disappointing was the absence of rural surveyors from Kansas at the conference. Of the 126 names I counted as being Kansas residents 99 were from a strip from KCKS to Topeka (say a 30-mile wide strip) plus Wichita. Only 27 were at home in the country. And there's a whole lot of country in roughly 80,000 square miles.
