Land Surveyor Blogs

Tomorrow (June 21st) is the BIG DAY for Land Surveyors, worldwide.  Not only is it Day 5 of International Surveyors Week, it is Survey Earth in a Day 7 and an ideal opportunity for surveyors of the world to UNITE in order to inspire the next generation and promote a better public understanding of how important land surveyors are to society and civilization.  We only hold SEIAD once per year on the solstice - the longest day of the year.  Collect your data at noon when the sun is the highest loca

With Survey Earth in a Day just around the corner again, knowing where your local markers are will come in handy when deciding where to submit a point from. Aside from our growing collection of Survey Marker Photos (photos tagged 'marker' inside the community), occasionally we will share marker photos on our Facebook Page which surveyors around the world respond to with, of course, their own marker photos.  Take a look at this post for example and the comments which followed.

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• Jason Guerrero

UPDATE: 

Happy National Surveyors Week 2018 Everyone!

The purpose of Surveyors Week (NSPS) is to bring visibility to the profession. During Surveyors Week, land surveyors across the nation celebrate by educating the public on what they do & why it is important; encouraging students to consider surveying as a career choice; and participating in activities that promote and bring awareness to the surveying profession. All licensees, governmental agencies, technical professional organizations and

The following story is fictional and any resemblance to actual events is purely coincidental.

Land Surveyor named Indiana Jones

One day I was sitting in my office in Downtown Houston around 5:00 pm in the afternoon in 2001 when the phone rang.  My secretary had already left and I was not anxious to answer it.  I had a comfortable practice running three field crews and another Professional Land Surveyor in the office.  I was daydreaming about maybe selling the business for a million dollars and jus

If we cannot think outside our local environment, we become chained to it.  We are all chain-breaking for the Future on Land Surveyors United!

International Land Surveyors Week 2014 (June 15-22) is for Land Surveyors in any country on earth to celebrate the value of professional land surveyors in society. This is our 3rd year celebrating this week and it is slowly changing the industry into a more open and engagable situation for surveyors all around the world.  Have you recently noticed all of

In view of recent developments in my family, the death of my brother, I wanted to write this article for all of those professionals (surveyors, engineers, attorneys, accountants, etc.) out there who are either sole proprietors, or one of two owners. Ultimately the article is about business succession, but I might wander a bit.

In Memory of Allen Maxwell, PLS

First, William “Allen” Maxwell was a Professional Land Surveyor in the State of Alabama, a fact he was very proud of.  Allen started out l

Unable to find a satisfactory job and stuck in a job I hated I finally opened up my own Land Surveying Firm in mid 1992. I was 32 at the time and thought that I knew everything about Land Surveying because of my previous experiences. It goes to show you that arrogance is most often a result of ignorance.

As I look back now I realize that I had no idea at that time what I was doing and I am really uncertain at this point how I managed to survive in the beginning. After a couple of bumpy years howe

The Gap that Swallowed the Land Surveyor

By Pean Cheneying, PLS

A client who was a custom home builder ordered a Standard Survey (survey without the benefit of a title policy) on a parcel composed of a fractional lot in a recorded subdivision created in the 30s. This particular client had ordered some small subdivisions in the past but they were redeveloping this existing fractional lot and building an expensive custom home on it. Many of the parcels within this particular subdivision were bei

With the level of competition that exists for land surveyors and geomatics professionals, being successful as a company owner or working independently requires a combination of technical and creative skills, as well as business skills. Naturally, most land surveyors are more comfortable with the technical and creative aspects and less comfortable with running a business. While you do need to have some capability to run the business, you do not need to be a business guru to be an effective and ef