MARYLAND SOCIETY OF SURVEYORS

MINUTES - Board of Directors Meeting

Wednesday, March 25, 2014

Call to Order - Shaw - called to order at 3:06 pm. Those in attendance were:
President James Shaw
President-elect Bill Orsinger
TJ Frazier, Vice President
Pat Simon, Secretary
George Wigfield, Treasurer
Barry Hoyle. Past President
Alan Dragoo, NSPS Governor
Vincent Nohe, Regional Director
Chas Langelan, Carroll Chapter
William Bower, Chesapeake Chapter
Aaron Worley, Potomac Chapter
Wayne Hunt, Southern Chapter
Jeremy Burns, Carroll Chapter
Tim Quinn, Government Affairs Chair
Donald Mason, Howard Chapter
Steve Jones, ITC
Vincent Burke, MSS ET
Mark Husik, Executive Director
Rona Goldberg, Associate Director

1.  Approval of Agenda – approved as presented

2.  Announcements - None

3.  Correspondence - keeping of records in county courthouses in Carroll County - many counties are doing away with this.

4.  Approval of Minutes - February 26, 2014 – Add Jeremy Burns to email distribution list. Minutes approved as distributed.

5.  President's Report - Shaw - met with JMPA & attended the TUgis conference

6.  Treasurer's Report - Wigfield – Funds are coming in for Spring Conference. Need to work on budget for next year.

7.  Old Business

1.  TUgis 2014 Review - Simon - March 18 - turned out to be a great conference with good panel discussion and presentations. TUgis website has twitter link and pictures. 13 students signed up from our membership drive.

2.  Spring Conference, April 2014 - Wigfield - Discussed earlier. Associates track enrollment picking up.

3.  Spring Conference 2015 - Shaw – The offer to have free use of the facilities at Towson for 2015 is still “on the table”, but they might not be at Towson in 2016. Other option is partnering with MAPPS, NSPS, BLM, NOAA & NGS in DC area. Alan Dragoo made a motion to move forward with an expression of interest to the national "Collaboration" subject to learning all the details. Seconded by Steve Jones. Motion carried. Decision made to keep 2015 Spring Conference at MITAGS. MLHA will secure date with MITAGS and advise JMP&A.

4.  Joint Conference with MdHS & MSPE - TJ Frazier revisited the facility and checked out the hotel. Need to find out space for the MdHS and MSPE that they will have available for us. Also need to know the costs. He has emailed them for the details of their needs. Until we hear back from David Thaler we can't make an informed decision. A meeting needs to be planned.

5.  NVD2022 Geoid Observations - Going to rely on the geoid in your area. NGS is relying on surveyors in respective areas to convey the updated info on the benchmarks. This doesn't really affect Maryland because of the current network and points. Only area of concern is subsidence issue of the Chesapeake Bay Area.

9. New Business

a. Executive Director Contract – The draft contract has been reviewed by Jim Demma and reviewed by members of the Board. Needs to be taken care of very shortly. Looking for approval from Board to authorize James Shaw to execute contract once it has all been worked out. James will share the contract with the other members of the Board of Directors as soon as he has reviewed a couple of points with Demma.

10. Officer & Executive Reports

a. President-elect - went to DLLR on March 5 with Tim Quinn; Appalachian Chapter followed that night. CST review classes; visiting JMPA; TUGIs conference. April 26 - CST exam.

b. Vice President - visited the MD Historical Society; sat in on MSGIC ExCom meeting; attended and presented at TUgis and helped with CST prep class.

c. Secretary - Baltimore Chapter meeting had presentation by Joel Leininger on Roads and Streets. Good topic for chapters. TUGis, CST review

d. Immediate Past President - Attended Appalachian, DCALS, TuGIs

e. Executive Director - thanked Chas, Bill and others for work on GMM.

f. NSPS Governor- presented at TUGis and will be doing the same at Ocean County PE conference in Atlantic City, NJ

g. MSS PAC - JMPA has a lot of experience fundraising for PACs and MSS is looking forward to hearing their suggestions. When John Campbell steps down, looking for a volunteer to serve as Treasurer.

h. Education Foundation – The goal is to have applications due July 1 and make awards by August 1. Vince Burke’s term ends in fall - need to find replacement.

i. Regional Director - Printed report distributed to Board

11. Standing Committee

a. Membership - Burns – Committee met earlier today. Topics discussed: Working on a Lands End design logo for shirts; Member rewards on the new website; dues structure.

b. Ethics & Professional Practice - Frazier - no report

c. Survey Standards & Practices - Simon - Need for Minimum Standards committee to reconvene due to some changes.

d. Government Affairs - Quinn - distributed written report and will discuss at our GMM.

e. Public Relations & Publications - no report

f. Education - Forest Conservation completed; CST training completed; Spring Conference; April 26 - CST Exam; June 6 - St, Michael's SHA course; June 20 - Allegany College - Dave Ingram two courses

g. Nominations/Tellers - no report

h. Bylaws - Working with Membership Committee to review membership classifications.

i. Strategic Planning - Draft needs to be finalized.

j. Technology – Shaw - Cutting edge technology is not being seen at surveyor's conferences, but at others. Need to be vigilant or you will miss out. Need more technology-focused topics at conferences. Discussion on provision for digital signatures - need to approach DLLR on this topic.

k. 2014 Fall Conference - Discussed this with JMPA at recent meeting. Setting up meeting with facility and JMPA to see facility.

l. Finance - need to plan budget for next year - will be setting up meeting.

m. TrigStar -test is now available

n. Internet Technology – We are on the fast track to revamp website. Working with JMPA on what members would like to see or change.

12. Special Committees

a. Geocaching – A few caches are still getting responses. Still working on Bilby series - working on event cache - has ordered special coins for this with MSS logo. Twenty caches will be placed around MD.

b. Mentoring - no report

c. MSS History & Records Preservations - no report

d. MSS Operational Guidelines - Should have copy at next BOD meeting. This is chapter chair election year, so this will be a good time to introduce the document. Dynamic document - showing procedures and suggested guidelines.

e. Sustaining Members - no report.

13. Chapter Reports - chapter chairs need to send in written reports prior to BOD meeting.

a. Appalachian - covered earlier

b. Baltimore -

c. Carroll - host for this evening's meeting.

d. Chesapeake - working on speaker and date for next meeting.

e. Howard

f. Lower Shore

g. Potomac

h. Southern

i. Susquehanna

j. Upper Shore

k. Western

Agenda having been met, the meeting was adjourned at 4:50 pm.