the value of membership

by Marilyn Evers, Executive Director

The Officers, Directors and staff of FSMS work together as a team to deliver value to our members. Our professional reputation is critical to the team and any initiative that we undertake is prefaced with a commitment to first class results thereby maintaining a quality that you recognize year after year. Our focus includes your satisfaction of programs, services and management of FSMS so that you see a direct return on your dues investment. The needs of our members are met daily with a consistent, responsive attitude by FSMS staff who are eager to assist you.

Legislative, Regulatory and Legal Matters

So what is the direct return on your dues investment? The question can be answered with a variety of substantiation, but the most obvious and dollar effective way is our ability to influence legislative and regulatory matters throughout the past year thereby providing continual protection of the practice act. This is vital regardless of your membership as an individual or as a firm. The effectiveness of our influence is evidenced by the following instances:

FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL REGULATION BOARD OF PROFESSIONAL SURVEYORS AND MAPPERS – the Society maintains a strong relationship and active participatory role with our regulatory Board. We are pleased that a number of FSMS members have been appointed to the Board. We attend all meetings and provide the membership with written reports in The Florida Surveyor;
GEOLOGISTS RULE – representatives of the Society spoke before a Hearing Committee and successfully worked with the Board of Professional Geologists to ensure compliance with our practice act;
F.E.S./A.I.A. – we continue to maintain good relations and combine legal and legislative efforts with the Engineers and Architects. Two examples are CCNA revisions and State Employee Classifications;
FLORIDA FOREVER/PRESERVATION 2000 – the Society supported continued funding of this program;
SUNSHINE ONE-CALL – the Society appointed two liaisons to work with Florida Engineering Society who took the lead in changes. Although there are no concerns at present, we continue to monitor this issue;
MAINE COORDINATES – we closely followed recent legislation in Maine that established an additional coordinate zone. New or additional zones in Florida would have a major impact on our surveying and mapping community;
FACM – successfully met with members after the Cadastral Mappers waved a caution flag on our legislation in a past session;
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL REGULATION BOARD OF PROFESSIONAL SURVEYORS AND MAPPERS REQUEST FOR HEARING 61-G17-7.001 – the Board reversed its decision to require all surveyors to use a new seal after representatives from the Society appeared on behalf of the membership.

The lobbying services of Ron Villella of Smith, Bryan and Myers complete our review of the FSMS legislative arena. Founded in 1981, the firm is one of Florida's premier governmental relations firms. Ron's impressive background includes serving as Chief-of-Staff for Florida Attorney General, Bob Butterworth, and as Director of Administration for Governor Bob Graham. His stance as FSMS watchdog in the legislature along with other related assistance has proved invaluable to FSMS since 1997.

Throughout each year we are on the alert for governmental requests for proposals that do not comply with the Consultants' Competitive Negotiations Act (CCNA) per Florida Statute 287.055 and encourage our members to continue to bring any suggestion of violations to the attention of the Legal Committee for further investigation. Violations can be failure to require a licensed surveyor and mapper to perform the work or specifying cost as a means of selecting the contractor.

Regarding Unlicensed Activity, the Society works to promote compliance with registration laws. In the recent past, an unlicensed firm and an unlicensed surveyor and mapper (separate cases) received letters from legal counsel regarding conducting surveying and mapping activities in Florida with the proper licensing.

Communication

Our list of benefits extends to areas other than legislative and legal. In keeping with the Strategic Plan created and adopted this year, a primary goal of the Society is communication. Our national representative (NSPS Governor) attends two national conferences per year and two annual meetings of the southern district governors to stay abreast of new national developments. Our association with the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) provides a monthly national update that we forward to you through e-mail. These avenues make it possible to keep you updated on new developments in the profession. Our FSMS E-mail Bulletins allow us to also pass vital information to you almost instantly.

Our award winning publication, The Florida Surveyor, informs you eleven months of the year of national, state and district events and accomplishments. The latest educational offerings are included as well.

Education

And speaking of education - Quality Member Benefit and Professional Development seminars and correspondence courses bring you several options to acquire continuing education credits. The Member Benefit seminars are offered at an unmatched rate of $85 if you are a licensed member or a member of a sustaining firm. Indisputably the dollar amount of this benefit is substantial.

Included in our commitment to you is our pro-activity in public awareness and improved perceptions of the profession. One avenue we frequently travel is support of the annual TrigStar Competition throughout Florida high schools. The Society awards education savings bonds and college scholarships to students with top scores.

Recruiting

Realizing that the surveying and mapping profession is not an undesirable one to students – just an unknown one, heightened our dedication and accelerated our recruitment efforts. It generated a new tool, the Sighting the Horizons career display, for use at high school career days and college job fairs. On the collegiate scene, Geomatics open houses at the University of Florida and advertisements in three publications perused by students brought an increase of 20 students to the program this year. Through the Florida Land Surveyors Scholarship Program assistance is provided to those students enrolled in the Geomatics Program.

Certified Survey Technicians

Assistance in acquiring and evaluating qualified technicians for your firms was undertaken by FSMS six years ago with the embracing of the Certified Survey Technician program. In that short time the Society has become the national leader in the number of Certified Survey Technicians. Providing a credential for the applicant and an evaluation tool for the employer to gauge the applicant's capabilities gives this program valuable purpose. The certification provides incentive to the technician to stay in the profession and progress thereby producing a pool of more qualified technicians for firms. Our offering of testing sites throughout the state has also placed us number one in the nation in the testing arena.

Join Today!

Our list goes on – a professional website updated weekly, a membership directory offered on the website, liaison with other related disciplines, a tailored liability package offered through our endorsed insurance provider, a five-day annual conference, annual trade show, training for incoming chapter presidents, the convenience of user group meetings and local venues for networking.

You have our commitment that your dues investment will prove to be a bargain.

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