President's Message

All,

As we all celebrate National Surveyors Week (March 16-22, 2025) this year, let us all take a pause from our busy schedules to recognize, celebrate, and remember the lives of all the Surveyors that have recently passed on and those that may be starting to fade from our memories. I truly believe they are still with us in our hearts, in our work, and in the stories and adventures they shared, together with the ones we had with them.

Whether they are part of your family, a friend, a coworker, or your boss/mentor, they all gave us part of themselves, passing the baton forward, and in doing so they will live on through us and the work we do.

When we research records of past surveys and surveyors, we are putting ourselves into their shoes, walking in their footsteps, reading their minds, and trying to understand the decisions they made. Hopefully their notes and the evidence they left behind will guide us to make the right decisions in our own lives and the surveys we produce. Every survey you perform in the field should be a thank you to your mentors, and an appreciation of the skills, knowledge and experience they honored you with.

Recognizing and remembering those adventurers from our past, as well as the heritage, knowledge and wealth of experience, skills and practices that they passed on through those that are now left behind is extremely important to continue the process. These are just some of the reasons why our celebration of National Surveyors Week is important.

It’s now up to us to take upon our shoulders this huge responsibility to share this knowledge and continue to build upon it. With the advent of new technologies coming at us from every direction it’s going to be tough to navigate and build that bridge between the past and present, but it’s a task that must be done.

The original FSPLS and now the Florida Surveying and Mapping Society was started by some of those individuals, who were visionaries, and believed in the value of what we do as a profession and that we needed a structure in place to bring us all together and share our knowledge, unique experiences, and encourage and train the next generation to carry on.

Those individuals/members that participate in our Society as officers and directors are all volunteers and share a strong belief that we are important, our work has meaning and is necessary for the protection of the Public, in that we take the necessary steps to do it right even when no one is looking. They believe in giving back and paying it forward to the profession that has been more than just a job, but a way of life that brings pride and satisfaction in everything we do.

I have been invited to a couple of multi-chapter meetings to celebrate National Surveyors’ Week, and I look forward to going to them and participating in the National recognition that President Ronald Reagan bestowed upon us in 1984. However, I also want to recognize all of our chapters for doing their part in bringing this recognition to our membership and promoting it within their communities. We may be the second oldest profession in the world, but we have the best job in the world!

With that said, I want to congratulate all of our members, all Surveyors in the USA, plus our staff and the Colleges and Universities that we support and that keep giving us graduates. For they are our future and will continue this National celebration of our Profession in the coming years and beyond.

May we all be looked upon with a nod of satisfaction for a job well done by those who came before us, and may we continue to remember them and pass on their heritage.

Respectfully submitted,

Richard D. Pryce, RLS/PSM

Previous 2025 Messages
January 2025
February 2025