President's Message
March 2018

    Now that February is quickly coming to a close, our FSMS dues are paid and the day of “love” (Valentine’s Day) is behind us. Hopefully all of us will keep some of that love in our hearts throughout the year. To love somebody or something is truly a positive spiritual emotion and it cannot be bought or sold. It is the unselfish act of giving back and paying forward to others and it is a God-given gift which we all possess, but sometimes fail to acknowledge, or appreciate, the power of.

     Hopefully, this love that we have also manifests in the work we do every day as surveyors and mappers. If we truly love what we do, how do we keep that spiritual feeling going? Daily prayer, affirmations, meditation, exercise and time off? These things are great and make us better individuals, but there is something else that also will build and keep that spirit of love in your life, and that is giving back and paying forward to the surveying & mapping profession which we have chosen to work in. Paying dues and volunteering in your professional association is exactly that: paying forward and giving back to the profession that supports us and provides for the life tha we love.

So, you ask, what does FSMS pay forward or give back to me from my hard-earned dues?

1) Maintains and supports a 63-year-old professional society network of surveyors and mappers in Florida and across the U.S. This network serves and adds credibility and value to your daily interactions with your peers and business partners.

2) Protects and enhances your license and practice laws in Florida by working with the BPSM (Board of Professional Surveyors and Mappers).

3) Maintains a full-time lobbyist and PAC - one of the largest in the country – which constantly watches out for our industry and daily businesses.

4) Promotes and encourages the future youth in our profession through several scholarship funds, college programs, high school programs, CST programs, and technical programs and seminars.

5) Monitors and addresses unlicensed practice in Florida with a very active state-wide committee.

6) Provides CEC education opportunities with a voucher for 3 credits, as well as additional credits for attending local meetings and seminars.

Your dues also pay your affiliate membership to be one of 21,000 members of the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS). Being a member of NSPS puts your voice and value on the national level, as well as a voice in our nation’s capital, which also works to keep our businesses protected and prosperous.  National Surveyor’s Week is March 18-24. Let’s all get out and give some of our time to observe this week, which is dedicated to our profession, and proudly promote our profession to others.

“I invite all Americans to look back at the historic contributions of surveying and look ahead to the new technologies which are constantly modernizing this honored and learned profession.”

Ronald Reagan
National Surveyors Week Proclamation
February 13, 1984

Bob Strayer, Jr.