I have been reading the new board rules and I will tell you right now that I like them.

I had some questions and asked the powers that be and got some great answers and feedback.

It was instantly clear that I need to slow down and be more thorough when reading things such as the rules that govern my profession.

Now I want to take a moment to thank the people that worked on updating these rules.

This is an extremely tough job as it effects each and everyone one of us in the surveying world.

Can you imagine the shit these guys have gotten through this process? How about the endless yammering by the non progressive numb nuts'zzzz?

I call that the not want to do anything but be the first to bitch syndrome.
So if you did not help, shut the fuck up. (Myself included).

Surveying is a profession where things do change. The fundamentals are the same but with technology comes change and staying on top of the rules needs to happen.

I am unsure how often they come up for review but I personally recommend that it get done more often.

So hey everyone, lets give some big ups to the people that stepped to the plate and put their valuable time and energy into something that is so important to us as professionals.

I am sure we will be better for it even with the small changes being proposed.

Peace out surveyors and make it a great week.

Ever so often I do a quick scan through the Board Rules just to blow the cob webs out of the brain pan.

Every time I read them I think to myself, fair enough but one of them just rubs me the wrong way.

It is section 14, E, 2b, and regarding descriptions and it states as follows.

"All controlling monuments, noting their physical description, and whether found,
 set or replaced."

Now why in the hell would I do that?

In my opinion if a monument has another number on it I found it and if it has mine on it I either set it or found it.

At the end of the day if a monument has my number on it I own the responsibility, who really cares if I set or found it. Also if I am calling out other monuments in my description I still own the responsibility.

If I would change something about these rules that would be the one.

I am curious how many of you actually make those notations in a perfectly good description? All it does is clutter it up for the layman and also I believe it will create ambiguity for some green horn that still has a hard time properly writing one.

I would love to hear some thoughts on this one.

Peace out surveyors, make it a great week.

Last Friday I took a seminar on Title vs Survey issues and boy am I glad I did.

The content as always was a little dry but I learned a metric shit load about title issues.

The main reason I took the particular seminar is because I am involved in a problem that was created by an RLS that worked for me several years ago and yes of course my name is on the map.

What happened is this. He did a land division and prepared what may or may not be a bunk legal. I am yet to reach a conclusion. All of the line work is perfect etc.

He later amended it but the descriptions remained the same.

The description was recorded, map filed, the monuments were set, walls were built etc. The buyer assumed he was getting an acre.

Long after the RLS was gone from my company they came back for another amendment and I personally did it and inadvertently fixed the descriptions. 

Now here is the crazy part. They never got title insurance on anything. The buyer had it but our client never got it because they owned it outright.

Problem: Buyer loses property to bank, a new guy buys it from the bank with the assumption that he is purchasing the property within the walls, he has a title policy.

The new buyer being diligent gets a survey done and discovers that that deed is that of the old split and that the seller had never adopted the second amended. All of the monuments reflect the lot split but the deed does not and now he thinks he owns an additional 1/4 acres.

I received a call from a very cool surveyor telling me what was going on. He said our survey was awesome and all of the monuments hit really well. I explained to him that they obviously never had any title work done, he agreed and I thanked him and waited for my client to call.

Well we all know what happened when the client called. Of course they are thinking this is our fault. I promptly told them that this is a matter of title and the buyers company was responsible.

I will tell you that making an angry person believe that someone as glorious as a title company man could make such a huge mistake is almost impossible.

It sure is fun owning a business!!! Just one hoot and holler after another.

Well we had a meeting. I put my insurance company on notice. We spoke a few more times and I am yet to hear anything else.

What I did tell them is if they decided to try and sue me for any reason the insurance company would sick some big bad wolf of an attorney all over them, he will prove that they were remiss in the issue, he will prove it is in fact a title issue and he will drive their legal fees through the roof and all I will have to do is meet my deductible.

They also threatened to turn me in. I told them they could but it would do them zero good to do so. I am thinking they are of the mindset that kind of thing is public like the ROC and it would in some way hurt my biz because anyone can have a look for marks. 

Now these people are very niece and amiable and I hope it stays that way. I told them I would help in anyway that I can but my hands are tied until they sign a release stating that they will not sue me. 

We will play the waiting game now. I have a feeling it will all work out to their benefit. That is if they follow proper protocal.

One of the most important things I learned in John Rose's surveying class is the definition of a monument.

"Set at or near a property corner".

Now this is also one of my favorites and maybe the most important.

"A boundary is defined on paper".

I love this stuff. I love recorded plats because that's what they are. Recorded, a legal document that has permanently defined a property boundary.

Who can define a boundary in Arizona? If you said a surveyor then you are wrong!!!!! Only a court of law can do this.

Yes there are platting exceptions but all municipalities have a legal department.

All that said brings me to my point.

I have been running across a lot of cad files lately in which the surveyor has gone out in a platted subdivision, recovered the monuments, drew a line between them and called this the boundary and given it to the architect and civil for design.

I understand this method, however in the case of a platted subdivision I fully disagree with it, unless there is a serious blunder, which we all have found at one time or another.

I am of the opinion that a monument does not define a boundary, but simply represents a controlling location that is subjective depending on who surveys it.

Going back to the find and trace method. In the case of a platted subdivision, once again in my opinion is fundamentally incorrect based on the fact that 5 guys can go out, shoot the same monuments and come up with a different boundary. Before you know you have people arguing that the perfectly good plat is somehow messed up because the monuments measure different.

Whatever!

Why go to all that trouble when there is a perfectly good legal boundary? How about simply hopping on a meridian and use some good old surveyor common sense and use best fit and make sure that no one loses?
Call out a falling on a monument you don't like it.

Now there are some that will argue this point and say monuments are the end all of the universe and that's fine, however in my mind it's mute. 

Why do surveyors want to take all kinds of liability when all they have to to do is provide evidence? That's what I am. I am a professional evidence producer. Do I want to re-create the world of a platted lot? Oh hell no!!!

I am speaking from the perspective that the cad files I recently received were in a platted subdivision, there were only topo's done and no results of survey filed and in a couple of recent instances I have had to re-do the boundary for some legals I had to write based on the fact that the particular city that everything was going to would have kicked it out, hence causing some changes to the design.

So you're out doing a topo, you've gotten your meridian and you miss a rebar and cap. So What!! It's just a representation of what some other guy did and who knows what the crew chief did.

Now getting into boundary surveys is another thing and I use many methods for those. Record and measured and falling's being my first choice in a platted subdivision. That's why we file results of surveys because it is the result of the evidence we produced and yes I know that there are applications for different types of surveys but today is about the plat map.

I have done it all different ways but I always fall back on the fundamentals learned from John Rose and many old timey guys, especially in a platted subdivision.

" A MONUMENT IS SET AT OR NEAR A PROPERTY CORNER" 
"A PROPERTY CORNER IS DEFINED ON PAPER"

Brilliant, just amazingly brilliant!!! Got to love the old guy common sense. 

I think Boundary Control and Legal Principals I & II should be a mandatory requirement for anyone that is allowed to even trace a boundary line.

Employers call Phoenix College and immediately enroll your people. I used to send selected people through myself included and it was some of the best money I ever spent.

Peace out surveyors, make a great common sense filled week.

I have spoken a lot about technology and the pros and cons of it as it is related to our business.

This last week I made the determination that I am behind the curve.

I was speaking with an equipment sales guy about the future of surveying and the advances that have happened and how because of the recession I have not made a purchase in 6 years except for small things, cables etc.

Looking at the newer stuff I can tell it is much improved and I am going to assume more accurate. Yes even GPS. I say this because the newer stuff hardly loses lock and locks much more quickly when it is fired up of floats.
The robots speak for themselves.

I have a theory that through technology the surveyor can start pushing the contractors to adopt machine control, the concrete guys can be trained to use robots and they all can be trained on software. They to are starting to be run by a younger forward thinking generation that is embracing it all.

I say it's about time.

Where is the surveyors part? A project will always need us but we can now step back from staking and let the liability rest where it always should. On the shoulder of the contractor.

The future is us teaching them how to use equipment and software and yes teaching them that they are the responsible ones. 

We are at a time when we will no longer be the first ones the finger gets pointed at.

That all said I now have a personal thing to talk about.

Saturday I said goodbye to my Blackberry and got a killer HTC phone.

My berry was 3.5 years old, dated and slow. I have to tell you that this HTC 4G phone is quite a shock with all of the functions and speed. Within an hour I was asking myself why haven't I gotten one of these sooner??

I think that we must progress with technology as surveyors. I know it can cause problems and brain dead newbees or does it?

I think the new people just think differently then us 20+ years guys. They think in solution and apps and we think in practical.

It's all part of the evolution of our biz.

Make it a great week surveyors!!

The other day I was out in the Rio Verde area doing a Boundary-Topo job.

I have done work in that section before and once again thanks to GDAC and it's interactive map with points and some solid surveys I was calc'd and ready to go when I got there.

Since I am a diligent monkey I went around the 1/4 section and established my measured data. The center of section was there and checked as shown on some other surveys, so I accepted it.

I proceeded to search for the lot monuments and found them all and they checked well, so now they all have nice new LS caps on them in the color of blue which is what I have always used. However when they are gone I am going to go 100% with brass and aluminum tags.

I then started the topo. I walked the lot and located all of the vegetation and dirt roads. There were no definitive washes so no need for cross sections.

After I was finished with all of that I went back to the truck and pulled the gps off of the rod and put it on a back pack that I rigged with a pvc cage to hold a small rod in place. I got everything hooked up, changed my HR and went into auto topo mode. I proceeded to walk the lot and take about 1700 shots on top of the already collected info.

This took about an hour. 1700 seems like a lot of shots but this was a 3 acre parcel and I had the DC set at 3 second intervals. 

I am a huge believer that it is easier to take points out of a drawing than have to go back and get more.

Now hear is the best part about this job. Field time with travel 5.5 hours. I accomplished this because of my pre-job research and calc's and because of technology.

The office time took quite a while because I had re-calc the boundary to my measured section which actually brought the lot monuments in better and had to prepare 2 drawings, a topo and and ROS which I will file in the next month or so when I get a few stacked up. I always wait to get a few to save on the fuel cost and trip time.

I have spoken many times about how technology has enhanced out lives and made it easier to turn a profit on a job. I has also allowed me to increase my level of customer service, get things done quicker with more data and turn out a very professional looking product that I can be proud of.

Go technology!