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2014 April

Volume 1, Issue 4

California Land Surveyors Association

Sacramento Chapter

It is March. Long days have returned. It also marks the return of the annual Trig Star events.

This year I was joined on trek with John Wilusz (PE/LS) and Michael Chiara (LS). We are off to El Camino High School. (This is where I went to high school.)

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INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Calendar ...................................2

President’s Message .................3

Chapter Application .................9

Sustaining Members…………...11

Contacts…………………………….12

SPECIAL POINTS OF INTEREST

Trig Star Pictures

Page 6

Conference info

Page 8

Focal Point

April 3rd Meeting

Blue Prynt 815 11th St, Sacramento

5:00 Social Hour 6:00 Meeting 7:00 Speaker

Dinner $30

Speaker: Robert McMillan, LS

Scanning the Bay Bridge

Trig Star Event

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For detail on calendar items, see page 4.

APRIL MEETING SPEAKER –

PRESIDENT ROB MC MILLAN, PLS

April’s Chapter meeting will feature a

CLSA Conference preview as Rob

McMillan shares his presentation on 3D

Mobile Scanning: The Bay Bridge

Project (and maybe some other stuff) –

Caltrans used Airborne, Mobile and

Stationary Laser Scanning to create a

digital “As-Built” of the new SFOBB.

This presentation will discuss the project

in general, the team, our approach to

control, results work products,

challenges faced, interesting aspects,

and lessons learned.

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 Chapter

Meeting

4 5

6 7 8 9 10 11 12

13

CLSA

14

NALS

15

CONFER

16

ENCE

17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Board

Meeting

27 28 29 30

April 2014

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

“April’s

Chapter

meeting will be

the last before

CLSA

Conference”

See conference

information on

page 8.

Rob McMillan, PLS

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Since March 30 is opening night of Major League

Baseball’s regular season, I wanted to start this

message by thanking Chapter Secretary Matt Stringer

for stepping up to the plate to pinch hit for both me

and Vice-President Jerry Jones at the March meeting.

I was stuck in traffic and Jerry was pulling and “all-

nighter” on a hot project. I arrived just as the salads

were served, but declined Matt’s invitation to take

over. With a relaxed swing of the gavel, Matt hit a

home run.

April’s Chapter meeting will be the last before the

CLSA Conference in San Diego. It sounds like many

Sacramento Chapter members will be attending the

first conference in California for since 2009. Hopefully

final arrangements can be made for any car-pooling or

special “transportation logistics” in the next week or

so. I will be bringing a case of Ian Wilson’s award

winning Porter to the conference for the scholarship

auction, in addition to the usual compliment of

supplies for the Sacramento Chapter Suite, hosted

this year by Chapter Secretary Matt Stringer.

As the economy continues to rebound, I am seeing

more and more construction starts while making the (Continued on page 10)

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CALENDAR DETAILS

Apr 3rd Sacramento Chapter Meeting 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Location: Blue Prynt Speaker: Rob McMillan Topic: Bridge Scanning

Apr 11th - 16th CLSA-NALS Conference, Workshops, Golf & Bowling

Tournaments

Location: Town & Country Hotel, San Diego, CA Info:

www.CaliforniaSurveyors.org

Speakers: Many Topics: Nearly everything you want to know about

surveying

Apr 23rd Central Valley Chapter Meeting 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Location: Perko’s Restaurant, Modesto Speaker: TBD Topic: TBD

The first visit is for presentation of the forms of work that surveyors do.

Planning for this event includes an activity to demonstrate some aspect of the surveying profession. Last year, we used ArcGIS online to demonstrate some mapping technology. This year, we decided to bring along an instrument to take the kids outside. Before we started, we showed them a title survey for a nearby theater complex. We explained briefly how we use mathematical principals to solve for the position of points. Then, we showed them.

The idea for this year’s activity was to set up the instrument and shot two points. The kids ran the instrument, took notes and chose the rod shots. Then, we were back to the classroom to solve for the unknown distance. I have to admit that the kids were very quick to solved the problem.

We had a great time and are already working on a new activity for next year.

(Continued from page 1)

See pictures on page 6

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GIT Technical Specialist I

RBF Consulting, a Company of Michael Baker International, has an exciting opportunity for a GIT Tech-

nical Specialist I to join our Surveying Geomatics team in our Camarillo, Ontario or Irvine, CA office.

The GIT Technical Specialist’s responsibilities will include:

Assist in managing mapping projects in the private land development and public/municipal sectors.

Ensure project goals/objectives are met within prescribed timeframe and funding parameters.

Assist in developing and writing proposals, define scopes of work and cost/bid estimates.

Perform mapping related research, boundary analysis, calculations, exhibits, and legal descriptions for a

variety of land development and public works related projects from small infill developments to large

master-planned communities and public related improvement projects throughout Southern CA.

Perform mission planning and post processing for GPS surveys.

Prepare flight plans, control schemes and coordination for aerial mapping projects.

Review construction plans and perform calculations for layout staking and prepare exhibits.

Perform survey data processing and prepare reports for spatial monitoring.

Compile topographic information, compute and manipulate digital terrain models for topographic map-

ping.

Prepare and/or oversee the preparation of final maps, parcel maps, record of survey and ALTA maps;

and prepare and/or oversee preparation of legal descriptions and associated plats, and boundary analy-

sis, as well as work closely with engineers to ensure coordination of technical surveying and engineering

aspects of a project.

Requirements:

LSIT

Bachelor’s degree in Surveying Geomatics, Engineering or related field, or equivalent in experience.

Minimum of six (6) years of Surveying Geomatics experience with increasing levels of responsibility.

Knowledge of California Subdivision Map Act and Land Surveyors Act, and a thorough knowledge of

drafting standards and processing project requirements.

To apply for this position, please log on to www.mbakercorp.com/careers select “Job Search” and refer-

ence IRC47214 in “Keywords.” (Note: if you are unable to apply online, please contact the Systems Ad-

ministrator at BAKERHRMS@mbakercorp.com )

Baker is an EEO/AAP (M/F/V/H) e-Verify Employer

Baker offers excellent benefit packages that includes: Medical, Dental, Vision, Disability Insurance, Life

Insurance, Flexible Spending Accounts, Additional Paid Time Off, Flex-Time, 401-K Retirement Plan,

Tuition Reimbursement and Employee Credit Union. To learn more, please visit us on the web at

www.mbakercorp.com.

Baker, founded in 1940, provides professional engineering and consulting services for its clients worldwide. With nearly 3,000

employees in over 100 U.S. offices, Engineering News-Record consistently ranks Baker in the top 8 percent of the 500 largest

U.S. engineering design firms and in the top 25 of numerous individual markets. The firm's primary business areas are archi-

tecture, aviation, defense, environmental, geospatial, homeland security, municipal & civil, oil & gas, rail & transit, telecommu-

nications & utilities, transportation, urban development and water. Baker’s headquarters is located in Moon Township, Penn-

sylvania, near Pittsburgh. Baker recently became part of Michael Baker International, LLC, a leading provider of end-to-end

engineering, development, intelligence and technology solutions with global reach and mobility.

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P A G E 9 J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 4

2014

EARLY BIRD

SPECIAL!

Renew before February

7th, and pay only $25

for Regular and CE

Membership, and $10

for Associate and Affil-

iate.

$25

$25

JOIN STATE AT:

http://californiasurveyors.org/joinclsa.asp

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commute between Oakland and Sacramento. A quick glance at the CLSA

Discussion Board shows 13 new listings in March alone. I hope that our

members are as employed as they want to be, and if they are too busy, they

consider bringing some of the great talent that is still available into their

workplaces.

Today, Caltrans District 4 hosted the League of California Surveying

Organizations (LCSO), Northern Region, for their monthly meeting. If you

haven’t heard of them before, or are only vaguely familiar with LCSO, that is

because you are probably a Northern Californian and the LCSO Northern

Region has just recently formed. The Southern Region has been active for

over four decades. Their mission “is to standardize mapping and the practice

of Land Surveying across the State of California through active dissemination

of information. Its members include County and City Surveyors, Caltrans,

representatives from special districts, professional organizations, and private

consultants whose primary focus is providing surveying services to the

Government sector.” I commend the efforts of Gwen Gee, Santa Clara

County Surveyor, Tom Dougherty, Santa Clara Valley Water District Surveyor,

and Rich Ray, Caltrans District 4, laying the groundwork and working with the

Southern Region to bring it all together. The 23 people in attendance today

were subjected to a 25 minute version of my Bay Bridge Laser Scanning

presentation.

To continue the theme of a disjointed message, many of

you know I’m commuting quite a distance each week to

my office in Oakland. I see interesting, amusing sights

either from the train, or my truck nearly every day. The

view of Mount Diablo is truly an impressive sight as

Amtrak passes the ghost fleet near Benicia. A week

ago I saw familiar faces on I-80 near Fairfield as Colin Wilson and Roy Olsen

passed me in their Cardno survey truck. Immediately my phone buzzed with

a photo of me in my truck texted from them.

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Thank you to our

Sustaining Members for Your Support!

Interested in surveying jobs?

Check out the following link to the one and only CLSA Forum

for new listings to explore:

http://clsaforum.californiasurveyors.org/forumdisplay.php?

f=13

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The FOCAL POINT is a publication of the Sacramento Area Chapter of the

California Land Surveyors Association and is pleased to publish letters from

land surveyors and other interested persons on subject matter relevant to the

land surveying profession. Please include your name, address and daytime

phone number.

Views expressed are the opinions of the individual writers and are not

necessarily those of CLSA, the Chapter, or the editor. The FOCAL POINT

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CLSA SACRAMENTO - 2014 CHAPTER OFFICERS

Rob McMillan (760) 846-4491 President@sac-surveyors.org

Jerry Jones (530) 798-6700 VicePresident@sac-surveyors.org

Matt Stringer (916) 381-9100 Secretary@sac-surveyors.org

Sherrie Zimmerman (707) 592-0465 Treasurer@sac-surveyors.org

Paul Carlson (530) 677-1205 PastPresident@sac-surveyors.org

Jerry Jones (530) 798-6700 BoardReps@sac-surveyors.org

Annette Lockhart (209) 518-9962 BoardReps@sac-surveyors.org

Jill Van Houten (916) 284-1801 BoardReps@sac-surveyors.org

Nick Labedzki (916) 747-5505 BoardReps@sac-surveyors.org

Address: PO BOX 162846, Sacramento, CA 95816-2846

sac-surveyors.org