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MMark Plog and TomWoldendorp areno strangers tomany of our read-ers. Many of youmight remember

these guys as the surveyors who devel-oped SurveyPlanet, a Web portal thatexisted for a while during the dot comboom. The portal was designed to getsurveyors more involved in the profes-sional aspects of surveying by offeringtools such as online proposal develop-ment that would allow a consumer todeal directly with a surveyor instead ofa broker. While SurveyPlanet had greatpotential, like many other dot com ventures, it fell victim to a revenue planthat didn’t work out. But that doesn’tmean SurveyPlanet has disappearedfrom orbit altogether. In order to paythe bills, Plog and Woldendorp haverefocused their energies on surveying,with hopes that they can revisit theirdream when the time is right.

Their efforts have played out nicely,giving birth to a new company:GeoDatum. But before we take a lookat some of the interesting things goingon at GeoDatum today, we can’t passup the interesting story of how Plogand Woldendorp crossed paths in thefirst place.

Forty-one-year-old Plog was born inCape Town, South Africa. His fatherwas a civil engineer who started survey-ing in Wisconsin and served as aSeabee in WWII building runways inthe South Pacific. The elder Plog wasthe first licensed architect on Guam,and later became the manager of overseas operations for Mobil OilCompany. His jobs took the family to

South Africa, Australia, Kenya, Texas,London, and Connecticut. Following inhis father’s footsteps, Mark obtained acivil engineering degree. He graduatedfrom Texas A&M in 1985, and becamea partner in a Corpus Christi engineer-ing firm where he also started survey-ing. Plog credits his partner, Mr. HaroldShearer, PE, PLS, as being his surveymentor. Plog obtained his PE and LSlicenses in Texas, and is now a PE/LSin Washington and a PE in Oregon, aswell. After moving back and forthbetween Corpus Christi and Seattle, he

settled in Seattle, along with his wifeand two daughters, and becameinvolved with Landmark, Inc., an engineering company.

Tom Woldendorp, age 44, was also born in South Africa, after hisparents had moved there from theNetherlands in 1950s. Surveying ranin the family; his uncle taught surveying at a university in TheNetherlands, and a cousin taught sur-veying at a university in South Africa.Woldendorp obtained a scholarshipfrom the Cape Town Municipality. He

By Marc S. Cheves, LS

An Interview with Mark Plog & TomWoldendorp of GeoDatum in Seattle

Plog (left) and Woldendorp in front of Seattle's Pike Place Market

Displayed with permission • The American Surveyor • July-August • Copyright 2004 Cheves Media • www.TheAmericanSurveyor.com

http://www.theamericansurveyor.com

obtained a four-year degree in survey-ing from the University of Cape Townin 1981, and became licensed to sur-vey in 1983. He smiled as he recalledthat he gained very little practicalknowledge in the university, but whathe did learn enabled him to quicklyturn his theoretical knowledge intopractice. In 1988, he moved to neigh-boring Namibia where he became theacting Surveyor General. Woldendorpfeels that Namibia and South Africaare years ahead of the U.S. when itcomes to cadastral surveying becauseevery survey is reviewed and record-ed, and every survey is on the nation-al datum—there are no local coordinatesystems. As in Europe, there is verylittle traversing, but rather re-section-ing and triangulation from existingcontrol monuments. (Editor’s note: thisis possible due to the amazing density of

control monuments in these countries.)Because of Namibia’s terrain and vegetation, Woldendorp describesNamibia as “God’s GPS Country.”

Woldendorp spent 11 years workingin Namibia, and came to the U.S. for avisit with his family in 1994 and 1996.He fell in love with America, and posteda resume on lsrp.com. As fate wouldhave it, it was Plog who responded, andWoldendorp came to Seattle for an inter-view. In August of 1999, he moved toSeattle with his wife and two daughtersunder the H1-B visa program, a pro-gram that allows people with certaintechnical skills to enter the U.S. to work.Because SurveyPlanet was underway, hebegan working there instead of with asurveying company. Oddly enough, theH1-B program requires visa holders toleave the U.S. periodically to renew thevisa. Woldendorp found himself inAmsterdam at the same time as theUSA invasion of Iraq, unable to get his visa renewed. After hiring a differ-ent attorney in the U.S., he got thevisa renewed and was able to return to Seattle. Woldendorp and his familyare now on track to obtain their U.S. citizenship.

Plog and Woldendorp park their GeoDatum survey truck outside a localStarbucks and duck inside to take advantage of the wireless capabilities thatallow them to stay connected to their business.



All Cranked UpIn 2001, Plog and Woldendorp createdMXP Land Surveying and both beganworking there full time. In 2002, theychanged the name to GeoDatum, Inc.when they added engineering to theservices they provide. They are doingseveral interesting things with their newcompany, most notably with the use ofwireless Internet in their daily routines.Starbucks coffee shops abound inSeattle, and most have a wireless capa-bility. Plog and Woldendorp carry wire-less-enabled laptops with them, and canduck into the nearest Starbucks toobtain information or updates. Becauseof this capability, they rarely have toreturn to the office during the day.

They use Nikon total stations, bothfor the accuracy and the instrument’sresistance to water (very important in thePacific Northwest). Their primary suppli-er is Accurate Survey Supplies inRedmond, Washington. They also likethe Nikons because the EDM works

well in foliage. When we met, they had areflectorless total station on order. Withall of the trees, mountains and buildingsin their urban surroundings, GPS does-n’t work well, therefore they don’t use ita great deal. If they have a job on whichGPS is needed, they rent the equipment,and have used ProMarks on several jobs.Rather than using plastic caps on themarkers they set, they use two-inch alu-minum caps from Berntsen because theylook more professional and are moredurable. For CAD, they useMicroStation, and for comps they useEagle Point. They consider Eagle Pointto be high-end software, and eventhough it has a steep learning curve, itsuits their work processes well.

Most of GeoDatum’s work is develop-ment related, including boundaries,topos and stakeout. They do a fairamount of work for architects, whorequire highly detailed, accurate surveys.Occasionally they perform ALTA sur-veys. Other work includes cell and radiotowers, airport work, and work for localgovernments, including school districts.As licensed surveyors they are qualifiedto make on-the-spot decisions when itcomes to boundary comps in the field.

All job research can be performedonline. The City of Seattle has excel-lent aerial imagery available online, andwhere applicable, is used to enhancetheir deliverables. Other online infor-mation includes City of Seattle streetcenterlines and monument maps, andtax maps.

Many counties in Washington alsoprovide online access to Records ofSurvey. Plog expressed dissatisfactionwith what he sees as selective enforce-ment of the requirement, however, andsaid that surveyors and clients oftenexploit loopholes to avoid filing. He’s afirm believer in the requirement, andthinks that the requirement should beapplied conservatively rather thanstretching the meaning to avoid filing.Internally, GeoDatum has a policy ofrecording all boundary surveys, period.He doesn’t understand the motivationfor not recording as the fees for record-ing a survey are only $85 and mostboundary surveys cost $1,000 and up.One motivation for noncompliancemight be due to the fact that some sur-veyors are afraid that mistakes might berevealed. Plog is in favor of a nationalrecording requirement as is currently

Woldendorp and Plog at work in the Pacific Northwest. Image at left shows Mt.Ranier in the background



being discussed, believing it wouldincrease accountability and also allowsurveyors to charge more for their work.He feels that surveyors in Washingtonmay be more likely to share their recordsthan those in other states where survey-ors have a tendency to use their recordsto “carve out territories” for themselves.

Plog and Woldendorp require a 50percent retainer before commencingwork. The advantages are twofold: theretainer provides quicker cash-flow fortheir new business, and allows them togauge the seriousness of a client. In thethree years they’ve been in business,they’ve only had two or three clientsrefuse to provide the retainer. All proj-ects include a written proposal and acontract. They do not negotiate theprice. They feel that they are more com-petitive and responsive, and usually canhave a proposal back to the client with-in 48 hours. Their website (www.geoda-tum.com) provides a wealth of informa-tion for consumers, including an expla-nation of why qualifications-based selec-tion is so important. One special featureof their website is a fee calculator thatpotential clients can use to get a ballparkestimate of what their job will cost.Several other surveyors have expressedinterest in having the fee calculator ontheir website. A vital part of their busi-ness, the website has yielded an averageof 10 requests for proposal per monthsince they started. They also acceptcredit card payment on their website,and estimate that roughly 30 percent oftheir business involves payment online,especially for the retainers. Credit cardcapability has streamlined the processes,and because payments are immediate,they don’t lose time with collections. Inthree years, they’ve only had one clienttry to stop a credit card payment, andthat guy lost his case.

Finding good help takes time. At thetime of the interview they had fouremployees, and were in the process ofhiring two more. The first two survey-ing employees they hired each have atwo-year surveying degree from RentonTechnical College in Renton, WA.

Getting the Word OutGeoDatum recently moved into a newoffice in Issaquah, just off Interstate 90.One unconventional aspect of their busi-

ness is an outreach program that involvesspeaking before groups of realtors andarchitects. They use direct mail to targetand promote their services. However,word-of-mouth, together with qualitywork, has been their best advocate.

All work is lump sum. They current-ly receive $140/hour for a two-personcrew, and $125/hour for a licensed sur-veyor doing non-field work. They deliv-er a spreadsheet to the client showingall charges and time estimate eventhough the contract may be lump sum.Other deliverables come on CD forevery project, which includes the mapsin MicroStation, AutoCAD, and PDFformats, as well as digital images ofeach project.

What topics push their buttons? Plogresponded about the current controver-sy over the definition of the profession:he feels that first and foremost, the defi-nition should acknowledge that we areto put the client first. Both Plog andWoldendorp favor a four-year degreerequirement; in their opinions universi-ty training teaches people “how tothink,” and provides exercises in ethics,business and communication skills.

They also believe membership in stateassociations should be mandatory, as itis in Canada and many other countries.Their advice to others? Don’t ignoreopportunities!

So how does the future look for thisdynamic duo? If revenues are any indication, the forecast is bright. Fromrevenues of $190K when they startedin 2001, the business has grown to$465K last year, with a projected$600K this year. Plog and Woldendorpwill soon be incorporating GIS intothe mix they offer clients. With theknowledge they gained from theirSurveyPlanet experience, most notablythe admin functions, they now have anonline project management system inplace with all the project files availableonline at the closest Starbucks. Andthey haven’t lost sight of the internetportal concept behind SurveyPlanet—ifthey can find the time and create theright balance of functionalities to makeit financially viable, they’ll re-launchthe dream and send it back into orbit.In the mean time they’ll continue inthe manner that suits them best—fullspeed ahead.

Pike Place Fish Market—where the workers throw the fishes—is a familiar settingfor locals and movie buffs alike.



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