2024 Annual SLSI Conference ~ 14 PDHS OFFERED

 ~REGISTRATION HAS CLOSED TO PREPARE COnference materials - You can register onsite
~CLICK HERe TO DOWNLOAD PDF BROCHURE

SLSI MARCH 6-8, 2024 ANNUAL CONFERENCE - Gateway Hotel & Conference Center

                                       BY 2/29/2024           AFTER 2/29/2024
~SLSI Member                      $295                           $310
~Non-member                       $360                           $390
~SLSI Honorary &                 $100                           $115
Life Members

*PLEASE NOTE: Registration fee credits ($140) from the cancelled January Workshop are transferable ONLY for next year's January Workshop to the registered attendees on the day of the workshop's cancellation.  If you are unable to attend the January 2025 workshop a refund can be issued.

HOTEL RESERVATIONS – GATEWAY HOTEL
A limited block of hotel rooms have been reserved for SLSI attendees at the Gateway Hotel. Please make your reservations early. While the hotel will guarantee the lower room rate until February 26, 2024 this does not mean they can guarantee that rooms will be available. There are a limited number of these rooms set aside at the hotel for SLSI. Rooms are on a first-come, first-served basis. Mention your Society of Land Surveyors of Iowa  affiliation.

Reservations can be made at https://reservations.travelclick.com/2958?groupID=3935412      Or by calling 800-FOR-AMES (800-367-2637)

Other Lodging in and around Ames can found at:
https://www.thinkames.com/poi/stay/


 

schedule of events

Wednesday,  March 6th, 2024 ~ Welcome Reception 6:30-7:30

All Attendees invited.  Bar and Hors D’Oeuvres in the exhibit hall.  Attendees are encouraged to attend the welcome reception to help kick of the annual conference; meet with colleagues and visit with vendors.  

Thursday,  March 7th,  2024

7:30AM ~ REGISTRATION/BREAKFAST/EXHIBITS OPEN FOR VIEWING

8:30AM ~ WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS OF EXHIBITORS

8:45AM ~ IELSEB UPDATE
ROBERT LAMPE, EXAMINING BOARD EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & LARRY JOHNSON, DIRECTOR OF DEPT. OF INSPECTIONS & APPEALS
A review of the many changes the Board has been through in the past year as well as expected changes in the near future. The Board has been directed to review all rules impacting engineers and land surveyors and has submitted extensive rule changes to the legislature. There is a proposal to reduce the size of the Board and unanswered questions on how state specific exams may be offered now that the Examining Board is under the Department of Inspection and Appeals. Added to these internal challenges, the long-awaited law changes and changes to administrative rules on the requirements to become a licensed land surveyor are soon to be implemented.

9:15AM Working on the Iowa Real Time Network (IaRTN)
Dan Messerich, PLS, IaDOT
Spider Business Center (SBC) is the user’s access to the IaRTN and the tools it provides. SBC users can update their account details and post process data by accessing their account. This presentation will go over items on the IaRTN homepage and the tools in SBC. Common support and troubleshooting request will be discussed. This presentation is intended to give users a better understanding of the tools that are available to them from the IaRTN.

10:30AM GLO PLATS & NOTES – HOW TO RESEARCH, WHERE TO FIND THEM
GREG CHLEBICKI, PLS, PE
Pulling excerpts from his review class for the LS exam as well.  Prior to joining the Des Moines Area Community College as an instructor in land surveying, Greg owned his own surveying and engineering firm. In 2006 he began teaching surveying at DMACC and today teaches three surveying courses, plus courses in preparing for the Fundamentals or Principles and Practice Exams.  

12:00PM LUNCH & BOARD MEETING
• Board Reports - SLSI’s role in leading the changes facing surveyors
• Gavel Exchange
• Scholarships

1:30PM PREPARING FOR COURT
ABE CARLS, ATTORNEY AT LAW
Abram (Abe) Carls is an attorney with the prestigious law firm of Simmons, Perrine, Moyer, Bergman in Cedar Rapids, IA. Mr. Carls routinely advises on tort claims, contract disputes and counsels clients throughout the various stages of the civil litigation process. Drawing a real-life experience – yes, even with land surveyors - this program will educate you on the Dos and Don’ts on court testimony and depositions. This interactive program could well be the difference between embarrassing yourself and losing in the litigation process and being on the prevailing side.

3:45 PM ETHICS PROGRAM
RICK FOSSE , PE
Rick Fosse is a Master of Disaster (Relief) and shares what it takes to be ethical in professional practice. A newspaper headline announcing Rick Fosse’s retirement referred to Rick as the Master of Disaster because during his 11-year tenure as Iowa City’s public works director he had to deal with a tornado, three of the four largest floods the city as ever seen and a massive land fill fire. After 33 years as a practicing engineer, he shifted to teaching and is a professor of practice for the civil and environmental engineering program at the University of Iowa. In that role he teaches a course in “Ethics in Professional Practice.

Wait. You’re thinking what it’s like listening to a prof, right? Well, on the website Rate your Professor, Rick received an amazing 100% rating to the question, “Would you take this class again.”

5:00 PM SOCIAL HOUR/CASH BAR – EXHIBIT HALL

6:00 PM LIVE SCHOLARSHIP AUCTION – HEAVY HORS D’OEUVRES & CASH BAR
Various surveying related, and non-related, items will be auctioned off to help raise money for the SLSI Scholarship fund. Photo Contest Winners Also Announced.

Annual Photo Competition:
~Category 1 – Surveying Related Photos
This is a broad category. It could be an interesting or humorous photo of surveyors at work, or unusual surveying challenges or, maybe surveying equipment.
~Category 2 – Monumentation
Photos may be interesting discoveries you have made when searching or finding monumentation. These photos may have a historical significance or, maybe, just made you laugh or scratch your head in wonder.
~Category 3 – Scenic
This category is for the land surveyor who not just enjoys the challenge of land surveying, but sees the beauty in the scenery in which you practice your profession.

To Enter:
1. Send SLSI an “intent to enter” notice to [email protected] identifying an estimate of the number of photos you may submit.
2. Bring a copy of the photo(s) to the annual conference. Photos accepted up to must be 11”x17”.
3. The photos will be on display at the annual conference. Attendees will be given the opportunity to vote on their favorite(s) throughout the day
4. The winning photos will be auctioned on Wednesday night at the SLSI Foundation auction. The photographers will be asked to provide the winning bidder with an electronic version of the photo so the winning bidder may choose to have the photo printed in a different size at their own expense.
6. The winner of each category will receive $50 and a receipt for a tax-deductible contribution for the amount the photos sell for at the auction.

Friday,  March 8th,  2024

7:30AM  BREAKFAST

8:00AM IOWA LAND RECORDS UPDATE
PHIL DUNSHEE, ILR
Phil will share with us the work of an SLSI committee working with Iowa Land Records and the Iowa Recorders Association charged with reviewing and indexing and formatting practice for surveys and plats and related documents and to develop recommendations for a process and budget to digitize, index and electronically post older survey documents. They may investigate a process to add associated references to older surveys and develop an application for facilitating a multi-jurisdictional workflow for the review, approval and recording process for electronic plats and survey documents.

9:45AM WHEN THE MANUAL IS SILENT
DENNIS MOULAND, PLS, WITNESS TREE CONSULTING
Dennis Mouland is a renowned speaker and author, who receives rave reviews on his presentation around the country, as well as when he has spoken here in Iowa. This is a full day course that expands on a number of topics never addressed by GLO or BLM in retracement issues in the PLSS. This course goes into the details of what we need to consider to still be within the scope of the law, as well as what we need to document to show our peers why we did what we did. Examples: Lost corners in section subs, multiple WC's at a section corner, and why the Grant Boundary Method will not work for many non-rectangular entities.

 


   KEYNOTE SPEAKER:  Dennis J. Mouland, PLS ~ Witness Tree Consulting (WTC) 

 Dennis J. Mouland formed WTC in 2010 to re-engage the profession with the high-quality seminars and advice for which  he had become famous. He formerly owned cadastral consulting, Inc. Which he was required to sell when he took employment with the Bureau of Land Management (2005). Dennis is a registered professional surveyor in Arizona and Colorado. He recently retired his PLS numbers in California and New Mexico. He has a bachelor of arts degree in organizational management, and has been in the surveying profession for over 50 years. His experience is evenly split between the private sector, including his own surveying firm, and federal government employment.

Dennis has been an instructor and course manager for the BLM/forest service “advanced cadastral school” and most recently served as the national cadastral training coordinator for BLM in Phoenix, AZ Dennis has taught boundary law subjects in higher education institutions since 1995, and is currently a surveying instructor at the university of Wyoming.

  


 CANCELLATIONS:

Receive a full refund if cancelled prior to February 26, 2024. No refunds will be made after that date.  Attendee substitutions will be accepted at any time. Refunds will not be given for no-shows. Due to the statewide audience of the conference and contractual deadline obligations with the facility all efforts will be made (with safety of attendees in consideration) to host the conference regardless of weather.

 

 


 

 

For questions, please contact the SLSI office at [email protected] or 515-284-7055.