How Did I Get Started as a Surveyor?
Article by Lisa Van Horn, NSPS President, TSPS Women Surveyors Summit Speaker
I was twenty-one, divorced, with a 6 month old son and working part time in catering. I knew I needed to make some major changes in my life so I went to the local college and took an aptitude test. It showed my strengths and interests to be in either architecture or surveying. I could not imagine sitting at a drafting table all day, so I choose surveying. It seems to follow the tendency of my family with my dad, grandfather, and brother being bricklayers and uncles in concrete and carpentry industry.
With being only a few years out of high school the first few days of college were trying to say the least, but thankfully I had a wonderful instructor. On the first day of the program he warned all the male students in class to not underestimate the ladies in the class, that we might just outperform them all. It turned out to be true, I even won the outstanding student in the program award upon graduation.
During my education, I knew I would need some experience in the field to give me a chance to get a job once I was through with my schooling. I went through the Green Bay phone book and contacted all the surveying companies listed, and offered my services for free. No one took me up on the offer, so I had to drive 65 miles each way to work where I was compensated only $5.95 an hour. Upon graduation, the experience from this job is what gave me the edge and confidence I needed for my first full time job at the Brown County Surveyor's office in Green Bay.
The Brown County Surveyor's office was very progressive on PLSS maintenance and creating a foundation for all land boundaries through GIS. Because of their progressiveness we purchased Real Time GPS in 1994. I was the new kid on the block and the only one with any type of data collection experience, so I was the one who was tasked with learning the new equipment (yes handwritten field notes was our only form of data collection prior to GPS). I had several different training classes and within a year I was speaking in front of 350 people at our state convention about GPS, what we were using it for, and the accuracy data we were obtaining from it.
After 5 years at Brown County, I decided to accept the marriage proposal of my boss and we felt it would be best if we were not working in the same office. I went to another county for a short time before he talked me into starting our own business in 2000. Once on my own, I went to Sunnyvale California for 2 weeks to become a Certified Trimble GPS trainer. I taught classes for a few years while also doing boundary surveys. As our business grew, my husband Les retired after 28 years as the County Surveyor to work with me full time.
Les & I have always felt that as a professional you need to give back to your chosen field. Over the years, I served as our chapter Secretary, on Committees, on Foundations, and then served as the Wisconsin Society of Land Surveyors President in 2007. In 2010, I became the then NSPS Governor for Wisconsin for 6 years. I later ran for NSPS office, and here I am. I feel giving back to your profession is a one of the most rewarding things you can do and I have never regretted any of the time I have spent on this endeavor.
I am excited to see the outcome for the first TSPS Women Surveyors Summit and commend Texas land surveyors on being a leader in the promotion of our exciting profession.