I wrote my last president’s message on Memorial Day, so I guess it is only fitting that I write my next one on Labor Day. The year is continuing to move fast. Many state societies have two-year terms for their society leadership and now I am seeing why. I came into the year with so many ideas and before there is time to establish them all, the year is winding down. The summer has been busy for me both at the office and with the society.

The Surveyor Olympics was hosted by the Past Presidents council this past Saturday. Thank you to Vince Barr and all those that helped put the event
together. We didn’t get the attendance we were hoping for this year but those that did attend had a pretty great time. There was good food and some spirited competition. One of the key takeaways I wanted to note was the mentorship that was on display at the event. Many of the activities we had this year were “vintage” survey tasks which many of us have not performed in a great number of years, if ever at all. Those that were familiar with the tasks wasted no time sharing their knowledge with the others and it was great to see. That was the spirit I wanted to see during this event, and it did not disappoint. I hope we can make it even better next year and more will be willing to come out and experience the fun with their fellow surveyors and families.

As I discussed in my last message, much of the board discussion this year has focused on finance. In June, the board finalized our reserve and investment policy. There are a couple key takeaways to this policy that I want to highlight here. The board set a reserve policy of 75% of the society’s three-year average of annual expenses. This means if the society’s cash and investments are not at this level during the annual budgeting process, the board is not able to utilize any of the funds within that year’s budget and a plan must be developed to get the funds to that level. If the funds have reached the 75% threshold the board is able to utilize 5% of the three-year average of the investments in the annual budget. We also established asset allocation guidelines for the reserve fund and the amount in excess of the reserve amount. The entire policy is available in the June meeting minutes which can be requested from info@ispls.org if desired.

In addition to passing the reserve and investment policy, the board also established the 2024-2025 budget. The society currently has the 75% needed in the reserve fund to allow us to utilize the 5% of the investment average. The additional funds from the reserve policy allowed the board to allocate funds to some items that had to be reduced in previous years. The Trigstar program was funded once again, funds were set aside to allow our young surveyor representative to attend the NSPS meetings, and workforce development received some funding. Ultimately, the board was able to come up with a strong budget that meets many of the society’s goals while still staying balanced. 2023-2024 was also an outstanding year for the society’s finances, mostly due to the high attendance at the conferences. The workforce development committee estimates the need for $15,000 a year to fund the efforts they have planned for outreach and workforce development. The board has some work to do to find this amount of money in the budget, therefore they decided to allocate this year’s surplus to those efforts as we discuss finding a more permanent funding solution for the committee.

The fall season is upon us which also means our outreach efforts are ramping up. Many of our largest and most impactful events happen during these last few months of the year. We will be attending the Junior Achievement Job Spark event at the fairgrounds (9/24-9/26), the FAA National Convention (10/23-10/26), the Indiana School Counselors Conference (11/14-11/15) along with a number of individual school visits and community events around the state. Volunteers for various time slots are needed for these large events so please reach out to workforce@ispls.org if you are interested in attending any of these events. There is so much inspiration I receive from the conversations I have at these events so I look forward to attending at least one this year and more if my project schedule will allow. I hope to see some of you there as well.