California Surveyors Forums

In the interest of improving my professionalism, I'm making a concious effort to NOT blast (even in jest) my fellow professionals in public (especially on-line) forums, and I am trying to spread the concept to all my contacts.

Consider this a challenge to you, and spread the challenge to all you know to do the same. Sure - there will be heated discussions and fun-poking, but take it to a private forum (e-mail, instant message, phone, or face to face). Let's not air our dirty laundry for the world to see...

For the record, I have NOT done a good job of NOT blasting people in the past... But I am making an effort to change and reaching out with this challenge to those who blast me...

Respectfully,

Rob

May you be successful in fulfilling your intentions.
And therefore NOT be plagued by the fleas of a thousand camels.

Go ahead and blast away at me Rob. How else am I going to learn.

An old party chief of mine would always tell me "You are as useful as an aerial target under a bridge". I worked hard to become a better surveyor. Then one day out of nowhere he says "You finally moved out from under the bridge". Thanks Walt.

Hopefully we can all give and take constructive criticism. Let's just not blast each other here in public...

Me too!

I have been attempting to turn over a new leaf as a rodman from the past used to say.

I think discussion is good for us as long as it doesn't degenerate into a debating point mess. I am attempting to not debate. If I am wrong I want to know it. If I am right I want to know why.

Here here!

I just bought a bigger gun :)

Thanks for posting this Rob,

Sometimes I wonder if we are elevating the profession on this board... or doing something else to the profession.

Many Land Surveyors In Training and even non-surveyors look to this board for answers to their questions. A posting on the board here should be considered similar to an advertisement in a trade magazine regarding your firm or business, it shows your professionalism to the rest of the industry.

I enjoy the post of many of the professionals here. Let's keep a place professionals go to for answers, and leave the "chat room" talk for elsewhere

with Steve and Rob. I notice sometimes there appears to be some emotionally charged responses and/or comments here. And to add to Steve's comment, you are advertising yourself and the degree of your professionalism when you post your opinion here. Although some users have names that make it difficult to see who they actually are (typically these people are the one's who post comments lacking professionalism). This is not a blog site where you can hide behind a fake name, this is a forum. State who you are, what your question and/or professional opinion is, and correspond with your colleages professionally, respectfully, and intelligently. Anything short of this, you lose credibility.

I was just thinking about this last weekend when I was searching through blogs of other professionals for research. A real estate forum has links to threads from other survey related forums about certain topics. They don't come across well. One quote was "Even surveyors don't agree with themselves". I also saw a thread on another forum for attorneys that said "many surveyors" are upset about Table A Item #21 and had a link to another survey forum where four members were arguing about Item #21. Four does not constitute many in my book, but may in the general public arena.

The surveyors in those threads look like children arguing on a playground "I told you so", "I know you are, but what am I?", rather than professionals.

This CLSA forum was not linked in these two instances mentioned above.

Post professionally.

Rob, it's been hard to hold back recently. Real hard.
But thanks. You are right.

Over two attacks on me recently, my silence has proven to be the greatest weapon. I have actually earned respect as well as gained clients....... and the other guy is..... well, sniveling.

It is noble of you to suggest that we maintain a level of professionalism on this board and all public forums.

However, doesn't this posting itself create a negative image of our profession?

The mere fact that we have to create a posting to encourage people to act professionally would make a member of the public question our professionalism.

Perhaps this string of posts should have been directed only to those few that have acted unprofessionally in the past. And, perhaps it should have been done in a private forum such as email, instant message, etc. as you mentioned previously.

“Professional stature cannot be attained by self-proclamation. The lazy say, ‘give me the prize without the training, the wages without work, the reward without the quest, heaven without probation, a profession’s prestige without a profession’s skill.’ If the land surveyor is to have professional standing, that standing must be earned and bestowed upon him by others.”

-Curtis M. Brown
Professional Land Surveyor

I'm really impressed with Rob; It takes guts to publicly admit when you are wrong, especially unprovoked. This post undoubtedly made others cognizant of their current level of professionalism, and some will improve their behavior as a result (including those with already good behavior).

On the whole, I find it much more effective to convey this message publicly.