B-to-B and Social Capital

by Ilse Genovese

Exhibitions have been held in the United States for around 100 years. Associations entered the field in a big way about thirty-five years ago, sponsoring, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry, about 67 percent of the more than 9,400 business-to-business events held annually by 2003.
And the reason for this move? Trade shows add value to annual membership meetings. Members learn about new equipment and techniques in sessions, then adjourn to the exhibit floor to see and operate the very thing they heard about at the convention. Yet, while the hands-on experience is highly desirable, convention planners have been quick to realize that face-to-face encounters with inventors, vendors, and peers creates social capital that's at the heart of what associations do. <<more>>

1975-1981: Before the First ACSM Reorganization

by Ilse Genovese

Twenty-five years later, the former "Land Surveys Division" of ACSM, which vigorously pursued semi-autonomous status within the parent association right up to 1981, is now a nationally incorporated entity governed by a good deal of volunteerism, professional pride and commitment, and vigorous search for ways and means of further advancing the surveying profession. Some of its fights on behalf of its members are decades old, others reflect new reality; all are very instructive. Let's now look back to the years shortly before 1981 and refresh our memory of some of the most profound thoughts and actions that preceded the first restructuring of ACSM. <<more>>

NSPS--25 Years

by Curt Sumner

Ever since five members of the Land Surveys Division (LSD) of ACSM met in a hotel room in September of 1979 to discuss what a national organization for surveyors would look like, NSPS has been working toward being recognized as that organization. <<more>>

The idea to re-visit the nineteenth century's geodetic feat known as the Transcontinental Arc was born during a consultation on the "Maps in our Lives" exhibit at the Library of Congress in late 2005. The triangulation of the "trans arc" along the 39th parallel is said to have been the beginning of surveying on land over long distances. Captain Burroughs, a retired NOAA Corps officer, took with pleasure the challenge of writing about the work and the people who performed it. The resulting three-part narrative and timelines, some of them created using drawing equipment of an era long passed, were, according to Burroughs, "labors of love."—The Editor

The Transcontinental Arc: Part 2

by Charles A. Burroughs

At the outset of the transcontinental arc of triangulation in 1872 there were only ten states west of the Mississippi River, including Missouri, Iowa, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, Nevada, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Both Colorado and Utah, through which the survey was to pass, would not become states until 1876 and 1896, respectively. Then there were the states north of the arc (Washington, Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Idaho) that would not shed their territorial status until 1889 and 1890. And, finally, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona, to the south, would retain their territorial status well into the 20th century (1907 and 1912). The Nation's love affair with the railroads also spanned this period, with the surveys for the proposed routes through the mountainous West starting as early as the 1850s and culminating with the completion of the first transcontinental railroad by 1869 and two others, to the north and south, by 1883. There would be many more interconnecting and branch lines added right up to the end of the century and beyond. The transcontinental lines were funded largely by the government through land grants; 131 million acres of public domain were eventually traded for 19,000 miles of railroad. All of this served to open up commerce to and from the Nation's heartland and proved to be of some assistance toward providing for the transport of survey teams to their requisite trailheads in the West. <<more>>

Racing Against Time
(mid 1975 – end 1976)

by Irene K. Fischer

In July 1975 there was an occasion to invite our old-time boss, Floyd Hough, back to TC (DMA Topographic Center, the successor of the old-time famous AMS) for a day of festivities. TC had installed a series of six portraits in the lobby, a "Gallery of Distinguished Civilian Employees," and Hough had been chosen as one of these. A big luncheon was arranged in Hough's honor, and several of his one-time employees, now in other agencies, joined us for this heart-warming reunion. After my return from Grenoble, Hough took great interest in my success there, like a proud father. Later in the fall, he went to the hospital to have a cataract removed, then had to return there with a broken hip—and that was just too much. He died 6 January 1976. Another warm experience lapsed into memory lane. <<more>>