Response to BTR 7

Ok. I have received what I think are 2 awesome comments pasted below. Please read them.

My response to the first comment is call him now and don't pussy foot around. Be direct and while he may be irritated, if he is the pro you say he is he'll appreciate it in the long run.
That is what I want people to do with me. I personally have so little time that ambivalence is a waste.
Tell him. I would.

Then second comment discusses a hardcore BTR fine be imposed for surveyors. Being a recent product of a review and fine etc. I have to say that I agree 100% with this person.
Make it sting!!!

Whoever wrote these 2 comments are awesome. I also received a comment not posted on this blog. I have asked the person to let me post it. Keep your fingers crossed, it is really good. It touches on personal accountability.

Thanks!!!



Anonymous said...

Turning another surveyor in is not always an easy thing, even when they've blatently screwed up a survey. We recently came across one that a local surveyor had done (he beat our price by more than half!). We have a lot of respect for his work and since he's a one-man show, we figured he could do the work with less overhead. When we saw a copy of his survey though, we were stunned. This guy has a history of doing fine work, but this one looked like it had been done by someone who was clueless as to how to survey and/or prepare a proper ROS plat. Incorrect information was shown; misspelled words all over the place; sloppy linework, etc. So we were faced with a question; do we talk to this guy personally, turn him in, or what. We opted to not turn him in because he hadn't been given a chance to correct his errors. Talking to him is going to be harder though because of his past work (generally excellent) and the fact that he's a respected friend. How do you tell someone their baby is ugly and not sound horrible?
Lots of stories are out there and we all have war chests full of them.

November 11, 2010 6:37 AM

 

Anonymous said...

Let me address something that I've preached about locally, and at the state level for years. Getting sanctioned by the BOTR, or for some of us, getting a slap on the hand. (I've been before the Board on two occasions in the last 30 years. Both times were for very minor things and I came away unscathed, more or less).
There's no incentive for some guys to follow the rules and do a good job. What's the worse that could come of it? You get called before the Board; you admit your guilt, or not; get a slap on the hand, a relatively small fine and your name in lights in the next Board newsletter. There's a local surveyor in the area where I work who's notorious for rejecting damn near every monument he finds, capped or not, and for setting his own monuments right next to them (sometimes, within hundreths - yes, we found one case where his monument was so close to another capped monument that he had to cut off part of the other guy's plastic cap and we couldn't get ribbon between the monuments). This surveyor rarely files his surveys. A few years back, the entire group of surveyors from this area wrote a letter that we all signed and told him he needed to 1) Record all of his surveys for the past ten years that should have been recorded had he followed the rules and 2) Start recording all his surveys from this day forward (holding to the Minimum Standards Rules for recording). He ended up recording about 12 surveys for the ten year period and is back to his old practices of not recording.
But, I digress.
My point is, if we want this sort of shit to stop, the Board needs to grow some balls and start handing out HEFTY fines and sanctions. Say, a thousand dollar minimum fine per violation. Yes, that's steep, but my guess is, if someone gets popped, they'll never get nailed again because of the expensive lesson they learned. And, they'll be more inclined to be watching the other guys to make sure THEY are following the rules.
Impose the hefty fines and you'll eventually see a lot less complaints filed. It will take time, but the word will get out and those who are cutting corners will either come in line, bow out, or will be paying out so much in fines that they can't stay in business.
My two-cents for now.