Oh Yeah the Holidays

Well it’s the Holidays again. 

I want to take a moment to thank anyone that has posted and participated on my blog this last year.

Good, bad, hateful or indifferent, you help make it fun.

I want to wish everyone

Merry Christmas

Happy Hanukah

Happy Kwanzaa

Or whatever your thing is, enjoy and make it a great one. 

2012 Has been a hell of a year. It’s been up and down and around all over the world.

2013 looks promising and I intend to charge at it with full force.

Now then, lets once again give it up for the surfing Santa.

 

 

See all of you crazy kids next year.

Happy Holidays and Happy New year.

Record Plat

One of the most important things I learned in John Rose's surveying class is the definition of a monument.

"Set at or near a property corner".

Now this is also one of my favorites and maybe the most important.

"A boundary is defined on paper".

I love this stuff. I love recorded plats because that's what they are. Recorded, a legal document that has permanently defined a property boundary.

Who can define a boundary in Arizona? If you said a surveyor then you are wrong!!!!! Only a court of law can do this.

Yes there are platting exceptions but all municipalities have a legal department.

All that said brings me to my point.

I have been running across a lot of cad files lately in which the surveyor has gone out in a platted subdivision, recovered the monuments, drew a line between them and called this the boundary and given it to the architect and civil for design.

I understand this method, however in the case of a platted subdivision I fully disagree with it, unless there is a serious blunder, which we all have found at one time or another.

I am of the opinion that a monument does not define a boundary, but simply represents a controlling location that is subjective depending on who surveys it.

Going back to the find and trace method. In the case of a platted subdivision, once again in my opinion is fundamentally incorrect based on the fact that 5 guys can go out, shoot the same monuments and come up with a different boundary. Before you know you have people arguing that the perfectly good plat is somehow messed up because the monuments measure different.

Whatever!

Why go to all that trouble when there is a perfectly good legal boundary? How about simply hopping on a meridian and use some good old surveyor common sense and use best fit and make sure that no one loses?
Call out a falling on a monument you don't like it.

Now there are some that will argue this point and say monuments are the end all of the universe and that's fine, however in my mind it's mute.

Why do surveyors want to take all kinds of liability when all they have to to do is provide evidence? That's what I am. I am a professional evidence producer. Do I want to re-create the world of a platted lot? Oh hell no!!!

I am speaking from the perspective that the cad files I recently received were in a platted subdivision, there were only topo's done and no results of survey filed and in a couple of recent instances I have had to re-do the boundary for some legals I had to write based on the fact that the particular city that everything was going to would have kicked it out, hence causing some changes to the design.

So you're out doing a topo, you've gotten your meridian and you miss a rebar and cap. So What!! It's just a representation of what some other guy did and who knows what the crew chief did.

Now getting into boundary surveys is another thing and I use many methods for those. Record and measured and falling's being my first choice in a platted subdivision. That's why we file results of surveys because it is the result of the evidence we produced and yes I know that there are applications for different types of surveys but today is about the plat map.

I have done it all different ways but I always fall back on the fundamentals learned from John Rose and many old timey guys, especially in a platted subdivision.

" A MONUMENT IS SET AT OR NEAR A PROPERTY CORNER"
"A PROPERTY CORNER IS DEFINED ON PAPER"

Brilliant, just amazingly brilliant!!! Got to love the old guy common sense.

I think Boundary Control and Legal Principals I & II should be a mandatory requirement for anyone that is allowed to even trace a boundary line.

Employers call Phoenix College and immediately enroll your people. I used to send selected people through myself included and it was some of the best money I ever spent.

Peace out surveyors, make a great common sense filled week.

Tire Kickers

I always find people that are shopping for the cheapest price amusing.

While I understand their outlook on the situation I always muse about the shitty job they are about to receive at a cut rate.

My prices in opinion are actually right in the middle of industry standard.

In talking to peers about this very topic I have come to the conclusion.

While everyone can get a job done for a certain cost there are those who have gone into this thing I call "disregard profit mode".

This I am going to tell you is a travesty. Anyone that is willing to work without profit should have their right to do business revoked.

Now this is merely my personal opinion but if you think about the long term ramifications and the absolute destruction of client loyalty this causes it is a pretty big deal.

As things continue to turn around we will see less of this sort of thing mostly because the cheapo's will be to busy and guys like me will start getting more calls.

I had an experience the other day. This person calls me, tells me what they think they need and me knowing what the particular city will accept I proceed to tell them that they may be cutting themselves short and they should verify.

The verification occurred and I was asked by the same person "this is only a few hours worth of work right?" Well actually no it was much more in depth and I estimated it at a professional rate.

Needless to say I have not heard back but that's ok. I would rather pass on the opportunity to get jammed on for a cut rate price and just move on to the next job.

During the peak of the last recession at times I would get really pissed off when I got beat. Today I actually pity the client because you and I know that the service they will receive for the cheapest price will be sub par and essentially they get what they pay for.

This whole cheap thing is now coming back around to bite a lot of guys on the ass now. I think I always knew it would but wow is it better than I ever imagined.

Peace out surveyors. Make it a great profitable week.

America Moving Forward

I very rarely discuss politics in public and I am going to continue that trend.

Today however I am very sad for our great country.

On November 6, 2012 the United States of America decided to continue the unfortunate and extremely precarious position that is placed its self in 4 years ago.

The magnitude of this decision is serious and we will have little idea of it for the next year or so.

Why did this happen? I know why, but I refuse to discuss it here just as I refuse to disparage the continuing President of these United States.

Many will tell you how much trouble we are in.

Fat chance!

To them I say “Shut your ignorant mouth”! Take your mudslinging and shove it.  Keep your trap shut unless you have something constructive to say about how to help us progress.

We are Americans. We are the greatest country the world has ever seen and by nature we will prevail no matter what is handed to us.

I am an American Patriot through and through, I love my country and I will succeed no matter what comes my way.

I'm moving forward.

 

 

Re-Plat

I was recently hired to do a replat on 2 lots in a subdivision.

I did some prelim calc's and went out to do a search and destroy monument search.

I held a brass cap on the section line and the northwest corner of the section which was the corner of the subdivision as my meridian.

The distance checked 2' +/- short of record plat. This kind of irritated me because everything else was checking real nice.

This plat was done in the 80's and all evidence points to the section corner being accurate and in character.

I searched along the subdivision line and found nothing, nada, nill.

Unfortunately in order to reconstruct these lots establishing the subdivision line was completely required.

I pondered on it for a bit. I applied an index to the lots therefore shorting my 2 lots .6'.

I had located a lot of the walls and the index gradually caused some major encroachments so I threw that idea out the window.

I finally decided to calc the lots at record and hold the brass cap that I found on the section line and the walls fell perfect.

I forgot to mention that the brass cap checked great to the west 1/4 corner and the interior brass caps and property corners that I recovered.

So now we have a 30 year old plat with a bad distance. Why?

Some guy from way back made a typo and I will stand behind that statement.

Why? Because I've done it and so has anyone that has ever drawn a survey.

This boys and girls is the reason we check things in the field and use our awesome data base to verify.

I love boundary stuff that makes me think. It's truly the one thing about surveying that I like to sink my teeth into.

Make it a great week surveyors.

Value of Time Off

Last week my kids had fall break. A few years ago when this came around I was skeptical at best and wondered why in the hell do these kids needs so much time off and my wife used to lose it because there were kids around when they should not be.

This year I went about it a lot different. I was waiting on some projects to kick off and had little to do so I packed the family up and went to the ocean for a week. Yup I took an October vacation.

I will tell you right now that it was fantastic and much needed.

Back in the days gone by when I had a lot of employees running around I used to take quite a bit of time off. The reason was I needed to chill out. Running a very busy business is extremely hard on a persons soul. It can ruin your mind and create a major asshole. I would work 4.5 days a week and never on the weekend. Those 4 days might have been 12 hour days but Friday I always left at 9-10am after going over the books, signing checks and addressing any unforeseen issues.

Over the last 4 years of being a skeleton crew has left me with a lot less time to chill out and that has become a major problem. Being an army of one can only go on for so long.

Back when I was a worker bee I used to criticize the owners for taking more time off than anyone else. I never understood how a person could do such a thing and I now believe that deep down I was just jealous.

Worker bees may never understand because they are technicians and only have to hold up their end. The owner on the other hand has to steer the ship, deal with the worker bees and all of the other stuff that can land on a person on any given day. Sometimes it's pretty thick.

Another very important thing that I have learned over the years of being in business is that anything that happens is my fault. Yes the technician can cause the initial damage or a client can do something stupid but at the end of the day it's my fault.

Who does anyone turn to in crisis? Who does anyone remember being the shit heal? Yes that's right the owner.

At the end of the day the owner is the wheel grease, the nuts and bolts and the pilot of a company. The worker bees are very important components but the owner is and always will be in front and have the most pressure.

A lot of people that follow this blog have no idea what it is like to have 200k in receivables and no one wants to pay, have 50k due in payroll the next day and have nothing in the bank to pay them with and then have to get on the phone and hustle of a quick 50k.

That is just an example of a situation. There are so many it's just crazy.

Time off, when it can be taken has just as much if not more value than the job itself. A clear head makes for a better business man.

Peace out surveyors, make it a great week.

Bad Surveying

OK . I do have something to say.

Today I was on a job site.

I tied into a quarter section line and the distance hit within .06 of record plat. I'll buy that all day long and I went about my biz.

I had another survey printed out as reference. I looked at it and noticed that they called the plat distance which I hit reasonable and then they called a measured distance that was much shorter and identical to that of the GDAC Plat and is a grid distance.

This happened to me twice today in adjoining sections.

To this I say what the hell man?

Did you really think your paper survey would go un-noticed until the end of time?

If you're going to use gdac stuff and calc it out at least apply an index so at least seems that you actually surveyed it.

I was not there to do a hard core boundary survey but the fact is that I see this kind of stuff all of the time and it makes it more difficult for people that want to do the right thing.

Do I care enough to call these people up? No, but it is a little frustrating.

In situations like this if I am doing a boundary I find it easier just to set what I think is right and file my own map. Any good surveyor will be able to tell the difference.
In extreme cases the call gets made.

UGH!!!!

Blogging

Ever hit a wall? I have. I got nothing for ya at the moment.

Adios for a very short bit surveyors.

You rock.

Name Change

I have been thinking of changing the name of my company.

This has been something that has been plowing through my mind for quite some time.

There are several reasons for it.

1) Marketability. The name I have is dull and a new name would add a much needed kick. The public needs to have a better understanding of what they are looking at upon first site and a new name can bring that to light.

2) This company name is the initials of a dead guy. Need I say more?

3) Change is progressive. In changing the name I can easily incorporate a new digital strategy into my marketing by creating a new website and fully utilizing SEO. My current website is built on dead technology.

4) My client base right now is such that a transformation will be seamless. When things get super crazy again it will be harder to do.

I have weighed the pro's and cons and the pro's win by a land slide. As a matter of fact the only con I have is that it will cost some money to set things up such as a new domain name, having a site built and implementing the new strategy.

After a lot of thought on the topic I think it is easier to start from scratch as opposed to trying to revamp the old.

I have to admit that it is a daunting task and it makes me a little nervous, so must mean it's good and the right thing to do.

Administration

I have been the sole administrator for my company for a long time now.

In doing so I have learned a massive amount about business, accounting, insurance, etc.

The other day I received a letter from the IRS telling me that my form 5500 for the year 2010 had yet to be filed.

I was quite sure that they were wrong so I did a little investigating.

My company use to have a 401k program and there was a company that was doing the admin side of it.

A few years ago I received an invoice from them for things they had never done and I told them that I would never pay that invoice, after all it was a 1200 dollar deal and I had no idea what it was for.

Well I am thinking that maybe I should have paid that invoice.

In 2008 I discontinued the 401k plan and it turns out that 2009 was to be my final filing that this company was supposed to do and that's what they were billing me for.

I contacted the company and they were great. They knew exactly what to do and they only charged me $500 to do the filing and prepare my response to the IRS.

Now comes the kicker.

In order to avoid massive penalties set forth by the Department of Labor I had to send them a late filing fee of $750. Yes, that's right $750.

Once explained to me I gladly wrote that check.

In a pension plan situation if there is a late filing there is an accumulated penalty of $1000 a day is what I was told.

Apparently if this preemptive strike is not taken they accept your filing and then say thank you and send you a penalty, to which no one knows how it will turn out.

Lesson learned. Always ask what the invoice is for.

In the long run it only cost me 50 more than the original invoice but it caused a bit of temporary anxiety and frankly was an unnecessary hassle.

Funny how  mistakes seem to have a more striking effect on me.

Into the Pit

Last week I had to do some quantities on varies material piles in the west valley.

I arrived at the site with the impression that there were 8 to 16 individual piles and the quantities were for inventory not a sale and had to be approximate. Upon arrival I was informed that there were 26 piles.

Good thing I brought one of my contract guys. We just kind of looked at each other and laughed, he took the north pit, I took the south pit and we blazed off with our gps's.

In 5 hours we were finished and had each taken 1000 + shots each. We were both a sweaty mess and I was out of gas. There were some massive piles and I ran my ass off.

I got back to the office, uploaded the data, defined the break lines and shipped it out to a trusted person who is way better at calculating that sort of thing than I.

I am thinking in the future I may try an imaging station on this sort of thing. Usually an instrument can be set up high enough to define the tops and the sides can be done from above or around them on traverse points.

Either way technology will become a factor. That is some hard ass work. I do like the idea of a laser scan, however a lot of outfits are still having a problem paying for that kind of thing especially when they either don't need that kind of accuracy or they don't care and there is the fact that it goes right away the second a bucket hits a pile.

Old school guys are smart and sometimes trying to get them to come up to modern times is a little tough, especially when me and my contract guy are going to do the job for a third to half of the cost as a laser.

I will keep trying to sell them on it and as time goes on and the cost drops it will be easier to do.

Courtesy Call

A week or so back I received a call from a colleague and they wanted to know what I was going to do about something on a particular project.

They were expressing concern because there was another surveyor involved that they were having a conflict of information with.

I am going to refrain from going into details here because some of the witch hunter types that read this blog may be prone to misinterpret this post.

A quick note to you witch hunters. If you have a problem or concern about something I have done call me, express your concern, be absolute certain of all sides of the story before you attempt to throw me under the bus. Conducting yourself in any other way will have major consequences.

On top of that if I want your peer review I will ask for it, until that day back off.

OK, that said and back to the topic.

The person that called me was having a conflict with another surveyor and I had done some work in the area. They were extremely professional in their questions and upon hearing my answer they agreed with my decision and moved along without a problem.

My decision was this. The client had yet to pay me for a particular line item and I simply was going to sit tight until I saw some green.

Is money an issue on a project? You bet your sweet ass it is!!

Money is the only reason I do this job and for me to say I do it for any other reason is a flat out lie.

Do projects fail to get completed because of money? Once again the answer is yes.

The only surveyors who can honestly say that money is not an issue is a government surveyor or a drone that is buried in the basement of a big machine and until they sit in the seat of the business surveyor they should keep their mouths shut and most do. Thank you!

Any business surveyor that says they have never stopped a project because of money is a liar. If they kept going even though they were not being paid, shame on them. All they did was open the door for further exploitation of themselves and hurt the profession as a whole.

Some of you may have a different opinion and that is awesome. It's the differences that keep us on our toes.

Make it a great week surveyors and remember, never doing anything for free.

Technology Again

I have spoken a lot about technology and the pros and cons of it as it is related to our business.

This last week I made the determination that I am behind the curve.

I was speaking with an equipment sales guy about the future of surveying and the advances that have happened and how because of the recession I have not made a purchase in 6 years except for small things, cables etc.

Looking at the newer stuff I can tell it is much improved and I am going to assume more accurate. Yes even GPS. I say this because the newer stuff hardly loses lock and locks much more quickly when it is fired up of floats.
The robots speak for themselves.

I have a theory that through technology the surveyor can start pushing the contractors to adopt machine control, the concrete guys can be trained to use robots and they all can be trained on software. They to are starting to be run by a younger forward thinking generation that is embracing it all.

I say it's about time.

Where is the surveyors part? A project will always need us but we can now step back from staking and let the liability rest where it always should. On the shoulder of the contractor.

The future is us teaching them how to use equipment and software and yes teaching them that they are the responsible ones.

We are at a time when we will no longer be the first ones the finger gets pointed at.

That all said I now have a personal thing to talk about.

Saturday I said goodbye to my Blackberry and got a killer HTC phone.

My berry was 3.5 years old, dated and slow. I have to tell you that this HTC 4G phone is quite a shock with all of the functions and speed. Within an hour I was asking myself why haven't I gotten one of these sooner??

I think that we must progress with technology as surveyors. I know it can cause problems and brain dead newbees or does it?

I think the new people just think differently then us 20+ years guys. They think in solution and apps and we think in practical.

It's all part of the evolution of our biz.

Make it a great week surveyors!!

August

Well I back from vacation and am kind of ready to do it again, do it again.

I have to tell you that coming home from the beach sucks ass.

All last week I was super busy and just could not get my head in the game.

Now I am sitting here on Sunday night thinking about work and my head is yet to center up.

Surveying. Why do any of us do it? Do we love or did we fall into it?

In my case it was the latter and before I knew it I would have had to take a drastic pay cut to jump over to something else.

I have done a lot of things throughout the years. Surveying has always been my day job but I have this habit of always chasing the shiny new thing.

I have owned several other small businesses, I have done MLM and actually did well (I hate sales), I have been involved in failed companies and have my hands in new ventures. I am always trying new things and coming up with killer ideas and inventions. Yes I write them down and pursue them, ask anyone who really knows me.

I'm kind of like a musician that is smart enough to keep a day job.

Last week I just got beat to shit. I got racked on the shin with a rock, slapped in the face with a cat claw, gouged on a chain link fence and my shoe filled with blood, knocked in the head by a tree branch, bitten by ants, got lots of splinters from lathe, felt like I was in a steam room from all of the humidity, got burnt by the tool box and the list goes on.

So there I am standing there administering first aid to my freshly gouged leg that occurred because I had to bail a fence because the client neglected to take the lock of of the gate asking myself "why in the bloody fuck am I doing this"?

Am I going to get rich doing it? Do I love it? Do I consider it my future? Do I want my kids doing it?

Deep down inside I know that the answer to all of them is no.

So here we go, here we go, here we go again.

Some of you will get this, some won't.

At the end of the day though it's all OK.

Peace love and booty grease surveyors, make it a great week.

July Hiatus

OK boys and girls it's July. I am going to take a month long blog break.

I have an action packed month in front of me that include a lot of Biz meetings, birthdays (not mine) and a much needed vacation.

I will be on the beach with a constant BL in hand for a while.

I want to leave you with some good thoughts.


First never let anything get you down. Remember, Nothing can hurt you until you've done what you came here to do, no one can eat you and if they try fall back on the below pic.

Next it's beach season and no matter where you go or what you do life is what you make it.

Which one is it? Todd the lense killer? Or the line of Smokin Hottie's? Or is it all good?

Enjoy your July!!

On the lake

The other day I had to get some depths on some lakes in a gravel pit on the Salt River.

Many of you may remember the video I posted of me and Dane in the rubber boat and I was dropping a chain with a brick tied to the end to get depth. Check out the youtube page right side of this page.

This time I got a little smarter. I bought this cool little 1955 row boat and went and picked up a depth finder.
I then went all MacGyver and fashioned a bracket made of framing strap and screwed it to the boat and then attached magnet setup to the depth finder transponder so I can slide it up and down on the strap to hit the water.

Then I dug through my shed and found an old triple magnet strip, actually a framing strap with 3 magents from stereo speakers that I used for the gps head on the truck roof and I also found an old bracket from when I had a Legacy E and had to keep the radio off of the head. I attached the bracket to the magnet strap, used C clamps and stuck it to the seat and had my gps attachement.

I dug a 12" rod out of the shed and screwed to the bracket, attached the head shoved off and went collecting.

I was able to take a bunch of shots while trolling along, looking at the finder and using the depth as my descriptor with good xyz and was able to provide the client with a much better reading of the lakes.

I could most likely do a full bathymetric in this manner it would just take quite a while. Fortunantly he did not want all of that.

I am thinking if this keeps up I may have to budget in some Hydrographic equipment to do a real bath.

Until that day this will work.

Critter

Ladies and Gentlemen our little friend here needs no introduction. His fame and reputation proceed him.

I met our little buddy while crossing a street out by the White Tanks on Tuesday.

He eventually got out of the road and crawled into the desert no doubt to ensue mayhem on some poor little critter he refers to as snack.

Old School

Anyone recognize this photo? Yes that's right it's Wild-Heerbrugg T2.

For anyone of my generation and older you will remember this or something very similar that was a huge part of your survey up bringing.

This particular instrument was used primarily for rapping angles. We used a T1 for construction because it was lighter, a little less accurate and it was easier to zero.

There were 2 kinds of T2 that I used, one with a single and the other with a double inverted vernier.

While using the T2 for control we never zeroed up. We would just site and go. Direct, reverse, horizon, then mean it out. We would do no less than 5 sets and then if one came in with more than a 3 second split we did 5 more.

In hind site this was some accurate stuff. Would would rap the angles, remove the instrument from the tribrac (if you had your head up your ass and loosened the tribrac you started again, once the tribrac was set it stayd until the legs were moved), then toss up a distance meter, calc and adjust the parts per million and proceed to shoot several distances. I have never used an attachable distance meter.

We would do this all day doing the longer distance stuff early to beat the heat blurr, jumping from set up to set up and at times standing there waiting for the chief to set a new site. (Lot's of pace circles around those instruments loaded with cigarette butts).

The point to all of this is we did some amazingly accurate stuff in those days without the awesome money making technology of today.

Here is an example of a combo of old and new.

A few years ago I was hired to do an asbuilt on a building in old town Scottsdale. The place was 2 stories with a basement and roof that needed done so a total of 4 floors. It was gutted and all of the floors were exposed and they needed to have floor heights, footprints and column locations run to the roof.

I started with gps, I broke down the block and set 2 control points across the street on the side walk. We then leveled though the control points, adjusted the vertical and set up a freshly calibrated total station and back site on the points.

I then went to the first 2 floors and and the roof and set 2 control points on each one. I then set a tripod with a prism and freshly calibrated tribrac on each point (moving between) and had my gunner rap and shoot each point both direct and reverse 10 times, starting direct, then a flop then back to the back site each time shooting a distance. We had to traverse into the basement from the street.

After all of that I reduced and meaned everything and had my control.

Now comes the part of developing footprints and locating metal vertical columns from the first floor to the roof, the basement had concrete poured around the metal all typical in size, the footprints were pretty typical.

I started on the first floor and what did I use?? Yes that's right a T2 and a chain and we turned angles to every column and chained the distance and wrote it all down in an actual field book. In this particular instance I zeroed the gun and then turned the angles to a constant corner on each column, sometimes multiple corners. Each one was treated as an individual.

After all was said and done I had a full building footprint and column asbuilt with .03' of error from basement to roof horizontally and .02' or vertical basement to roof, all of which I meaned and developed a really cool drawing file.

Could I have been more accurate? Absolutely. However my consensus was that kind of error though 4 floors basement to roof which the only place the columns were fully exposed were the first second floors was pretty damn good. By the way there was only .005' H&V between the first and second floors.

On a side note we took level shots at each column and footprint corner using a Chicago Rod. Amazingly those floors only had a 1/4 inch +/- float in them.

This was a tedious project and I had a lot of good people working for me at the time, however I did it myself and I grabbed an old school RLS who actually taught me a lot of stuff back in the days of old out of the office went and knocked the bitch out, mostly because he knew what we doing and the idea of having to teach some newbie as I went on this project made my head want to explode.

Today it would most likely be the laser scanner for this project. I would simply set the control and then turn them loose. It would be faster. As to being accurate I am unsure because I think people are still trying figure out the whole point cloud thing. That's just my opinion.

That was the last time I used a T2. Will I ever get to use one again? Who knows. I will tell you this. It was just like riding a bike, once you do it you can't lose it.

Biz is picking up

As the world gets better we are all going to have to gear up and re-expand.

I have spoken about this a lot in the past and have gone back and forth on it so many times and that is the topic of contracted labor versus employees.

It is today that I tell the world that I am going 100 percent contract labor.

There are so many reasons why but one of the main ones is quality control. By contracting people with great long term experience instead of hiring may cost me a little more up front but the end result is going to be better, therefore it is money well spent.

I was at a party the other night and the topic of quality control was presented to me. "How do you maintain quality control"? I thought about it for a couple of second and laid it out as such. By hiring contractors that have more experience than I do and ensuring that they all carry insurance, by removing myself from the mechanics and just monitoring a project and go through the end result I can achieve better quality than if I had 20 people running around. Hiring another person to do the mechanics (the right person) can be very beneficial in the long run.

Can I remove myself all together? Hell no, but using other people that are RLS is a start to expansion and it also employs them.

Creating jobs is very important to me as a business owner and also being a person with strong beliefs in my community makes it even more so.

I have been studying companies that practice this model and most of them are wildly successful. Why?Because the owner constantly monitors the quality of the final product.

I really enjoy doing field to finish but if I am going to get to where I want to be, to a level of actually making some money I have to expand and this is how I will do it.

It's a test drive but I have the utmost confidence that it is going to work better than anything I have ever done.

Endings and Beginnings

First a beginning. I am taking RJR to the social media. I have put RJR on Facebook and have recently joined linked in. I am still setting them up, so I am asking anyone that follows this blog to either friend or like us. Just follow the giant FB banner on the right side.
Thanks!!


Now bloggy stuff.

Last Friday was my last class of Scottsdale Leadership.

I will start by telling you that I am a little sad that it is over. It has been really nice to escape from the world and immerse myself into the community every other Friday.

There have been a lot of great moments over the last 9 months. I now have a very well rounded idea of how a city really operates and I am aware of many things that I never knew even existed and the fact that there are so many leaders in so many fields, it kind of makes the mind spin.

When I first signed up for the course I did it with the idea of business networking in mind and if I learn a thing or two, great but my mind was focused on business development.

After the first 2 classes I realized that this was going to go an entirely different way than how I thought it would, which is the case most of the time.

Turns out that yes I have developed some business contacts that will be with me forever but more important I gained a better understanding of people and most important a better understanding of myself and how I view things.

My perspective has opened up to a level that I never imagined and I am now trying new things and pushing my self to greater limits than I ever have.

An important message I learned is that if one is to progress professionally one must progress personally first.

Today is the ending of one of the greatest experiences of my life and the beginning of the rest of it. I guarantee that it is only going to get better from here no matter what kind of curve ball the world tries to through at me.

Now there is not competition there are only colleagues, I no longer provide a service I provide a product, there are no bad clients just confused people that need my guidance, all clients are awesome and I can learn from all of them, besides I can always decline or fire them, this list goes on and on.

Point being is that we can develope our skill all day long and be very good at our craft but for me personally it will never be enough. I want more.

How do I get more? I work at it everyday.

Plumb Bob

I am wondering if the newbies in the survey world even know how to use a plumb bob or hold a chain correctly so there tender little fingers don't get pinched or they get pulled off balance???

When I first started surveying we chained in everything. When we set a property corner we doubled our angles (how many remember that?), we would chain miles of curb and utilities, up hill, down hill, through curve deflections, through brushed line, it was quite a thing. We would then drop back and grade everything with a level. The funny thing is that a 3 man crew got it all done a lot faster and more acurate than the button pushing drones of modern day and we could visually see a bust and we all were running numbers in our heads always checking each other.

The plumb bob was the most important thing. Used for anything from its actual use, to a back scratcher, a hammer, a toy to punch holes in things (lots of broken tips), a paint can puncher explode and run device, something to stick in a power pole, a pry tool, a digger, an accidental foot poker, cactus remover, this list goes on.

Remember leaving it in the truck and the party chief reaming your ass for about an hour after you did a full bore wind sprint to get it??

Also remember the best way to get the broken tip out? Simply set it in the back of the truck out of the scabberd and it would work its way out.

As a lot of things the plumb bob is kind of a dead technology unless you are a good concrete guy or mason.

There is something that made a man tough when you had the ill tempered 225 pound crew chief leaning on the front of that chain yelling at you to hold steady.

As a skinny kid I learned real fast how to use my body as leverage and hold my own. I've always kind of had the gift of balance but that was a whole different thing.

I used to watch these big guys get pulled off of their feet because they thought chaining was all about strength. It rarely happend to me because I understand leverage.

While a thing of the past the plumb bob will always have a special place in my heart. It was like an appendage. You never left the truck without it.

I used mine on a site the other day. I found a monument that landed under a tree. I set 2 nails +/- 90 degrees from each other a 2 taped in the rebar which was in a hole. It hit pretty good. Within Board standards anyway.

This is a little blast from the past. I think a new surveyor should have to spend 6 months kicking old school in order to fully realize what they are doing. This process could eliminate a lot of future head up ass and that saying "well the data collector says it".

Clients

One good thing about being in business for myself is that I get to meet a variety of people.

I have had the good fortune to operate for the last 20 + years in the more affluent areas of the valley and in doing so have made the acquaintance of some very interesting people that I have learned a tremendous amount from.

I have discovered that when asked people will share. I always take a great interest in what people do and I always ask about them. I could care less about talking about myself due to the fact that I know who I am and what I do. However when asked I always go to great length to make sure people understand what I am doing.

This job of surveying has led me down many a path. I have met rock stars, heavy duty business people, a couple of actors, a lot of well known athletes (they all live in PV), significant government officials, doctors, attorneys, very influential people in the community, the list goes on.

The one thing that all of these people share is that I took in interest in who they are and I actually learned something  from all of them albeit good or bad and some I am still in contact with.

That brings me to the point of this post.

This last week I met an incredible couple. I was retained by them to help straighten out an issue with a municipality.

I gave them the appropriate cost and they reluctantly hired me. I think in hind site they are happy that they did. I really saved them a lot of heart ache and I knew the correct questions to ask the city.

I arrived at their home to do a small amount of field work and after I was finished I knocked on their door. I was immediately invited in which is unusual and we all sat at the kitchen table for a bit while I explained what was happening and the evidence that I had collected.

I will tell you right now that this is the first time doing this job that I felt welcome and comfortable in a clients home. I usually never go in and request that they step out but this time it was different.

Why was it different? I think that we just got along well and also there was a little fate involved in our meeting. We actually had a bizarre inadvertent meeting 3 days prior and when we started talking we discovered this fact that I will not go into here. It was actually quite amazing.

Our conversation while it mostly revolved around the survey took different turns and before I knew it I had probably been there a little to long. A couple of days later another conversation ensued that was even better and had really nothing to do with surveying which I love. Talking about surveying is something I avoid unless it's with a colleague.

There is a massive amount of things we can learn from a client. Everyone has something to offer and if we slow down and listen it may end up being one of the best experiences you could ever have.

Been a While

The other day I did something that I have not done for a very long time. I turned down a job.
Yes that's right, I turned down a job.

You may be asking yourself why on earth would he turn down any kind of job??

Well it's like this. I was asked to give a price to do the staking for a custom home on the side of a massive hill. When I received the call about it something in my gut told me to decline right then. However things being what they have been I always say yes to any project.

Something was just eating at me about. Did I mention that I did the topo on this lot? Well something was just eating at me, screaming at me "Don't do it!!!!!". I kicked it around for quite a while and figured that I would just high ball the estimate in the hope that I would just get beat.

The guy called me on Friday looking for his numbers. I called him back and told him that I would be unable to do his project due to the fact that my work load has become such that being able to give him the kind of service required would be difficult for me at this time, which is actually true.

I figured that this job because of the retaining wall system and extensiveness of the layout would have been 30+ trips and the liability would have been a nightmare. I have had many projects like this in the past and this one just yelled at me that the contractors would be 100% reliant upon me and if anything went wrong I would be the shit eater. Been there, done that, no thank you.

Upon making that call I felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted off of my shoulders.

Thinking back I should have done this so many times in the past.

I have a problem though. I am a driven business man and I am in love with my bottom line, however when I have blown off what my gut was telling me, most of the time the heartburn that incurred because I did not listen would have been worth a lower bottom line and in most cases it dropped because of issues.

Today I think I took a huge step for myself.

Whoever gets this project I hope you have a lot of time, patience and E&O insurance.

Shout

I want to give a shout to Dan Muth for starting an interesting new blog. http://dmjmpls.blogspot.com
In my opinion Dan is a very articulate and well spoken guy. I am sure he is going to have a lot of interesting things to say. I encourage anyone that reads my page to check his out.

Next, to Mike Miller at the City of Phoenix. Last week I posted a request for info on Topica and he was on it within the hour. He provided me with some old surveys that proved a couple of monuments I was using.

And then there is Brian Dalager. Dude, your GDAC program is by far the best thing that has happened to surveying in Maricopa County. It is one of the tools I use on a daily basis and it has enhanced my bottom line like you would not believe. They should issue a coin in your honor.

I know I keep saying how great GDAC is and I will continue to do it. It is a trend setting site.

Keep up the great work guys.


Thank!!

Evolution

In order to stay on top of the game we as professionals must change.

There has been a lot of trepidation about the new board rules that are impending.

I am going to tell you right now that I disagree with some of them and some of the changes being suggested are good.

I have said this many times before. Small companies record more doc's and file more maps than anyone.

This is a major problem, in that I personally see very little participation from the small guys. (I could be wrong).

I will tell you now that if I had time I would be right there in peoples faces bitching about a few things and trying to make things it right for all. Unfortunately time is one thing I am very short on.

This is something I feel very bad about. While I know very few of you, I think that I would like to make things better, even if I dislike you, you still deserve good things because we share the survey profession.

While my hands are tied on time and I am sure that other small companies are in the same boat I would like to hear some suggestions from small guys.

Yes we do need to progress our standards as time moves forward.

Bottom line boys and girls, the change is here. Just roll it with and bone up on the wording in your contracts to cover your ass. And just follow the rules.

In time we will all adapt to whatever rules are passed. It's kind of like getting a new software or taking on a new car payment. You just kind of grow into it.

Peace out surveyors, it's gonna be a crazy week. Have fun and be safe!!

Pain

There other night I had to stand in a public forum and explain why I am professionally qualified to sit on a board.

I wrote up my pitch and thought about it and went over it for a few days.

I got there, had it all memorized right down to my delivery. I had it stuck in my head that they were going to love me and I was going to waltz right on to that board.

When I arrived there were some people in front of me and they seemed rather calm and did a great job although they were very dull.

It was my turn and when I got up there and looked at that panel and it all went away, I forgot everything that I was going to say. I was a deer in the head lights so I did what I thought was best, took a step back and punted.

I babbled for about a minute and a half and then froze. Every thought I once had again left my brain. I looked at the panel and said "that's it" and threw my hands up palms facing them and said "frozen", I smiled and said thank you.

Then came the part that I got pissed off about. The person that nominated asked me if I realized that a certain qualification was required to sit on this particular board. I was a little dismayed and wanted to remind the person that they gave me the nomination, but instead I respectfully stumbled through an answer.

If you ever want to have a humbling experience try this. You will get an adrenaline rush that is out of this world that will last you for days. I still get butterflies in my gut when I think about this.

Oh, no I did not get appointed.

A little humility goes a long way, especially when you tube it in public.

Ha!!

Auto Topo

The other day I was out in the Rio Verde area doing a Boundary-Topo job.

I have done work in that section before and once again thanks to GDAC and it's interactive map with points and some solid surveys I was calc'd and ready to go when I got there.

Since I am a diligent monkey I went around the 1/4 section and established my measured data. The center of section was there and checked as shown on some other surveys, so I accepted it.

I proceeded to search for the lot monuments and found them all and they checked well, so now they all have nice new LS caps on them in the color of blue which is what I have always used. However when they are gone I am going to go 100% with brass and aluminum tags.

I then started the topo. I walked the lot and located all of the vegetation and dirt roads. There were no definitive washes so no need for cross sections.

After I was finished with all of that I went back to the truck and pulled the gps off of the rod and put it on a back pack that I rigged with a pvc cage to hold a small rod in place. I got everything hooked up, changed my HR and went into auto topo mode. I proceeded to walk the lot and take about 1700 shots on top of the already collected info.

This took about an hour. 1700 seems like a lot of shots but this was a 3 acre parcel and I had the DC set at 3 second intervals.

I am a huge believer that it is easier to take points out of a drawing than have to go back and get more.

Now hear is the best part about this job. Field time with travel 5.5 hours. I accomplished this because of my pre-job research and calc's and because of technology.

The office time took quite a while because I had re-calc the boundary to my measured section which actually brought the lot monuments in better and had to prepare 2 drawings, a topo and and ROS which I will file in the next month or so when I get a few stacked up. I always wait to get a few to save on the fuel cost and trip time.

I have spoken many times about how technology has enhanced out lives and made it easier to turn a profit on a job. I has also allowed me to increase my level of customer service, get things done quicker with more data and turn out a very professional looking product that I can be proud of.

Go technology!

Roof Top

One of the things that I genuinely love about surveying is the stuff we get to see and do.

Unless you are a construction monkey every job is different.

I personally take something new away from every job.

So there I am last week in Tucson at U of A breaking down a block that the Marriott sits on.

First I have to tell you that the ground view at that college is fantastic. It took me back to a much simpler and more intoxicated time in my life where the only things that were important was beer and girls. Oh yeah!!!

Flashing to present day I was surveying the block and getting ready to go on the Marriott's roof.

All was going well thanks to AZ Cors and the Pima County GIS site. I had my control and was ready.

I got up on the roof just in time for AZ Cors to take a dump due to Leica maintenance so I had to go to plan B which was go back down and set up the base.

Upon doing so I proceeded to have the crappiest GPS day I have had in years. I got tied into the ground control, went back up on that roof and what should have taken 20 minutes took 2 hours.

I was in hell. There I am above everything with a wide open sky with the wackiest constellation I have ever seen. Ugh!!

Every shot seemed to take forever so I went to plan C. I made a detailed sketch, measured everything up and shot the bare minimum.

When I got off that roof and walked outside the first thing I saw was a beautiful girl and all that BS frustration instantly left. I even got a smile out of her :)

Life can be good in the field even when the technology hands you a pile of shit. It's remarkable what a pretty face will do to my mind.

Again???

OK. It happened again. I got beat on a job. Big deal right? Win some, lose some.

This time it is epic.

Friday I received a call from a person requesting a price to do a Lot Assemblage in Scottsdale.

Considering this is where my camp is I've done a few here.

I did my diligent research and proceeded to write up a proposal. I gave a price of 2520 to do the platting which is very reasonable considering Scottsdale is always a 3 time submittal and usually asks for some things that others do not.

(Note: I always put a clause in my scope that says the client is responsible for submittal's and meetings and if they want me to do it, it is my RLS hourly rate and I usually get the project with the hourly because they don't want to deal with the city.)

Scottsdale also requires an ALTA be submitted so I worked in a cost of 1500 for the ALTA which enabled me to give the awesome price for the assemblage.

I promptly sent it off and Saturday I received this message from the person.

"weird I have gotten quotes all the way down to $550 for a combing the 2 lots-- I do have a current ALTA that is 4 months old?  So I guess I'll just go with the quote that was $550.00"

Upon seeing this I was actually relieved. You ever have that gut feeling that tells you to run from a project?

I was also a little confused and massively amused.

I wanted to call them and explain that they are setting themselves up for a very bad experience but then thought to hell with it, let them find out on their own.

I feel confident that they misconstrued the other surveyors scope unless the other surveyor is a complete moron.

Today I am the luckiest guy alive because I lost a project that was priced professionally. On the lower side of professional truth be told.

Peace out and have a great week surveyors.

It's getting psycho busy out there!!!!

Safety

Last week it was public safety in my Scottsdale Leadership class.

All I have to say about this is, wow. My concept of what public safety really is, up until now has been totally under thought and now is receiving a lot of brain time.

First to the 2 MCDOT guys that got hit by a car a week or so back, I hope that they are doing well. They were very lucky and I hope they learned something.

So there I am playing in Southern and Broadway out in Laveen today. I was taking extra caution watching the cars.

In today's world of tecnology the surveyor's chance of survival has plumetted. We are the target with the orange vest that road texters do not see.

I have had more close calls in the last few years than I have ever had and I have spent plenty of time in the street.

I wrote about this last year.

I was standing in Shea Boulevard in about 1987-1988 flagging cars while the chief was digging up a monument. I kept flagging this particular car and he kept coming, I yelled bail and we all jumped out of the way. When the guy got next to us I Koufaxed the cone I was holding into the drivers door. When it hit, he slammed on his breaks and came to a complete stop and proceeded to glare at me. I pointed at him and yelled "F*ck you you dirt bag sack of shit, pay attention". He drove off very dismayed. My chief was cracking up and said "I can't believe you did that".

Then there is 16th street and Thomas. We were doing a huge panel job from Scottsdale Road to Grand Avenue. One day we were at the above mentioned intersection, we had a merge sign board that I was towing with a truck going and a long line of cones shoving everyone over. We were standing there eating lunch when all of a sudden there was a long thump thump thump etc. We look up and here are 2 black guys in a baby blue VW bug mowing down every cone we have, we scatter, they swerve and barely miss the sign board.

Again at the same intersection but 2 ladies in a 1972 +/- LTD. I am kind of fuzzy on the details but all of a sudden I hear tires and thumps and I look up in time to see this LTD do a full 360 in the intersection and keep rocketing down Thomas. All we knew it that we lost some cones and a tripon and I think someone may have crapped themselves.

There are many more things I can talk about but these have some humor, especially since I was laughing my ass off after each one, but they could have all been tragic.

What does the surveyor need to do to better protect himself?

For a start, always pay attention. Grow eyes in the back of your head. If it feels wrong then it is wrong. Just little things can save us.

I have heard rumor that other states RP out the centerline monuments and all of the control is on the sidewalks. I love this concept.

As the world becomes a place where people more consistantly have their head shoved up their own ass we are becoming sitting ducks more than we already are.

Do I have the answer for safety?? No. All I can do is watch out for me and hope all ends well.

Boundary Survey and a Big Ugh!!

So there I am last week doing a boundary survey around 32nd Street and Camelback.

I did a bunch of research and found some surveys in the area thanks to the guys at GDAC and using the official plat I calc'd everything and went right to town.

I arrived at the site and promptly found a couple of monuments and got started. The rear corners landed in an alley so I had to bail the block wall and do some recon.

I found all of the monuments and some adjoiners and everything checked real nice. I also located the walls and they even checked really well and everyone was happy.

Now I have spoken quite often about things that a person sees in the field and frankly I have come to a point where nothing surprises me and this particular experience lacked surprise but absolutely increased my amazement and I mean a WTF!! Holy S*&T!! kind of amazement. People can definitely be very wrong at many levels.

Below are some pic's I snapped while on site accompanied by a brief narrative of each thing.



1) How cool is this? When is the last time you saw a Sears Chain Link Fence?

I love this old stuff and really enjoy seeing it. It's a throw back to a simpler time. Kind of makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

2) I think it must be a pre-requisite that an alley have a gratuitous shopping cart full of porn. I support this on the basis that street people need porn to.

3) Now for the most disturbing of all things ever. The public restroom. UGH!!!

Yes that's right I said it. I  think every bum within a mile radius of this alley must dump here. All along my clients wall looks like this.

I was so thankful that the property corner landed about 5' East of that bent rebar. I dug around it with arms fully extended with a long nose shovel. Fortunantly no one pooped on it.

I will tell you this boys and girls, this amazed me and made me laugh. Where else can a person enter an alley, grab some porn and take a dump within 200 feet?

I wonder if they use the honor system on returns to the library cart??

BEWARE OF ALLEYS AROUND 32ND AND CAMELBACK!!!

CYA

I am a huge fan of CYA.

Most people that hire us fail to realize that we are consultants that hold professional status as opposed to being a contractor.

I have an addendum I use when a developer gives me one of his contracts that clearly states that I am a consultant governed by the BTR and am not a contractor and am not governed by the ROC and the word consultant replaces the word contractor.

They all have been ok with this so far.

In my every day contracts I have a page that goes out with every scope that the client is to sign and return.

I use this because it is a CYA document prepared by my attorney and it helps keep me and the client in line.

Only twice in the last several years have I had someone complain about it and tell me that they dislike it and it all revolves around the indemnity clause.

I understand that this could make a person somewhat nervous because they think that they will have zero recourse in the event of an error or bad situation. I get it, and it is very unfortunate that we have been forced to cover up. Actually this is kind of sad. I loved the days when a verbal and a hand shake did it all.

Because we hold professional status we automatically have a huge target on our backs. We are held to the same liability as a doctor or lawyer which means after a sue happy person burns through our company and our insurance they can attack our personal assets.

Think that one over, yes what I am saying is true.

So then comes the idea that we are way under paid. I personally carry 2 million in E&O and 2 million in GL and oh yeah another 1 million in auto. I pay through the ass for all of this just to attempt to keep myself safe and to ensure that the client is protected from me.

There is something fundementaly wrong with this picture!!!!

Below is the CYA sheet from my contract. Will you please have a look and please give me some feed back.

I am curious to see what my colleagues have to say.

TERMS: PAYMENT DUE UPON COMPLETION. 

No Third-Party Beneficiaries:  This agreement will not be interpreted as creating any right or benefit of any kind or nature whatsoever in any third party or class of persons who are not parties to this agreement or who are not expressly designated in this agreement.  Furthermore, no non-party will have any rights as against R.J.R. Surveys, Inc. or its affiliates with regard to this agreement or any services performed pursuant to this agreement.

Waiver of Jury Trial; Damages Limitation; Attorneys Fees:  The parties waive any right to right a jury trial, treble damages, consequential damages, and punitive damages.  The prevailing party in any dispute will be entitled to receive from the other party an award of attorney’s fees, costs, and expenses.

Indemnity:  The undersigned will and does hereby agree to fully indemnify, defend, and hold harmless R.J.R. Surveys, Inc. (including its respective partners, officers, directors, agents, employees, attorneys, and affiliates) against all claims, damages, losses, and expenses incurred by such entities and persons, including, but not limited to, reasonable attorneys’ fees, court costs, and disbursements (i) arising from the acts or omissions of the undersigned and its partners, officers, directors, agents, employees, attorneys, and affiliates that are the result of any  indemnifying party’s negligence or intentional acts and/or (ii) related directly or indirectly to claims of third-parties related to the services performed by or on behalf of R.J.R. Surveys, Inc.

Discretionary Arbitration:  In the event of a dispute arising out of this agreement or the services rendered pursuant to this agreement, at the election of R.J.R. Surveys, Inc., which election may be made in its sole and absolute discretion, such dispute will be submitted to binding arbitration in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association then in effect using a single arbitrator and occurring in the County of Maricopa, State of Arizona.

Non-Disparagement:  Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this agreement or any other agreement between the parties, each party hereby agrees not to make, permit to be made, or facilitate or aid in the making of any public statement or disclosure about the other party, the contractual relationship of the parties, any dispute among the parties, or any matter related to any of the foregoing.

Personal Guaranty: By signing below, the signer absolutely personally guarantees the payment of all monies that may become due as a result or consequence of this written document.  That in the event the services of a collection agency, attorney or filed lien are required to collect any sums due, you accept responsibility for such attorney, collection and lien fees and pay 12% interest APR on any amount that goes unpaid more than 30 days past due

__________________________________________                              ___________________________________

Signature of Authorized Person                                                        Printed Name of Authorized Person

                                                                                                                               

__________________________________________                                             

On behalf of                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                 

__________________________________________                                             

Date                                                                                                      

Method of payment: Please check one.

Check______              Cash____

  

Note: Files released upon payment in full.

Moving

First I want to give a big shout out to my boy Dane for giving me a hand on Saturday.

I moved offices over the weekend and I have to tell you that I'm glad.

I am a creature that likes to change things up. Although change scares me to death I make myself constantly do it because it eliminates complacency. It is way to easy to get comfortable and lose site of all the good things in the world.

However there is always that part when you start packing things and discover that you have accumulated way more junk than conceivable even though the space you are occupying is very small. It's kind of disturbing.

This also gave me an opportunity to jettison a metric butt load of items that have been stuck in the catacombs for the last 3 years. Things that I have long forgotten and and now serve zero purpose. Bye bye!!

I think in order to be effective in any circumstance a person must be able to roll with anything, adapt and absolutely must know how to shoot from the hip and most of all accept change.

Change is the opening for all new things and if a person stays stuck behind that cad program and never looks up, then that will define them as non-progressive and that's where they will be until they die. Stuck to the chair that that are sitting in.

If a person comes up for air and checks out new things and looks at the big picture as endless possibility then they will most likely be defined as progressive.

I personally fit into the progressive category. While change does scare me I get more agitated when nothing new has happened. I would rather walk through life petrified and see new things than sit around like a blob and be comfy.

Civil Dialogue

Last Friday my Scottsdale Leadership class was about Civil Discourse and how to avoid it by opening up constructive dialogue.

I have always thought of myself as a person that could mediate an inflamed situation but after this particular session I think I realized that there is a lot more to making a circumstance of opposed thought a smooth event.

I have been in a position of authority since I was 23 years old when I became a crew chief. I had many men 20 years + my senior working under me and I was constantly met with resentment from a lot of people because I was so young.

I had to get real tough real fast and learn to never back down from the opposition and not worry about what others think. Being tossed to the wolves was probably the best thing that ever happened to me.

During Friday’s class I started thinking of how I used to act as a younger man.

You see I was brought up my some crusty old boys that would give a person an un-merciless amount of shit on a daily basis and if you couldn’t hack it you were gone. I saw a lot of people crumble under this onslaught because they lacked the thick skin that I was blessed with. I guess I just never cared what people say or think and just gave it back.

Looking back at this time in my life was pretty awesome. This time period was actually the end of an era, an era where you could tell someone what you really think and throw in some degrading profanity in the process and you could avoid getting in trouble.

I was also thinking how these guys would have been the current epitome of civil discourse. They would have never tolerated all of this sensitive stuff of today and would never survive because they would have had their ass’s sued off.

Now as for myself, I held onto this way of behaving a few years longer than I probably should have. I was a massive heckler and was completely unaware and could care less about how people felt or the ramifications. I still think people need to lighten up and take things at face value; however after Friday I truly learned the importance of civil dialogue in order to keep the wheel greased and moving smooth.

Sitting there I remembered a particular instance that was the game changer for my behavior.

Before I owned RJR I had an employee that in my opinion was kind of sue happy and was a little displaced.

I used to give this guy kind of a bad time like anyone else and I took for granted that he had a thick skin. Well I was very wrong about that.

I insinuated that he liked to have intercourse with barnyard animals and the next thing I knew HR was coming down on me like hell hath no fury.

In short form, after all was said and done the guy no longer worked at RJR and myself and the rest of the company had to sit through sensitivity training. Boy they sure hated me for that.

While this is an extremely condensed version of the story, in hind sight this person did me a great favor. By being the person that they were at the time and doing what they did, it made me wake up and do some serious re-evaluation of things and it helped me completely change the way I go about interactions. Sometimes a person just needs a swift kick to the nuts in order to wake up. So thank you anonymous person.

Going back to last Friday in leadership made me realize that we are truly in a different world and if we are to get by, we have to adapt if we are to succeed.

Civil dialogue is a fantastic start. If we can keep different groups calm enough to see the big picture we as the human race can evolve into something far beyond anything we imagined.

Files

So there I am in staring at all of my old files in storage and I made supreme command decisions.

That decision is to scan all of them to disc and toss the paper. I starting thinking that at the rate I am going and if I stay a surveyor for the rest of my working life I will have enough files to fill a garage.

This has got to stop.

I am implementing a new procedure this year. I am only going to have temporary paper files and any notes sketches etc will be scanned at the end of the job and then the paper goes into the recycle.

I do realize that there will always be exceptions to this way of thinking, however we have virtually every document we need available online and I can always re-print.

I believe 2012 marks the time for space saving storage on multiple discs stored in a safe. I think this is a forward thinking situation as long as I am diligent about the after scan and it is absolutly the wave of the future.

I can keep a couple of cabinets around for those files that need to be here but the rest it's bye bye.

Oh yeah, I mean all files, business, jobs, whatever.

Did I mention that my teenage daughter will be doing the scanning of the back items? She doesn't know yet so it will be a big surprise. Any of you that have a teenage daughter will understand that this could be a grim circumstance :)

The cost of things

Well it's that time of the year when I have to fill out applications for E&O and GL renewals.

The good news is revenues are down for 2011 so the premiums will be a lot less. More good news is that I have gotten rid of a lot of equipment that is collecting dust and the price of replacements has dropped as well.

I did some checking and yes what I said is true. Equipment is a lot cheaper now. I was pleasantly surprised by this fact. So much so I got to drop the replacement cost &100,000.

This should be a great year for premiums which will make things easier while business picks back up. Next year will be a much different deal, but go 2012 rates.

I spend a lot of time trying to cut costs for my company. I search for better phone deals, better premiums, I find the best places for fuel (Scottsdale is not one). Essentially I cut cost wherever I can.

I recently renewed my plan with TMobile, by doing so I saved $125.00 on my monthly bill and ended up with a much better plan. I also switched my office lines to Vonage and clipped another $30.00 off of my bill.

I am in the process of moving offices because the neighbors want to take over the entire upper floor and sign a 3 year lease. I found a spot that is bigger, $25.00 a month cheaper and I am month to month. How much better does that get? Did I mention closure to home therefore I will save on fuel.

All of these little things add up. At the end of the day it increases my bottom line and makes for a much happier surveyor.

Why should I spend my life working to pay someone else when I should be getting paid?

As the year progresses I intend to hire 2-3 employees. The forecast looks great and I am going to go for it.

The dilemma I am having is what kind of a package should I offer? Should I bring them in as employees or contract labor? The office people are absolutely contract, but the field people have to be employees because of workers comp issues. Do I offer the field people health insurance? That is a good question. Do I pay them less and insure or let them deal with it?

Employees in any business is the largest expense.

I am an employer that believes in paying for full benefits, contributing 6% to their 401k and giving large bonuses.

Business has become a lot different today and anyone that is a survivor will approach things with extreme caution.

I think when it comes to employees I will start very lean, see how things progress and then expand the benefits.

In a nut shell boys and girls 2012 is going to be a good year. I believe that a recovery in our profession is here. All of the bad employees have moved on, people are hiring and the cash is starting to flow.

We all now have a chance to staff up with quality people and really crank out some good work. For the first time ever I can be choosy about the bodies and I intend to build a dream team of talent.