Page 16 - ESS July 2023

NSPS Spring Update
By Patricia Brooks, LS, NSPS Director New York
Ricky & Patti Brooks with Congressman Patrick Ryan
Ricky Brooks @ Capital Building
Spring NSPS Meeting 2023
14 EMPIRE STATE SURVEYOR / VOL. 59 • NO 4 / 2023 • JULY/AUGUST
It has been some time since I have written about the National
Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS), so I thought I would
start with a little background for those who may not be familiar
with the National Society. I believe it was back in the Fall of 2013
that Malcolm Shaw, our NY Governor representative at NSPS at
the time, first “suggested” Glenn Watson, Rick and I accompany
him to the NSPS meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. NSPS was
undergoing restructuring and Malcolm was instrumental in
transforming the form of government from ten Area Directors
elected by the NSPS membership with each State providing a
non-voting Governor representative, to each State having a
Memorandum of Understanding with NSPS to provide a State
voting Director to represent the 100% membership of each
State Society member. The change significantly decreased the
membership dues, while at the same time provided more revenue
to the Society through the substantial increase in the number
of NSPS members, and the opportunity for additional member
participation in the future of NSPS.
I have seen nothing but continued growth, increase in
participation, benefits, and opportunities for NSPS members
since that date, and I have been very fortunate to represent New
York State as our Director. Everyone knows that when you engage
one of the Brooks’, you actually get two of us. Rick has been
instrumental in growing the CST program in New York for the
past ten years, with our number of Certified Survey Technicians
growing from about nine in 2013 to 151 as of March 2023.
Fast forward to today – or at least to our Spring 2023 NSPS
meeting held in Arlington, Virginia from March 29th through
April 1st 2023. There are two NSPS meetings held annually,
and while the Fall meetings travel throughout the Country, the
Spring meetings are held in conjunction with, and kicked off
by, our annual “Day on the Hill”. The Spring meeting actually
started the evening of March 28th with our pre-day on the hill
meeting, and pre-student competition networking event.
The Day on the Hill provides NSPS members with the opportunity
to lobby our National Congressional and Senate representatives on
Capitol Hill and we had 57 individuals from 41 States participate.
I hope to engage additional participation by NYSAPLS members
next year. NSPS’ Government Affairs consultant firm, Miller/
Wenhold Capitol Strategies, monitors and reports on Federal
government activities of interest and concern to our members.
Our registered Lobbyist John (JB) Byrd works closely with our
government affairs committee, schedules meetings for our Spring
visits, and provides support documents and moral support before,
during, and after our meetings. It is a great opportunity to visit