2001 - Bagpipes Around the Lake       During the 2000-2001 year, the Council of the Alberta Land Surveyors' Association spent a great deal of time discussing survey education and the University of Calgary. The Council reviewed a number of options for survey education, including encouraging applied degree programs to be set up at NAIT and SAIT. NAIT and the University of Lethbridge did enter into an understanding such that a NAIT graduate could get two years of credit at the University of Lethbridge’s GIS program. The Alberta Land Surveyors' Association did establish additional scholarships at the University of Lethbridge and the University of New Brunswick and increased the amounts of its scholarships at NAIT and SAIT. The ALSA also established a $5,000 scholarship for graduate students studying cadastral surveying at a Canadian university. The ALSA was concerned that Brian Ballantyne’s contract at the University of Calgary was not going to be renewed. However, the Geomatics Engineering Department was interviewing candidates for the GIS/Land Tenure tenure track position and professional land surveyors Dr. Mike Barry from South Africa and Mele Rakai from New Zealand were soon hired. The Council asked the Western Canadian Board of Examiners to study the appropriateness of their exams and exam schedules and the Canadian Council of Land Surveyors to pursue the concept of establishing a national board of examiners. By the 2001 Annual General Meeting, the four western provincial survey associations and ACLS seemed to agree that setting up a national board was the route to pursue. Ron Hall flew to Ottawa and Halifax several times to discuss the Agreement on Internal Trade and labour mobility. The purpose of the discussions was to develop an agreement that would allow land surveyors in good standing within a Canadian jurisdiction to more easily get a commission in another Canadian jurisdiction. It was suggested that asking a land surveyor to serve articles was an artificial barrier to mobility. This notion created the most debate amongst the associations. The associations also discussed at considerable length what exams a previously commissioned surveyor would be expected to write and what exam subjects were appropriate. It was agreed that they should not be examined on subjects in which they had previously been examined. At the Annual General Meeting itself, the membership approved changes to the Real Property Report. The changes were intended to simplify the RPR by not showing improvements, such as portable sheds, that do not affect the enjoyment of the property. The membership agreed, as a minimum, that restrictive covenants should be listed but not shown. This created the most debate at the AGM. In other matters, the membership approved a new definition of parcel but defeated recommendations that would have created a new definition of surveyed boundary and guidelines for intersections. By the end of the Annual General Meeting, the membership passed a motion to hold all future annual general meetings at Jasper Park Lodge. Sometime after midnight following the President’s Ball, articled student John Haggerty bagpiped about 20 people from the Lodge to the hospitality suite.   Back - 2000 - The Perception of Land Surveying at the University of Calgary Forward - 2002 - Labour Mobility