SPRING QUARTERLY BUSINESS MEETING & SEMINAR

Our Spring Quarterly business meeting & seminar will be held on Thursday, March 30th at The Common Man, located at 21 Water Street in Claremont.

The daytime seminar will focus on four areas of interest to the practicing Land Surveyor.

1. A detailed discussion on political boundaries as they relate to riparian law, specifically with reference to the historical boundary between New Hampshire and Vermont.
2. A focus on business administration with respect to how surveying firms can and should implement certain insurance practices into their business which should help minimize risk and maximize profits.
3. We will include a visit from the apprentice program at the NH Community College system and will provide come insight into how Surveying firms can add junior technical members to their staffs.
4.  A historical review of how the Thompson School of applied Sciences which included the former Surveying Technology program started at Dartmouth but migrated to Durham.

The State of Vermont v. The State of New Hampshire

The Connecticut River is a natural boundary between New Hampshire and Vermont. The story about how it came to be the boundary has many twists and turns, like the river itself, over the past 250 to 300 years. We will explore some of these meanderings and ox bows and contemplate some of the implications that remain.

Brian Nelson Burford graduated from Keene State College with a bachelor’s degree in history and had one year towards a master’s degree in history at the University of Virginia, when he sought refuge from academia by taking a job working for a surveyor in 1972. He joined the NHLSA in 1977 and has learned much from his long association with other professionals. His surveying duties tended to focus on the research into boundaries. He was licensed in 1983. He has tried to serve the profession in several roles in the Association. In late 1995, he was hired at the NH State Archives and was employed there for 27 years, eventually being appointed to the job of State Archivist. He retired finally from this role on the last day of 2022. His retirement looks busy with projects that include to further study of the history of land surveying, the historical editing of the papers of Meshech Weare, and supporting students at Keene State who are studying the history of NH, and the cleaning of his home office.

Basic Insurance Navigation for Small & Medium Surveying Business Owners

Chris McIntosh has devoted his years in the insurance industry to personal and commercial insurance clients by custom-designing a client’s insurance portfolio, providing counseling on coverage and exposure, and answering coverage questions through regular reviews. He is an Accredited Advisor in Insurance (AAI) and has established a long history of giving back to the communities he serves through volunteering.

In the business sector, Chris specializes in the fields of manufacturing and construction. He goes beyond insurance and acts as a business partner by providing hands-on training to educate and keep clients up to date. He reviews employee handbooks to help clients meet standards on state and federal employment laws. He is also an OSHA Authorized Construction Trainer and can assist companies with their safety programs and provide mandated OSHA certification for employees.

Train the Next Generation of Land Surveyors

ApprenticeshipNH is a workforce training program of the Community College System of NH. Funded by the Department of Labor, ApprenticeshipNH assists employers with meeting their workforce needs by developing pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship programs across multiple industry sectors, creating high quality career pathways for all. The ApprenticeshipNH presentation will include the components of a registered apprenticeship program, framework for a high-quality pre-apprenticeship program and available resources and funding supports for employers and apprentices.

Mary Ann Gaschnig is an Apprentice and Business Outreach Specialist at ApprenticeshipNH, a workforce initiative of the Community College System of NH. Mary Ann works with employers, professional associations, and educational institutions to develop pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship opportunities for youth and adults in the western and southern regions of NH. She has extensive experience directing career, education, and community initiatives in academic, business, government and non-profit settings.

Liz Arcieri is an Apprentice and Business Outreach Specialist with ApprenticeshipNH, a workforce initiative of the Community College System of NH. With a Master of Public Administration (MPA) and a professional career in higher education, Liz has interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to address critical workforce development challenges.

How Agriculture Shaped the Rural Landscape of New Hampshire and Vermont

For almost four centuries farming has set the pattern of land use across the states of New Hampshire and Vermont. In earliest times it was the cow that was the essential element of survival of the European settlers. First with subsistence agriculture, then with production for the commercial markets of the growing urban areas of New England, it has been a continuous effort to make money from land-based economic activity.

The first half of the 19th century would see the only period of true agricultural prosperity the region has every known, a time when many families got rich farming—that was the time of the great sheep boom, when hundreds of thousands of sheep populated the land and as much as 80 percent of the forest covered had been cut down to make way for pasturage and hay and grain production.

The collapse of that economic bubble would leave multiple legacies in the region, legacies that are still clearly visible today, and would lead to a continuing quest for profitable agricultural activities that still goes on.

Along the way, there have been initiatives aimed at encouraging and nurturing farming, such as the Grange movement and the development of the land grant colleges in both states.

Of great importance throughout this long chapter in New England history has been the role of the surveyor, which will be discussed in this program.

Steve Taylor, a newspaperman, farmer and longtime public official, is a lifelong scholar of the rural culture of New England and the region’s agricultural history. He has been a daily newspaper reporter and editor, a dairy farmer and was New Hampshire’s commissioner of agriculture for 25 years. With his three sons, he operates a livestock and maple farm in the Meriden Village section of Plainfield, NH.

Tentative Seminar Schedule - 2.0 CEUs

Meeting Schedule - 1.0 CEU for 2 meetings per year