On September 2, President Trump signed into law H.R. 6500, the “Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027,” which includes a short-term continuing resolution that provides fiscal year 2027 appropriations to Federal agencies through December 11, 2026, and extends authorities for a broad range of programs including FEMA’S National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), surface transportation, and veteran programs. This bill keeps the federal government open through December 1

Upcoming Events: General Membership Meeting & Crab Feast | October 3, 2026 | Baltimore, MD Join the Baltimore Chapter for an afternoon packed with delicious food, cold drinks, great company, and plenty of fun! Bring your spouse, friends, coworkers, or guests, and enjoy one of our most popular annual events! You MUST register by September 28, 2026. Click here for more information. Annual Fall Conference | October 14-17, 2026 | Ocean City, MD The Maryland Society of Surveyors A

During the past 56 years of my membership in the Maryland Society of Surveyors, and in teaching many classes over those same years dealing with subjects of interest to the surveying community, two of the very most talked about subjects have been the Statute of Limitations and the Statute of Repose, forgetting for the purposes of this article about the surveyor’s two most favorite subjects, adverse possession and prescriptive easements.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Past President John R. ("Dick") Witmer on July 6, 2026. Dick was a founding member of Macris, Hendricks and Witmer, and later left that firm, eventually starting his own business, Witmer Associates, LLC.

Tom Manning is a Senior Associate and Field Survey Coordinator at Rodgers Consulting, Inc. Tom was preparing a series of educational emails about least squares for the survey team and mentioned in those emails that one of the primary reasons to use least squares to adjust field data was to be able to prove that it meets the State and ALTA/NSPS precision standards. He told former MSS President Aaron Worley that he considered breaking just that part out as a shorter article, an