What Has MSS Done for You Lately?

Here are just a few highlights of accomplishments and activities

of the Maryland Society of Surveyors in recent months.

• MSS convinced Governor Hogan to classify surveying and engineering as critical and essential services, permitted to stay open for business when other professions and industries were closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic
  
  
• In the 2020 session of the Maryland state legislature, MSS was a leader in defeating HB 1628, a bill to impose a sales tax on professional services, including surveying, architecture, and engineering
  
  
• A bill, HB 1479, regarding certification of certain subdivision plans and plats in Calvert County was amended to preserve the role of a licensed professional surveyor thanks to MSS’s lobbying efforts
  
  
• Transitioned the 2020 Spring Technical Conference, which could not be held in-person due to Coronavirus restrictions, to a successful series of 17 webinars, offering a total of 27 Continuing Professional Competency (CPC) credits for each surveyor, in which 573 surveyors participated, and a total of 973 CPCs were awarded
  
  
• Made available for purchase three (3) books published by MSS – Law of Land Boundaries (2018 Supplement) by James Demma, Institutes of Boundary Retracement by Joel Leininger, and Statutory Laws of Maryland Relating to Land Surveyor by James Demma
  
  
• Secured a 2020 Surveyors Week proclamation from Governor Hogan, as well as local proclamations in Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Hagerstown, and Washington County
  
  
• Present more than 80 hours of Continuing Professional Competency (CPC) education annually on cutting-edge topics
  
  
• Provided education scholarships for future surveyors through the MSS Educational Trust
  
  
• Assisted future surveyors with licensing examination preparation
  
  
• Established a database on the MSS website with DLLR for searchable data on retired surveyor license and corporation number tracking
  
  
• Helped win approval of a bill (SB877-HB1330) in the Maryland House and Senate updating the state’s underground facilities damage prevention law, notwithstanding its veto by the Governor
  
  
• Worked with the Maryland Geological Survey, the state agency responsible for the Maryland Coordinate System on preparation for improvements to the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS)
  
  
• Worked with the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) to improve its surveying program, including implementation of on-line delivery options, and an agreement with the University of Maine for in-state tuition in an on-line 4-year survey engineering degree
  
  
• Developed updates and revisions to the surveying practice act for introduction in the State Legislature
  
  
• Hosted the MSS annual conference on October 16-19, 2019 Ocean City
  
  
• Hosted Victoria Wilkins, Commissioner of the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing at the Maryland Department of Labor,for a discussion of licensing issues in Maryland and across the Nation at a General membership Meeting dinner
  
  
• Worked with the Maryland Geological Survey and the Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors to get the Mason Dixon monuments into the National Historic Register of Historic Places