President’s Message Winter 2020

Regan Rayner SLS, P. Surv. President

December, 2020

Good day to everyone!  We have made it to December!!  I hope that this message finds you healthy and happy and ready for the upcoming holiday season.  We have been busy attending meetings (online) and seminars lately.  Thank you to all those who have helped in putting together the content, presenting and hosting the meetings.  They are a benefit to our association and its members to keep us up to date and in line with what is required to operate as an association and to keep our members current with what they need to keep up with the practice of surveying.  There is a lot of effort put into these various activities and it is greatly appreciated.  By the time this message makes it out to you, we will have completed our fall seminar.  We will also have taken part in the ISC/OPRA/CP meeting, PSC’s strategic plan meeting, Community Planning’s Client Engagement Group meeting and a variety of other meetings for the different committees. 

If I haven’t said it before, I will say it now, our members make this an amazing association to be a part of.  The level of involvement of every member makes everything work well together and keeps our association close.  We all play a part in making a cohesive group and keeping things working smoothly, not just for ourselves, but ultimately in keeping the public interest at the forefront of what we do.

Carrie and I recently attended the Saskatchewan Self Regulating Professions Work Group (SSRPWG) meeting where we learned how some of the other professions regulate themselves.  In listening to the other Professions tell us about their membership and level of involvement from their members, we are a very active profession when it comes to participation.  We have 117 members (licensed, retired, life and honorary) and 73 of those members are involved on our different committees and council (62%).  The other professions that attended quoted involvement rates and attendance rates of 15% to 22%.  That being said, we still need members to continue to volunteer.  If you have not volunteered already or would like to be more active in the association, please let us know so we can get you involved.

At this working group, we discussed the differences between our regulatory function and our advocacy functions.  There is a push to separate the advocacy side away from the regulatory function of the different professions to remove any potential conflict of interest.  In attending the strategic plan meeting from PSC, their mandate or focus will now become more of an advocacy role for the members.  This will hopefully help show the public that our association is, of no doubt, there to protect the public interest.  The PSC meeting and SSRPWG meeting fit well together. 

The upcoming couple of months is an opportunity to clean things up and start fresh for 2021.  We have been pushing to get through the year and hopefully everyone has been able to do so in good health.  This time of year is typically a time of keeping up traditions and setting new goals for the upcoming year.  Hopefully this year, new traditions can be made and new ways of doing things can be discovered.  There is plenty of opportunity.  If anyone has suggestions or stories of their adventures this year or over the holidays, it would be great to hear them.

Have a great holiday season and I look forward to talking with you next year!

Regan Rayner

President