Land Surveying Student Organization

SPRING SEMESTER 2003 TIMELINE

FEBRUARY 2003

February 1, 2003 ~ First Meeting ~ Brainstorming Event

February 16, 2003 ~ Second Meeting ~ Voted on Official Name "Land Surveying Student Organization"

February 19, 2003 ~ Anna Burroughs, James Mason, David "Scottie" Scott, Advisors Chris Hilton and Mike Ritter attended the TSPS February Chapter 13 Meeting at Threadgill's. The formation of LSSO was announced to TSPS at the Capital Area Chapter 13 Meeting. TSPS Chapter 13 graciously donated $200.00 to LSSO.

MARCH 2003

March 1, 2003 ~ Third Meeting ~ Committees were formed and the official logo was voted on.

March 11, 2003 ~ Anna Burroughs and James Mason attended the TSPS Joint Chapter Meeting in Temple, TX.

APRIL 2003

April ~ LSSO sent out the 1^st Issue of the LSSO Newsletter

April 9, 2003 ~ Advisor and Instructor, Mike Ritter, along with student LSSO Officers Judy Jaimes and David "Scottie" Scott participated in a student recruitment event at the Greater Austin College & Career Summit for High School Students at the Austin Convention Center.

April 13, 2003 ~ Fourth Meeting ~ Jim Eckhardt, of Landmark Surveying, was our guest speaker but due to circumstances beyond our control we were unable to see his presentation so we got with Mike McMinn, ACC Land Surveying Instructor, to see if he would let LSSO take over one of his classes.

April 16, 2003 ~ LSSO takes over the Intro to Surveying Course at ACC and has an IN-CLASS meeting with Jim Eckhardt giving a presentation about surveying the Mayan Ruins in Central America.

April 17, 2003 ~ Advisor and Instructor, Mike Ritter, along with student LSSO Officer David "Scottie" Scott participated with TSPS and Easy Drive at the ACC College Days at Elgin High School.

MAY 2003

May 1, 2003 ~ Anna Burroughs and Judy Jaimes volunteer to help out with the Children's Miracle Network Kick off Event for the families being presented during their telethon that will take place at the end of May. Anna was in charge of the cotton candy and Judy was a favorite at the popcorn machine.

May 3, 2003 ~ Mike Ritter, RPLS, LSSO Advisor, ACC Land Surveying Instructor, and Project Manager for the City of Austin, was awarded the Spring 2003 Teacher's Excellence Award from Austin Community College's Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society.

May 4, 2003 ~ Fifth Meeting (Final Meeting of the Spring 2003 Semester) LSSO's Last Meeting of the Spring Semester ~ Announcements and recognitions of all of the accomplishments for the Spring.

May 18, 2003 ~ First Meeting of the Summer 2003 Semester ~ At this meeting we discussed the upcoming weekend retreat, ideas for student recruitment, as well as possible changes and issues affecting the Land Surveying Curriculum and Department.

May 30 to June 1, 2003 ~ RANCH WEEKEND RETREAT - Our fun-filled weekend retreat to the Bar 49 Ranch will hopefully become a continuous semester project for LSSO. Several members, all of the officers, and one advisor attended over the weekend, as well as wonderful hospitality provided by the Art & LeAnn Ables (and of course we don't want to leave out John Ables, student member of LSSO), who allowed us to survey the ranch and also held both a bar-b-que and breakfast for us during the weekend.

FIRST AN IDEA, NEXT A SUCCESS: THE BEGINNING OF LSSO

A land surveying student at Austin Community College, Anna Burroughs, wanted to find a way to increase the education opportunities in the Austin area for students, like her, to learn more about land surveying. She began in December 2002 by talking to one of her professors, Mike Ritter, about the possibility of forming a student organization. Ritter thought a student organization would be a great opportunity for the college and for the industry. At the end of the 2002 Fall Semester and beginning of the 2003 Spring Semester, Burroughs then took the idea to her classmates by speaking to each of the surveying classes at Austin Community College in order to get their response and feedback. Once Burroughs had some feedback on the organization she began talking to the Land Surveying Department Chair, Chris Hilton, who agreed that the student organization would be beneficial to the land surveying students. Burroughs now planned a "Brainstorming Event" on February 2, 2003 in order to get fellow students involved and interested in forming the student organization. This event had a great turnout and several goals and ideas were discussed for the future organization. At the second meeting, on February 16, the official name and officers were voted in. It was now the Land Surveying Student Organization, with five dedicated officers and the beginning of a new enthusiasm amoung Land Surveying Students. With the help of James Mason, LSSO VP, David "Scottie" Scott, Treasurer, Judith Jaimes and Miriam Castillo, Secretaries, and the Advisors, Chris Hilton and Mike Ritter, LSSO began with a extremely successful semester.