ACSM Congress Votes to Disband at ACSM and Survey Summit 2011

At this past ACSM and Survey Summit 2011, the American Congress on Surveying & Mapping (ACSM) Congress voted to disband. There has been much speculation about whether, or how, ACSM would continue to exist.

The ACSM Congress approved the following motion:

“It is moved that in the interests of leading toward a viable single organization, the ACSM Congress be disbanded and the dissolution of ACSM begin and in conjunction with the process, ACSM turn over all operation, control, assets and liabilities to NSPS.

And furthermore,

That the NSPS immediately proceed with a realignment into a unified organization made up of individual members with equitable representation that encompasses the broader definition of surveying to include professional surveyors, geodesists and other geospatial professionals; that the realigned organization adopt the following mission statement: “The mission of the organization shall be to represent and advance the sciences and disciplines of surveying, geodesy, cartography, and related fields through education and communication, in furtherance of public good.”; that the realigned organization adopt a structure similar to that of NSPS; that the realigned organization take immediate action(s) to reduce administrative costs; that the realigned organization immediately develop a plan to attract new members in all of the disciplines of surveying, geodesy, cartography and related fields, and develop a marketing strategy.”

Moving to a Unified Organization

Work is under way to creating a unified organization. What that will be, is not very clear? There are still many issues at hand, not the least of which is resolving:

• Resolving financial issues. Should the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS), or any other group, assume the ACSM liabilities and debts? And, what are they?
• Resolving name issues. Should a new unified organization be called NSPS or by another name altogether? One idea I saw floated out there was to call the new unified group “ACSM”! While that might seem laughable and untenable to some at this point, surely there are more than a few out there willing to succumb to the sirens of sentimentality.
• Will the “move” to unity, in fact, lead to friction and fraction? We’ll see.