President's Report - Feb 2025

Greetings from Moree where I’m working on level crossing upgrades for Inland Rail.

Whilst the days nudge 40 degree Celsius, I also get to have a wonderful week out of the office. More importantly, it allows me to spend time with a few Sydney based graduates and expose them to regional surveying. Apparently, they’ve had to explain to a few people back home where places like Croppa Creek and North Star are as well as Moree.

ISNSW has been asked to review the draft Surveyor-General’s Directions No.7 Surveying and Spatial Information Regulation 2024 – Applications. Thanks to a small, dedicated team, we intend to turnaround our response to the insanely small one week timeframe. With 80 pages to review, what worries me is what will we miss? Moreover, can the Directions be amended if we hear stories of impracticability? More lobbying needed me thinks.

Work is underway for the second iteration of the Rural Boot camp. Justin Kell, Michael Kadziela and Tom McDonald are finalising the program so look out for the advance notice in a forthcoming e-newsletter.

The rollout of digital survey plans is progressing. Currently 25% of currently lodged plans have errors so the move to full digital lodgement aims to improve plan submission quality and bottlenecks in the process. The use of the online digital forms builders in the portal is only 24%. The NSW Office of the Registrar General (ORG) wants to know why the update is low. According to their 2020 Delivery Plan, electronic plan and digital forms will be mandated i.e. it is going to happen. Our job is to make sure the transition isn’t too hard and that a good idea doesn’t fail due to inadequate systems or education. Further meetings with ORG are planned. The team at the Institution of Surveyors NSW (ISNSW) is seeking your input, so keep an eye on your emails for more information. Better yet, contact the team at the ISNSW if you want to participate in the discussion.

The ISNSW Board will be holding a strategic review session on Wednesday 19?February. The ISNSW 2-day 2025 annual conference commences the following day. The Regional Group Chairs will attend the afternoon session. I consider both the Board Directors and the Regional Group Chairs to comprise the Institution’s leadership group. Hence it is important there is a common approach to addressing issues and to promote the profession. These forums are fantastic idea-exchange opportunities. Innovation from one group can be considered and adopted by another. It promises to be a great day.

It is two weeks to the Annual Conference and I’m told there are some tickets available so don’t wait until the last minute. For me, it is a great chance to learn new ideas, hear how problems were solved, to create new friendships and to renew old ones. I know many will attend virtually, which suits many, but my personal preference is to physically attend. Besides, there are too many distractions if I watched from home or the office. If you do attend, don’t hesitate to speak to me.?Check out the program here.

For me, the high point at the conference is the Gala Dinner where 50-year membership certificates are presented to those who have reached this fantastic milestone. Hearing individual stories makes it a very emotional event. If I had to generalise, the recipients are humble and downplay their contributions to the profession and to their communities. I believe this is one of our profession’s strengths and I hope we continue to celebrate each member’s contribution.

Hopefully I’ll see you at the conference. If not, I’ll see you at a future group event. I’m scheduled to visit all groups this year. This includes the Northern Group’s 2-day seminar in my home city of Tamworth. We’ve just seen 100,000 people pass through Tamworth during the Country Music Festival, so I think there is capacity for 100 surveyors and their partners. The full list of upcoming events is here.

Until next month, keep well.

Yours in surveying,

Mitchel Hanlon

President ISNSW