Get to know your 2015-2016 NSPS Leadership Team

Left to Right - Pat Smith, Robert Miller, Tim Burch, Jon Warren, Tony Cavell.
 Curt Sumner at Podium.  Not pictured: Jan Fokens

The recently installed officers of NSPS will serve from April 2015 until the date of the  2016 NSPS general membership meeting. This year’s leaders come from a variety of backgrounds in the surveying profession, and are indicative of the diversity of the NSPS membership in general, as have NSPS leaders since the organization’s beginnings in 1980. All are licensed professional surveyors with extensive experience in NSPS, either as NSPS Governors, Directors, or Officers.

President Jon Warren has a diverse background encompassing both the private and the public sectors. He currently serves as Land Survey Division Manager for the City of Bellevue, WA. Formerly, Jon has served as Snohomish County (WA) Surveyor, as Survey Business Line Manager for WH Pacific, and as Senior Associate and Puget Sound Region Survey Manager for David Evans and Associates, Inc.  

President-Elect Tony Cavell also has experience in both the private and public sectors, having worked in construction surveying, offshore, and has expertise in GNSS applications for surveying. Working with LSU, he was a manager for C4G, and helped establish CORS and develop GULFnet RTN for Louisiana. Tony is one of the initial Certified Federal Surveyors (CFedS) and has served as a Director for the Public Lands Survey System Foundation (PLSSF). 

Vice President Jan Fokens has owned Fokens Enterprises (a private practice land surveying/consulting firm in MI), served as a Business Consultant for the Michigan Small Business Technology Development Center at Mid-Michigan Community College, and as a Peer Review Consultant for Isabella and Gladwin Counties, MI Remonumentation Program. He is the Chairman of the City of Mt. Pleasant, MI Zoning Board of Appeals.

Treasurer Robert (Bob) Miller is Director of Land Surveying for Horizon Engineering, LLC in Pennsylvania where he is actively involved in project management and survey activities, including plan generation, field and office scheduling, and marketing. He also has served as an expert witness in numerous court proceedings. For the last 18 years he has been teaching workshops in Basic and Applied Survey Mathematics, Construction Surveying, Writing Legal Descriptions, and Boundary Survey Law.

Secretary Tim Burch has over 30 years’ experience, and is currently the Survey Department Manager for Chastain & Associates (IL) where his duties include establishing new markets and clients, and mentoring of surveying staff. In 2013 he participated in the Illinois Boundary Law book project written by Jeff Lucas. The publication was organized by the Northeast Chapter, and published by the IPLSA for its members. Tim also has been a contributor to the Illinois Surveyor newsletter.

Past President Pat Smith will continue as a member of the NSPS Executive Committee for 2014-2015 where he will share the expertise he gained serving as the 2013-2014 NSPS President. Pat is Senior Staff Surveyor at Surveying & Mapping, Inc. (SAM Inc.) in Austin, TX. 

The NSPS Executive Committee is comprised of its officers along with four members of its Board of Directors (representatives from the respective state surveying societies). The four Directors serving on the NSPS Executive Committee for 2015 are: David Holland (VA); Mike Maxwell (FL); Rick Howard (CT); Bob Akins (OH).