California Surveyors Forums

I just received my renewal Pocket License, the paper version that doubles as a receipt. I note that it says "Please laminate your License to avoid deterioration." Does this mean that the plastic credit-card licenses aren't being issued any longer?

As I recall, my last couple of renewals have resulted in the plastic version arriving a month or two after the paper version, but I don't remember whether or not the lamination note appeared on the paper copy.

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My experience is that the silver plastic one will show up somewhere between 1 and 3 months after the paper one.

When I renewed last December I received the paper slip right away and the card came about two months later.

Maybe we could get some sort of lanyards so we can wear them everywhere.

Frank Morrow (LS 3275, RIP) told me he once used his to convince a motel owner who didn't want to accept an out-of-town check that he was an acceptable risk.

I can envision a situation in which a police officer being asked to enforce the right-of-access laws might insist on seeing the card to authenticate the eligibility of the person requesting access.

I'm proud enough of my license that I'd carry it anyway, but I don't take it into the shower either.

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A survey equipment supply once offered me a store credit account if I showed proof of a license. I can also imagine right-of access situations when the card would come in handy.

You don't wear them in the shower???

They're waterproof!

The one time I was asked to show my license was for the very first job I did as an LS on a weekend in September right after I got my license in 2001. I had the paper slip pocket license before the plastic cards were used. A fence had fallen over in Yorba Linda and it affected 3 properties, 2 on one side and 1 on the other. The 1 guy in the back wanted to put it back where it was. The two in the front wanted a survey and they hired me. The guy in the back had his eye on me the whole time and when I needed to run my traverse through is yard to close my loop he objected and then I told him about the "right of entry", of course I had left notice the week before that would be surveying and may need access. Once he saw my license he was fine and let me in.

I would rather have a shiny brass badge. When I worked for Parks I was accompanied on a contentious Survey by the Park Ranger complete with badge, gun and campaign hat. It's amazing how well behaved people were around that guy. Neal and I were discussing whether an electric fence was energized when he said he would find out; he went over there and grabbed it then let go and said, "yep, it's energized" LOL.

I've been a Boundary Determination Officer (that's my job title) for over two years now, and I'm still waiting for my badge and gun to be issued.

I was asked by a police watch commander to prove I was a licensed surveyor after a property owner reported me for trespassing. There is a lot more to this story, the bottom line being most police departments don't know the "surveyor's right of entry" rights. (Before anyone goes off on a tangent, I followed proper procedures to notify the property owners I would be on their property.) So, the pocket license is useful other than additional I.D. to cash a check. (tongue in cheek)

"Before anyone goes off on a tangent, I followed proper procedures to notify the property owners I would be on their property."

I don't know why anyone would go off on a tangent, inasmuch as the right of entry "is not contingent upon the provision of prior notice to the owner or tenant."

By the way, I used my pocket license just last week to assure a city staffer from whom I was requesting a copy of a permit application document that I was the surveyor whose map was included in the application submittal. I probably could have used my driver's license, but the LS card drew a clear line between the document (which featured a scanned copy of my survey) and me.
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I just read on the BPELS website that the state will no longer issue plastic ID cards due to budget issues. Bummer.

However, the same notice also states that BPELS is "working with a contract vendor to provide plastic photo ID cards to those licensees who voluntarily choose to purchase one directly from the vendor." So we may yet be able to get nicely-made pocket license cards.

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