ALS News: From the Vault - The 1913 AGM

The 1913 annual general meeting of the Alberta Land Surveyors’ Association was held in the Board of Trade rooms in Calgary. There were twenty members present.
 
Here are some of the highlights from the annual report of that year.
 
The president, Lionel Charlesworth, was unable to attend the annual general meeting but his address was read by the secretary to the members (abridged):
 
It affords me great pleasure to extend to you all a hearty welcome to this annual general meeting of our association and it is gratifying to see so many of our members present. I hope that our meeting may not be only pleasant but instructive. I feel sure that the past annual gatherings have served to foster a feeling of good fellowship among our members and I trust that this and succeeding meetings will tend more and more to that desirable result.
 
We mourn the loss from our ranks of one of the oldest surveyors in the province - Mr. R.W. Lendrum - who was taken away quite suddenly in the early part of the past year. We have since our last meeting added several new members and I take this opportunity of welcoming them to the ranks and of expressing the hope that they will all take a deep interest in the welfare of the Association, attend and take part in all discussions at our annual meetings and help us build up a model Association.
 
The Surveys Act has been in operation now for nearly a year and the present meeting will afford an opportunity, which I hope will be taken advantage of to the fullest degree, of discussion among the members in regard to the Act.
 
Another matter in the way of legislation of interest to surveyors which I would like to refer to is an act which was introduced last session by one of the members of the house dealing with the laying out of townsites. The object of the bill was to prevent what is known as “wildcatting” in real estate in this province. The bill was later withdrawn, but it leads to the careful consideration of the surveyor's position when he is employed to make a subdivision survey, and the great possibilities he has in many a case of influencing his client towards a reasonable system of subdivision taking into account or taking into consideration future requirements of the public.
 
The surveyor's profession is unique in one respect, that there is frequently no incentive beyond his own sense of honour to do good work.
 
With the lawyer, with the medical man, with the architect and engineer, the results of his efforts whether good or bad are immediately apparent to all, and the measure of his success will largely depend on the quality of his work. Not necessarily so the surveyor - without careful checking one cannot tell whether the surveyor’s work be good, bad or indifferent, and very frequently the client cares not whether the work be good or bad so long as he gets a plan recorded. He often is interested only in getting his work done cheaply regardless of the quality of that work; and unfortunately the effect of careless work may not be apparent for a long time to come and the odium when errors are discovered falls not so much on the individual who erred, but on the whole profession.
I feel sure that our annual gatherings will be of great benefit to the profession as a whole and also to each individual member in the discussion of all such matters which affect and interest us, and that the result will be to impress each of us with the proper sense of his responsibility and that Alberta Land Surveyors will set a standard for surveys of the whole Dominion of Canada.
 
It was reported at the 1913 AGM that the ALSA had $2,310.21 in receipts in 1912 and investments in four mortgages totalling $2,650.
 
Later on in the meeting, A.J. Latornell, ALS read a report on the “Subdivision of Land in its Relation to the Future of a City” and A.C. Garner, ALS read a report on the “Rights, Responsibilities and Judicial Functions of Surveyors.”
 
To close out the 1913 AGM…
 
In the evening the members attended the annual association dinner which was held at Crohn’s Rathskeller where they spent a most enjoyable evening. Great credit is due to the Committee on Arrangements for the annual general meeting – Messrs. A.P. Patrick and H.H. Moore - for the excellent way in which everything was done. The table was beautifully decorated, the service excellent and the fare a temptation. After the usual toasts had been duly honoured and a thoroughly enjoyable evening spent this first annual dinner came to an end at a vote of thanks to the chairman and Mr. Moore.
 
It was agreed that the annual general meeting in 1914 would be held in Edmonton and…
 
…will be extended over two days it is felt that a one day meeting hardly allowed scope for a full discussion of the important subjects brought up at the meeting or dealt with in papers read at it; also that there is so much actual business to do that there is a danger of the meetings becoming a grind and becoming regarded as such, whereas a two day meeting will enable the sessions to be shorter and give the resident members more opportunity of showing the visitors some individual hospitality. It is also proposed to allow the Committee on Arrangements next year a small allowance out of the general funds of the association for the purpose of having toast lists printed, providing some musical numbers after dinner and covering the cost of entertaining at the dinner meetings of other survey associations and allied professions.
 
As there are 40 members of the Association resident in Edmonton, and the number of visiting members is increasing every year, it is confidently expected that next year’s meeting will be a very large one.
Published January 16, 2025