Greetings from your executive committee. This is a request for you to place an item on the agenda for your next chapter meeting. The issue here is clarification on how auction proceeds are used for both scholarships and outreach, and how the scholarship program works.

Over the last two years, the PLSO Board has decided to split the conference auction proceeds between the scholarship fund and the outreach effort, which is administered by the Education Goals and Action Committee, or EGAC. Tim Kent said it best: We won't need a scholarship program if there are no Geomatics students to apply (that's a paraphrase).

At the 2014 conference we started two new fund raisers: the bag-of-cash 50-50 auction and the bag-of-cash raffle. This year, we included an option to donate on the registration form as well as Paddle Raise at the Auction. Here is how things work:

Dollars funneled into scholarships do NOT go straight to scholarships. Rather, they go into the scholarship fund that is administered by the Oregon Student Assistance Commission (OSAC). That money becomes a permanent part of the fund, and the principal cannot be used. Only the investment dividends can be used and are distributed annually in the form of scholarships. As the fund grows, so do the dividends. Presently the fund holds approximately $260,000 (that's over a quarter million dollars), and in 2014 the fund made enough for PLSO to award $14,500 in scholarships. That is actually more than was contributed to the fund.  

Over the last two years the Board looked at the fund and the demand for scholarships and decided that the scholarship fund is healthy and that the need for outreach has become critical enough to start splitting the auction dollars between said fund and EGAC. The actual split is decided each year at the board meeting following the conference.

The company or individual donating items to the auction were able to designate which fund their item proceeds would be directed. The proceeds of the newly added donation activities mentioned above are explained below:

The 50-50 Raffle and Registration Donations are directed to the Outreach Fund. The Bag O’ Cash Raffle and Paddle Raise are directed to the Scholarship Fund.

This year PLSO raised $7,200 – thank you to everyone that participated. In April, your Board of Directors, with guidance from Scholarship Committee Chair Ben Stacy and EGAC Chair Lee Spurgeon, will look at amounts not specifically designated to particular funds from this year’s efforts and vote on where the money will be directed. It is important for PLSO members to understand how their donations are being used and to appreciate the critical need for outreach to attract young people to the profession. Members have a voice in how auction funds are distributed. That voice is their chapter's leaders, board members who represent their chapters and who decide how the auction dollars are used.

Thank you for sharing this information with your chapter.