On May 21, 2021, SAME held its first Gem State monthly meeting since the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early 2020. Our SUE Division Manager, Ray Ricks, and our Idaho SUE Branch Leader, Corey Myllenbeck were able to attend this event on behalf of SurvTech Solutions. While the gathering was smaller than usual as Idaho continues to recover from the pandemic our team was happy to see familiar faces and network with new members. Our team learned about the new buildings they have renovated on Gowen field, which were last renovated in the 1950s. This renovation included the addition of a housing building and cost approximately 9.3 million dollars.
During the meeting, we learned about the STEM camp that SAME awards scholarships to in Idaho each year. SurvTech in Tampa is heavily involved with the STEM camp at MacDill Air Force base through Tampa’s SAME post. This year for the MacDill camp, SurvTech will be educating the campers on several mapping technologies, including subsurface utility mapping, land surveying, geophysical mapping, and hydrographic surveying. The campers will be operating robotic total stations, GPR (ground penetrating radar), and EM (Electromagnetic) locators to find and map buried utilities. Overall, we are excited to participate in the MacDill STEM camp and very much look forward to attending more meetings at the Gem state post!