SaGES and the National Surveying Educator's Conferences: History of Surveying Education and Future Challenges

Surveying educators' conferences in the USA and Canada started in 1937 at Rainy Lake, Minnesota, which was hosted by Iowa State. The educators' main concerns at that time were focused on surveying instruction in civil engineering programs and the lack of a national presence for the surveying profession. Since that time, 28 conferences have taken place, continuing the" spirit of Rainy Lake." The first conferences were actively supported by American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) until the 1970s, when organization of the conferences was then passed to the hosting institution. Challenges facing surveying education in the past 20 years prompted the surveying educators to form a new society in 2009, the Surveying and Geomatics Educators Society (SaGES). Since then, SaGES has organized the conference supporting surveying educators and surveying education in general. This paper documents the history of those conferences and the events that led to the formation of SaGES. By revisiting each conference since 1937, we can understand the challenges and issues surrounding surveying education in each period as well as how surveying education evolved between 1937 and 2021. This paper explores the historical journey of the development and evolution of surveying education in the USA.