
March 13, 2026
9:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Eastern Time)
4 credit hours
In 1986 Williams & Onsurd wrote a treatise for the Real Property and Trust Law Section of the American Bar Association entitled, What Every Lawyer Should Know about Title Surveys. “The surveyor, having made an evaluation of the evidence, forms an opinion as to where he believes the lines would be located if fully adjudicated in a court of law. The typical modern-day surveyor sees himself as an expert evaluator of evidence. He strives to arrive at the same opinion of boundary location regardless of whether he was hired by his client or his client’s next-door neighbor.” This is actually a very good description of the land surveyor’s role in society. When the surveyor successfully carries out this function, boundary disputes are rare. This program is about avoiding disputes before they happen. Ample case studies will be examined to focus on dispute resolution alternatives. Power Point presentation.
OBJECTIVES: To enhance professional competency and improve practitioner’s knowledge of the law as it relates to the practice of land surveying.

April 27, 2026
9:00 AM - 11:40 AM (Eastern Time)
3 credit hours
This course emphasizes the field aspects of performing a 2026 ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey. All elements of the standards that relate to tasks in the field are reviewed in order to achieve the goal of helping field technicians (and their managers) better understand the overriding purposes of an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey, and hence the purpose for each requirement. This understanding is critical if field technicians are to put the various requirements in context and best meet the needs of the title company, lender and client.

May 6, 2026
9:00 AM - 11:40 AM (Eastern Time)
3 credit hours
Indiana Route Surveys is a program designed to provide professional land surveyors with a thorough understanding of the route survey process as governed by Indiana's administrative rules (865 IAC 1-12-20 through 26). The program traces the origins of Indiana's route survey standard which was developed in the wake of the 1988 adoption of what is now Rule 12 to address the practical needs of INDOT surveyors acquiring land for highways, utilities, and other linear transportation and transmission routes. The program walks participants through the full lifecycle of a compliant route survey, including preliminary research, fieldwork methodology, measurement standards, monumentation requirements, publication and recordation obligations, and plat preparation. Through detailed review of the applicable administrative code sections, real-world examples from highway and utility contexts, and Q&A discussion, attendees will gain the knowledge needed to confidently execute route surveys that preserve the integrity of acquisition descriptions and ensure that right-of-way lines remain reliably retraceable long after construction is complete.

May 15, 2026
9:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Eastern Time)
4 credit hours
The two fundamental principles of surveying are: (1) the surveyor is an ‘original surveyor’ laying out new boundary lines in new positions for the very first time, for a common grantor where there is unity of ownership on both sides of the new lines being created; or (2) the surveyor is a ‘retracing surveyor’ finding where the property lines have become established on the ground through the application of the appropriate boundary law principles, where there is diversity of ownership on each side of the line being retraced. In addition to these principles, the determination of any property boundary line is a two-part question: 1. What is the boundary? (the legal title question), and 2. Where is the property located? (the factual location question). The vast majority of boundary surveying work being performed today is retracement surveying as opposed laying out original subdivision lines, and that work can only be successfully accomplished by understanding the legal question while answering the factual question. This means that retracement surveying is an evidentiary exercise and not a math and measurement problem. This program will explore survey evidence and procedures in the retracement context. Power Point presentation.
OBJECTIVES: To enhance professional competency and improve practitioner’s knowledge of the law as it relates to the practice of land surveying.

June 4, 2026
9:00 AM - 11:40 AM (Eastern Time)
3 credit hours
Railroads have played a major part in the settlement and development of the United States. The importance of these bands of steel uniting the country was underscored by the powers granted to railroad companies to acquire land rights in whatever way necessary, whether by grant, in fee, or as easements. Surveyors involved with the original location and layout of the rails had a much easier time of it than we do today, as we try to recreate not only original configuration of rails and parcels, but also what kinds of rights the railroad companies may have had in the land beneath their tracks. We will discuss historical, legal, and practical aspects of the problems we face today as we unravel the railroad puzzle.

August 5, 2026
9:00 AM - 11:40 AM (Eastern Time)
3 credit hours
Location or relocation, free or restricted access, centerline or sideline: all of these aspects of roads affect the work of both boundary and construction surveyors. After a brief history of roads and road building in the US, we will investigate the creation of public and private terrestrial passage, the entities that control them, the rights of abutting owners, and the extinguishing of those same corridors for transportation.