Code of Ethics ( kind a long )

[tabdog]

When I became a registered land surveyor in tha state of
Arkie Land, I had swear to a code of ethics in front of tha
Arkansas State Board of Registration for Engineers and
Land Surveyors.

To be honest, I don’t remember much of what I swore to,
but I do remember that I swore to protect the Rights of the
Public.

I’ll have to be honest again and say that I wasn’t fully sure
what that meant.

I have spent many years thinking about that statement. It
is drilled into my conscious and sub-conscious mind.

I won’t try to tell you tha legal implications of that statement,
but, morally speaking, it is you and me, as well as everyone
else.

The legality of what we do has little effect, except as a tool to
protect tha public.

But morally speaking, we have that responsibility to tha public
as well as tha metal detecting community. (that’s us)

I still uphold that promise. I am no longer registered. I let my
registration laps when I became disabled.

I know this is just a hobby, but I think we should all

Protect tha Rights of tha Public for our own benefit.

Also out of our love for MD’in.

Happy Huntin,

Tabdog

[dan]

"Protect the rights of the public" is pretty vague, isn't it?

Biggest question for me is, how far do we go to do that? Does that mean just that we don't do bad things, or that we also are required to stop others from doing bad things?

"Protect" means more than just keeping ourselves straight, it means preventing others from harming the public, too, doesn't it?

Should we be carrying guns to ensure that we are capable of "protecting" the rights of the public? Or should we just not litter?

[tabdog]

Hay Dan,

Thanks for tha reply.

You said,

[quote] Biggest question for me is, how far do we go to do that? Does that
mean just that we don't do bad things, or that we also are required to stop
others from doing bad things?
[quote]

Yes, I think we should take steps to protect tha public.

The professional survey community has tha Board to police
the surveyors and engineers. The Board can impose penalties
for violation of ethics of practice on anyone who violates tha
law.

We, as hobbyist can only promote good ethics within our hobby.
By organizing, or at least supporting good ethics, we can have
a positive effect and stop people from using un-ethical practices.

When we are practicing our hobby, we should suggest that others
in our company use good ethics, and we should practice good ethics
as an example to them.

That's active and affirmative.

Admittedly, this is voluntary on each MD'ers part. So we are
limited by law from what we can do.

But we are not limited to the amount of enthusiasm we have for
good ethics.

While we are not our brother's keeper, maybe we should look after
one another.

The alternative is chaos. Or maybe just burrying our head in tha
sand and saying, "let someone else mess with it because I don't
care".

Happy Huntin,

Tabdog

[ewemule]

Scared me with the title, but well worth the reading. It's a good standard to live by. I will do my part to uphold the MD code of ethics.
Marty

[rascal]

I try to do what I think is right

[ct01r]

Hey Tab, I couldn't agree with you more. Yes it is kind of vague, but I think we can (and we do) easily give back more than we take. Removing trash from the area, (including loose litter), being polite to onlookers, etc. is pretty easy to do. It's what we teach our kids. It often doesn't take much to gently correct other folks with misdirected actions. I'm not talking robbery here, but folks littering, using foul language, etc. will get told about it. Obviously, you have to use judgement and not put yourself in danger, but I'm usually not shy about speaking up. Sorry about the rambling. Curt

[RickO]

In my experience, MD'rs I have met/encountered, are an ethical group. I have also seen evidence (and heard stories) of ones who are not. And as I have found with lawyers - a small percentage give the rest a really bad name. RickO